Iran's Jews reject cash offer to move to Israel, why do they love being in IRAN so much ?

Question

Iran's Jewish population love Iran SO MUCH they dont want to goto ISRAEL.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2125155,00.html


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Answer 1

I smell a propaganda news story.

Answer 2

Very religious Jews believe that when Israel becomes all Jewish, that will be the end of the world. It's in the Torah, and is believed to be when the Messiah will come. That could be a reason they don't want to go, assuming that the Iranian Jews are very religious.

Also, the article states that Jews in Iran are 'forced' to attend school on the Saturday the Sabbath. I can't figure out why that would matter, the holy day for Christians is Sunday, and Friday for Muslims. No country can have a 3 day weekend to accommodate all religions.

Answer 3

This is Iran, people. Jews have been hanged for showing loyalty to Israel there. I would suspect, that accepting such an offer would be viewed as traitorous to the entire rest of the Jewish community there. It would put their friends and family who stayed behind at risk.

These people are real humans, with history, careers, neighborhoods, etc. Since they obviously couldn't all leave, they are showing their respect and support for each other by none of them leaving. How could the people making this offer have expected Iranian Jews to react otherwise?

And as the quotation in the article suggests, the people making these offers are truly not showing social or political savvy. I mean, the concept here would be sort of like offering ten year's supply of alcohol to Irish expats living in England, to go back to Ireland, and then making fun of them for not accepting. The offer was probably well-meaning, but it was not well-thought-out.

Answer 4

Iran has the second largest population of jews in middle east(Israel being the first ofcourse)

And all Iranians suffer from Mullah's dictatorship no matter muslim, Jew, Zoroastrian etc

I had Zoroastrian, Armenian and jewish classmates in highschool. And we all went fine together. nobody cared about religion. if anything it just brought color and fun into our friendship.

You can be a jew and an Iranian, you can be a christian and an Iranian, you can be Armenian Iranian. you can be turk kurd, arab, baluch, lor etc and at the same time an Iranian.

However you can't be an Iranian and then sacrifice interests of Iran for those of Islam or palestine etc...

Answer 5

I did not here about this. I suppose they have their own community in Iran and dont feel like moving. I would want out of Iran especially if I was a Jew. That is a valid question though.

Answer 6

Most Jews do not wish to live in Israel. They are traditionally a diasporic people,rather like the Anglo-Saxons. They are very global. American Jews are happy here. Much of the Jewish population of Palestine is just Russian and eastern European jews who go there and a first step toward migration to the the states;there is a high turnover.

Answer 7

Iranian jews have been a part of the country for centuries. They are free to worship there and they go to Israel if they want. While they certainly face difficulties, especially after the revolution, I would suspect that the life of the average Iranian jew is no harder than the life of many Arabs in christian countries - relative freedom with a good dose of public distrust and official scrutiny.

Answer 8

Its simple- Jews in Iran who want to leave to go to Israel are accussed of treason and thrown in jail. More than one Jew has dissapeared into an Iranian prison after applying to leave the country, to never be seen again. On top of that, the Iranian government never allows a whole family to leave, but only allows one member to leave, meaning they have to accept never seeing their families again, how many parents/spouses/children never want to see their loved ones again?

So of course Iranian Jews behave like good citizens and make their loyalty pledges, if they don't, they get called traitors and thrown into prison!

From the article you linked to:
"Hostility between Iran's Islamic government and Israel means Iranian Jews are often subject to official mistrust and scrutiny. In 2000 10 Jews in the southern city of Shiraz were jailed for spying for Israel, which Iran refuses to recognise.

A Jewish businessman, Ruhollah Kadkhodah-Zadeh, was hanged in 1998, apparently for allegedly helping Jews to emigrate."

and "Jews are free to practise their religion and have their own schools, although they are forced to open on Saturdays, the Jewish sabbath." Freedom to practice their religion? But they are compelled to break Jewish laws at the behest of the Iranian government? The Guardian normally leaves their apologetics for slandering Israel, seems they turned it to justifying oppression of Jews this time!

Answer 9

Iran is their HOME. Israel is a foreign country to them. It's the Iranian cult-run government that needs to be more tolerant.

Answer 10

Maybe because it is their country, and they have deep emotional and familial ties there, hm?

How much better to stay in your country and try to fix it from within instead of emmigrating to a country where it might be easier but it's still not your home.

Would you feel the same way if these were Mexicans getting offered cash to move to the US?

Answer 11

The company I work for offered me cash to move to another state. I turned this down. Had nothing to do with geography. And everything to do with the place I call home.