Report On Status Of Iran's Jewish Community

Today's Belfast Telegraph carries a feature on the status of the 20,000 members of the Jewish community who remain in Iran. Jews, Zoroastrians and Christians each have an elected representative in Iran's parliament. They may worship freely and are not bound by Muslim dietary restrictions. But non-Muslims may not proselytize. Synagogue attendance in Iran has gone up. This is attributed partly to the increased religious atmosphere generally fostered by the government, and in part to the need for the community to draw on its own resources. Iranian Jews say they suffer discrimination in obtaining government jobs; there is anti-Semitism in the government media; but Jews are not openly persecuted. Generally they have had to publicly renounce any connection to Israel or Zionism. And they are increasingly nervous about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust.