“We are not tenants in this country. We are Iranians, and we have been for thirty centuries,” Ciamak Morsadegh, Iran’s lone Jewish lawmaker, said Monday. Morsadegh traveled as a member of Rouhani’s delegation during his trip to the United Nations. In his office at the Dr. Sapir hospital, one of the oldest medical facilities in Tehran, Morsadegh dismissed criticisms by Israeli officials and others who dismissed his presence in the delegation is mere window dressing for what the critics call an anti-Semitic political system. “As a member of parliament, it is my duty to represent the interests of all Iranians not just Jews,” Morsadegh said. Community leaders say that Jews here have become more religious since Iran’s revolution say community leaders. With sixty active synagogues spread across Iran, and a dozen in Tehran alone, sermons and religious courses are perpetually filled. But that gravitation toward deeper faith has not included an embrace of Zionism or any upsurge in emigration to Israel, the leaders say. “There is a distinction between us as Jews and Israel,” said Haroon Saketi, who owns a clothing boutique in Esfahan. “We consider ourselves Iranian Jews and it has nothing to do with Israel whatsoever. This is the country we love.”
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 02:34:57 +0000
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