Our man in Tehran?

Editorial

Maurice Motamed, the Jewish member of the Iranian parliament, had some harsh words for the Jews who recently made aliyah from his country. Motamed claimed a "disinformation" campaign was taking place that misrepresented the degree of safety and security he says the Jews of Iran enjoy.

Forty Iranian Jews landed in Israel last month, aided by American evangelicals, who provided start-up funds in the new country of $10,000 US to each of the olim. The arrival was particularly evocative just weeks after the Iranian president's highly publicized trip to the United Nations and recent statements by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel. Such rhetoric by Iran's leader, combined with a history of false charges against Iranian Jews, has led some to imagine that life for Jews in Iran must be a tenuous and fraught existence.

Not so, declared Motamed and Ciamak Morsathegh, the head of the Tehran Jewish Committee. Life is beautiful for Iranian Jews and statements by some of the newcomers that they were afraid to wear kippot in the streets of Tehran are "sheer lies," Motamed said. Morsathegh even suggested that the 40 olim were not from Iran at all, pointing to the fact that Israeli TV did not show the faces of the newcomers. (The policy of not exposing faces was done to protect family members remaining in Iran.)

The words of Motamed are almost as interesting and instructive as the man himself and his unique political position.

Jews have had a designated seat in the Iranian parliament since the 1906 Persian constitution was promulgated and this has been the case even since the Islamic revolution in 1979. A Jewish member of the Iranian revolutionary parliament is an interesting phenomenon certainly, but not one that assures us that this voice of the Iranian Jewry is a legitimate one.

Being elected head of the Iranian Jewish community is to be chosen big fish in a decidedly small pond. Though the pond is not as small as one might think – Iran has the Middle East's largest Jewish community outside Israel. The Associated Press reports that Iran's Jewish community of about 25,000 people is serviced by 20 synagogues, eight butchers, five schools, four youth organizations and two restaurants. This is a Jewish population about the same as Greater Vancouver's and, if accurate, includes an enviable number of butchers, schools and restaurants compared to our local standards.

But Motamed's words must be taken with a grain of salt. He has apparently acted on behalf of Iranian Jews successfully in several high-profile cases and he made appropriate noises when Ahmadinejad launched into his Holocaust denial. But Motamed also serves on the Iranian energy commission and fully supports Iran's nuclear program – arguably the greatest threat to Jews since 1945.

Is he a co-opted Jewish voice of the Islamic republic? In a society where free expression is limited and dissent repressed, anyone who stays on the government's good side could be accused of being co-opted. As the leader of the Jewish community in Iran, of course, it is in his interest to ensure that his constituents do not all flee the country. And, for the sake of his community's safety, Motamed may have an obligation to downplay Jewish self-determination, precisely because life in Iran is not the bed of roses he insists it is.

Morsathegh took a particularly harsh swat at the olim who received $10,000 for their resettlement.

"We are Iranian Jews and are proud of our nationality," he said. "No amount of money can encourage us to give up Iran. Our nationality is not up for sale."

Demonstrating conspicuous loyalty to the state has been a tightrope Jews have walked since the dawn of the age of nationalism. More so since 1948, when effectively every Jew in the Muslim world has been suspected by their country's leaders of spying for Israel, and this has been a deep and serious challenge for the few Jews who remain in predominantly Muslim countries.

The real story here is the reaction the 40 olim incited among the Jewish leadership in Iran. The 40 people who made the choice to go to Israel did so based on their natural right to determine their residency. The Jewish leadership of Iran reacted defensively and with statements seemingly intended to placate the extremists who head the Iranian government. As much as anything else, this probably indicates the real level of freedom, security and self-determination permitted to Jews in Iran.

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