A synagogue in Tehran. Photo by Hossein Beris / Middle East Images via AFP and Getty Images
By Hannah Feuer
June 18, 2025
Iran is an Islamic state known for its hostility to Israel. The country is also home to a longstanding Jewish community, with at least a dozen active synagogues in the capital city of Tehran, mikvahs, kosher butchers, a Jewish library, and even a Jewish newspaper.
As Israel and Iran exchange missile attacks, what explains this contradiction between seemingly robust Iranian Jewish life and the mass exodus of Jews from the country after 1979? Lior Sternfeld, associate professor of history and Jewish studies at Penn State University, and author of Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran, explains
How many Jews live in Iran, and what rights do they have?
Estimates range from 9,000 to 20,000 Jews currently living in Iran. According to Sternfeld, the most credible approximation is 15,000, which is the number most Jews living in Iran cite. More than half of the Jewish population lives in Tehran, with the second most in the city of Shiraz.
Jews in Iran enjoy a sizable number of Jewish cultural and religious institutions and can practice their religion freely, Sternfeld said.
Jews even have required governmental representation. The Iranian Parliament, or the Majles, has a reserved seat for a Jewish member enshrined in the constitution, alongside reserved seats for other religious minorities: two seats for Armenians, one for Zoroastrians, and one for Assyrians. The current Jewish representative is Homayoun Sameh, who was elected in 2020.
Still, as with other lawmakers, there are limits on how freely the Jewish representative can critique the government.
“Practicing religion is not a problem. Iranian Jews have a harder time practicing other civil rights that are more connected to the political situation than religious freedoms,” Sternfeld said.
Iran also enforces sharia law, which treats Muslims and non-Muslims differently in civil and legal matters. Non-Muslims in Iran cannot hold senior government roles, serve as military commanders or work as judges. The testimony of a Jew in court does not carry the same weight as that of a Muslim, and there are different penalties for murder depending on the religion of the perpetrator and victim.
Yet Sternfeld emphasized that these limitations are not necessarily specifically targeted at Jews, but rather all non-Muslims.
“It’s not just Jews being singled out,” he said. “It’s all recognized religious minorities.”
Iranian Jews are allowed to travel abroad, though technically not to Israel — Iranian passports bear the message that “the holder of this passport is not entitled to travel to occupied Palestine.” Many visit Israel anyway via third countries such as Turkey.
So why do Jews in Iran stay? According to Sternfeld, many Iranian Jews feel deeply rooted in the country, with family ties stretching back thousands of years.
“Iranian Jews are Iranians, right? This is their home,” Sternfeld said. “They can leave if they want. They choose to be there.”
From King Ahasuerus to the Ayatollah
Jews have a long history in Persia, dating back to biblical times. Most notably, the story of Purim is set in Persia, with King Ahasuerus ruling over the Persian Empire — and deciding not to issue a decree to kill all his Jewish subjects after Queen Esther saved the day.
Modern times have had their own share of dramatic turns for Persian Jews, if not quite as storybook. The Pahlavi dynasty, beginning in 1925, marked a golden age for the Jews of Persia. Reza Shah Pahlavi prohibited the mass conversion of Jews to Islam, allowed Jews to hold government jobs, and permitted Hebrew to be taught in Jewish schools. The Shah even prayed in a synagogue he visited in the Jewish community of Isfahan, which many interpreted as a symbolic gesture of solidarity. Pahlavi also declared in 1935 that Persia would be henceforth known as Iran — the name its citizens had long used internally.
In 1948, Iran had a Jewish population of about 150,000 people. After the founding of Israel, many Jews left to make aliyah. According to Sternfeld, around 20,000 Jews left Iran between 1948 and 1953 — primarily from the poorest segments of society — drawn by the economic opportunities that Israel offered.
In 1953, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, enabling Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to consolidate power. Over time, resentment grew over the Shah’s tightening grip and his perceived alignment with Western powers.
These tensions culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which toppled the Shah and led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khomeini issued a fatwa, or legal decree, in 1979 declaring protection for Iran’s Jewish community. He forbade attacks against Iran’s Jews, drawing a distinction between them and what he called “godless, bloodsucking Zionists.”
Iran’s Jews continued to flee, fearing instability and Islamic takeover. The 1979 execution of Habib Elghanian, a prominent Iranian Jewish businessman and philanthropist, on charges that included “contacts with Israel and Zionism,” further entrenched fears that Jews would be targeted. An estimated 60,000 Iranian Jews left the country in the decade that followed.
Still, according to Sternfeld, antisemitism wasn’t Jews’ only motive for fleeing.
“This time, they didn’t immigrate as Jews. They immigrated as Iranians,” Sternfeld said. “They moved because of the chaos, because of the political instability, because of fears of what the new revolutionary government might do — fears that were infused by the Iran-Iraq War. So there were many factors that played a role in it.”
Today, the vast majority of Iranian Jews reside in Israel or the United States, with the largest U.S. community living in Los Angeles.
How do Jews living in Iran feel about the current conflict?
Following Israel’s recent airstrikes on Iran, Homayoun Sameh — the sole Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament — told state-run media that the attacks on Iran proved the Jewish state to be a “savage, child-killing regime.” He urged Iran to respond in a manner that would be “unforgettable.”
Other Jewish leaders in Iran also issued statements. “The Zionists’ brutality, which is far from any human morality and has caused the martyrdom of a number of our beloved compatriots, including innocent children, has hurt all of our hearts,” the Jewish Association and Community of Isfahan told state-run media.
But according to Sternfeld, it’s difficult to say how Iranian Jews truly feel about the conflict, given fears of retaliation for open support of Israel. Most likely, he said, opinions vary.
“We shouldn’t assume that they would automatically support Israel if they could,” he said.
What is clear, Sternfeld said, is growing fear among Iranian Jews — both of escalating antisemitism and of further bombings.
“It’s just overwhelming,” he said. “They are terrified.”
