March 23, 2007 | 6:46 pm

Southern California Iranian Jews Back Katsav During Scandal

Posted by Karmel Melamed

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By Karmel Melamed
March 23, 2007

Despite a flurry of criticism directed at Israeli President Moshe Katsav over rape and sexual harassment allegations, support for Israel’s embattled president remains strong among Southern California’s Iranian Jews.

“Many in the community here know President Katsav on a personal basis,” said Sam Kermanian, secretary general of the L.A.-based Iranian American Jewish Federation. “The feeling is that he is not the type of person who is capable of committing the sorts of crimes attributed to him.”

Katsav’s ascension to the presidency nearly seven years ago marked the first time an Iranian Jew was elected to such a high political office in any government. The achievement served as a source of pride for many Iranian Jews worldwide.

Katsav, 61, has been accused of sexual harassment and rape, but no formal charges have been filed. A hearing is scheduled for May 2, after which Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will determine whether to indict the president.

Allegations that Katsav sexually harassed or assaulted female workers surfaced in July 2006. Katsav suspended himself from office on Jan. 25, after Israeli prosecutors drafted a rape indictment. Other allegations being considered against Katsav include breach of trust, obstruction of justice, harassment of a witness and fraud. He denies any wrongdoing.

“The charges against me have nothing to do with reality,” he said during a Jan. 24 press conference. “When the truth emerges, the citizens of Israel will be shocked.”

Katsav also accused Israeli journalists of libel and suggested that the Israeli media, motivated by racism, has been trying to discredit him ever since his 2000 victory over Shimon Peres for the presidency.

Calls made to Katsav’s attorneys in Israel seeking comment were not returned. Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik is filling in as president during Katsav’s self-imposed three-month suspension, which ends on April 23, Israeli Independence Day. According to Israeli law, the president is immune from prosecution while in office and can only be tried after the end of his term or if he resigns.

Katsav is expected to ask the Knesset for a second three-month extension to accommodate the May 2 hearing. Katsav’s term ends in July, and he has vowed to resign if formally indicted. Earlier this month, a Knesset committee voted against impeaching the embattled president.

Dr. David Menashri, chairman of the modern Iranian studies program at Tel Aviv University, said despite the negative press Katsav has received in the Israeli media, various Israelis of Iranian descent have by and large been sympathetic to him.

“Some prominent figures in the Iranian Jewish community expressed public support for Katsav, blaming the media for blowing the issue out of proportion and coming out with a verdict even before President Katsav has been brought to trial,” Menashri said.

A number of Southern California’s Iranian Jewish leaders said they were disturbed by the backlash against Katsav in Israel, given the fact that no formal charges have been filed.

“Mr. Katsav was not judged, not taken to court and the accusations have not been substantiated. So how can a whole country consider him guilty?” said Rabbi David Shofet of the Nessah Cultural Center in Beverly Hills. “It’s against the Jewish teachings of the Talmud to do so.”

Local Iranian Jewish leaders said they have been urging the larger L.A. Jewish community to show restraint when it comes to judgment on Katsav until after his trial.

“As people who are concerned for Israel’s well-being and who are not always happy with what they see on the political scene, I think we should all be very interested in seeing that Mr. Katsav has the full opportunity to defend himself and make sure the whole truth comes out,” said Kermanian, the Iranian American Jewish Federation’s secretary general.

Ebrahim Yahid, a West Los Angeles resident and 40-year friend of the Israeli president, said the allegations made against Katsav were not typical of the president’s behavior. He said the accusations caught local Iranian Jews by surprise.

“The news was a major shock for our community, and we wanted to organize some sort of demonstration supporting President Katsav,” said Yahid, who chairs of the nonprofit Arbitration and Mediation Committee in Beverly Hills.

Ironically, the Iranian Jewish Woman’s Organization, a Los Angeles-based social group, honored the Israeli president’s mother Goher last year for her success in raising Katsav to become a source of pride for Iranian Jewry worldwide.

