A Second Home for Western Jews

Why a free Iran, under a parliamentary monarchy, could open its doors again

When the Islamic Republic falls, Iranians should choose their future in a free referendum. If they choose a parliamentary monarchy under Reza Pahlavi, Iran could become something few people imagine today: a second home for Western Jews. It would not replace Israel. It would be a place where Jewish life, investment and culture are welcome again, as they were in the Shah’s time.

The chant “Javid Shah” (Long live the Shah), now heard in Iran’s streets, is not nostalgia. It is a political force. It says that Iranians want clerical rule to end. They want their Iranian identity back, and they want a state that belongs to its citizens and not to a revolutionary clergy. Pahlavi is not asking for a crown to be handed to him. His Iran Prosperity Project sets out a clear path: a referendum between a parliamentary monarchy and a republic, then an elected Constituent Assembly, a vote on the new constitution, and finally parliamentary elections.

Why Western Jews need a second door

Antisemitism is rising across Europe and North America, and anti-Zionism has become a convenient cover for hostility toward Jews. Many Jewish writers now openly ask whether the golden age of Western Jewry is over, as hostility grows on both the left and the right. Statements of solidarity are no longer enough. Western Jews need real options.

Israel is the first and central answer, and more and more people are choosing it. Israeli government figures show that overall immigration fell in 2025, yet arrivals from the United States, France, Britain and Canada rose about 25 percent, to 8,499. French aliyah jumped 51 percent, British aliyah rose 27.6 percent, and 3,781 Americans made the move. These are not small numbers.

Still, Israel cannot absorb every fear, every investment and every community that feels unsafe in the West. A free Iran could become a second strategic home, where Jewish investors, entrepreneurs, academics, artists and families can build a future without hiding who they are. Western Jews would not have to abandon America, France, Britain or Canada. They would simply no longer have only one door open when the West turns hostile.

The foundation already exists. Before 1979, Iran had one of the largest Jewish communities in the Muslim world, around 80,000 to 100,000 people. Iranian Jews built schools, hospitals, synagogues and businesses, and they did well in universities, the professions and public life. Iran recognized Israel de facto in 1950, hosted an Israeli mission in Tehran, and became a route for Jews fleeing Iraq on their way to Israel. The Islamic Republic destroyed that relationship. It could not erase a connection between Persians and Jews that goes back to Cyrus the Great.

From the Abraham Accords to the Cyrus Accords

A future Iranian monarchy could restore that connection in a modern form. Pahlavi has pledged that a free Iran would recognize Israel immediately, end its military nuclear program, stop funding terror groups, and expand the Abraham Accords into “Cyrus Accords” bringing together Iran, Israel and the Arab world.

The symbols are already appearing. In Paris last July, Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel, gave Pahlavi two mezuzot carved from Jerusalem stone, one for a future Israeli embassy in Tehran and one for a future Iranian embassy in Jerusalem. An Iranian embassy in Jerusalem would mean that Iran recognizes Israel as the national home of the Jewish people and Jerusalem as its capital.

For Western Jews, this would open a new Jewish-Iranian space in the heart of the Middle East. Persian, Israeli, American and European Jews would no longer be kept apart by a hostile regime. Trade, technology, culture, family and security would connect them instead. Iranian universities could welcome Jewish students, Iranian cities could welcome Jewish investors, and Iranian museums could honor the Jewish contribution to Persian civilization instead of denying it.

The goal is a strategic balance between Israel and Iran: two strong, sovereign states working together. A parliamentary Iran could give Western Jews something Israel alone cannot. It would be another secure base in the region, another gateway to Asia, another economic frontier, and another society where being Jewish is not treated as foreign. Israel remains the Jewish homeland. A free Iran could become its most important partner and, for Western Jews looking ahead, a new home beside it.