Jews have lived in Iran, historically Persia, for more than 2,500 years, longer than in almost any other country outside the Land of Israel. The Book of Esther is set at the Persian court, and Iranians still visit the tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan. Persian Jews developed their own language, literature and customs, survived forced conversions under the Safavids and Qajars, and prospered in the 20th century. Most left after the revolution of 1979, but Iran still has one of the largest Jewish communities in the Muslim world. Iranian Jews are counted among the Mizrahi communities. See also Bukharan Jews and Iraqi Jews.
Origins
Jews were brought to the Persian region by the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations of the 8th to 6th centuries BCE. After Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in the 6th century BCE, Jews were allowed to return to Judah and rebuild the Temple, completed in 515 BCE, but many stayed in the Persian Empire. Tradition places the tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan and that of the prophet Daniel in Susa.
Under the Sasanian kings (226–651), who made Zoroastrianism the state religion, Jews faced periods of persecution; a royal inscription of the late 3rd century lists them among the faiths the state claimed to have “smashed.” After the Arab conquest of the 7th century, Persian Jews lived as protected dhimmis under Muslim rule.
The Sephardi connection
Persian Jews have no Iberian ancestry and kept their own rite and customs. Over time, especially in the modern era, their rabbis adopted Sephardi law as set out in the Shulchan Aruch, and many Iranian synagogues today pray from Sephardi prayer books with Persian melodies. The community is usually classed as Mizrahi.
Safavid and Qajar Iran
- Safavid period (16th–18th centuries). The Safavids made Shi’a Islam the state religion and treated Jews as ritually impure. Shah Abbas II expelled the Jews of Isfahan in 1656 and forced many to convert; in 1661 they were allowed to return to Judaism but had to wear a distinguishing patch.
- Mashhad, 1839. In the Allahdad incident, a mob in Mashhad killed 30 to 40 Jews and forced the rest to declare themselves Muslims. For a century the Mashhadi Jews lived outwardly as Muslims and secretly as Jews; most later moved to Tehran, Israel and New York. See Bnei Anusim.
- Qajar period (1794–1925). Persecution returned: in 1866 Jews in Babol were forcibly converted and 18 were killed. The Alliance Israélite Universelle opened schools in Iranian cities at the end of the 19th century.
Modern era and departure
- Pahlavi Iran. Reza Shah banned forced conversion and allowed Jews to work in government. Under him and his son, Jews entered the professions and business, and the community prospered.
- Population. Iran had between 100,000 and 150,000 Jews in 1948. Thousands moved to Israel after 1948, and about 80,000 to 100,000 remained at the time of the revolution.
- 1979. On May 9, 1979, the industrialist Habib Elghanian, head of the Tehran Jewish Society, was executed by firing squad on charges that included spying for Israel. Most Iranian Jews left in the years that followed, chiefly for the United States and Israel.
Religious life
Iranian Jews have their own customs for holidays and life-cycle events, and the tombs of biblical figures in Iran, above all Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, are places of pilgrimage. Iran reserves one seat in its parliament for a Jewish representative. Iranian Jews in the diaspora founded their own congregations, such as the Persian Hebrew Congregation near Chicago.
Language, music and food
Persian Jews spoke Persian and local Judeo-Persian dialects, and wrote Persian in Hebrew letters. Judeo-Persian literature includes biblical translations, among them Baba’i ben Nuri’el’s translation of the Pentateuch and Psalms (1740–1741), and Baba’i ben Lotf’s chronicle of the forced conversions. Iranian Jewish cooking shares the Persian table of rice, herbs and stews, with Shabbat and holiday dishes of its own. See our Sephardic recipes.
The community today
Iran’s census counted 9,826 Jews in 2016, most of them in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz, with about 30 synagogues across the country. Between 60,000 and 80,000 Iranian Jews live in the United States, mainly in Los Angeles, Great Neck in New York, and Baltimore, and Persian Jews and their descendants in Israel are estimated at 200,000 to 250,000.
Notable people
- Habib Elghanian 1912–1979 · Tehran Industrialist, founder of Plasco and head of the Tehran Jewish Society; executed in 1979.
- Shaul Mofaz b. 1948 · Tehran IDF chief of staff (1998–2002) and Israel’s minister of defense (2002–2006).
- Rita b. 1962 · Tehran Israeli singer; her 2012 album All My Joys was sung in Persian.
Sources and further reading
- Houman Sarshar (ed.), Esther’s Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews (Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History / Jewish Publication Society, 2002).
- Daniel Tsadik, Between Foreigners and Shi’is: Nineteenth-Century Iran and Its Jewish Minority (Stanford University Press, 2007).
- Hilda Nissimi, The Crypto-Jewish Mashhadis (Sussex Academic Press, 2007).
- “Persian Jews”, “Allahdad incident” and “Habib Elghanian”, Wikipedia.
Revised October 2026 to correct errors in an earlier version of this page.
