Israel has carried out strikes on targets within Iran, escalating a conflict that poses a significant risk to a nation long home to one of the Middle East’s oldest Jewish communities. Estimates suggest that between 17,000 and 25,000 Iranian Jews reside predominantly in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Hamedan, and Tabriz, making Iran home to the second-largest Jewish population in the region after Israel.
The community, which holds a reserved seat in Iran’s parliament (the Majlis), maintains over 50 synagogues in Tehran alone and operates a hospital open to people of all faiths. Notably, one of Isfahan’s most prominent synagogues stands directly adjacent to the historic Al Aqsa mosque, underscoring centuries of coexistence.
Jewish ties to Persia date back approximately 2,700 years. Tradition holds that Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai—central figures in the Hebrew Bible—are buried in Hamedan. In later eras, Iran provided refuge to Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust. However, the community also endured forced conversions under the Safavid and Qajar dynasties and saw many emigrate after the 1979 revolution.
As military operations intensify, community leaders express profound fears for the safety of their synagogues, cultural sites, and the continued vitality of Iran’s Jewish population, a community that has weathered both periods of sanctuary and persecution over millennia.
