February 10, 2007 | 6:05 pm

New Found Freedom For Immigrant Iranian Jewish Artist

Posted by Karmel Melamed

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By Karmel Melamed
08/11/06

She has won international art competitions, sold her works around the globe, and even had her pieces displayed in renowned galleries around the world, yet nothing has been more gratifying to Iranian Jewish artist Krista Nassi than experiencing the exhilarating sensations of her new found artistic freedom to produce whatever lies within her imagination since immigrating to the U.S. last year.

Now residing in Los Angeles among the near 30,000 strong Iranian Jewish community, the 30-something Nassi has been busy trying to make a name for herself in the local art realm while continuing to create her unique installation art works which combine various forms of media together.

“From the time I have arrived here I have been passionate about producing works with various themes including the Holocaust which I would have never been able to explore in Iran,” said the 30-something Nassi.

In addition to holding a degree in graphic design from Tehran’s Institute of Graphic Design and Architecture and a Masters Degree in Art from Tehran’s University of Art, Nassi has spent more than 10 years making a name for herself in the art world as a female installations who has shown themes ranging from women’s rights, marriage, and societal issues in her works. She has also accumulated a number of international art competitions, including a Gold Medal at the prestigious 2002 10th Asian Art Biennial competition, from among thousands of artists in Asia.

Despite her tremendous achievements and acclaim, she still encountered anti-Semitism from her colleagues in Iran and was even called “Joohood”, a derogatory Persian word for a Jew.

“In one stance after I won one of my awards a number of people came up to me and said “you are a Joohood girl who thinks she can be something but we’ll stop you from going any further,” said Nassi.

Nassi said her Jewish identity was also a major obstacle for her in Iran since some of her works would not be displayed in many of the state-funded galleries and she was also prevented four times from enrolling in a doctoral art program at a Teheran university.

“When I asked them why they would not allow me to register, they gave me different absurd reasons and I slowly realized it was because I was Jewish,” said Nassi. “Finally one of the assistants at the college told me flat out “Miss, you are from the worst of the minority groups so don’t waste your time trying to register!”

Seeing her creative energies stifled and no future for her career, Nassi left Iran and literally started with a white canvas in the Los Angeles art scene. She has been creating more of her installation pieces with themes closest to her heart that she had never been able to explore in the past.

“From the time the Iranian President made those comments about the Holocaust I can’t understand how he could allow himself to make such ridiculous comments,” said Nassi. “His words were really bone chilling and they loose their effect in the translation. Since I understand them and because I’ve seen the crematoria in Austria and Germany, it has been my goal as an Iranian Jew to depict the theme of the Holocaust in my work”.

Noticing her talent and ambitions, some local Iranian Jewish organizations have warmly welcomed Nassi and embraced her unique art work.

“She’s intelligent, passionate about her work and very talented,” said Dariush Fakheri, founder of the Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center in Tarzana, California. “We would welcome her and have in the past welcomed talented artists and writers from our community to share their works at our center”.

Krista Nassi’s past artwork can be found at www.kristanassi.com

February 10, 2007 | 12:49 pm

Iran’s Jewish Legislator Criticized During L.A. Appearance

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
12/15/06

Local Iranian Jewish activists in Southern California criticized the December 4th town hall speaking event at the Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) synagogue in West Hollywood that welcomed Maurice Motamed, the current and only Jewish representative to Iran’s parliament.

The invitation extended to Motamed to give an update about the current status of Iran’s Jewry, sparked sharp criticism from the Council of Iranian Jews, a small L.A.-based Iranian Jewish group whose leadership said welcoming Motamed, a member of Iran’s current regime, was inappropriate because it provided a forum for Iran’s regime to spread its propaganda.

“Our community members clearly know he (Motamed) is acting on the orders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said George Haroonian, an local activist with the Council of Iranian Jews. “He represents a regime that every day calls for the destruction of Israel, denies the Holocaust as a state policy, and is the biggest financial and practical support of groups whose main goal is the murder of Jewish people”.

While not naming names, Motamed dismissed the claims of those who opposed his presence at the IAJF synagogue and said his opponents were only trying to attack his character in order to advance their own personal agendas.

“Unfortunately those who say these things approached me three years ago and wanted information about the internal affairs of Iran and since I have not given it to them they have a personal opposition and vengeance against me,” said Motamed.

With nearly 150 mostly older Iranian Jews present, the overall tone set by IAJF board members speaking at the event was one of appreciation and affinity for Iran.

Motamed painted a positive picture about the lives of Jews still living in Iran, claiming they were by in large financially well off, enjoyed religious freedoms free from harassment, and even set to build a new Jewish community center in Teheran on a land recently purchased for $5 million.

