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National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Weekend Edition
October 25, 2008 Saturday
Scholars Explore Lasting Judeo-Persian Culture
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Iran's contempt for the state of Israel is perhaps the most strident
in the world. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
Enhanced Coverage LinkingMahmoud Ahmadinejad, -Search using:
Biographies Plus News
News, Most Recent 60 Days
once described Israel as a rotten, dried tree that will be annihilated
in one storm. Yet Iran has the largest Jewish population of any Muslim
country and a history that links the two nations. Centuries ago, when
the country was part of Babylonia, rabbis debated legal matters with
peers who practiced Zoroastrianism, the dominant faith in the
region. Today, Jews have an elected deputy in Iran's parliament, and
they're recognized as a religious minority under the country's Islamic
constitution.
Next weekend, scholars will meet to further explore the history of
these men and women and their ancestors. "Iranian Jewry: From Past to
Present" is a conference hosted by the University of Maryland and the
Library of Congress. We're joined by two professors who've helped
organize the event. Hayim Lapin is director of the Jewish studies
program at the University. Thanks very much for being with us.
Dr. HAYIM LAPIN (Director, Center for Jewish Studies, University of
Maryland): Thank you for having me.
SIMON: And Ahmad Karimi is director of Persian studies. Thank you very
much for being with us.
Dr. AHMAD KARIMI (Director, Center for Persian Studies, University of
Maryland): Thank you so much.
SIMON: And gentlemen, how far back does a Jewish community go anyway?
Dr. KARIMI: The best dating dates it about 27 centuries ago in the
Babylonian age. By the time Cyrus the Great invades Babylon, which is
near Baghdad today, he issues a proclamation that Iran is very proud
of, in which he recognizes the human rights of all the colonized
people as well as their freedom to practice their faith.
SIMON: Why have this conference now? What's the urgency?
Dr. LAPIN: Less urgency than opportunity. Ahmad and I both are the
heads of programs that have an interest in expanding knowledge of a
long and rich culture. This is a diaspora community that has an
identity as Persian. They may be alienated from the present government
and the present state, the present republic, but Iranian Jews
frequently understand themselves as belonging in a Persian world.
SIMON: Professor Karimi, your background is in Persian literature. I
want to ask you about a phrase we noticed: The imagination, a
political agency.
Dr. KARIMI: Well, yeah, we have this scholarly jargon. But the process
of modernity affected not only the Muslim majority but all religious
minorities too. And so the Armenians and Jews, they were not as
anchored and steeped in the Muslim tradition as the majority, and so
they quickly rose to the position of agents of change. And this
imaginary of Iranian agents' movement from the subjects of a king to
citizens of a country was aided by Armenians, kinds of Christians, and
Jews of Iran.
And so they it was who as a group went much more often than the Muslim
majority to places of education in Europe, such as, for example,
Istanbul, to Paris, London, Austria, and got back doctors and
engineers, and started the process of integrating into society. So the
way Iranian modernity was imagined was through the agency of
non-Muslim minorities, including Jews.
SIMON: I know that there are religious groups in Iran that are
discriminated against plenty. To what degree is the Jewish community
tolerated, merely tolerated, or accepted?
Dr. LAPIN: I would say for the most part tolerated. Occasionally there
are accusations within Iran at members of the Jewish community. The
most recent had to do with accusations of espionage for the state of
Israel. But by and large, the community is tolerated.
SIMON: I don't want people to get the impression that this conference
is just a group of scholars, however distinguished, yammering away on
the topic. There is also some music. Izra Malakov's Bukharian Jewish
Folklore Ensemble is going to have a concert. Let's listen to a little
of their music.
(Soundbite of song by Izra Malakov's Bukharian Jewish Folklore
Ensemble)
SIMON: What is the song about?
Dr. KARIMI: This is a wedding song. It started, like, congratulating
the groom and the bride. The dialect is Central Asian Persian. There
are some efforts to minimize the use of Persian. So music, because
it's committed to memory, and especially in the diaspora places such
as New York where these performances are held, are preserved and
mingled with local musical tradition.
SIMON: Gentlemen, thank you both very much. Ahmad Karimi is director
of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian
Studies. Hayim Lapin is director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish
Studies. They're both professors at the University of Maryland in
College Park, and the school is co-hosting the conference November 1st
to 3rd.
