THE OLDEST DIASPORA
The origins of the Jewish Diaspora can be traced back to modern-day Iran and Iraq. In 587 BCE, the Babylonian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Judah and exiled about 25% of the Judahite (i.e. Jewish) population to Babylon. While the story of the Babylonian Exile is depicted in the Tanakh (i.e. Hebrew Bible), it’s important to note that extensive archeological evidence and Babylonian sources confirm its veracity.
In 539 BCE, Babylon fell to the Persian Empire, under the command of the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great. That same year, Cyrus liberated the Jewish captives and allowed them to return to the Land of Israel. He also ordered the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Approximately 50,000 Jews returned to their homeland; others stayed behind in Iran and Iraq. This marked the beginning of the long, fruitful relationship between the Jews and the Persians.
Biblical historians largely agree that the Torah was compiled as a single cohesive text in Babylon. Some historians date the canonization of the Torah to the Persian period, since the Persians were known to impose policies of nationalized law codes to the ethnic groups under their domain.
THE (FIRST) GOLDEN AGE
For centuries, the Jewish community in Iran flourished under Persian rule. In fact, the period between 247 BCE-633 CE was a golden age of Persian Jewry.
It’s estimated that Jews amounted to 10-20% of the population in Iran. They lived in peace and enjoyed many freedoms; for example, they had their own courts and institutions providing autonomy over their own communal affairs.
The Babylonian Talmud – a collection of rabbinical writings that provide commentary and interpretation of the Torah - was written between the third and sixth centuries CE, during the golden age of Persian Jewry.
The golden age came to an end in 633 CE, with the Islamic conquest of Persia. Jews became dhimmis, or second-class citizens subject to extra taxation and discriminatory policies.
ANCIENT PERSIAN "ZIONISM"
Zionism is the Jewish movement for self-determination in the Land of Israel. Though it originated as a political movement in the 19th century, it is a movement rooted in three millennia of Jewish history.
As mentioned in slide 3, King Cyrus liberated the Jewish captives in Babylon and supported the reconstruction of the destroyed Jewish Temple. In fact, the term “Zionism” derives from the “Return to Zion,” when the freed captives returned to Jerusalem in 539 BCE.
Lesser known is the fact that just over 1000 years after the Return to Zion, the Persians once again supported the Jewish struggle for self-determination in the Land of Israel. In 614 CE, the Persian king Khosrau II assigned the conquest of the Land of Israel, then under Byzantine rule, to his Persian Jewish troops as a reward for their loyalty. The Persian Jews were enthusiastically joined by the local Jews in Palestine. Together, the Persians, Persian Jews, and Jews of Palestine briefly overthrew the Byzantines and Jerusalem returned to Jewish rule until 617 CE.
THE (SECOND) GOLDEN AGE
After the Islamic conquest of Persia, the situation for Jews in Iran was marked by periods of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and periods of terrible oppression and persecution.
Then came the Pahlavi Dynasty, known as the (second) golden age of Persian Jewry. It was during this time – particularly under the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1941-1979) – that Jewish life in Iran flourished, with the Jewish community enjoying unprecedented social, economic, and cultural mobility.
Israel and Iran also enjoyed positive relations. In fact, Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize the State of Israel. In the 1960s and 1970s, Iran supplied Israel with oil and the Israeli airline, El Al, operated direct flights from Tel Aviv to Tehran.
Iran-Israel relations crashed following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 60,000-70,000 Jews – out of a total population of 80,000 – fled Iran after the Islamic Republic rose to power.
A COMMON ENEMY
According to Iranian-American policy analyst Karim Sadjapour, the three ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic are “compulsory hijab, death to America, and death to Israel.”
For 46 years, the Islamic Republic has surrounded the State of Israel with its proxy armies – including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ansar Allah (the Houthis), and more – with the stated goal of annihilating the Jewish state. Additionally, the Islamic Republic has directed hundreds of terrorist attacks against Jews in the Diaspora, the deadliest of which was the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85 people.
Despite decades of regime propaganda, Iranians largely also consider the Islamic Republic their enemy. According to a comprehensive 2022 Gamaan (Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran) poll, 81% of Iranians inside Iran and 99% of Iranians outside of Iran oppose the Islamic Republic.
For a full bibliography of my sources, please head over to my Instagram and Patreon.