By Grace Gilson
A Jewish Iranian-American businessman was recently sentenced to prison in Iran for traveling to Israel 13 years ago for his son’s bar mitzvah, according to family members.
Kamran (Yehuda) Hekmati, 70, a jeweler who lives in Great Neck, Long Island, traveled to Iran in May for what was reportedly intended to be a brief visit and was arrested. In July, he was sent to Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison, his relatives told the New York Times, which reported Hekmati’s imprisonment for the first time on Thursday, Nov. 6.
The notorious prison was heavily damaged during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June.
In the aftermath of the conflict, Iran arrested 35 members of the Jewish communities in Tehran and Shiraz on charges of having contact with Israel.
It was not clear whether Hekmati was included in that total. But Iranian authorities realized he held an Iranian passport, despite having moved to the United States as a child, and had violated a law barring Iranians from traveling to Israel. (Iran does not recognize dual citizenship.)
In August, Hekmati — who owns and operates a business in Manhattan’s “Diamond District” — was sentenced to four years in prison by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court. His sentence was reduced to two years in September, and a lawyer for his family has filed an appeal seeking Hekmati’s release on humanitarian grounds because he has an aggressive form of bladder cancer, according to the newspaper.
“Kamran was the person who glued the family together,” Hekmati’s cousin, Shohreh Nowfar, told the New York Times. “He was always there for everyone, his wife, his kids, all his relatives, anyone he met in Iran, It’s so ironic that the country he loved so much and tried to help has now imprisoned him.”
Hekmati’s family came to the United States several years before the Iranian Revolution in 1979 caused tens of thousands of Iranian Jews to flee to the United States and Israel.
Today, Iran has an estimated 8,000 Jews who are permitted to practice their religion but barred from any contact with Israel or display of support from it.
A father of four and new grandfather of one, Hekmati is currently one of four U.S. citizens held in Iranian prison, but appears to be the first case of the country arresting an American Jew in recent years. The Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran, an affiliate of the Human Rights in Iran NGO, reported in July that a second Jewish American had also been imprisoned and released on bail.
“The Iranian regime has a long history of unjustly and wrongfully detaining other countries’ citizens,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement to the Times. “Iran should release these individuals immediately.”
Hekmati’s hometown of Great Neck is home to a large Persian Jewish community. In Baltimore, the Iranian-Jewish community — founded in 1981 by 10 immigrants through the auspices of Ner Israel Rabbinical College – is estimated at approximately 150 families and centered around the Ohr Hamizrach Synagogue in Park Heights.
Grace Gilson wrote this article for the JTA global Jewish news source. Jmore staff contributed to the report.
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