Iran’s president wishes Jews a happy new year, in Hebrew

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Times of Israel

Iran’s supreme leader may be urging the Jewish state’s extinction and anticipating its demise, but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani still took time Sunday to wish the Jewish people a happy new year, just in time for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

In a message on his official Twitter account, Rouhani wrote: “May our shared Abrahamic roots deepen respect & bring peace & mutual understanding. L’Shanah Tovah. #RoshHashanah”

The message was accompanied by a 2006 Reuters image of Jews praying in Yousefabad Synagogue in Tehran. L’Shanah Tovah is Hebrew for, May it be a good year.

Iran had between 80,000 and 100,000 Jews before the 1979 Islamic revolution but most have since fled, mainly to the United States, Israel and Europe. There are now only about 8,500, mostly in Tehran but also in Isfahan and Shiraz, major cities south of the capital.



Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-get-new-year-greeting-from-irans-president/

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[Aristus]

1. Oh, the AIPAC types are not gonna like that...

How can they demonize Iran if their President offers such warm regards to the people of Israel?

[6chars]

2. why wouldn't aipac like that?

THe reason they demonize Iran is its leaders keep calling for death to Israel. If Iran's leadership were more civilized, there would be much less concern about the deal. On the other hand, this message was not to "the people of Israel' -- but it's a start. Would love t see Iran become civilized in how it deals with Israel - that could make things much better in the ME.

[Orrex]

4. Israel could use a few lessons on civilized behavior as well.

If there's one unifying problem in the middle east, it is not an over-abundance of compassion.

[erronis]

3. Not to be a Patty Popper, but wouldn't it be great if everyone grew up?

While I applaud one cult telling another cult "happy birthday", just think about how many lives have been destroyed by the little amygdala-brains (religious leaders) that require crusades, jihads, shunnings, stonings, burnings, rapings/murderings, you-name-it.

Let's get these zealots into a 12-step program, or perhaps chemical intervention. Jeez, Louise.

[Bigmack]

5. I wish there was a "like" button here, like on Facebook! nt Ms Bigmack

[Fred Sanders]

7. The President is elected and power is seperate from the relgious leaders you speak of. The confusion is common.

The Scottish educated Dr. Hassan Rouhani is a man of peace. Full stop.

Presidential elections were held in Iran on 14 June 2013. Hassan Rouhani won with a landslide victory, elected in the first round of voting with 50.88% of the vote.[1][2] Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf finished second with 16.46% of the vote.[1] Nearly 36.792 million Iranians voted, 72.77% of eligible voters.[2]

The Guardian Council screened 680 registered candidates, approving eight to run in the election; Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, Ali Akbar Velayati, Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaee, Mohammad Gharazi, Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Reza Aref. Haddad-Adel and Aref later withdrew from the race in the days leading up to the election. Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not able to run for re-election as he was limited to two terms or 8 years in office under the Iranian constitution.

President Hassan Rouhani continued his studies at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, graduating in 1995 with an M.Phil. degree in Law with his thesis entitled "The Islamic legislative power with reference to the Iranian experience" and a Ph.D. degree in Constitutional Law in 1999 for a thesis titled "The Flexibility of Shariah (Islamic Law) with reference to the Iranian experience".[41][42] Rouhani's Caledonian research was initially supervised by Iranian lawyer and scholar Professor Sayed Hassan Amin and later by Islamic law scholar Dr Mahdi Zahraa.[43]"

[erronis]

9. Thank you, FS. I frequently respond without knowing all the facts. Wow for the info!

I'll do more research next time.

So, is it true that the secular President of Iran is not controlled by the religious supreme leaders? As with most multi-branched governments, it is hard to tell who is really in charge.

[PosterChild]

23. The government issued semi-autonomous with the clerics . ..

.... having some sort of a final veto. They also approve all candidates for office . I think you could conceive of it like a "constitutional monarchy " where the monarch is more than just a figure head, and can excersize real control.

These are my impressions from reading related material - I haven't made a real effort to understand their constitution .

[Historic NY]

17. Exactly.

[No Vested Interest]

6. Has Israel responded to the greeting fromIran's president? nt

[6chars]

10. since Rouhani was speaking to Jews and not Israel

the equivalent would be an Israeli leader sending Ramadan greetings to Muslims. Netanyahu has done this at least several times.

