Identifying as a Jew
6 min read
As a Jewish immigrant to the US from Iran, I first encountered the word “pogrom” in Elie Wiesel’s book, Night.
The first time I heard the word pogrom was when I read the heart-wrenching memoir Night by the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel at the age of 12. English was still new to me, having just immigrated to the United States from Iran. I had to look up the meaning.
Pogrom: Annihilation, bloodbath, butchery, carnage.
I was horrified, disgusted and my heart bled as I read the tiny book in one sitting. It is a story that has stayed with me almost 30 years later. And it has been one of the most profound pieces of literature I have ever read.
At the time, I naively believed the Jews of Iran did not experience such atrocities prior to The Islamic Revolution of 1978. The lack of written and verbal record-keeping for the history of Jews of Middle East was part of the problem.
Pogrom: Annihilation, bloodbath, butchery, carnage.
Desperate for answers, and wanting to get a glimpse into the history of Jews of Iran, I began my research.
Here is what I discovered…
The worst known persecution of Iranian Jews occurred during the reign of the Safavids. It is noted that under no other empire was the hate for Jews of Iran as intense and as vile as it was during this period of time.
The Jewish of Tabriz were forced to convert and faced massacres. The same held true for Jews of Shiraz, and most notably, the Jews of Mashhad.
In 1909 the Jewish of Kermanshah faced one such deadly Pogrom. It is said that on of the Jadid-al-Islam, newly converted to Islam, had an employee who suddenly died of heart failure. The small town’s antisemites started a rumor that the Jadid had killed his employee to use the blood in the making of matzah for the upcoming holiday of Passover.
The rumor quickly spread thought out Kermanshah and led to a deadly pogrom in the town.
The angry mob entered the Jewish Ghetto like a tornado, swallowing and destroying everyone and everything in its wake. Approximately 1,200 Jews were left homeless before the day’s end. The crusaders left behind homelessness, devastation, and death.
The Shiraz Blood Libel took place on October 30, 1910.
The story goes that some scavengers found pages of the Quaran in the cesspool of the Jewish Ghetto. In Iran, the judgment of destroying this holy book is punishable by death. Days later on the first day of the holiday of Sukkot, as several Jewish men were returning from synagogue, they witnessed a vailed woman, who was standing with a parcel. The woman, noticed, threw the parcel into a cesspool and ran away. The Jews, fearing backlash, approached the heads of the Alliance Israelite School and notified them of such incident. Pages of the holly book were torn and ruined. The mullahs of the community were informed, whom in turn told them a young girl of four years old had been missing. The parents of the young girl swore she had strayed into the Jewish ghetto and demanded to get their daughter back. Tensions quickly arose, and the Jews were told that if the girl was not found withing the next day, the Ghetto would be attacked. Later it was discovered that the body belonged to a Jewish boy who had died eight days earlier.
Seething, the next morning an angry and violent crowd gathered at the head of the ghetto ready to take revenge. The soldiers and rioters both entered the ghetto, with aim to kill. Anything that had commercial value was taken away, and the homes were torn apart to find anything that might have been hidden.
Women and children joined the crusade. All of the 260 houses in the mahalleh were turned upside down. Doors were broken windows shattered and before long piles of broken furniture cluttered the dirt walkways of the mahalleh. Men, women and children, awoken form their slumber, flighted, watched in horror as many were beaten with whatever weapon the angry mob found. Women begged for the lives of their husbands; children hid behind their mothers' chadors. Freighted screams could be heard many streets over. Blood of the innocent were shed on the dirt walls of the ghetto, and mixed with the earth to a dark brown. The blood shed went on for six long hours.
An eternity.
In the aftermath, the Jewish ghetto was completely devastated, left in ruins. The dirt-laden, labyrinth roadways resembled a war zone. Bodies were scattered everywhere; the wailing of women and children were ear piercing. Some were in a daze, unbelieving what had just taken place.
Pogroms were a part of the Jewish life in Shiraz. Recordings of the Alliance Israelite School states that annually, Islamic zealots would attack the Jewish quarter in Shiraz.
In the Middle East, Russia and Europe, Jews have always been the target of the anger, hate and jealously of the communities within which they lived, worked and considered their homes. But in those lands, they were strangers in a strange land.
But what no Jew, young or old, ever imagined was a pogrom of such deadly magnitude would tear through Israel, the land of the Jewish people. For six long hours the bloodthirsty terrorists rampaged through the towns bordering Gaza and butchered men, women and children, and took 200 hostages into Gaza. Hamas’ bloodshed is perhaps more heartbreaking and horrific than other incidents of terror faced by Mizrahi, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews since the Holocaust. It is hard to fathom that my children will grow up in a world where a safe Israel is no longer a guarantee. Hamas crossed a line that no Jew - no human with a conscious - will soon forget.
We remember the pogroms of past and see now firsthand what they must have been like.
Throughout Jewish history, Jews have been faced with hate and persecution. And this week the world also saw what keeps us going: the unity and resolve of the Jewish nation. The outpouring of aid from abroad. Countless young men signed up to join the war to fight Hamas. Restaurants in Tel Aviv made their kitchens kosher in order to make and deliver food for the soldiers. The stories are endless. As we turn to God with heartfelt prayers, we also turn to each with open hearts, shaken but united.
Sources: Terra: The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews; Outcast: Jewish Life in Southern Iran; Esther’s Children: A Portrait of Iran Jews
An intensely moving piece. It just goes to show how important it is to record events which lead to an historiacl account of lives in days gone by. It aslso allows people to recall and remember what we went through in the past.
One point, there are some typographic and spelling errors present. Better proof-reading is required if you want o continiue to provide first rate literature to the Jewish world.
There are so many of these unwritten - or unreported pogroms - that have occurred over the ages. I have a list of the 87 KNOWN Major Pogroms - that have occurred - from the C.E.. Unfortunately - our leaders - have ignored - or downgraded hundreds - of smaller pogroms. On top of that - there are the Jewish apologists - who blame us for these atrocities - and denigrate those who remind us of these pogroms - and would rather - we stop being victims. There is a saying: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
~ George Santayana, Ph.D. Harvard University; Cambridge, MA, USA (P.S.: Sourced from the walls of Auschwitz). That's why we say - NEVER AGAIN!!
Because we say Never Again and act on that we are not victims - though we remain targets.
Thank you for posting this. Pogroms need to stop once and for all. One pogrom is one too many.
This masochistic fetish of portraying Jews as etenal victims and the concomitant wallowing in self-pity, must stop.
When we are fighting for our lives, do we really need Aish to publish stories of Jews being defeated?
How about stories of Jewish victories to bolster morale?
Didn't young women sign up to join the war also?