Members of Tehran’s Jewish community celebrated hakafot shniyot, the traditional post-Simchat Torah dancing with Torah scrolls, at the city’s Yousef Abad synagogue, with festivities that included Hebrew songs and the chant “Am Yisrael Chai,” meaning “The people of Israel live.”
The celebrations also included the song “Od Avinu Chai,” with participants calling out “Am Yisrael Chai,” a phrase rarely heard publicly in Iran under current conditions. Videos from the celebrations were published by Rabbi Yehuda Gerami, chief rabbi of Iran’s Jewish community.
Simchat Torah celebrations in Tehran
(Video: Rabbi Yehuda Gerami)
Gerami is active on social media and regularly posts photographs and videos from Jewish holidays in Iran, as well as from private community events such as circumcision ceremonies and weddings that he attends.
Iran’s Jewish community cannot maintain direct contact with people or organizations in Israel because of restrictions imposed by the Iranian regime and concerns for the safety of community members. Gerami’s posts nevertheless offer a rare glimpse into the everyday lives of Jews in the country.
During Operation Rising Lion, Gerami suspended his social media activity, but later returned to posting as usual.
He recently published photographs from a circumcision ceremony he attended in Tehran, and during the High Holy Days shared videos from a synagogue in the Iranian capital alongside a Hebrew message wishing followers a good final inscription in the Book of Life.
(Photo: Rabbi Yehuda Gerami)
The Iranian regime routinely portrays the country’s Jewish community as supportive of the government and publicizes statements by community leaders praising Iran’s supreme leader and political leadership while condemning Israeli and U.S. actions against the regime.
Iran’s leadership uses the Jewish community in part to reinforce its claim that its opposition is directed at “Zionism” rather than Judaism.