[No Vested Interest]

12. Good point. I missed that difference. nt

[Igel]

11. Iranian Jews have their full civil rights.

I.e., the civil rights that are accorded to peoples of a lesser revelation.

They vote. For their own representative, who is essentially powerless.

They have freedom of speech. To properly support the superior people with the superior revelation.

They have freedom of religion. Provided that they maintain appropriate decorum, keep their heads down, and do not offend by public spectacle or display of their lesser faith.

To some extent, they have the kind of legal status under confessional systems, which is what the Ottomans had and all other Muslim states had. To the extent possible, you live in ghettos and are self-governing, provided that you don't break any important all-encompassing rules. Ghettos are the way around the restrictions on display of the wrong religion or offensive speech reaching the ears of those with delicate sensibilities. It helped create the mess in Palestine ("Arab quarter," "Jewish quarter," etc.), in the Balkans; Russia used it because under the Horde Russia was allowed to self-govern as a Xian area, provided they paid tribute. It means religious leaders are also political leaders. Political Islam is not new.

Ghettoization is also a handy way of making sure that in the event of a pogrom--the kind that regularly happened whenever a minority became too prosperous--there's a nice, self-contained ethnic group for targeting.

The problem Iran has with Israel is that the uppity Jews don't know their place. They are over, more powerful than, their superiors. This is a massive violation of the sacred order of things. Islam is the last and perfect revelation; Xianity was the previous one, but the Xians, recipients of a lesser revelation, intentionally corrupted their scriptures (some say) to avoid the conclusion that Islam is the future and the best, Jews have a valid, but even lesser revelation.

Iranian Jews don't have this problem. They know their place. They're marginalized but empowered in their own little way, say only good things because anything else is being uppity. It's sort of like the KKK showing good will to a properly subservient, submissive black population that went on record saying good things about their masters.

[happyslug]

21. That is NOT according to Wikipedia and other cites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Jews#Conditions

They are restrictions, but that Jewish Schools must be open in Saturday, like all the other schools in Iran, sound more secular then religious in nature.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6065

https://web.archive.org/web/20081015032809/http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081007/FOREIGN/528067287/1011/SPORT

[fingrin]

14. Yes with more

misinformation. Iran did NOT call for the destruction of Israel by the Zionist regime. A big difference in my eyes.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Good to see, especially compared to when Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust.

In August 2006, Deutsche Welle, citing AFP, reported that Ahmadinejad had written a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggesting that the victorious Allied powers in World War II may have invented the Holocaust to embarrass Germany.[39][40] "Is it not a reasonable possibility that some countries that had won the war made up this excuse to constantly embarrass the defeated people ... to bar their progress," Ahmadinejad reportedly wrote in the letter. Merkel indicated that she would not formally respond to the letter, saying it contained "totally unacceptable" criticism of Israel and the Jewish state's right to exist.

On 3 August 2006, in a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders, Ahmadinejad called for "the elimination of the Zionist regime," which was widely interpreted as another threat to destroy Israel.[41][42][43]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel#Holocaust_denial

[Fred Sanders]

13. Rouhani was elected by a very young voting population to deliver peace and delivery from the

religious radicals, and he is delivering on his promises to the youth of Iran most of all.

Folks need to shake off their "Iran is the devil" cobwebs of the past as woven by RW propaganda and corporate media.

[davidpdx]

16. Very true

I know someone in Iran and he was very happy when the nuclear deal was signed and he told me that there was a lot of celebration going on. They are hoping that it is the start in a new direction for their country. It was nice to be able to hear the reaction directly from someone in the country.

[fingrin]

15. FACT

Eisenhower, de gaulle and Stalin wrote exactly Zoro words about the Holocaust in their autobiography's. Does that make them Holocaust deniers?

[Sunlei]

19. no, it makes them long dead ignorant fellows.

[Chan790]

20. Zoro?

Is that more or less than oon?

[Sunlei]

18. May it be a good year for everyone.

[MrBig]

22. Very nice to hear

For all of the rhetoric the religious leaders in Iran throw at Israel, the populace in Iran is quite a bit less anti-Semitic than other countries in the M.E.

Glad to see the Iranian government act in a way more in line with the people.