Other local Iranian Jewish leaders said they were confident the community’s image would not be tainted as a result of the scandal.

“Why should one scandal tarnish the whole community?” said Dariush Fakheri, co-founder of the Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center in Tarzana. “We [Iranian Jews] are not known as a community with a high crime rate, nor low education, nor a lack of interest in humanity or philanthropy.”

Some Iranian Jewish legal experts said that while there may be support for Katsav, the scandal has tainted his reputation and sparked rumors among certain circles within the community.

“The notion of you are innocent until proven guilty is a very new and alien concept in the Iranian Jewish community,” said Nazila Shokrian-Barlva, an attorney with Los Angeles County public defender’s office. “The whole idea of gossip is to assume the reverse, and even if you are never proven guilty, the cloud never goes away.”

This article was originally published by the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17402

March 20, 2007 | 2:08 am

KIRN - PERSIAN LANGUAGE RADIO STATION MAKES WAVES IN BEVERLY HILLS

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
March 2, 2007

Since their arrival in Beverly Hills nearly 30 years ago, local Iranian-Americans have kept in touch with current events, social activities, and their culture by tuning into various local Persian language media outlets.

One of the most popular local radio stations for Iranian-Americans here is KIRN 670 AM, which broadcasts various Persian language programs round the clock and is also the only such station on the A.M. dial in the free world

“We’re on the air 24-hours and also on satellite, and folks that understand Persian [Farsi] can pick us up on the Internet elsewhere in the world,” says John Paley, Vice President and General Manager of KIRN.

Based in Hollywood, KIRN is owned by the non-Iranian Lotus Oxnard Corporation. The company first reached out to the local Iranian-American demographic about 8 years ago. With no competition, they successfully tapped into a previous unexplored revenue source from advertising dollars coming directly from their well-to-do listeners.

“It is the first time in my life that I’ve ever been around a station where the audience has supported the station in terms of advertising dollars,” says Paley. “KABC, KNX, KIIS—the people who listen to those station don’t buy advertising on those stations, but our listeners are our advertisers”.

KIRN offers a wide range of shows including news, music, and talk. Middle-aged listeners say they tune in during their morning commutes to work for entertainment purposes while the older generation of Iranian Americans listens in order to better understand current events discussed on the air in their native Persian language.

“This Iranian station is a real pleasure to listen to because they share different sides of the issues and not just a one sided bias, they give commentary on the events and present it in a more intellectual way,” says Joe Sushani, a Beverly Hills resident and businessman.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau records, more than 6,000 Iranians live in Beverly Hills and approximately 72,000 live Los Angeles Country. Yet many Iranian Americans dispute these figures and say their numbers are greater in L.A. because some in their community incorrectly identified themselves as Caucasian or Asian rather than Iranian.

One of the station’s most popular shows is “Waves of the Morning,” which is hosted by the Iranian media personality, Sassan Kamali, with co-host Azita Shirazi. Kamali says his program and other KIRN shows have not only brought the local Iranian community together but has also drawn in non-Iranians who understand limited Farsi. “We have quite a few American listeners that somehow understand Persian [Farsi] because they worked in Iran or learned it from their boyfriends and some who totally don’t understand it but say they love listening because they believe we’re having fun,” says Kamali, who also operates his L.A.-based Persian language satellite television program called “Tapesh.”

With the recent increase in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, many program hosts at KIRN, who had fled Iran’s extremist regime more than two decades ago, say they were grateful to be able to express themselves freely. “I think one of the great aspects of America is that it is a country that has always respected other cultures,” says Parviz Kardan, host of “A Spoonful of Sugar” on KIRN.

While KIRN primarily provides Persian language programs, the station has not forgotten the younger demographic of Iranian-Americans who may not be as fluent in Farsi. Shows permit young Iranian American guests and callers to speak both English and Farsi. “I felt like our young people and the future generation were being ignored, says Suzi Khatami, host of the bilingual “Javanan” youth program and “Live From Hollywood.”

