Travel with Columbia Jewish Congregation, virtually, to Jewish Iran.

Iran’s Jewish community is one of the oldest diaspora communities in the world. But is there more to those 2,700 years of history than Queen Esther and the Islamic Revolution?

This talk examines the lesser-known parts of Iran’s Jewish History, a vast story of prophets, autonomous nations, divergent sects, epic poetry, and political intrigue. Through the music, languages, foods, writings, traditions, and stories of two millennia, along with their ties to neighboring and faraway communities, the Jews of Iran have forged a culture at once Persian and Jewish, with traditions and aesthetics uniquely their own. Now in a second Diaspora in the United States and Israel, with a small population remaining in Iran, the community faces inevitable changes.

We will use the knowledge of the past to look to the future of the community and discuss how the unique heritage of Iran’s Jews can be preserved.