Saba Soomekh held up her book, “From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women Between Religion and Culture,” revealing the image of a child bride on the cover.
It was her then-10-year-old great-grandmother on her wedding day.
Speaking to a group of about 70 people on Dec. 2 at CSUN, Soomekh explained that she grew up listening to stories about life in Iran from her grandmother, and realized little was written about her homeland. So, inspired by the women in her life, she set out to fill the void.
Her book was the starting point for the recent lecture and discussion “From Babylon to Tehrangeles: A History of Iranian Jews in the Diaspora,” on the history of Iran and how L.A. became home to the largest community of Iranian Jews outside of Iran. The lecture hall was filled with students and interested community members — some even sat on the floor — for the hourlong program.
“My inspiration was that nothing was written about these amazing women who were married at such a young age. In my community, these women are so strong and it was important to me to record their oral histories before they passed away,” said Soomekh, who teaches religious studies at CSUN and is a visiting professor of Iranian-Jewish history at UCLA.
Born in Tehran, Soomekh left Iran with her family when she was 2 and grew up in Beverly Hills with her sister, actress Bahar Soomekh (“Saw III”). During the lecture, she used photos of her family to illustrate life in Iran, including the time between 1925 and 1979, when Jews enjoyed increased freedom after enduring segregation under Shia Islamic law. The Pahlavi dynasty emancipated the Jews during this time and made great strides in reducing the belief that Jews were najasat (ritually impure).
The rush of immigrants to Los Angeles followed the revolution of 1979, which converted Iran into an Islamic Republic, and during the Iran-Iraq War that began in 1980. While the country was once home to about 80,000 Jews, that has dipped to closer to 15,000 today, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. (Other estimates put current figures even lower.)
Tens of thousands of Iranian Jews and their descendents have found a home in L.A. Many families, like Soomekh’s, set up residency in Beverly Hills and in 2007 elected Jimmy Delshad as the first Iranian-American mayor of Beverly Hills.
The cultural chasm between the Iranian identity of the women that came before her and her own dual identity growing up in Los Angeles is a topic Soomekh, 38, explored during the discussion at CSUN. This hybrid identity is a marriage of their global identities and the local culture of their adopted homeland, where they can develop their own Iranian-Jewish identity free of the traditional tendencies of modern Iran.
Soomekh says Iranian Jews are grateful to have found a welcoming home here. However, that wasn’t always the case. The 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, during which American diplomats were held captive for more than a year, led America to cut political ties with Iran. Consequently, the negative connotation of the term “Iranian” led some to distance themselves from any backlash by reclaiming their “Persian” connection.
“The community prioritizes the Jewish identity and keeping the Persian-Jewish culture,” Soomekh said.
Soomekh talked about the “suitcase mentality,” where Iranians left Iran with the assumption they would one day return.
“There’s a longing for that homeland that is gone,” she explained. “Their spiritual home [now] is Israel. Israel and America are No. 1 in their hearts. The Iran that they’re nostalgic for, the Iran of their youth, no longer exists.”
While her great-grandmother and grandmother were both child brides and thus products of a much different time, Soomekh’s mother, who grew up during the time the shah made it illegal for anyone younger than 16 to wed, married at 23 and attended Tehran University.
Soomekh herself has traveled the world and lived in Israel. She has a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from UC Berkeley, a master’s from Harvard Divinity School and a doctorate in religious studies from UC Santa Barbara.
She admits there are certain gender norms that haven’t evolved with the times despite a greater sense of egalitarianism cultivated in America.
“When my sister and I went away to college, everyone asked my mom, ‘What did you do to them to make them want to leave?’ ”
When Soomekh mentioned this, the room collectively laughed and nodded in agreement, which led her to joke: “Our families don’t know the meaning of the word ‘boundaries.’
“The modern Jewish woman is highly educated, with many going on to be doctors and lawyers,” Soomekh added during a phone conversation following the lecture. “The younger generations of women are traveling on their own instead of waiting to get married, but there is still the pressure to get married.”
She said that Shabbat is a great opportunity to maintain intergenerational relationships and for youths to learn about Iranian-Jewish culture.
“My parents don’t talk about what Iran was like. My dad is more Americanized while my mom is more of a traditional Persian,” said student Nina Dallal, 22. “I related to the idea of double identity [Soomekh] mentioned. I tell my parents it’s OK to go away to college.”
The “Persian-Jewish-American identity” may be a struggle for the younger generations who don’t have a full grasp of the nuances of each individual culture, but to Soomekh, that is all the greater reason to make an effort to learn.
“We take for granted what our parents dealt with as immigrants. They left everything behind to start all over again,” she said. “Our grandparents and great-grandparents struggled to keep their Jewish identity. If we don’t learn from them, then it will dissipate.”
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