Iran's Jews face uncertain future

Living anachronism? A full synagogue in Shiraz

By Jon Leyne

The 30,000 or so Jews living in Iran are - or fear they are - an anachronism: One of the last remnants of what was a widespread Jewish diaspora across the Middle East.

With the Iranian Government's deep hatred of Israel, Jews in Iran feel intensely vulnerable.

Around 50,000 are thought to have emigrated since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

The remainder have tried to get on with their ordinary lives without attracting attention.

Minority rights

Iran's Jews have been around for two and a half millennia

The spotlight of this trial has been most unwelcome. Yet despite Iran's reputation for religious intolerance, the Jews do have their own special place in Iranian society.

They are recognised as an officially accepted religious minority, allowing them to practice their religion, to teach Hebrew and to organise Jewish community groups.

There's even a Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament.

Now the community fears it has become a pawn in the power struggle between the reformist President Khatami and his conservative opponents.

Hostages to fortune

Morris Mottamed - Jewish MP - interviewed after Shiraz verdicts

Clumsy western pressure may only have increase their vulnerability.

The American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, recently said the spying trial was a "barometer" of US-Iranian relations.

That is close to an invitation to the conservative faction in Iran to use this issue to sabotage the gradual warming of relations with the United States to which they are so opposed.

Many Iranian Jews are now talking of emigrating, a trend which could eventually end the 2,500 year-old Jewish contribution to Iranian society.