Her co-host, 27-year-old Mayar Zokaei, says young Iranian Americans across the country and overseas specifically listen to the bilingual shows on the Internet because they would like to retain their cultural identity even though they may not understand Farsi very well.

Not surprisingly, KIRN has also given its audience a new voice in by educating listeners about the American democratic process, says Hossein Hedjazi, KIRN’s program director and show host. “After 9/11, we had a fundraiser for the victims and in less than seven hours, we raised $135,000 for them,” he says.

Six Beverly Hills City Council candidates recently went on-air to share their views with the station’s Iranian-American listeners. Three of the election’s candidates- Beverly Hills Vice Mayor Jimmy Delshad, businessman Shahram Melamed, and attorney Maggie Soleimani - are all Iranian-Americans.

“I think people tend to lump everyone from the Middle East together and Persians receive the bulk of that prejudice directly,” says station General Manager Paley. “I don’t think anybody has any idea of the tremendous contributions the Persian community makes on a daily basis to our community here in the United States and here in L.A.”

This article was originally published by Beverly Hills 90210 Magazine:
http://www.westsidetoday.com/articles/2007/03/05/communities/beverly_hills_90210/your_town/01.txt

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March 18, 2007 | 12:24 am

Iranian Jews & Muslims Celebrate Norooz at L.A. City Hall

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
03/16/07

Persian New Year, also known as Norooz, will be celebrated at Los Angeles City Hall on March 16 as members of Persian American Communities Inc.—a nonprofit organization consisting of local Iranian American Jews and Muslims—join with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and members of the City Council.

Norooz is a secular holiday marking the first day of spring that is celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan and some central Asian countries. The holiday’s traditions date back nearly 2,000 years, and its ceremonies, according to Persian folklore, are symbolize the forces of rebirth and good.

“For us Iranians living in the city, Norooz is important to be recognized because it’s such a big part of our culture that we don’t want to see lost,” said Joe Shooshani, a local Iranian Jewish businessman.

Los Angeles is home to nearly 100,000 Iranian Americans, the largest such population outside of Iran. Although Persians have lived in the Southland for nearly three decades, L.A. city officials only started celebrating Norooz three years ago.

In addition to the City Hall event, portions of Westwood Boulevard between Wilshire and Olympic boulevards will be closed on March 25 for a public Norooz celebration.

This article was originally published by the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17372

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March 18, 2007 | 12:20 am

Historical facts show Palestinians not “mere victims”

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
UCLA’s Daily Bruin
May 19, 2003

As a reporter who has traveled to and covered the news in the Middle East, I was utterly shocked and disturbed by Rebecca Steinfeld’s presentation of inaccurate historical facts and uncalled-for criticism of the Bruins for Israel (“Israeli independence also a Palestinian catastrophe,” May 9).

Through a series of distorted historical facts, she incorrectly portrays the Palestinian and Arab people of 1948 as innocent and with “clean hands” mere “victims” of supposed Jewish aggression. This image of the Palestinians is completely inaccurate, as they were involved in numerous bloody massacres against the Jews between 1920 and 1948.

One prime example, reported by Rabbi Dov Cohen, who witnessed this pogrom and was interviewed by the Israeli news outlet, Arutz Sheva in August of 1999, said there was a three-day slaughter of 67 Jews in the city of Hebron, which began on August 23, 1929, by their Palestinian neighbors.

Likewise, Steinfeld repeatedly points to supposed historical facts from various UCLA and Israeli historians, who obviously have hidden agendas or axes to grind against Israel.

For instance, she refers to the massacre of the people in the Arab village of Deir Yassin by Israeli soldiers. While covering the Middle East, I researched this event and found it to be greatly exaggerated by biased Arab sympathizers and historians.

In Mitchell Bard’s “Myths & Facts, a Guide to the Arab Israeli Conflict,” Bard states, “A study by BirZeit University, based on discussions with each family from the village (Deir Yassin), arrived at a figure of 107 Arab civilians dead and 12 wounded, in addition to 13 fighters, evidence that the number of dead was smaller than claimed and that the village did have troops based there.”

