Iranian Jews pay condolence call to family of Soleimani

Islamic Republic’s Jewish community issues statement saying ‘God will avenge the blood’ of slain general after US assassination

By Marcy Oster 8 January 2020, 3:57 am

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Iranian Jews pray at the tomb of Harav Oursharga, one of the holiest Jewish sites in Iran, in the city of Yazd 420 miles south of the capital Tehran, November 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Illustrative: Iranian Jews pray at the tomb of Harav Oursharga, one of the holiest Jewish sites in Iran, in the city of Yazd 420 miles (676 kilometers) south of capital Tehran, November 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

JTA — Iranian Jews paid a condolence call at the home of assassinated general Qassem Soleimani.

The delegation was led by Rabbi Yehuda Gerami, chief rabbi of the Iranian Jewish community. Representatives of other Iranian minority religions also made condolence calls.

Members of Tehran’s Jewish community also attended the funeral, the Hebrew-language ultra-Orthodox news website Bahadrei Hadarim reported.

“Members of the Jewish community, like the rest of the Iranian society, are present and will stand for the ideals of the Revolution,” read a statement by Solomon Kohan Sadegh, a representative of the Jewish community, according to the state-run Iranian Students News Agency, or ISNA.

Shortly after the US airstrike that killed Soleimani early Friday morning, the Jewish community also issued a statement saying that “God will avenge the blood of Soleimani,” the Israel Hayom daily reported.

Rani Amrani of Israel’s RadioRan, a Farsi-language station, told Israel Hayom that it was “very important that minorities in Iran, especially the Jews,” condemn Soleimani’s death so they are not targeted for being outsiders.