Surprisingly, aside from four IAJF board members and a brief appearance by Nessah Cultural Center’s Rabbi David Shofet, no other prominent local Iranian Jewish leaders were present at the IAJF event.

Frank Nikbakht, an Iranian Jewish activist and local expert on the treatment of minorities in Iran, said Motamed’s statements about Jewish life in Iran lack credibility.

“Motamed has himself said during his previous trips to the U.S. that he would say anything and lie for the safety of the Jews in Iran,” said Nikbakht. “He has officially sworn to uphold the interests of Islam and the Islamic Republic upon entering the Islamic Assembly as the Jewish representative, as required by the government’s constitution”.

Nikbakht also questioned Motamed’s allegiances because of a 24-page Persian language report authored and distributed by Motamed at an event held at the Nessah Cultural Center during his 2002 visit to Los Angeles. According to the report, Motamed outlines his activities as a member of the Energy Committee in the Iranian Parliament and his travels to Russia where he urged Russian companies and officials to complete the Iran’s nuclear reactor at the Bushehr location.

IAJF leaders said they were disturbed by the criticism for Motamed coming from community activists who they said did not understand Motamed’s difficulty in trying to protect the interests of Jews living under Iran’s fundamentalist regime.

“He (Motamed) is in a very sensitive position and is walking a tight rope in trying to keep our community there safe and sound,” said Solomon Rastegar, vice-chair of the IAJF. “There are people here in Los Angeles with insufficient knowledge about life in Iran who try to attack him so they can gain credible for themselves”.

Some local Iranian Jewish activists have been had odds with IAJF leaders who have long advocated keeping criticism of Teheran’s regime to a minimum for fear of retributions that might be brought against the roughly 20,000 Jews still living in Iran.

During the question and answer segment of the event, Motamed again defended his record as a Jewish advocate saying he had spoken out against comments made earlier this year by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who denied the existence of the Holocaust. Motamed also said he has been trying to resolve the case of 12 missing Iranian Jews who tried to flee Iran nearly 12 years ago.

In January, Parviz Yeshaya, the former national chairman of the Jewish Council in Iran also issued a rare public statement questioning the logic of Ahmadinejad’s statements regarding the Holocaust.

Motamed was slated to speak at an October 10th seminar on the future security of Jews living in Iran hosted at the Museum of Tolerance by Los Angeles chapter of Iranian Jewish Women’s Organization (IJWO), but cancelled his appearance last minute citing scheduling difficulties.

Motamed denied accusations that he had been disinvited to the IJWO event and said he had the full support and confidence of the Iranian Jews worldwide.

“What is important to me is that I feel the support of the 20,000 Jews in Iran and the Iranian Jewish community outside Iran,” said Motamed. “Therefore everything else that is said is unimportant to me”.

Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist based in Southern California.

Portions of this article were published in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=16965

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February 10, 2007 | 12:33 pm

Iranian Jews Sue Former Iranian President Khatami

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
9/22/06

In a rare display of unity, a variety of groups within the local Persian Jewish community have joined to voice support for a lawsuit filed against former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Sept. 9 by seven Persian Jewish families in Los Angeles and Israel. The suit holds Khatami responsible for the arrests and disappearance of their loved ones more than 10 years ago.

Filed in New York District Court under special U.S. laws that permit non-U.S. citizens to sue their oppressors in U.S. courts, the suit alleges that Khatami authorized the arrest and indefinite imprisonment of Persian Jews during his administration. It states that between 1994 and 1997, 12 Persian Jews were arrested by the Iranian secret police while attempting to flee from southwestern Iran into Pakistan. They have not been heard from since.

The most surprising show of public support for the victims’ families suit came from the L.A.-based Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF), an umbrella organization for more than a dozen local Persian Jewish groups. For the past 12 years, IAJF representatives have pursued quiet diplomacy with various governments and human rights groups to help free the 12 missing Iranian Jews, avoiding creating a public campaign.

A statement released by the IAJF voiced support for the suit: “Our entire community is united in demanding the immediate release of these individuals and will support any legal and moral course of action that their families may choose to pursue.”

Activists in the Persian Jewish community long have been at odds with the IAJF and other local Persian Jewish leaders who have advocated minimizing criticism of Teheran’s regime out of fear of retributions against the roughly 20,000 Jews still living in Iran.

Some local Persian Jewish leaders applauded the suit as a step to dispel the image of Khatami in the West as a moderate leader.

Khatami “is a representative of an evil regime,” said Dariush Fakheri, co-founder of the Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center in Tarzana. “During his tenure, more newspapers were forced to shut down, and more opposition leaders were assassinated abroad than before.”