Also, a 1998 BBC program, “Israel and the Arabs: The 50 Year Conflict, indicated that Hazam Nusseibi, who worked for the Palestine Broadcasting Service in 1948, admitted being told by Hussein Khalidi, a Palestinian Arab leader, to fabricate the atrocity claims (at Deir Yassin). “Most importantly, Bard points to the fact there were no rapes of Palestinian women, and that some civilians living in Deir Yassin were even evacuated by Israeli troops during the attack. Since civilians were being helped by Israelis, this dispels any notion of a “massacre”. Those civilians who were killed were caught in the crossfire of Arab soldiers hiding among the civilian population and dressing like women, according to Bard.

In addition, Steinfeld claims it would be intellectually dishonest not to acknowledge the attacks on Palestinians by the Jews in 1948. I ask why she has been intellectually dishonest by failing to mention the other 1948 massacres against the Jews living in the Arab countries.

According to historian Arieh Avneri’s 1984 book, “The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land Settlement and the Arabs, 1878-1948,” from 1948 up to the early 1970s there were more than 800,000 Jews (living in the Arab countries of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen) who were murdered and/or raped, and many had their properties taken away by the Arab governments they lived under. Where is Steinfeld’s outrage and cry for them? When will they get their justice and money back?

The truth of the matter is they will never get it, and their only hope for survival was and is Israel. That is why Jews and the Bruins for Israel celebrate the independence of their own Jewish homeland. These Jews have been the real victims: they suffered oppression from the Arab and Muslim populations they lived under for centuries. They never had their own Jewish homeland until Israel, and before that, they were unwanted throughout the world.

The Palestinians, whether they were supposedly expelled or fled their homes, deserve our sympathy, not because of what Israel supposedly did to them, but because of what their own government (headed by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority) has done to them over the past 10 years since the Oslo Accords. Steinfeld claims the Palestinians “continue to live and die under the brutal and illegal Israeli occupation,” but hasn’t the mistreatment of Palestinians by Arafat’s own dictatorship been a factor in their plight?

Why has Arafat and the Palestinian Authority continued to keep the Palestinian people starving in rundown refugee camps when the government has had millions in U.S. and European Union aid to build homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure? Again, where is Steinfeld’s outrage for the thousands of Palestinians who have been mistreated by their own leadership?

Again and again, it is easy to blame Israel for the plight of the Palestinian people when their own leadership and the Arab world has done more injustice to them than anyone else. If there is anyone to blame for the Palestinian misery, it is the Palestinians’ own leadership, which over the past 10 years has chosen a path of war, terrorism and death instead of peaceful co-existence.

Lastly, how dare Steinfeld challenge Israel’s right to defend its citizens against the disgusting terror attacks perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority. There is no justification for such terrorist attacks against innocent Jewish men, women, and children.

Suppose Mexico and its government perpetrated terrorist bombings against U.S. nationals living in Los Angeles. Would we in the United States stand for it? No, we’d fight terror just as our government has since Sept. 11, 2001.

The celebration of the independence of the State of Israel is a modern miracle of biblical portions. It is not just a victory for the Jews, but a victory for those who love freedom and democracy. Israel’s creation marked one of the few times in history when Christians, Muslims and Jews were all free to pray and practice their faiths in a land holy to all three religions. This is why many Americans, regardless of their faith, celebrate the 55 years of Israel’s establishment.

I call on UCLA students to challenge the liberal, one-sided bias against Israel from your professors and fellow students and ask for the other side, because it’s not exactly as clean cut as they’d have you believe. The Arab people are as guilty, if not more, for this bloody conflict in the Middle East.

