Είδα την τελευταία αφίσα σας (Αντισιωνισμός = Αντισημιτισμός) στο δρόμο και τη διάβασα. Συμφωνώ σε πολλά, αλλά ο αντι-αντισημιτισμός σας μετριάζει κατά πολύ την αντίθεσή σας προς τον σιωνιστικό φασισμό, για τον οποίον δε λέτε τίποτα στην αφίσα. Δεν είναι κάθε σιωνισμός φασισμός, κάθε άλλο· και κιμπούτς έφτιαξε ο σιωνισμός, και πολλά άλλα καλά και άγια έκανε. Εδώ και χρόνια όμως οι ίδιοι οι Ισραηλινοί πολίτες ψηφίζουν συστηματικά φασίστες. Εσείς δείχνετε να μη θέλετε να αναδείξετε την ύπαρξη αυτού του φρούτου που λέγεται σιωνιστικός φασισμός, αν και δηλώνετε προγραμματικά εχθροί κάθε φασισμού και ναζισμού. Αυτό είναι το ένα σημείο της διαφωνίας μου. Ότι δηλαδή δεν υπάρχει απλώς η καταπίεση του Ισραήλ εναντίον των Παλαιστινίων, που την αναγνωρίζετε αν και τη βάζετε κάπως στη σκιά, προσπερνώντας τη στα γρήγορα, αλλά ότι υπάρχει και μια καθαρά φασιστική-ρατσιστική ιδεολογία σε μερίδα του σιωνισμού στο Ισραήλ, και εσείς το αποκρύπτετε τελείως, ή ίσως και να μην το έχετε καν αντιμετωπίσει σαν φαινόμενο, λες και είναι αδιανόητο να είναι κανείς ρατσιστής και Εβραίος, ή ρατσιστής και σιωνιστής μαζί. Γιατί βέβαια ο φασισμός είναι πάντα και ρατσισμός, κακά τα ψέματα, παρά τις επιμέρους διαφορές μεταξύ π.χ. Γερμανών ναζί και Ιταλών φασιστών ως προς το βαθμό του ρατσισμού. Ο Γιούρι Αβνέρι, ας πούμε, είναι πολύ πιο επιθετικός ενάντια στο φασιστο-σιωνισμό απ’ ό,τι εσείς στην αφίσα σας.
Η άλλη μου διαφωνία είναι ότι εξισώνετε όποιον είναι κατά του κράτους του Ισραήλ με ναζιστή. Εγώ προσωπικά είμαι υπέρ του κράτους του Ισραήλ, αλλά αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι συμφωνώ με την εξίσωση που κάνετε εσείς. Δεν μπορούμε να παραβλέψουμε το «προπατορικό αμάρτημα» του κράτους του Ισραήλ, ότι δηλ. έφτιαξε κράτος σε ξένη γη. Ο Αχμαντίνετζαντ λοιπόν ενδιαφέρεται κυρίως γι’ αυτό, και όχι για το αν το Ολοκαύτωμα υπήρξε ή όχι, αν καλώς έγινε ή όχι. Και λέει κάτι που σκανδαλίζει τους Ευρωπαίους, αλλά που κατά βάσιν είναι σωστό, δηλ. «κύριοι Ευρωπαίοι, που μας το παίζετε ανθρωπιστές, αν πράγματι υπήρξε Ολοκαύτωμα, τότε, εσείς που το διαπράξατε, ή μάλλον οι γονείς σας για τους οποίους δεν ευθύνεστε εσείς, δώστε δική σας γη στους σιωνιστές να κάνουν κράτος, αφού τους συμπονάτε τόσο πολύ». Και παρά τις σκανδαλισμένες αντιδηλώσεις των Γερμανών για τον αναθεωρητισμό του Αχμαντίνετζαντ, δεν είδα να τολμήσουν να απαντήσουν στον Αχμαντίνετζαντ σ’ αυτό το σημείο, να εξηγήσουν δηλαδή γιατί είναι τόσο παράλογο, έστω θεωρητικά, αυτό που τους προτείνει.