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an attorney for the victims’ families in Israel, said the suit targets Khatami personally, and they expect to be able to collect on any judgment the court might renders in their favor because of Terror Risk Insurance Act from 2002 that permits U.S. terror victims to be paid with frozen assets of terror sponsoring states.

“As such he’ll probably default the case and try to ignore it,” Darshan-Leitner said. “But slowly he’ll begin to understand that these types of cases have a very long shelf life, and they cannot be ignored.”

Darshan-Leitner said she is also involved in a case pending in Chicago against the Iranian government that for the first time has forced the regime to hire its own American attorneys and litigate its rights in a U.S. court. Likewise in December 2005, she was involved in an effort to attach Italian bank accounts with more than $600 million belonging to the National Oil Company of Iran.

“The Islamic Republic was trying to ignore the legal proceedings in Chicago and in Rome. Now they aren’t laughing so loud,” Darhsan-Leitner said. “Khatami might be able to hide in Iran and the Third World, but Mr. Moderate Reformer is going to have a hard time traveling and owning assets in civilized western nations that recognize U.S. court judgments.”

Attorneys for the victim’s families said they waited until Khatami was physically in the United States to file the suit, so they could serve him with the necessary documents during his recent speaking tour. According to federal laws, Khatami has 20 days to file a response.

Local Iranian Jews say it’s time finally to speak out.

“Sometimes you have to use diplomacy,” said Frank Nikbakht, a Los Angeles activist who has worked on the case of the missing 12 for the last six years. “But for this case, because the Iranian government has been lying to the prisoners’ families for so many years and promising to release them, we believe the time has long passed for silent diplomacy, and we have to use all sorts of public pressure on the Iranian government.”

In 2000, with the assistance of various American Jewish groups, the local Iranian Jewish community was able to publicize the case of 13 Iranian Jews from the city of Shiraz who were imprisoned in 1999 on fabricated charges of spying for Israel. Ultimately the international exposure put pressure on the Iranian regime, and the “Shiraz 13” were eventually released.

Nikbakht said he and other activists attempted to bring the case of the other 12 missing Iranian Jews to public light in 2000, but were blocked from doing so by the American Jewish leadership.

“We wanted to bring out this case of these 12 prisoners, along with the case of the Shiraz prisoners, but many American Jewish organizations strongly disapproved of this approach, so we couldn’t go ahead with it,” Nikbakht said. “We thought that once we had the attention of the world we should have linked these two issues and solved them together.”

According to a 2004 report prepared by Nikbakht, the Jewish community in Iran lives in constant fear for its security amid threats from terrorist Islamic factions. Since 1979, at least 14 Jews have been murdered or assassinated by the regime’s agents, at least two Jews died while in custody and 11 Jews have been officially executed by the regime. In 1999, Feizollah Mekhoubad, a 78-year-old cantor of the popular Yousefabad synagogue in Tehran, was the last Jew to be officially executed by the regime, according to the report.

Representatives at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations did not return calls for comment.

Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist based in Southern California.

This article was originally published in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=16515

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February 10, 2007 | 12:15 pm

Mediator Making Peace Between Iranian Jews

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
12/29/06

With Los Angeles County being named among one of the most litigious areas in the country by the American Bar Association for the past several years and lawsuits being more commonplace nowadays, its not often you find anyone willing to help parties revolve their problems outside a courtroom. Yet local mediator Yoram Hassid has become the exception to the rule after his many years of voluntarily working to settle disputes arising in the Iranian Jewish community.

For the last 20 years, Hassid, a 60-something financially successful general contractor, has been quietly helping scores of local Jews and in particular Iranian Jews to settle everything from their multi-million dollar real estate suits to their challenging family conflicts.

“I’m not a storyteller, I’m only here to help solve people’s problems,” replies a humble Hassid when asked how many people he has aided or how much money he has had his clients donate to international Jewish charities in lieu of receiving fees for his services.

While Hassid has helped the local Jewish community with their disputes on his own over years, he had also served as a mediator in the Iranian Jewish Federation’s committee that helped local Iranian Jews resolve their business troubles without having to go court or pay legal fees.

After the death the committee’s chairman Eliyahu Ghodsian, Hassid and other committee volunteers more recently formed the “Arbitration and Mediation Committee” an independent mediation group based in Beverly Hills.

“I initially brought in Mr. Hassid into the Federation’s mediation committee because he knew a lot about the business of real estate,” said Ebrahim Yahid, a volunteer for the Arbitration and Mediation Committee. “Through the years he’s helped many many people and there are even some parties coming in from Washington D.C. just to meet Mr. Hassid for help because of his reputation in successfully resolving disputes”.

Hassid said that he primarily handles cases where there may have been misunderstandings between the parties rather than intentional fraud because when fraud is involved one of the parties are most likely unwilling to attend mediation secessions.