This op/ed article was originally published by the Daily Bruin, the official student newspaper for the University of California Los Angeles:
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/archives/id/24059/

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March 12, 2007 | 12:03 pm

Experts on Iran Explore Effects of Ahmadinejad’s Anti-Semitism

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
03/09/07

Since assuming power more than one year ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and questioned the existence of the Holocaust, rhetoric that has evoked strong condemnation from the international community. His statements, coupled with Iran’s ongoing enrichment of uranium for potential use in nuclear weapons, are cause for concern in the West.

Since Ahmadinejad’s recent Holocaust denial conference in Tehran, local and national experts familiar with his regime have begun shedding light on the roots of the Iranian president’s anti-Semitism in order to better understand his motivations. But some local Iranian Jewish leaders refuse to publicly comment on Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic rhetoric, citing concerns that their statements might jeopardize the safety of Jews living in Iran. Yet despite the Iranian president’s Holocaust denial and anti-Israel views, his regime has not moved against the estimated 10,000 to 25,000 Jews remaining in Iran.

Iranian experts say that anti-Semitism among Iran’s fundamentalist Islamic leaders has deep roots and is not merely a public relations ploy.

“Holocaust revisionism is really what the Islamic Republic’s leaders believe, and not just what Ahmadinejad believes,” said Frank Nikbakht, a local Iranian Jewish activist and researcher familiar with Iranian minorities. “It is also part of their psychological warfare arsenal in their serious struggle to eliminate Israel, and their long-term program of global jihad as embodied in the current Iranian constitution.”

Nikbakht, also a former public affairs director for the Council of Iranian American Jewish Organizations, noted several milestones of pro-Nazi sympathies in Iran that carry over to the nation’s current politics. In the early 1940s, the notorious Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini—a Nazi collaborator—went to Iran, where he influenced Ayatollah Kashani and other Iranian clerics. Kashani is well known in Iran for promulgating Al Hussieni’s anti-Semitic beliefs; he also mentored the regime’s late founder, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Ahmadinejad’s own education was influenced by his mentor, the anti-Semitic Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, and by the late Ahmad Fardid, a self-appointed professor of philosophy at Tehran University. First in the 1940s and later after the 1979 revolution, Fardid taught university courses on Nazi ideology, racial purity and Holocaust revisionism to thousands of students in Iran, Nikbakht said.

When Dr. Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian studies program at Stanford University, was teaching law at Tehran University, Fardid was teaching the theories of Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger at the same institution, said Milani.

“Fardid was a student of Heidegger and believed in his theory that Free Masons and Jewish organizations were trying to dominate the world and other kinds of nonsense you find in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” he said.

Milani said he believes Ahmadinejad is using anti-Semitic propaganda to draw the Iranian public’s attention away from his own policy failures.

“The most important reason for Ahmadinejad’s comments, I think, has been that he has been an absolute utter failure in his economic policies, in his international proposals, and he has isolated Iran more than ever,” Milani said. “Like most politicians, he likes to change the subject and this has again unfortunately done that for him.”

Ahmadinejad uses Holocaust denial as a means to delegitimize Israel’s existence, said Yigal Carmon, president of the Washington, D.C., Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which translates anti-Semitic and anti-American media reports from various Arab and Islamic countries, including Iran.

“Holocaust denial is important to Ahmadinejad because the Holocaust lends moral justification to the creation and continued existence of the State of Israel,” Carmon said at a recent Holocaust denial symposium at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. “Ahmadinejad’s primary obsession is not with the Holocaust, but with Israel’s very existence. If the Holocaust can get in the way of achieving this goal, it must be denied.”

Carmon also said that countless programs broadcast by the Iranian state-controlled television regularly demonize Jews by showing classic blood libels, reducing Jews to subhuman levels and accusing Jews of persecuting the Prophet Mohamed by voodoo rituals.

According to a report published in the March 1999 issue of the Los Angeles-based Iranian Jewish Chronicle, during the last 10 years, the Iranian regime has welcomed many European Holocaust revisionists to Iran.

The Iranian government has also translated and published anti-Semitic literature from Holocaust revisionists and American white supremacist groups, including the National Alliance.

