It’s not easy being of dual heritage when your two countries are rivals. But that is the reality for many Persian Jews at the University of Southern California and in Los Angeles.
Early on Sunday morning, sirens rang across Israel as Iran launched over 300 drones and missiles into Israel. Although 99% of the rockets were intercepted, the unprecedented attack heightened tensions between the Israeli and Iranian governments.
“April 13 will be a watershed moment in the history of the Middle East,” said Sam Yebri, a Tehran-born LA workers’ rights attorney and former 2022 city council candidate.
Israel and Iran have been long-time adversaries, and this recent attack was in response to an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month. But this most recent incident has worried the Persian Jewish community in LA, many of whom fled from the regime in the late 1900s.
“For many years, there’s been this deep fear that the land of my birth would be at war with my ancestral homeland, Israel,” said Yebri. “Watching it unfold on Saturday live on television and social media was surreal and quite terrifying.”
The Iranian revolution began in 1978, leading to the monarchy’s downfall and the establishment of an Islamic republic in 1979. Today, Iran’s supreme leader is Ali Khamenei, who has been in power since 1989.
The regime has a history of persecuting religious minorities, including Baha’is, Christians, Sunni Muslims, Zoroastrians and Jews, according to the State Department’s 2018 Report on Religious Freedom for Iran.
Many Persians fled Iran due to oppression. Before the revolution, there were over 100,000 Jews in Iran, but only 15,000 remain, as reported by the Tehran Jewish Committee. Many fled to the United States, with a large community in Southern California. The United States is home to about 400,000 Iranian-born immigrants, with more than a third living in the L.A. metropolitan area, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Many Iranian-Americans worry about their loved ones living under the regime since they still have family in Iran.
Ethan Hamid, a junior studying gerontology at USC, is the descendant of parents who fled from Iran.
For his family, “the Iranian regime has been the biggest threat to Western civilization,” said Hamid, who is on the board of the USC Chabad and the co-founder of the Iranian Medical Society. “It’s always been a dream to be able to go back and visit Iran.”
Hamid said his family has an ancestry that goes back to Iran for around 2,400 years. His father’s family left Iran a year before the revolution, while his mother’s family left during the revolution. One of his grandfathers was imprisoned for attempting to flee the country as a Jew, and his family had to spend their entire life savings on securing his release.
“I pray that Iran goes back to being the country that it once was,” Hamid said.
He still has distant relatives living in Iran and close family members residing in Israel. The recent attack on Israel is an issue that hits close to home for him. He also said his cousins in Jerusalem shared videos of rockets fired last weekend, just as Ethan was finishing up Shabbat.
“There’s a lot of mixed emotions,” Hamid said. “I’m scared for my family on both sides.”
Hana Masrour, a junior studying public relations, also has a family heritage that traces back to Iran. Her father immigrated to the United States in 1979, and her mom, who spent some time in an Iranian jail, left the country in 1988.
Masrour has some distant family in Iran and plenty of relatives in Israel, making her worried about the recent attack.
“I hope that the regime will fall and suffer as they rightfully should, for oppressing the people of Iran, especially the women,” said Masrour.
Women in Iran must cover their hair with hijabs, and cameras monitor compliance. They are not permitted to travel without their husband’s consent.
She advised people to educate themselves and listen to Iranian women who lived under the regime, instead of those who had never been to Iran.
“If something sounds like a fascist, oppressive dictatorship to you, maybe don’t stand behind that,” she said. “Even if it doesn’t align with your beliefs about Israel.”
Yebri said he also hopes to see change.
“It feels like there is an opportunity for change within Iran because I believe that the people of Israel and the people of Iran want the same thing, which is to live in peace and freedom without terrorism,” said Yebri.