“I would say that I’ve had success in resolving 80-percent of the cases that have come to me where I was able to convince both parties to accept a mutual settlement,” said Hassid.

But Hassid refuses to take all the credit for his successes and said local rabbis, community leaders, and even attorneys have been instrumental in referring cases to him and providing their support during mediation secessions.

Due to reasons of client confidentiality Hassid said he was not able to disclose the specifics of any of his previous cases, but in the past he has handled disputes involving properties valued at more than $40 million as well as inheritance quarrels over estates valued in the millions.

Those who have benefited from Hassid’s efforts said they were surprised at his tremendous patience, even-handedness, and understanding of the Iranian business norms of bargaining.

“He knows the ‘bazaar mentality’ from Iran and is able to speak with people with that in mind,” said Noah P., an L.A. area real estate broker and former Hassid client. “Getting the money was not important to me, but I will forever be grateful to him because of the fact that he voluntarily came forward to help me and spent a substantial amount of time on my case when others were not able to do so”.

Noah P., who asked that his name be withheld for fear of loosing future business, said he originally came to Hassid for assistance in retrieving a substantial amount of unpaid commissions owed to him from his Iranian Jewish clients who had received his brokering services. Ultimately Hassid was only able to recover a fraction of what Noah P. was entitled to had he filed suit in court.

“I could have sued but I didn’t want to take the path of hurting another person,” said Noah P. “Don’t get me wrong there are many good Iranian Jews but there are some in the community that are unfortunately very materialistic and don’t care who they crush”.

Other clients said Hassid takes a very simple and non-legal approach in conveying a message to his clients that a prolonged legal battle would not beneficial to either side.

“He says forget the legal stuff and asks ‘is it worth it?’” said Henry J., a current Hassid client who asked that his name be withheld because his case has not yet been settled. “Mr. Hassid asks you if it’s worth loosing your sanity, your health, and money to the lawyers because in the end even if you get what you want in court you may end up the real looser”.

Many of Hassid’s clients said they were at ease with him handling their disputes because unlike many attorneys, he had no ulterior financial or ego-related motives in prolonging their cases.

In addition, Iranian Jewish leaders said the community has tremendously benefited from Hassid’s efforts not only because of the funds he has generated for worthy causes, but because his non-confrontational style and fair decisions have kept many families together.

“Mr. Hassid has been very instrumental in resolving several tough cases which others have not been able to conclude,” said Rabbi David Shofet, of the Nessah Cultural Center in Beverly Hills. “His activities are a blessing for many who might otherwise land in the court system and we are grateful for his help”.

The American litigation process is a unique concept to Iranian Jews whom for centuries in Iran had traditionally resolved their business disputes peaceably with the aid of elders in their communities. In Iran, their cases were heard by their leaders and all parties were persuaded to find a fair compromise, since often times Jews did not have access to the country’s Muslim dominated courts, said Yahid.

While Hassid has never had any formal legal education, four of his six children are coincidentally attorneys and they said he has a special gift for spotting between right and wrong when cases come to him for review.

“The first thing he has is an incredible ability to go inside the heads of both the parties and understand their perspectives, this is not a gift that everyone has,” said Hassid’s daughter Yifat, a Century City attorney. “He also has an uncanny ability to skip through all the great nonsense and force the parties to get to the heart of matter with the goal of finding a solution”.

Hassid said he will continue his mediation work for as long as possible because of the gratification he receives after giving closure to his clients who may have otherwise suffered through nasty court battles.

Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist based in Southern California.

Portions of this article were published in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=17028

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February 10, 2007 | 11:50 am

EXCLUSIVE: Wife of Kidnapped Israeli Soldier Speaks Out

Posted by Karmel Melamed

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
By Karmel Melamed
10/18/06

Her eyes filled with her tears and her voice echoed with pain as Karnit Goldwasser, wife of kidnapped Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser, sat down with me during her visit to Los Angeles last month to shed light on the captivity of her soulmate in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. July 12, 2006 was supposed to be the last day of Ehud’s mandatory military service in the Israeli army, a few days before his 31st birthday, and a special time for the newlyweds to share together. But instead that day has forever been imprinted in Karnit’s life as one of pain after Hezbollah terrorists attacked her husband’s platoon while they were patrolling Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. They killed a number of them and kidnapped Ehud along with another soldier Eldad Regev. Hezbollah’s unprovoked kidnapping and rocket attacks on northern Israel sparked a one month war between the terrorist organization and Israel. Although there has been a cessation of the fighting, Karnit’s battle to be reunited with her beloved “Udi” has still raged on with her traveling around the world meeting with world leaders and the media to get any sign that he is alive. Karnit’s brief stop in Southern California was just one of many in the U.S. to encourage Americans to pressure the International Red Cross in Beirut to fulfill their duties under international laws and get confirmation of her husband’s condition. Despite the long hours and exhaustive traveling Karnit’s courageous refusal to give up on being reunited with Ehud, speaks to the undying love of the human spirit.