Many observers of Iranian politics say that Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic statements have led to a backlash in certain sectors of Iranian society.

“In Iran, many prominent figures have condemned Ahmadinejad not in the sense that they believe in the historical truth of the Holocaust, but in the sense that Ahmadinejad, in the capacity of the president, has taken positions previously assigned to nongovernmental authorities and has thus caused isolation of Iran all over the world,” Nikbakht said.

Nikbakht said Ahmadinejad’s comments about the Shoah have also had a surprising effect on average Iranians living in Iran.

“This is the first time there has been a visible interest by millions of curious young Iranian Muslims in the issue of the Holocaust in a positive and sympathetic way—a result that is exactly the opposite of Ahmadinejad’s intent,” he said. “Countless Iranian groups and intellectuals are learning the truth about the Holocaust from articles written on the Web in Persian and through media broadcasts.”

This article was originally published by the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17335

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March 3, 2007 | 1:08 pm

On Rodeo Drive, Persian Jews are trying their hands at politics

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
2/20/07

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Iranian Jews, who for centuries were denied full political participation in their native country, are making up for it in Beverly Hills.

Three of the six candidates to fill the two vacant spots on the affluent area’s City Council in a March 6 election are of Iranian Jewish heritage.

Their candidacies are part of an increased political involvement in recent years by Southern California’s nearly 30,000 Iranian Jews.

Not only are they running for public office, they’re holding fundraisers and campaigning for local, state and national candidates.

“This community truly appreciates the freedoms granted to it by the United States and it sincerely wishes to pay back for what it has received,” said Sam Kermanian, secretary general of the L.A.-based Iranian American Jewish Federation. “I have no doubt that in this area, too, members of our community will prove to be worthy citizens who can contribute to their environment in the most positive way.”

Beverly Hills, where an estimated 20 percent to 25 percent of residents are Iranian — predominately Jewish — has been the breeding ground for the increased political activity.

Public officials are noticing the increased interest, stopping in Persian synagogues and elsewhere in Iranian enclaves to speak about Iran and Israel, among other subjects.

While large Persian communities such as those in Long Island’s Great Neck campaign for candidates and advocate for causes like Israel, community members are not running for office.

The three Iranian Jewish City Council candidates in Beverly Hills — incumbent Vice Mayor Jimmy Delshad, attorney Maggie Soleimani and business consultant Shahram Melamed — have been jockeying since last summer to win voters.

Delshad is perhaps the best known after being elected in 2003, becoming what is believed to be the first Iranian Jew elected to public office in the United States. Four years after his successful grassroots campaign among Iranian Jews, Delshad again is looking to energize the community’s support.

“Persians Jews have come from Iran, where they’re been very uncomfortable about voting because they thought somebody knows who they’ll vote for or they were told who to vote for. Therefore they were hesitant to get involved,” Delshad said. “I’ll tell them that nobody will ever know who you voted for, so vote your conscience.”

Before becoming a city councilman, Delshad sold his private computer-related business and served full-time as president of Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles between 1999 and 2001. He could become the first Iranian Jew elected mayor of a U.S. city, since the mayor’s post in Beverly Hills rotates among City Council members.

Melamed has been trying to woo the Iranian community with his experience as a Beverly Hills City Planning commissioner dealing with new and often controversial development projects.

“As a planning commissioner my hands are tied,” Melamed said. “I’m only allowed to look at land use, so here I am trying to help the community, but I can only use part of my skills. Some of my best skills are from my business background, education in finance and my training on Wall Street that is left unused, so I’m hoping to put it to use on the council.”

Soleimani may be the first Iranian Jewish woman to run for a U.S. political office. Presenting herself as a government outsider, she has been trying to appeal to voters frustrated with city officials that have approved numerous development projects in Beverly Hills.

“I have not been a part of the nasty and angry battles of the past,” Soleimani said. “I want to be a voice of unity, professionalism, healing the community and ending the division that has occurred over every single development project.”

