Iran – In a country where Judaism is considered a minority religion and those following the faith are minimal in numbers and don’t have equal rights, many wonder why Jews stay in Iran instead of leaving for Israel and the U.S., as many others have.
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WNYC (http://bit.ly/1AoJ7AX) reports Iran has the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel and Turkey. Its Jewish population was once over 100,000 in the years before the reign of the Shah of Iran collapsed in 1979. A 2011 census showed that the Iranian Jew population was 8,756.
According to Siamak Moreh Sedgh, Iran’s one Jewish member of Parliament, Iranian Jews stay because Iran is their country and they are part of its history, albeit a tumultuous one. Sedgh holds one seat of just five reserved for Iran’s religious minorities. In a country that has a history of having the biggest problems with Israel, Sedgh says he supports Iran’s foreign policy regarding the state.
He also says improving the rights and lives of Jews in Iran is better done “little by little, step by step,” preferring to slowly improve daily life and the minority status in the country rather than challenging the Islamic Republic outright. Although able to practice their faith and vote, Jews cannot attain a position in high office.
The slow push for more rights recently won Jews permission to keep their children out of school on the Sabbath.
Sedgh is also a general surgeon and directs a Jewish charity hospital that accepts people of all faiths, despite the fact that the majority of staff and patients are Muslims.
David Shumer, 28, the son of the owner of a Kosher restaurant in Tehran, echoes Sedgh’s thoughts, and says he has a good and happy life in Iran as a Jew, and leads a decent middle-class life.
they had good and happy life in Germany too