Obviously this ordeal has been painful for you, where do you draw the strength to continue traveling, speaking, meeting with the media, different groups, and world leaders?

His smile and my husband himself makes me strong. I realized how much he strengthened me the day he was kidnapped. It took the army several hours to understand that he was kidnapped and in those hours they let me think that he might be dead. But when I realized he was just kidnapped, I knew I would see his smile again.

It’s been nearly two months since your husband, Ehud was kidnapped, what aspect of this ordeal has been most frustrating for you?

The worst part of the day is going to bed alone and to wake up alone. After you get married and find your partner for life you know that you’re not going to sleep alone anymore. So being without him now is not easy.

Prior to his capture, you had only been married for 10 months and were ready to start your lives together as his military service was ending. Can you share with us a little about who the real Ehud Goldwasser is personally?

My husband is not a man of war. He loves nature, riding his mountain bike and motorcycles, nature, and he can’t live without reading. He told me once it was going to be hard to live with him because he would always go against the flow. This is what makes us different and there’s always something new for us to do together because he always wants to explore new things. He always says ‘Karnit, I have a new idea…we’re going to do this, this, and this’. I’d ask him why and he says ‘come on try it, it’ll be fun’.

Is there a part of your husband’s kidnapping or the events so far that most Americans do not know that you think has been overlooked?
I don’t know what they know but it’s important for them to know that my husband was kidnapped from Israel while patrolling the border. He did not attack anyone. Hezbollah sent rockets into Israel and he was kidnapped without any reason.

You’ve met with Israeli government officials, Jesse Jackson, and U.N. Chief Kofi Annan. What would you like to see be done differently as far as the diplomacy on behalf of your husband?

First of all I’d like to see some sign of life from my husband. I’ve met with a lot of people and they promised me that they would help me, but I am not the one that needs help. I am here, I can drink, I can eat— I want to help him. I am tired of the words and I want to see actions done. The first action should be some sign of life and the second should be Udi and the soldiers back home. I want to encourage him, if they can tell him ‘Udi you should sent a sign that you’re alive to your wife’ that would be great. I don’t know his condition and I want to encourage him. I met Kofi Annan, Jesse Jackson, Mrs. Clinton and everyone else that I met here—I am very happy to hear from them because they encourage me. But now I am asking what can we do to encourage them being held in Lebanon?

If you had the ability to speak directly to your husband’s captors what message would you have for them?

I would prefer to speak with the wives of those people guarding Udi. I would tell her that she knows that her husband is alive, she sees her husband everyday, and if not she can call him on the phone. I cannot do that and I would ask her help in letting me see my husband again.

What message would you have for your husband if you could communicate with him?

I know he’s very worried because I am here alone. I would tell him not to worry for me and to know that we’re trying to help him.

You seem very optimistic about the outcome of this tragedy, may I ask what your plans are after your reunion with Ehud?

I am going to meet him, that’s for sure. I am optimistic because Udi always told me to be optimistic. After I hug and kiss him and everyone else does the same, I tell him what we have done for him and let him see everything everyone has done for him. Until he is with me again I won’t stop…I just won’t stop.

For more information on how to support Karnit Goldwasser and the two other families of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers please visit www.habanim.org.

This article was originally published in Beverly Hills 90210 Magazine.

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February 9, 2007 | 12:14 am

Iranian Jews Adopt Agreement to Avoid Future Agunot

Posted by Karmel Melamed

by Karmel Melamed
07/14/06

Rachel R. endured three years of humiliation while seeking a civil divorce from her physically abusive husband in Iran during the late 1980s. Since he had fled their native country, the Islamic regime required her to place ads in newspapers in order to locate him. When the courts finally agreed to hear Rachel’s case, she was required to pay the equivalent of $4,000 to be released from her marriage and granted custody of her children.

Rachel, who asked that her real name not be used, is now 52 and living in Los Angeles. But her divorce nightmare continues more than 20 years later. She has never received a get, or Jewish divorce. Considered an agunah, or bound woman, Rachel is unable to remarry to another Jew. According to Jewish law, her ex-husband has the sole authority to grant her a Jewish divorce—something he has thus far refused to do.

“I’m much older now. There’s really no chance for me to get married again even if I do get a Jewish divorce,” Rachel said.

Cases like Rachel’s inspired Persian rabbis in Los Angeles and New York to embrace the use of legally binding premarital agreements that will allow women to obtain a get, even in cases where husbands are not willing to grant one. Adopted earlier this year, the contract is the result of years of lobbying on the part of Persian Jewish women who want parity between their community and the American Orthodox community.