Εγώ λοιπόν είμαι υπέρ του κράτους του Ισραήλ γιατί, 1) παρά τις πλάτες της Μ. Βρετανίας και της Αμερικής, οι σιωνιστές το κέρδισαν στην ουσία με το σπαθί τους, και 2) γιατί είμαι υπέρ της Δύσης, παρά τα εγκλήματά της, και το Ισραήλ είναι καρφί της Δύσης μέσα στο μάτι του Αραβικού κόσμου, και, σαν Δυτικός που νιώθω, δεν μπορώ παρά να υποστηρίξω τον όμοιό μου. Δεν μεταμορφώνω όμως αυτή την ελαφρώς κυνική μου στάση σε άνευ όρων υποστήριξη του Ισραήλ μόνο και μόνο επειδή είμαι αντιναζιστής (που είμαι), και δεν κλείνω τα μάτια στην πιθανότητα να υποστηρίζει πράγματι κάποιος όπως ο Αχμαντίνετζαντ την καταστροφή του κράτους του Ισραήλ για τους δικούς του γεωπολιτικούς λόγους και όχι από ναζιστικό μένος, και, στα πλαίσια αυτής της προσπάθειάς του, να αρνιέται το Ολοκαύτωμα όχι από ναζιστικό αντιεβραϊκό μένος αλλά καθαρά ή κυρίως στα πλαίσια του προπαγανδιστικού του πολέμου ενάντια στο Ισραήλ.
Τέλος πάντων, σας στέλνω για ενημέρωσή σας ένα κείμενο που δημοσιεύτηκε στην Jerusalem Post, όπου φαίνεται καθαρά ότι στο Ιράν υπάρχει η μεγαλύτερη εβραϊκή κοινότητα της Ανατολής μετά το Ισραήλ! Οπότε; Αν ο Αχμαντίνετζαντ ήταν ένας νέος Χίτλερ, δεν θα τους είχε ξεπαστρέψει; Δεν θα είχε περάσει τους δικούς του νόμους της Νυρεμβέργης;
The limits of tolerance
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"Do you want a bracha?" I've been asked this question before, at the various synagogues I have attended in the
But this time was different; I was in a synagogue in northern Teheran.
It was a bright Shabbat morning, and about 50 people had gathered in the small synagogue to pray. I had been invited by the vice president of Teheran's Jewish Association.
As I looked around the auditorium, sparsely decorated aside from a large Magen David at the front and the bima in the middle, my host Fayzlallah Saketkhoo asked again if I wanted to say a blessing over the Torah reading. After numerous pleas I went up to the bima, where the Sephardi-style Torah scroll stood upright, and said the prayer before and after the Torah reading with my American Ashkenazi Hebrew.
Men and women were seated on opposite sites of the room. There was no mehitza (partition separating men and women), but all the women had their hair covered.
As an honor to his American guest, Saketkhoo next asked if I wanted to read the haftara, and I assented. Following the service, he asked me to recite kiddush for the congregation.
When I grew up in the 1980s, Teheran was synonymous with violence and terror. Having been born just before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, I knew
As a kid, it seemed that not a day went by without some news about the evil regime that kidnapped American civilians and preached hatred against the
So it was a great surprise when, on my first Friday evening in Teheran, my friends took me to the large synagogue in Yosefabad, in central Teheran, a neighborhood that is home to a large Jewish population, and I found the sanctuary packed. Inside the main gate there were ads for Hebrew lessons and family activities sponsored by the Jewish Association.
There was an Iranian policeman on guard outside, but with the exception of the signs in Farsi, the Hebrew-Farsi prayer books and the style of the women's hair coverings, this could have been an Orthodox synagogue in
Excepting
Why are the Jews still here? Answers differed across the generations.
For many older people like
Asked about the future of the Iranian Jewish community, he replied: "Did you see how many children were there tonight?"
He was right. It was hard to concentrate on praying in the synagogue, where at least 300 people had come, because of all the children running up and down the aisles and chattering outside.
But there is a difference between children and young adults. Peyman, Saketkhoo's 27-year-old son, was fond of saying, "Everyone in
It's not just the political situation, he said, but the fact that with the rise of Ahmadinejad, the economic situation has worsened and poverty has deepened. For college graduates, it is hard to find jobs in their field; Peyman is an architect by training but works in his father's shop. As he and other young Iranians attest, both the political and the economic situation are getting harder to bear.
"Don't you want to leave?" I asked.
"Of course, but I have a problem," he said.
His particular problem is that he did not serve in the military. Before Ahmadinejad's election in 2005, Iranians could pay money rather than perform military service, and Peyman paid for such an exemption. But now this practice has been canceled, and only those who have completed military service can travel abroad.
"So why don't you just serve in the army?" I asked.
Peyman demurred, saying that two years - the service requirement - is a long time, and he makes a decent living working for his father; leaving his normal life for two years is out of the question.
"But is there any social life here? Don't you want to marry someone Jewish?" I asked.
Social life in
WHAT WAS most interesting about our conversation was that Peyman's friend Arash, a Muslim and a member of Teheran's police force, was in the room as we spoke. When I asked Arash about friendships between Jews and non-Jews in
"With Ahmadinejad," he said, "the police force has become political and corrupt. Many people who have joined are more concerned with politics and religion than with protecting the people."
