… to be the only legitimate religion of the Roman Empire. In … we rule shall practice that religion that Peter the Apostle transmitted … condemned Apollonarian and Macedonian heresies.
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Contrary to a commonly held belief, Jews living in Iran find it easier to practice their religion today than they did prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, according to a longtime leader of the Jewish community in Tehran.

Speaking live via Zoom on Sunday — Shushan Purim — from the land of Queen Esther and the Megillah, Arash Abaie, a civil engineer and prominent Jewish educator, cantor, Torah reader and scholar, explained why he believes Jews living in the country have intensified their religious observance over the past four decades.

Abaie said the Islamic Republic, with its deep commitment to religious law, interacts best with citizens, including Christians and Jews, who are themselves observant. He said Muslims respect Jews who pray regularly, fast, abstain from certain foods and believe in the Messiah.

“They look for commonalities” with Islam, he said, “and this leads to peaceful existence.”

The rare interview, conducted by Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, was sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future, where Schacter is senior scholar. He is also university professor of Jewish history and thought at Y.U.

The rabbi explained at the outset that he met Abaie at an international conference 18 years ago in Sweden sponsored by the U.S.-based Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Schacter was impressed with Abaie’s deep knowledge of Jewish texts, saying that “in a class I was giving on Talmud, his knowledge of even the most obscure references I made was outstanding.”

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This led to conversations between the two men during the conference and to their staying in touch over the years.

The 50-minute program on Sunday focused on what Jewish life is like today in the former Persia. The unspoken context for the discussion was that the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world is able to live in peace as long as its members steer clear of political involvement or showing support for Israel.

Shortly after the ’79 revolution, several Iranian Jews were accused of spying for Israel and executed. In an effort to stabilize relations with the Jewish community, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, proclaimed: “We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless Zionists.” Nevertheless, 30,000 Jews left within months of the revolution.

Khomeini’s statement has not been forgotten, and Iran’s Jewish population has largely managed to navigate the complexities of a situation that allows them official minority status, a permanent seat in parliament and freedom to practice their religion in return for eschewing Zionism.

Abaie noted that historically, Jews were protected in Persia, though they were treated as inferior to the Muslim majority. He described a kind of uneasy peace, but acknowledged that over the centuries there were “periods of conflict.”

He did not elaborate on any current tensions, though Iran considers Israel its enemy.

Abaie explained that observant Jews are respected in the Muslim society as the People of the Book. (The Jewish and Christian Bibles are considered holy books and are part of Islam’s doctrine of progressive revelation; the narratives of Moses and Jesus lead to the story of Muhammad, the ultimate divine prophet, according to the Quran.)

Like nearly all the remaining Jews in the country, Abaie was born in Iran, as were his parents, grandparents and ancestors going back to “the time of Mordechai and Esther.”

Iranian Jews believe that the remains of the heroes of the Purim story rest side by side in a small, immaculately maintained prayer site in Hamadan, about a six-hour drive from Tehran. Declared a World Heritage Site by the Iranian government in 2008, the tombs are visited each year at Purim by many Jews.

Due to COVID, the site is closed temporarily.

According to Abaie, about 10,000 Jews live in Iran today, down from 100,000 before the revolution. It is believed that most are either too poor to consider leaving or believe they would be less financially secure if they left the country.

Abaie, who edited a Persian-Hebrew dictionary and puts out a weekly Torah portion flyer in the synagogue, spoke with pride of how the members of the Jewish community are permitted to maintain an active and robust religious life, with synagogues, youth organizations, kosher facilities and four Jewish schools.

In addition, Jewish students who attend public school are required by the government to spend two to four hours a week on religious studies administered by the Jewish community.

Following the interview, Schacter told The Jewish Week that he was grateful for “the extraordinary opportunity to hear Arash describe firsthand how, though the Jewish community is shrinking, its religious life seems quite robust.”

There were a few anxious moments during the live broadcast when, just after being introduced to the audience, Abaie disappeared from the screen. But he was soon back, indicating that the problem was only technical.

By Inés San Martín

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Crux) — Flanked by the pictures of 48 Iraqi martyrs, Pope Francis defined them as a reminder that inciting war and violence is incompatible with authentic religious teaching.

The deaths of those martyred in the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation on Oct. 31, 2010, the pope said during a meeting with the bishops, religious, and catechists in Baghdad on Friday, “are a powerful reminder that inciting war, hateful attitudes, violence or the shedding of blood are incompatible with authentic religious teachings.”