“Since I was aware of this problem, from a long time ago, I always felt it was my mission, as an Iranian Jewish woman, to make Iranian Jewish brides aware of what they were signing in the ketubah,” said Dr. Nahid Pirnazar of the Los Angeles-based Iranian Jewish Women’s Organization.

“Our community’s leaders at the Nessah Cultural and Educational Center, Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center, the Iranian-American Jewish Federation and the Persian Jewish media have been very supportive in giving the community awareness of this agreement,” she said.

But the new agreement doesn’t just look out for women. Trapped men are also included.

The agreement, a new concept for the Iranian Jewish community, allows a religious panel to intervene in cases where a marriage has been dissolved in a civil court but the religious divorce is being purposefully sidelined by a spouse. The panel will review each case, and, if deemed necessary, can impose an adjustable fine of $150 per day on a husband who refuses to give his wife a get or to a wife who refuses to accept the get.

Pirnazar said she and her counterpart, Parvaneh Doostan Sarraf of the Ima Cultural Association in New York, had lobbied Iranian Jewish religious leaders for more than four years to adopt a measure similar to the premarital agreements that have been used by the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America over the last 10 years.

“The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America and the Beth Din of America were most cooperative in offering a revised reciprocal version [of the agreement] so that it would be more acceptable to Iranian Jewish values,” Pirnazar said.

Beverly Hills family attorney Alexandra Leichter also served as a legal adviser to the Iranian Jewish women’s groups in helping to adjust the current agreement to meet the criteria of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America and the Iranian Jewish community’s norms, Pirnazar said.

Over the centuries, rabbis in Iran very rarely granted a get unless there were issues of infidelity, infertility or a husband’s failure to fulfill his martial obligations, according to an article by Pirnazar published in the book, Padyavand, by Amnon Netzer (Mazda Publishers, 1996). In instances where a husband refused to consent to a get and there was not chance of salvaging the marriage, religious leaders in Iran would try to work within the community to persuade the husband to agree to the divorce.

The late rabbi of the Iranian community, Hacham Yedidiah Shofet, is quoted in the article, recalling only two rare occasions where rabbis in Iran granted agunot divorces when the husbands had disappeared and had not been heard from in many years.

Iranian rabbis in Los Angeles and New York said they were optimistic about the new steps taken to help future generations of women in the community that may be left in a state of limbo because of a husband’s refusal of a get.

“This agreement will be good to help prevent future agunot, but it is not the answer to the agunah problem that has been an issue for the Jewish people for centuries,” said Rabbi David Shofet, head of the Council of Iranian Rabbis. “In Iran, as far as I remember and my father of blessed memory told me, there were not so many divorces. The rabbis tried not to give gets but tried to have the couples reconcile or get counseling from the elders.”

Rachel said she hoped that local rabbis will take measures to provide a retroactive means for agunot like herself to obtain a valid Jewish divorce without the existing barriers.

“There are a lot of Jewish women out there who are still young and can start their lives over if there is a way for them to obtain the divorce from a rabbi without having to face their spiteful husbands,” she said.

Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist based in Southern California.

This article was originally published in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=16152

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February 9, 2007 | 12:05 am

Sweet New Year For Bee Man

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
09/22/06

Dipping his apple in honey this Rosh Hashana will have a special meaning for Southern California Iranian Jewish businessman Izak Kharrazi who will also mark his 30th year in the unique and challenging bee removal business.

Affectionately known as the ‘bee man’ by his clients that include celebrities like Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Taylor, and Charlize Theron, Kharrazi has made a name for himself and his “All Valley Honey and Bee” company over years. His unusual profession has also been turning heads in the Iranian Jewish community.

“Once I found the bee business I set my mind to it and the more people joked around about it, the more it got under my skin to make it a success and it has become a success,” said Kharrazi, who immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager in the 1970’s.

Success is an understatement for Kharrazi who said he is typically bombarded with more than 150 telephone calls everyday for his services and his 25 employees still have difficulty working around the clock meet fulfill their clients’ needs. His accomplishments are remarkable since Kharrazi single-handedly began this business as a bee novice at the tender age of 17 out of his home garage.

“I learned about this business the hard way at the Grandize Bardin Jewish summer camp in Santa Barbara when I was 15 and my boss basically dared me to remove a bee hive from one of the buildings,” said Kharrazi. “I covered up real well and removed the hive but got stung 30 or 40 times, later on I read about bees and how to handle them”.

While collected honey from his own bee hives during the High Holiday, Kharrazi said he stopped in 1986 because the endeavor was too costly and the hives he had placed in different locations were repeatedly destroyed by vandals.