In March 2005, Iranian Jews voting in Beverly Hills were able to cast ballots containing Persian-language directions. Poll volunteers also spoke Persian.

Delshad is not the only political trailblazer among Iranian Jews. In 1996, businessman Joe Sushani became the first in the community to run for the City Council in Beverly Hills, but he lost.

“I did not believe I would win, but I thought it would be an opportunity to learn about the system and open the way for others,” Sushani said. “I’m very happy I did; it was one of the best decisions of my life.”

Jews have lived in Iran for 2,500 years but rarely have held positions in government or within the political realm. Since Iran’s Constitution was passed in 1909, Jews have been permitted to select one person from their community to serve in Parliament.

H. David Nahai, an Iranian Jewish attorney and political activist in Los Angeles, said Iranian Jews in Southern California have become more involved in politics only in recent years, after they established new roots and achieved financial success in America.

“Persian Jews are beginning to realize that they can wield influence by participating in political life,” Nahai said. “Many are also beginning to see that there is a unique sense of fulfillment in public service which private gain can never equal.”

In 2005, Nahai campaigned in the Iranian community for Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa. In April of that year, a fundraising event in Beverly Hills hosted by Iranian Jews helped raise nearly $40,000 for the Villaraigosa campaign.

After his victory, Villaraigosa appointed Nahai to serve on the L.A. Board of Water and Power Commissioners, and he was elected board president last year. In January 2005, Nahai was reappointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve an unprecedented third term as a member of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Kermanian, who campaigned in the Iranian community for President Bush in 2004, said state and national candidates increasingly have taken notice of the Iranian Jewish community living in Southern California. The community has been seen as an important voting bloc because of its shared values, financial strength and close ties to other voting groups, he said.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, met with the Persian Jewish community in Beverly Hills to discuss legislation regarding Iran and Israel. U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman, Brad Sherman and Howard Berman, all Jewish California Democrats, have spoken at Persian synagogues in the city. Sherman was out front in speaking out for the Shiraz 13, Iranian Jews who were held in prison in Iran for years on trumped-up charges that they were Israeli spies.

“The most appealing aspect of our community,” Kermanian said, “is the fact that it enjoys great relations and alliances with communities far larger than itself, and it has the ability to influence and to move a lot more voters than its own numbers would otherwise suggest.”

This article was published by the JTA Wire News Service:
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070220persiancandidates.html

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March 1, 2007 | 2:11 pm

New Website Honoring Jewish Cemetery In Tehran

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
03/02/07

Nearly four years ago, Shahram Farzan, an Iranian Jew living Los Angeles traveled to Tehran to have a hand-carved marble tombstone placed on his father’s grave at the Jewish cemetery, which has been called “beheshtieh” by the city’s Jewry for more than half a century. (The word beheshtieh is Persian for “heavenly place.”)

After Farzan had photographed his father’s new tombstone, he was inspired to create a Web site—Beheshtieh.com—to share what he had seen. For the next two months, Farzan painstakingly cleaned and photographed nearly 80 percent of the graves at the 20-acre cemetery, so that the exiled Iranian Jewish community in Southern California could view their loved ones’ gravesites online.

“After the revolution, many people lost their ties to Iran and to the cemetery because it was not a priority,” said Farzan, 52. “I thought by taking these photographs of the graves, their relatives living in Beverly Hills would maybe see this and realize that the world is not just about money and power”.

For the past three years, Farzan, who owns a Los Angeles demolition business, spent his own funds as well as his spare time translating, cataloging, and posting more than 10,000 photographs in preparation for the Web site’s launch last June. Each photo is accompanied by English translations listed beneath.

Many of the tombstones are made from white marble and have elaborate hand-carved designs, including Stars of David, menorahs, and inscriptions in both Persian and Hebrew. Others are just mounds of earth without a proper headstone or identifying marker. And many of the tombstones have been damaged due to poor weather and lack of up-keep, Farzan said.

