Forward.com

TIES THAT BIND: Jasmin Niku, a 21-year-old Iranian-Jewish woman born and raised in Los Angeles, wears a charm bracelet she bought on a recent trip to Israel.

Article tools

• Text size:   Larger | Smaller
•    Print this article
•    Email this article
•    Other articles by Rebecca Spence
•    More in News

Los Angeles - Every day, at 7 a.m., Rosa Cohanzad tunes in to a Farsi-language radio broadcast that gives her the latest news on Israel and Iran.

A 54-year-old Iranian Jew who moved to America nearly three decades ago, Cohanzad is terrified of the day she will hear a report declaring that war has erupted between the Jewish state and the land of her birth. She is not alone.

For the tens of thousands of Iranian Jews living in America, the mounting tensions between Iran and Israel amount to more than just a geopolitical crisis. The issue has emotional and symbolic resonance that tears at the very core of who they are, their loyalties and the complex identities they have created for themselves.

“It is very difficult, because sometimes I feel responsible that somebody from the Iranian government is going to do these things to Israel,” Cohanzad told the Forward in an interview at her West Los Angeles real estate office.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its government’s strident rhetoric against Israel are the subjects of constant discussion among Iranian Jews from Beverly Hills to Great Neck, N.Y. As one Los Angeles Iranian-Jewish community leader put it, “It’s something in conversation every time two Iranian Jews see each other.”

What to do about the prospect of a nuclear Iran, however, is another question — one that has exposed a stark generational divide within the Iranian-Jewish community. Many from the older generation of Iranian Jews, who fled their country in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, seem uneasy with the idea of a pre-emptive strike, while their children are often considerably more hawkish.

“Older Iranian Jewish immigrants who were born and raised in Iran and care about the welfare of Iran and Iranians realize that an attack on Iran will only be a temporary fix, while American Jews of Iranian descent who are now in their 20s or early 30s are no longer Iranian,” said Pooya Dayanim, president of the L.A.-based Iranian Jewish Public Affairs Committee. “They’re American Jews who care about Israel and think that a pre-emptive attack by Israel or the United States is a good idea.”

Highlighting just how pronounced the generational divide is, several older Iranian Jews interviewed by the Forward declined to speak for attribution. Because they have relatives or friends still living in Iran — the remaining Jewish community there is estimated to number 25,000 people — many cited concerns that airing their opinions could harm those remaining in the country. Better, they say, to remain quiet.

Still, others, like George Haroonian, a former president of the Council of Iranian American Jewish Organizations who has long advocated speaking out against the Iranian regime, had no problem discussing the matter. Haroonian, 55, was less willing than his younger counterparts to consider the military option. “The change will come from within Iran,” said Haroonian, who came to America from Iran at age 17. “A military attack, even targeted attacks, would be disastrous.”

In interviews with the Forward, younger Iranian-American Jews — whose only connection to their ancestral home is often through their parents — were far more willing to support military action.

“If it comes down to it, I’d rather see Israel bomb a couple nuclear reactors than see Iran bomb Israel,” said Jasmin Niku, a 21-year-old Iranian-American Jew who was born and raised in West L.A. “My priority is there.”

Niku — who once served as president of Bruins for Israel, the pro-Israel student group at University of California, Los Angeles — said that while she feels a cultural connection to Iran, her Jewish identity is predominant. In a sign of her affinity for the Jewish state, Niku wears a red string bracelet with a hamsa charm that she bought on a recent trip to Israel. Niku, who will be starting law school in the fall, has never been to Iran.

Another young Iranian-American Jew, David Peyman, was equally forthcoming about his lack of affinity for his country of origin.

“With respect to the conflict between Israel and Iran, I have no connection whatsoever to the land of Iran. I have no conflict or worry with respect to how it might end for the Iranian nation,” the 29-year-old lawyer explained. “I have a very strong allegiance to Israel, on the other hand.”

Peyman was born in Iran, but his family moved to Israel when he was still an infant, and then to L.A. when he was 4. He grew up visiting Israel every summer, and he once worked as a research associate in Washington at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Peyman said that he would support a military strike against Iran as an option, if economic sanctions and a naval blockade fail to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

But not everyone from the younger generation is as alienated from Iran. Raymond Iryami, a 36-year-old lawyer who lives in Great Neck, the Long Island hub of the Iranian-Jewish community on the East Coast, said that his ties to Iran are strong because he spent his childhood there. He said that he does not support a pre-emptive strike against Iran.

“I spent my first 10 years of life there, and I still have fond memories of it,” he said. “As a result of that, you tend not to like to see it harmed.”