“During Rosh Hashana I would always give the honey to my relatives but it was just too much work for too little profit,” said Kharrazi. “It’s a risky business if someone trespasses on the property and gets attacked by the bees because you are liable”.

Nevertheless, the bee removal end of his business has thrived as Southern California’s climate has been ideal for bees to breed. Typically family of 10,000 bees triples in one year if not eradicated, said Kharrazi.

Moussa, Kharrazi’s father,  said his son’s career choice has surprised many Iranian Jews in their community that has countless doctors, lawyers, and real estate developers.

“In Iran we never had this type of bee business and there really wasn’t a need for bee removal there like it is here,” said Moussa in his native Persian language. “People tell me it is a very unique business and ask me what his job entails because they’ve never heard of anyone doing what my son does”.

Despite the often dangerous aspects of his business that require removing bees from high structures, Kharrazi said still receives great satisfaction when he arrives at a job site to meet a client.

“You know this is the only job where people are actually happy and grateful to see you when you get their because these bees have infested their living space or business,” said Kharrazi. “To me, that’s great feeling to know I am helping them”.

Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist based in Southern California

This portions of this article were originally published in The Forward newspaper:
http://www.forward.com/articles/for-the-bee-man-a-sweet-new-year/

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February 8, 2007 | 5:02 pm

Iranian Jews Rediscover Their Roots In Judeo-Persian Literature

Posted by Karmel Melamed

By Karmel Melamed
09/21/05

It took Iranian Jews now living in the United States nearly three decades in exile from the land they called home for roughly 2,700 years to appreciate their rich history and culture preserved in their Judeo-Persian literature.

Considered one of the oldest yet least studied Jewish writings in the world by Jews, Judeo-Persian writings consist of the Persian language written in Hebrew characters by the Jews living in the countries modernly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and some parts of India during the last 1,000 years.

“In Iran the Jewish community was not aware of the value of Judeo-Persian writings, but now that they are away from their home they feel more attached to their heritage and want to preserve it,” said Dr. Nahid Pirnazar, founder and director of the non-profit Los Angeles based House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts foundation.

Pirnazar, who obtained her doctorate from UCLA in Iranian Studies with an emphasis in Judeo-Persian writing, said she formed the House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts in 2000 after a significant number of Iranian Jews in Southern California expressed their interest in learning more about these ancient texts.

“There are probably hundreds and hundreds of Judeo-Persian manuscripts in the possession of Iranian Jews,” said Pirnazar. “Not knowing what they are they think they are copies of Torahs,” said Pirnazar.

The Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979 sparked a mass exodus of Jews from Iran and today approximately 30,000 to 35,000 Iranian Jews now live in Southern California.

For the last seven years, Pirnazar said she has spent her own personal funds in addition to small donations from local Iranian Jews to acquire copies and even originals of Judeo-Persian manuscript collections owned by museums, libraries, and individuals in the U.S., Europe, Israel and Iran. Her ultimate objective is for the House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts to become the primary location with the largest collection of Judeo-Persian works in the world.

“Our first goal is to collect and transliterate these manuscripts into the Persian script before the generation that can read them easily is gone,” said Pirnazar. “The next step is to eventually publish and translate some into English and other languages”.

According to “Padyavand” (Mazda Publishers, 1996), a series of books about Judeo-Iranian Studies by Professor Amnon Netzer of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Judeo-Persian literature consists not only of Jewish biblical translations and commentaries but also secular poems, dictionaries, medical texts, scientific treatises, legends, calendars, and translations of works by the non-Jewish masters of classic Iranian literature.

The oldest Judeo-Persian manuscript which is coincidentally also the oldest Persian writing is a 37-line merchant’s letter dating back to the year 750 A.D. This letter was discovered in the early 20th century by archeologists in eastern Afghanistan, according to Padyavand.

Judeo-Persian came into being following the Arab-Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century when the Jews of Persia who spoke what is known as Middle Persian, refused to write the Persian language in Arabic letters but instead wrote Persian with the Hebrew letters they were familiar with, Pirnazar said.

“From a linguistic point of view Judeo-Persian has a significant value because it is the only accurate source where one can see the transformation or growth of the Persian language from the Middle Persian also known as Pahlavi to New Persian which was later influenced by Arabic vocabulary,” said Pirnazar. “These Judeo-Persian manuscripts are the only written documents that have remained safe and untouched by scribes and show vowel sounds.”

Aside from their linguistic value, Judeo-Persian literature has also been a unique window into the previously unknown and painful history of Iranian Jews that lived under oppressive kings for centuries.

