About a ton of matzah was successfully delivered to Iranian Jews last week, Chabad officials’ report, proud of the successful pre-yomtov smuggling operation that will enable the local Jews of Iran to fulfill the mitzvah of Pesach.

About 20,000 Jews are believed to still be living in Iran, officially enjoying religious freedom, but they are prohibited from importing anything from Israel. A violation of this law is subject to three months imprisonment or losing one’s passport for a number of years.

Chabad decided to undertake the clandestine operation due to the realization Iran’s Jewish community cannot possibly bake a sufficient quantity of matzah for yomtov. Chabad baked the matzos in the Ukraine and they were then shipped to a country adjacent to Iran, from where they crossed the Iranian border. They used a border crossing known for lax security enforcement.

Despite the seemingly well-arranged delivery route, Chabad officials did even more to lower the risk of being detected, repacking all the matzah from the original packaging that had the word “matzah” printed on it in Hebrew. The matzah arrived last week in 10 buses and local community leaders report the operation was a huge success.

According to Tzeirei Chabad director Rav Yosef Yitzchak Aaronoff, the operation during the past weeks was headed by Rav Meir Baruch from Azerbaijan.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)