Behind the Headlines Jews from Iran Are Building a Synagogue in Queens, N.y

The first synagogue for Jews from the town of Mashad in Iran, who came to the United States after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power in 1979, is under construction in the Kew Gardens section of Queens.

Pending completion of their own synagogue, the 400 Iranian families had been using, until a few weeks ago, the facilities of Congregation Adath Yeshuran in the same area. Its rabbi is Bernard Rosensweig, who was ordained by the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University.

Details on the synagogue construction plans were provided to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by a Yeshiva University spokesman. He said the Iranian Jews of Congregation Shaare Tovah recently rented a building near the Adath Yeshuran synagogue and now worship there regularly. He said that the Iranian Jews worship in Hebrew but that their congregational communications, such as their bulletins, are in Farsi.

SYNAGOGUE TO COST SOME $1 MILLION

The spokesman said that the new synagogue, which is being erected across the street from Adath Yeshuran, is expected to be ready for use early next year and will cost around $1 million. Rosensweig said that, as the Iranian Jews build their own synagogue and as newer members adjust to American society, they are getting help from other Jews in Queens.

Rosensweig said some Iranian Jews came to Kew Gardens more than 40 years ago and joined Adath Yeshuran. Over the years the number of Iranian Jews settling in Kew Gardens grew. When the Shah fell and the Khomeini government came to power, more than half of the Iranian Jews now comprising Congregation Shaare Tovah were among those migrating to the United States.

He said it was then that the Iranian Jews started their own congregation and began to collect funds for a synagogue building. He said that the Iranian Jewish newcomers will be able to give their children a better Jewish education than they could get in Iran where they could not send their children to yeshivas and Hebrew schools. Rosensweig said the fact was that “there were restrictions on Jews in Iran, even under the Shah.”

PROBLEMS OF ADJUSTMENT

Some of the most recent Iranian immigrants must adjust to other changes in life and in style of worship, according to Meir Kadosh. As a third-year rabbinical student at the Isaac Elchanan Seminary, Kadosh has worked with the Iranian Jews as part of the Shimush in-service training program at the Seminary.

He said one of the differences is in the role of the rabbi, explaining that “the rabbi in Iran worked with the congregation and read the Torah. He was an authority on problems of (Jewish religious) law, but he was not an administrator. He was a volunteer and he did not have to deal with management problems at the synagogue.”

Kadosh, who is himself from Morrocco, said rabbis in countries such as Iran did not speak to their congregants about the social problems of the society. They presented “more traditional, almost classic” lectures to their congregants. He added that Iranian Jews are considered “second class citizens” — dhimmis — by the Moslems of Iran, as are Christians, a tradition dating back to the days of Mohammed.

HISTORY OF HARDSHIP, BIAS IN IRAN

Rosensweig said the Iranian Jews who came from the town of Mashad in Iran knew about hardship and discrimination long before Khomeini took power. He said that in 1839, when Iran was still called Persia, the Jews in Mashad were forced to convert to Islam.

He said that for generations, the Jews of Mashad practiced Judaism in secret. When they made pilgrimages to Mecca as supposed Moslems, Rosensweig declared, they stopped in Jerusalem, too. They set up elaborate systems in Iran so that they could study Jewish law and pray without being found out.

He said each group of Jews had its own warning system. woman posted in the courtyard, supposedly sweeping and doing her laundry. She would make a loud clatter when she saw an unwelcome or suspicious visitor approaching. Rosensweig said the Jews in Mashad kept their stores open on the Sabbath but quoted outrageous prices or told their Moslem customers that they were out of certain items. By such means, Rosensweig said, they managed to do very little business on their Sabbath.

The Mashad Jews were not allowed to practice Judaism openly for 80 years until the Shah’s family took power in the 1920s, and then under restriction. The university spokesman said the Shaare Tovah synagogue will not be the first Iranian synagogue in the United States, explaining that an earlier wave of Iranian Jews built an Iranian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago about 60 years ago. That congregation still functions.