According to Vera Basch Mooren’s book, “Iranian Jewry’s Hour of Peril and Heroism” (American Academy for Jewish Research, 1987), the Iranian Jewish writer Babai Ibn Lutf chronicles in Judeo-Persian a seven year time span in the early 17th century when the Jews in the Iranian city of Isfahan were forced to convert to Islam or face being executed. Ultimately in 1629 the Jews of the city were permitted to return to Judaism after two of their leaders interceded on the community’s behalf with the monarch Safi I of the Safavid dynasty.

Pirnazar also said Iranian Jews continued writing and reading Judeo-Persian up until the beginning of the 20th century but gradually drifted away from it as a result of the Alliance Israelite Universelle offering Iranian Jews western education in its schools based in Iran, the newly formed Iranian constitution permitted them to leave their ghettos and gain secular education, and the overall greater freedoms offered to Iran’s Jews during the Pahlavi dynasty.

While linguistic research of Judeo-Persian first began in the mid-19th century by Western scholars and has continued over the centuries, only within the last 40 years have very few Iranian Jewish scholars began their studies of Judeo-Persian.

Nearly five years ago the interest in Judeo-Persian was rekindled in the Southern California Iranian Jewish community after the Habib Levy Foundation in Los Angeles first began providing endowments for a class on Judeo-Persian that was initially taught by Netzer and is now taught by Pirnazar at UCLA.

“A lot of Iranian Jews still do not know that Judeo-Persian Studies exists,” said Tannaz Talasazan, a 21-year-old Iranian Jewish student at UCLA. “I think this course on Judeo-Persian is a great opportunity for young Jewish people, especially Iranian Jews who grew up here in America to learn more about who they are and where they came from.”

The UCLA course on Judeo-Persian has not only received tremendous praise from young Iranian Jews but also sparked the curiosity of some Iranian Muslim students wanting to learn more about a portion of Persian literature and poetry that had previously been unknown to them.

“Being able to read Judeo-Persian script was certainly a feeling that I will never forget,” said Reza Khodadai, a 28-year-old veteran of the Iran-Iraq War and now biochemistry major at UCLA. “It was at the final exam when I answered the whole transliteration section, I was reading a script that had always been unknown to me and I was seeing that it was actually in my own language of Persian.”
While universities in the U.S., Europe, and Iran with Iranian Studies programs have by in large not included Judeo-Persian courses in their programs over the years, many non-Jewish Iranian scholars have only now begun to recognize the impact Judeo-Persian literature has had to Iran’s history and language.

“I think what Nahid Pirnazar is doing is very important,” said Hossein Ziai, chair of UCLA’s Iranian Studies Program. “This type of work will help larger audiences to realize how important an old symbolic relationship among Persians of all religious affiliations has been in Iran’s long history.”

Pirnazar said Judeo-Persian has attracted non-Jewish Iranians who want to discover new facts about their ancient civilization and likewise Ashkenazi Jews have been curious to learn about Jewish religious commentaries and literature that they have not been exposed to in the past.

“Judeo-Persian was not introduced to non-Jewish Iranians because it was written in Hebrew characters and it was not introduced to the world Jewry because it was in a language they did not know, so it’s interesting for both sides,” said Pirnazar. “Some types of Judeo-Persian are exact translations of the Torah and some other types include Iranian impute in them— that’s the beauty of Judeo-Persian, it’s Iranian, Judaic, and Islamic cultural influences combined.”

Bijan Khallili an Iranian Jewish publisher and owner of the Los Angeles based Ketab Corporation, has been publishing a wide array of Iranian Jewish related books in both Persian and English for more than 20 years.

He said that while his company in 1999 published 3,000 Persian transliterated copies of a Judeo-Persian Torah commentary originally written by the 12th century Iranian Jewish writer “Shahin”, in the next few years he is also hoping to publish a Persian translation of a Judeo-Persian text written by the 15th century Iranian Jewish writer “Emrani”.

“Sales of the Shahin Torah were o.k., mostly older Iranian Jews can only read the book since it is in Persian,” said Khallili. “The main problem is that younger people can’t read Persian writing and they are the ones usually buying these books because they want to learn about their history, so we are looking to publish more of them in English.”

Currently the House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts is looking transliterate the countless classic hand-painted Persian illustrations also known as “miniatures” that contain small excerpts written in Judeo-Persian. The organization’s existing copies of Judeo-Persian manuscripts will soon be transferred to microfilm format for easier access by researchers, said Pirnazar.

“We are looking for contributions to acquire more copies of manuscripts and to find older Iranian Jews who can read Judeo-Persian to help us transliterate because once that generation dies it will be very hard for scholars to do this type of transliteration,” said Pirnazar.

Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist based in Southern California

This article was originally published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency International Wire News service: http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/Ancientlanguagecom.html

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