Jews should still help Iran

Letters

Editor: The Iranian government has announced that help in recovering from the recent terrible earthquake in Bam is welcome from anywhere, except the "Zionist entity," i.e., Israel.

At the same time, the American Jewish World Service is donating money to the victims of the Iranian earthquake. Many Jews are wondering whether it is appropriate for us to support Iranians in this way.

I have thought about it and have decided that I am going to give some money to the Iranian victims of the earthquake, and I encourage other Jews to do the same.

I lived in Iran during the late 1970s. I was actually on the first official evacuation flight to leave Iran in February 1979. I mention this because my year living there gave me some insights into the Iranian mentality. And in the debate about whether or not to help the Iranians at this time, there is an important point that is often overlooked. The Iranians differentiate between people and their government. For years they felt totally disconnected from their government; the Shah was very far removed from most of them, and they hated him. But they didn't hate themselves, the Iranian people.

I experienced the same thing when I lived there during the Iranian revolution. They didn't hate Americans. They hated the American government. This may seem a subtle distinction to Americans, who see America as having a government "of the people, by the people and for the people." The Iranians don't see the world the same way.

I learned a smattering of Farsi while I was living there. I remember watching a speech that Bakhtiar, then the prime minister, gave, in which he said things against the American government – specifically using the Farsi for American government, not American people. The translator sloppily rendered it as "Americans." I noticed it as a big difference.

The Iranians and Americans actually got along pretty well. Iranians can be very friendly, hospitable, outgoing, etc. Not unlike Americans.

The Iranians rejected support from "the Zionist entity." Not from Jews. Which partly explains why there are still more Jews living in Iran than in any Arab state, despite their horrible rhetoric directed at Israel.

The Israeli government should accept the rebuff and give up on trying to help Iran. Individual Jews, on the other hand, can and should give if they are so moved. I will. It's hard for us to fathom, but Iranians are probably both more anti-Israel and less anti-Semitic than any other peoples in the Middle East. One reason they don't like Israel, of course, is for the same reason they don't like America: Israel was very cozy with the Shah. El Al used to fly twice a week between Tehran and Tel-Aviv.

The Talmud, in Gitin 61a, tells us: "Poor gentiles should be supported along with poor Jews; the gentile sick should be visited along with the Jewish sick; and their dead should be buried along with the Jewish dead, mipnei darchei shalom, because of the ways of peace." Showing Iranians that Jews have compassion may help prevent their anti-Israel views from mutating into anti-Semitic views. Perhaps it would truly support darchei shalom.

I recommend making donations through the American Jewish World Service (www.ajws.org) so they know the support is coming from Jews. Donations can also be made through the Canadian Red Cross (visit the Web site www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=007619&tid=001 for instructions).

Rabbi Barry Leff
Beth Tikvah Congregation, Vancouver

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