SHOW: Weekend Edition
October 25, 2008 Saturday
Scholars Explore Lasting Judeo-Persian Culture
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Iran's contempt for the state of Israel is perhaps the most strident
in the world. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
Enhanced Coverage LinkingMahmoud Ahmadinejad, -Search using:
Biographies Plus News
News, Most Recent 60 Days
once described Israel as a rotten, dried tree that will be annihilated
in one storm. Yet Iran has the largest Jewish population of any Muslim
country and a history that links the two nations. Centuries ago, when
the country was part of Babylonia, rabbis debated legal matters with
peers who practiced Zoroastrianism, the dominant faith in the
region. Today, Jews have an elected deputy in Iran's parliament, and
they're recognized as a religious minority under the country's Islamic
constitution.
Next weekend, scholars will meet to further explore the history of
these men and women and their ancestors. "Iranian Jewry: From Past to
Present" is a conference hosted by the University of Maryland and the
Library of Congress. We're joined by two professors who've helped
organize the event. Hayim Lapin is director of the Jewish studies
program at the University. Thanks very much for being with us.
Dr. HAYIM LAPIN (Director, Center for Jewish Studies, University of
Maryland): Thank you for having me.
SIMON: And Ahmad Karimi is director of Persian studies. Thank you very
much for being with us.
Dr. AHMAD KARIMI (Director, Center for Persian Studies, University of
Maryland): Thank you so much.
SIMON: And gentlemen, how far back does a Jewish community go anyway?
Dr. KARIMI: The best dating dates it about 27 centuries ago in the
Babylonian age. By the time Cyrus the Great invades Babylon, which is
near Baghdad today, he issues a proclamation that Iran is very proud
of, in which he recognizes the human rights of all the colonized
people as well as their freedom to practice their faith.
SIMON: Why have this conference now? What's the urgency?
Dr. LAPIN: Less urgency than opportunity. Ahmad and I both are the
heads of programs that have an interest in expanding knowledge of a
long and rich culture. This is a diaspora community that has an
identity as Persian. They may be alienated from the present government
and the present state, the present republic, but Iranian Jews
frequently understand themselves as belonging in a Persian world.
SIMON: Professor Karimi, your background is in Persian literature. I
want to ask you about a phrase we noticed: The imagination, a
political agency.
Dr. KARIMI: Well, yeah, we have this scholarly jargon. But the process
of modernity affected not only the Muslim majority but all religious
minorities too. And so the Armenians and Jews, they were not as
anchored and steeped in the Muslim tradition as the majority, and so
they quickly rose to the position of agents of change. And this
imaginary of Iranian agents' movement from the subjects of a king to
citizens of a country was aided by Armenians, kinds of Christians, and
Jews of Iran.
And so they it was who as a group went much more often than the Muslim
majority to places of education in Europe, such as, for example,
Istanbul, to Paris, London, Austria, and got back doctors and
engineers, and started the process of integrating into society. So the
way Iranian modernity was imagined was through the agency of
non-Muslim minorities, including Jews.
SIMON: I know that there are religious groups in Iran that are
discriminated against plenty. To what degree is the Jewish community
tolerated, merely tolerated, or accepted?
Dr. LAPIN: I would say for the most part tolerated. Occasionally there
are accusations within Iran at members of the Jewish community. The
most recent had to do with accusations of espionage for the state of
Israel. But by and large, the community is tolerated.
SIMON: I don't want people to get the impression that this conference
is just a group of scholars, however distinguished, yammering away on
the topic. There is also some music. Izra Malakov's Bukharian Jewish
Folklore Ensemble is going to have a concert. Let's listen to a little
of their music.
(Soundbite of song by Izra Malakov's Bukharian Jewish Folklore
Ensemble)
SIMON: What is the song about?
Dr. KARIMI: This is a wedding song. It started, like, congratulating
the groom and the bride. The dialect is Central Asian Persian. There
are some efforts to minimize the use of Persian. So music, because
it's committed to memory, and especially in the diaspora places such
as New York where these performances are held, are preserved and
mingled with local musical tradition.
SIMON: Gentlemen, thank you both very much. Ahmad Karimi is director
of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian
Studies. Hayim Lapin is director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish
Studies. They're both professors at the University of Maryland in
College Park, and the school is co-hosting the conference November 1st
to 3rd.