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Persian Synagogue, Ahvaz, Iran
Capital of the Persian province of Khuzistan in Southwest Iran, Ahvaz, or Ahwaz, was called Be-Ḥozai in the Talmud.1
Description
Iraq and Iran were, between the eighth and tenth centuries, among the wealthiest areas of the world and had a substantial and affluent Jewish population.2 Thus, as a junction between Babylonia and Persia, Ahvaz was an important medieval center for the eastern trade, with a flourishing Jewish presence.3 Ahwaz remained a center of Jewish commercial activities throughout the Middle Ages, as attested by correspondence between Jewish merchants in Ahwaz with associates in Fez and Cairo.4 Most Jewish families in Ahvaz before were middle class from being mainly textile merchants, with five wealthy families.5 After 1948, many Jews immigrated to Israel and to Tehran. The majority of the Jews of Ahwaz left the city after the Islamic Revolution (1979). As of the 2000s, there are less than five Jewish families in Ahvaz.6 There are two synagogues, one belonging to Jews of Iraqi origin and the other to Persian-speaking Jews.7
Ahvaz, Iran
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Sources
Notes
1. Fischel, Walter Joseph, and Amnon Netzer. "Ahwaz." In Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 548. Vol. 1. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Gale eBooks (accessed August 4, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2587500607/GVRL?u=new27191&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=0fba2c35.
2. Moreen, Vera B., David Menashri, and David Yeroushalmi . “Iran/Persia.” In Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
3. Fischel, "Ahwaz."
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Moreen, “Iran/Persia.”
Works Cited
Fischel, Walter Joseph, and Amnon Netzer. "Ahwaz." In Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 548. Vol. 1. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Gale eBooks (accessed August 4, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2587500607/GVRL?u=new27191&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=0fba2c35.
Moreen, Vera B., David Menashri, and David Yeroushalmi . “Iran/Persia.” In Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
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