The people of Iran deserve the support of all Jews

Three months ago, I had the special opportunity to speak to Iranians Americans, Jews and Israelis at a unique event in Virginia that sought to build news bridges of friendship between Iranians and Jews based on their past shared history during ancient times and in more recent contemporary history. It was indeed a very special opportunity to remind everyone in attendance of the warm ties that existed between Israel and Iran prior to the calamitous Islamic revolution lead by the Ayatollah Khomeini 46 years ago. Unfortunately, that revolution plunged Iran into darkness, severed ties between the two natural allies and has been the root cause of unending conflict in the entire Middle East. This event was also an occasion to examine at the foundations of peace that had been poured between Iranians and Israelis in the 20^th century and could be quickly revived in the 21^st century upon the collapse of the Ayatollah regime in Iran.

Today the vast majority of peace-loving Iranians inside Iran have repeatedly conveyed their messages of having no hatred for Israel, but instead repeatedly expressed their desire for a renewal of their allyship with Israelis in public. They have made their public statements despite facing potential negative consequences from the Ayatollah regime that seeks Israel’s destruction. Sadly, the people of Iran are today being held hostage by a brutal totalitarian Islamic regime which hinders their basic freedoms and ability to live normal lives as well as prevents their desires to live in harmony with their neighbors in the region. The majority of Iranians hate the Ayatollah regime and have long opposed the regime’s calls for Israel destruction. Based on the many past acts of kindness Iran’s people and leaders have shown to the Jewish people throughout our shared history, we, the Jewish people worldwide have a unique responsibility do everything in our power to support the people of Iran in their efforts to throw off the shackles of oppression placed on them by the mullahs in Iran. When the current radical Islamic regime is removed from power in Iran, perhaps a new era of peace and prosperity can be reignited between Iranians and Israelis.

The natural allyship between the Jewish people and the people of Iran began more than 2,500 years ago when the founder of the Iranian nation, Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews who had been held captive in Babylon. Aside from his liberation, he also permitted them to return to their homeland of Judea and rebuild their holy temple. Just as Cyrus the Great is beloved by Iranians as the benevolent monarch who founded their nation, he is also beloved by Jews and praised repeatedly in our holy Torah. Likewise, in the Book of Esther, we read about the benevolent king of Iran, Xerxes who decreed for the Jews to be able to defend themselves from anyone seeking their destruction and ordered the execution of Haman, the Agagite enemy of the Jewish people. To this day we celebrate this great miracle in the holiday of Purim and recall how Queen Esther, the Jewish bride of Xerxes, interceded on behalf of her people in order to save them from destruction. In contemporary times both kings of Pahlavi dynasty in Iran also showed great kindness and support to the Jewish people. One example of this was in 1922, when Iran’s then military chief and future king, Reza Pahlavi I, saved the Jews living in Tehran from a potentially horrific pogrom to be carried out by a wild Islamic mob after being notified of the pending attack by the U.S. ambassador to Iran who was also an ordained American rabbi! Then again during the Holocaust, the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, permitted the Tehran Children, some 1000 orphaned Jewish children from Poland to find safe haven in Iran from the Nazi death machine. Subsequently those children were permitted to emigrate to then Jewish Palestine and whose lives were saved. Thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi controlled Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union were also given safe haven in Iran by the late Shah’s government and their lives were ultimately saved.  During this same time period, an Iranian diplomat by the name of Abdol Hossein Sardari, stationed in Nazi-controlled France, provided critical help and documentation to save the lives of many Iranian Jews and European Jews living in France from the Nazi genocide. After World War II and up until the 1970s, again the late Shah permitted thousands of Jews fleeing persecution, imprisonment and executions in Iraq to have a safe haven in Iran. Those Iraqi Jews were subsequently allowed to emigrate to the State of Israel. During Israel’s 1967 and 1973 wars with the Arab nations, it was Iran under the late Shah who continued to trade with and sell oil to Israel when the Arab nations boycotted Israel. More importantly, the nearly 80,000 strong Jews of Iran lived in relative peace, safety and prosperity under both Pahlavi kings for more than 50 years who protected them from Islamists that had persecuted their community for centuries. Sadly, the golden age for Iran’s Jews came to an end and they were forced to flee the country after the Shah left Iran and the country was taken over by the radical Khomeini regime in 1979.

In recent years and even after the October 7^th 2023 Hamas attacks on innocent Israelis, millions of Iranians inside Iran and worldwide have repeatedly and publicly expressed their strong support for the Jewish and Israeli people. After October 7^th  in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, thousands of non-Jewish Iranians carrying Iran’s true lion and sun flag have joined the countless public rallies supporting Israel and denouncing the rise of Jew hatred in their respective countries. Even inside Iran, at the risk of being imprisoned by the Ayatollah regime, Iranians have sprayed graffiti messages of support for Israel on their city walls and posted photos of themselves on social media platforms holding Israeli flags. In fact, a very popular hashtag on many social media platforms that have appeared regularly on countless individual Iranian accounts and posts is #IraniansStandWithIsrael. In January 2024 when I interviewed the main Iranian opposition leader to the current regime in Iran, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi II, also expressed the friendship countless Iranians feel for the people of Israel and called on Israelis and Jews to support the people of Iran as they seek to free themselves from the reign of the Ayatollahs because of the historic allyship both peoples share. The Crown Prince had also visited Israel in a historic April 2023 trip with a message of peace and friendship from the people of Iran for Israelis and has repeatedly shared the same message when speaking at various Jewish and Israeli organization events in the U.S.

Today in a time when the Jewish people and the only nation state of Jewish people have very few friends in the world, why shouldn’t we embrace and support our natural allies, the people of Iran, who have been there for us in our past time of need? Why shouldn’t we stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Iran as we both face the same enemy in the current genocidal Islamic regime in Iran? As Jews living in diaspora and Israelis, why shouldn’t we offer the people of Iran the political support they ask for in overthrowing the oppressive mullah regime and their desire to set up a new secular democratic nation they yearn for? I do not advocate for a direct war between Iran and Israel, but instead believe the time has come to politically support the people of Iran who can overthrow the Ayatollah today when the regime is at its weakest militarily and is tittering of the verge of economic collapse. Air strikes on the mullah regime’s military sites may not be necessary today when the regime could be quickly paralyzed from within by millions of public sector energy workers in Iran who could go on a nationwide strike after receiving political and financial support from America and the West. We all know that eventually one day the Ayatollah regime will cease to exist in Iran because of their current dire political and economic instability. Therefore, as Jews worldwide, we should stand with the people of Iran today in their struggle for freedom because their victory over the mullah regime will also be our victory over the mullah regime and ensure a future fruitful relationship between both long-time allies.