Shabbat in Tehran

JTA Breaking News:

An Israeli journalist visited Iran. Orly Azoulai of Yediot Achronot published an account Monday of a recent trip to the Islamic Republic, in what appeared to be a first for the Israeli press. Azoulai, who did not say how she gained an Iranian entry permit, described spending Shabbat with the Jewish community of Tehran. READ MORE

“For 30 years, no Jew has come here from outside Iran,” she quoted a worshiper at the city’s 13th Street Synagogue as saying when she introduced herself. She described Iran’s 30,000 Jews as socially cohesive and politically insecure, many of them dreaming of joining relatives in Israel or the United States.

Last year, an Iranian journalist secretly videotaped a news report out of “occupied Jerusalem” that later was broadcast from Tehran.