The children of the Chief Rabbi of Tehran, Rav Yehuda Gerami, Shlomo, 8, and Sora, 7, were interviewed in honor of Purim by the Hebrew Mishpacha‘s children’s magazine Yeladim.
Shlomo told Yeladim that his father travels every year to the kevarim of Mordechai and Esther in the city of Hamadan on Purim but he and his sister haven’t been there yet.
Shlomo said that Jews can walk on the streets of Iran safely. “There’s no problem being on the street with a kippah and tzizis and of course, that’s what I do.”
“At home we speak Farsi and a little bit of Hebrew,” Shlomo said. “Outside we speak Farsi like everyone else.”
Shlomo and Sora said that there are five other Jewish families in the building they live in and one non-Jewish family. “We’re good neighbors that respect one another. Sometimes we have a minyan in the yard and we daven there. My father made an eiruv so that we can carry there on Shabbos.”
Shlomo and Sora also told Yeladim a little about their minhagim on Seder night. “There’s a minhag in Iran that when we read Dayeinu in the Haggadah, we give out green onions with leaves [leeks] and everyone beats each other with them.”
The minhag is a reminder of the lashes that Bnei Yisrael endured in Mitzrayim and also a way of kindling the children’s interest in the story of Yetziyas Mitzrayim.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
What a tragedy that these unfortunate children are growing up in a hostile regime of Iran.
Only 2 worse things I could think of, is growing up in Ukraine right now, and of-course the worst of all evils if they Heaven Forbid would be in germany.
Of course, their government’s not anti-semitic. They just have a problem with the country that happens to be Jewish!
Replying to 147:
You should know that there is a big Jewish community in Iran. Rabbi Gerami and his family moved there from Baltimore to support all the of needs of the community. It is beyond Mesirut Nefesh. He is teaching Torah, making sure there are kosher mikvehs, teaching taharat Hamishpacha, officiating weddings, britot, teaching shchita, and ordaining Rabbanim…Iran is a very complex country in regard to Jews. They live there quietly. There were many issues years ago but it is a quiet country for Jews to live in. I’m not saying it’s a good country. The Jews live there because they can’t pick up and leave much like the Jews in America who can’t pick up and leave. It’s complex but not dangerous. The government is hostile to Israel but not hostile to its Jewish citizens…
regardless, the Jewish population of that country should make plans to move out ASAP and not risk a hostage crisis if there is ever a full-blown war between Iran and Israel.