Conference taveng::bagels

    As you wrpte, a large and rich Jewish community used to live in
    Iran. 
    
    Since the take over by the Ayatolahs the Jewish community life and
    survival was jeopardized. They were considered allies and agents
    of the devil State of Israel, something almost as bad and terrible
    as being American...
    
    Even before the Shah fell, many wealthy jews left Iran, many of
    them came to Israel. However, the wealthy people that left Iran
    found many times that it is easier to be rich in Europe or the States
    than here in Israel and you'll find them more frequently in your
    side of the pond.
    
    After the take over, the situation was closer to that of the Jews
    in Germany in the '33-'39 period and many tried to leave by ways
    no-ways - through other neighboring countries, crossing borders
    sometimes also legally, and many times they were stripped of all
    their worldly possetions in their flight...
    
    Stories we heard here about beatings, tortures and indignities rival
    with those of Czarist Russian pogroms and Nazi infamities.
    
    Most of the community fled Iran while remembering with nostalgia
    the good old times there. There is still a small community there,
    not much is known of their whereabouts. Supposedly, there are some
    instances trying to take care for them and -perhaps- get them the
    right to leave that country. In this subject it seems better to
    keep things under the veil of silence...
    
    Juan-Carlos
      

Thanks Juan-Carlos for the information.  It was suggested to me, off-line via
mail, that this topic should not be included in this conference due to its
sensitivity and whomever might read about it.  I forwarded that suggestion
to the moderators and left the decision up to them.  I guess they decided to
keep the topic in the conference.

Instead of limiting this topic to the Jews in Iran, why not expand it to
the Jewish communities in other Arab, Asian countries.  I would like to
learn more about these communities and how they co-exist.  Anyone have any
info?

Regards,
Joan

    There is a very large Jewish community in Istanbul.  I discovered
    this by understanding spanish and understanding what a shopkeeper
    and his partner were discussing as to a price they should charge.
    I got into a discussion and they indicated that there had been a
    mass migration from Spain (hence the spanish language) during the
    inquisitions.  Turks are generaly very tolerant of other Religons
    and my understanding from them is that Islam teaches that.
    The shopkeepers indicated that they were will treated and respected
    by the Turks.

    Yes, there is a substantial Jewish population in Istanbul, that
    is overwhelmingly Sephardic.
    
    One note of interest:
    
    Several years ago a conference on the Armenian holocaust was to
    have taken place at Tel-Aviv University.  I say WAS to have taken
    place because as was reported in a front-page story in the N.Y.
    Times, the Turkish govt. threatened the security of the Jewish
    community if the conference took place.  Seeing that it was front-page
    material in the "holiest of holies", and given the Turk's refusal
    to cop to the Armenian genocide, I put some credence in the story.
    
    David