[Click here to read the Holy Father’s full speech: “Pope Francis’ Speech to Bishops, Priests and Religious in Baghdad’s Cathedral”]

Cardinal Louis Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, urged the pope to hurry their sainthood cause, meaning to publicly acknowledge that the 48 Catholics murdered by five terrorists during Mass were killed in odium fidei — in hatred of their faith.

Two of those murdered were young priests, along with several children and a pregnant woman.

“Regardless of what has happened to us and our pain, we have persevered in the faith, our spiritual serenity, and our fraternal solidarity, with all the churches doing a great job in being close to those wounded, to help them and ease their pain,” Cardinal Sako said.

Pope Francis also said he wanted to remember all the victims of violence and persecution, regardless of the religious group to which they belong, which he will do on Saturday when he heads to the city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, father of believers. There, the pope will meet with the leaders of the religious traditions present in Iraq, to proclaim “our conviction that religion must serve the cause of peace and unity among all God’s children.”

“This evening I want to thank you for your efforts to be peacemakers, within your communities and with believers of other religious traditions, sowing seeds of reconciliation and fraternal coexistence that can lead to a rebirth of hope for everyone,” the pope said.

The 2010 attack lasted over four hours until the police raided the church. At this point, the terrorists blew themselves up. They were never officially identified.

Fathers Thaer Saadulla Abdal, 32, and Waseem Sabih Kas Boutros, 27, had been ordained in 2006 and 2007, respectively, in the same cathedral where they were martyred.

Behind the altar on top of an image of the Virgin with Jesus was a picture of the martyrs, around a red cross, signifying the blood they shed. On the roof and the floor, squares of metal and granite mark the places where their bodies were found.

At a diocesan level in Baghdad, the cause for their martyrdom was closed in 2019 when it was sent to Rome. During his flight from Italy to Iraq on Friday, the pope received a book compiling the story of the martyrs.

The cathedral, Pope Francis said, is “hallowed by the blood of our brothers and sisters who here paid the ultimate price of their fidelity to the Lord and his Church.”

“May the memory of their sacrifice inspire us to renew our own trust in the power of the cross and its saving message of forgiveness, reconciliation, and rebirth,” he said. “For Christians are called to bear witness to the love of Christ in every time and place.”

The pontiff was welcomed into a semi-filled church to guarantee social distancing, but the ululating of the women who were present gave the sense that the cathedral was packed. Before going in, he spent several minutes greeting disabled people at the door.

Hardships, he said, are part of the daily experience of the Iraqi faithful, noting that in recent years they have had to deal with the effects of war and persecution, as well as the fragility of basic infrastructures and economic struggle “that has frequently led to internal displacements and the migration of many people, including Christians, to other parts of the world.”

Pope Francis also invited those present not to be “infected by the virus of discouragement,” that can spread “all around us,” because God has given the faithful an “effective vaccine” against it: the hope born of persevering prayer and fidelity to the apostolates.

“With this vaccine, we can go forth with renewed strength, to share the joy of the Gospel as missionary disciples and living signs of the presence of God’s kingdom of holiness, justice, and peace,” he said.

Addressing bishops, he called on them to be close to their priests, so that they won’t see them as administrators or managers but “true fathers” worried for the welfare of the priests entrusted to their care, ready to offer support and to encourage them.

Talking to priests, women and men religious, catechists, and seminarians, he called on them to have courage and zeal in announcing the Gospel, without being consumed by the “administrative” element of their tasks, meaning, without spending all their time in meetings or behind a desk, to instead accompany the faithful.

“Be pastors, servants of the people, not civil servants,” he said.

Putting together the martyrdom cause of the 48 people killed in the terrorist attack took over nine months of research. The information on each varied, and there are two victims for whom the cause only has a name and their presence.

The fact that Baghdad lost two-thirds of its Catholic population in the past two decades, either because they were killed or forced to flee, made the investigation all the more complicated. Many of the family members of those killed, who are usually interviewed for a sainthood cause, are living as refugees and either not wanting or not being able to be identified.

The witnesses hail from all over: Lebanon, France, Canada, Australia, and also Baghdad. Most have since fled their country, one of the cradles of Christianity. Many of them said that the terrorists, when pulling the trigger or before activating the explosive belts they carried, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which translates to “God is great.”

When he decided to open the martyrdom cause, Archbishop Yousif Abba, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, had contemplated only pursuing the sainthood cause for the two priests, as the Church had the information on them. But in the end, they were all included because they all died for the same reason: They were at Mass.

All of those who lost their lives did so in the church. Many were seriously wounded and hospitalized but survived. An estimated 50 people hid in the sacristy with an elderly priest and the pregnant woman who had been mortally wounded before she reached the safety of the hiding place. A group of around 20 had found refuge in the baptistery. They too were saved.