BBC: Israel’s Iranian Jews caught in middle
An estimated 250,000 Jews of Iranian descent live in Israel – most of them in the city of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv. How do they feel about the threat of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear programme?
Uri Nissani has little desire to return to the country of his birth.
“I came to here in 1959 and have never been back. I may have been born in Iran, but I feel I am an Israeli.”
Now in his 60s, Uri helps to manage of one of the three synagogues in Holon that are mainly frequented by Jews of Iranian descent, and talk in the community is dominated by one subject: the drum-beat of war.
“We love the people of Iran, but we don’t love the regime,” Uri says. “No one wants war, but if it comes to military action then I would have to support it.” Read more
Categories: Asia, Iran, Israel, Middle East
According to Wikipedia Israel has the the largest group of Persian Jews. As of 2007, Israel is home to just over 47,000 Iranian-born Jews and roughly 87,000 Israeli-born Jews with fathers born in Iran. While these numbers add up to about 135,000, when Israelis with more distant or solely maternal Iranian roots are included the total number of Persian Jews in Israel is estimated to be between 200,000-250,000.