As Arash saw it, there were no problems between Iranians on a religious basis. On the issue of Jewish/non-Jewish relations, other Iranians of different ages, Jewish and Muslim, pointed to a unifying national idea.
Iranian culture dates back nearly 2,500 years, to the days of Cyrus the Great and Darius, founders of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (ca. 600 BCE) mentioned in the Bible. Throughout
Following the advent of Islam in the seventh century, the Persian language adopted Arabic characters but remained distinct from Arabic. National holidays that existed before Islam are celebrated by the Jewish community as well. This past spring, Iranians celebrated Norouz (New Day), the Persian New Year, which begins on March 21, and the rabbi in Yosefabad spoke about Norouz in his sermon.
The Jewish Association's calendar begins not on January 1, but on March 21. This pre-Islamic culture, even in the Islamic Republic of Iran, is still respected and unifies Iranians of different backgrounds.
Most indicative of this tacit acceptance of religious diversity is a huge picture on the side of a building in north Teheran. Like many pictures in the capital, it commemorates Iranian soldiers who fell during the 1980-8 Iran-Iraq war. But this one is different. It is dedicated to the minorities who served their country, and depicts five Iranians of various religions and ethnicities. Four represent Assyrian and Armenian ethnicities and members of the Christian and Zoroastrian communities. Right in the center is an Iranian Jew, with his name spelled in Farsi and Hebrew.
I FOUND great tolerance when I told people I was Jewish.
My tour guide in
Hajar, a university graduate with perfect English, asked, "Do you think
Most of the Iranians with whom I spoke, when asked about
Iranians, especially in the capital, are constantly reminded of this narrative. Pictures on the sides of buildings encourage martyrdom, and downtown, near the old Israeli Embassy (now the Palestinian Embassy), is
I asked the leaders of the Jewish community what they thought of Ahmadinejad's relentless proclamations that the Holocaust was a myth and that he wanted to "wipe
The president of the Jewish Association, a successful businessman, told me he had written a letter to Ahmadinejad denouncing the president's statements and retorting that if the Holocaust was a myth, then the Israeli killing of Palestinians must also be a myth.
Nourani, a Jewish shop owner in
Nourani sells kitchen appliances in the town, which is home to
Nourani and I talked about Jewish observance, but when I asked him if he celebrated the festivals, he looked at me as if insulted.
"The Jews of Shiraz are very religious - much more religious than the Jews of Teheran," he said.
"On Pessah, what do you do for matza?" I asked.
"Would you like to see?" he answered. We left his shop and went for a 15-minute walk across town. On the way, Nourani said he had actually lived in
We walked down a number of alleys and finally reached what looked to be an abandoned ranch house on a barren plot of land. As we got closer, I saw a sight one might have expected in
I couldn't actually comprehend what I was seeing, but it was there: One room contained the mixers needed to combine the flour and water, and the other contained the oven and conveyor belt. The prayer said when ritually removing a piece of dough from the mix was written on the wall in Hebrew and Farsi. One of the older men there, Qudrat, spoke fluent Hebrew. He had learned it in
LATER IN the day Qudrat invited my friend and me for a picnic with his family. The 10 of us all went to a public park and ate a feast of Iranian stew, vegetables, Iranian sweets and tea. Perhaps most amazing was that Qudrat wore his kippa in a public park, where dozens of religious Muslim families - including women covered head-to-toe in black - were also picnicking.
Everyone at our picnic asked if I was Orthodox, if I kept kosher and if I observed Shabbat. Qudrat's children and grandchildren had been to
Qudrat's son-in-law Farshid, who was looking to leave
Following our picnic, Qudrat took me to one of
Even more incredible was the fact that after we left, another group of worshipers came in. I was told that there are at least three shifts that come every morning and four or five every afternoon.
"Do you like it here?" someone asked me as I walked out.
"It's a very nice country, and it's nice to see so many Jews," I said.
"Well, you know, I was one of the 13 Jews put in jail," he said.
N. (to protect his privacy), along with 12 other Jews from
N. still doesn't know why he was put in jail.
"We'll never know," he said. "I was a government employee and was honest. I never took a bribe. I spent 17 months in solitary confinement, yet at one point all 13 of us shared a cell."
N. was finally released in 2002, but still can't leave the country and was reticent about the circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment. The government, he said, has limited what he can say to foreigners.
All he would say was: "You never know what will happen. In Copyright 1995-2006 The Αντιναζιστικά, αντιφασιστικά και αντιφασιστοσιωνιστικά δικός σας Κώστας
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193352890&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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