“On the grounds of the cemetery, I saw a lot of used drug needles, roaming dogs, trash dumped everywhere, a greenhouse with shattered windows, and some homeless people loitering there,” said Farzan.

Despite the cemetery’s worn condition, Farzan spoke only praise for the remaining Jews of Iran who, he said, have not abandoned the site, and he was appreciative that the Iranian government has not allowed developers to build on the site, as has happened in some non-Jewish cemeteries in the country.

“I think the Iranian government has been very respectful for keeping the cemetery and not demolishing it,” said Farzan. “Historically, from the time of Abraham, we are cousins with Muslims and must foster better relations with them”.

Not all the Jews buried in Tehran’s Jewish cemetery are of Iranian heritage. The cemetery is also home to more than 60 European Jews who escaped Nazi Europe for Iran in the early 1940’s and died there, Farzan said.

The Jewish community in Iran has never had a mortuary business. Traditionally, Jewish volunteers donated funds and also physically helped with preparations for burial of the dead; volunteers included some of the most affluent businessmen in the community.

Woodland Hills resident Yusef Hendizadeh, 80, who volunteered from the 1940s until the 1970s at the cemetery, is one of the original caretakers of Tehran’s Jewish cemetery. 

“I was a very successful businessman in the fabrics business, they (community leaders) came to me and gave me the responsibility of helping the community with their burial needs,” Hendizadeh said in his native Persian tongue. “At that time, there was a difficult road to travel to the cemetery, so we had to carry the bodies by a horse drawn carriage; later the community helped pay for a car”.

According to Dr. Habib Levy’s “Comprehensive History of the Jews of Iran” (Mazda Publishers, 1999), the site for Tehran’s Jewish cemetery was also used as a temporary refugee camp housing thousands of Iranian and Iraqi Jews waiting to immigrate to Israel. Many had fled their homes and come to Tehran out of fear of being killed after Israel declared its independence.

Perhaps one of the best known Jewish burial grounds in Iran is the traditional site of the tombs of Esther and Mordechai, located in the city of Hamadan. Although Iranian Jews have long believed the tombs belong to Esther and Mordechai, historians and archeologists note a lack of solid evidence.

“The great archeologist Ernst Hertzfeld, in his book, suspected that Esther and Mordechai were buried there, but later indicated that he believed Shushandokht, a Jewish woman who was the wife of Yazgerd I, an Iranian king, is buried there,” said Amnon Netzer, professor of Middle Eastern and Iranian studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Netzer also said the tomb of the Jewish biblical prophet Daniel is located in the southern Iranian city of Susa and is visited by both Jews and Muslims alike.

Local Iranian Jewish leaders said Farzan’s photos of Jewish gravesites also serves a far greater importance in preserving historical records of the Iran’s Jewry dating back more than 2,500 years.

“Some of these sites are older than the Talmud, some are as old as Queen Esther,” said Sam Kermanian, Secretary General of the L.A.-based Iranian American Jewish Federation. “In the absence of any other guaranteed alternatives, photographs may be the best option for preserving at least the memories of these sites”.

Farzan said he would like to return to Iran and photograph the graves at various other Jewish cemeteries in the cities of Esfahan, Kermanshah, Kashan, Rezaeh, Shiraz, Sanandj and Yazd.

Kermanian said local Iranian Jews are looking to help Farzan expand his efforts in photographing and making records of various significant Jewish burial sites throughout Iran.

Representatives from the Jewish Central Committee of Tehran, who control the cemetery, indicated in a written statement that there are plans to transform a chapel on the grounds of the cemetery into a small museum honoring those who had helped establish the cemetery in 1933.

Farzan said he is seeking online donations from those using the site. The funds will be used to for maintenance and new landscaping renovations for Tehran’s Jewish cemetery as well as to build a small memorial to Tehran’s Jewish cemetery at Groman Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills, said Farzan.

“We must pay our respects to the past generations lying in that cemetery that sacrificed by enduring hardship while holding onto their Judaism which we still have today,” said Farzan.

This article was originally published by the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=17290

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