Jews in Iran

Once 100,000 strong, Iran's Jewish community has dwindled to somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 since the 1979 Islamic revolution. But Jews who stayed in the country continue to live and work with a particularly Iranian outlook on the world. It's an outlook Ali Velshi heard firsthand this summer when he met with members of Tehran's Jewish community. Iranian Jews and other official-status religious minorities don't enjoy all the same rights and protections that Muslims do under the law. But they are granted certain rights of political participation. Under Iran's constitution, Jews get one seat in the Iranian parliament. Dr. Siamak Moreh Sedgh is the Iranian Jewish community's elected representative. He also heads up the Doctor Sapir Hospital and Charity Center — a medical facility in Tehran that offers free and discounted care to patients of all religions — owned and operated by the city's Jewish community. Back in 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad hosted a conference questioning the deliberate killing of European Jews during World War II. Sedgh denounced him for quote “denying the truth” of the holocaust. But in line with Iranian government policy, he has also denounced Israel — which bills itself as the “Jewish state” — for its treatment of the Palestinians. Iran's Jews say they have roots in the country that go back 3,000 years. The question many observers are asking: How much staying power does the community have to persist in Iran in the years to come.