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Persians

Artist Farideh Golbahar with the flowers she tends at her Jerusalem home, May 2026 (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
June 1, 2026, 2:10 am
Tehran memories meet the Israeli sun in Iranian-born artist’s paintings on show in Tel Aviv
‘Beyond Garden,’ now open through July 11, traces 84-year-old Farideh Golbahar’s decades of dreamy and meticulous oils on paper, shaped by Iran, Europe and Jerusalem
By Jessica Steinberg
Festival goers dance at the Nowruz spring equinox festival at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. (Jackie Hajdenberg via JTA)
March 31, 2026, 5:42 am
War with Iran casts a shadow as Persian Jews mark Nowruz in New York City
Iranians in the diaspora now have some tentative hope there could be change for the better in their homeland, while thousands of Jews still there are thought to be in new peril
By Jackie Hajdenberg
Pilgrims gather at the shrine of Imam Reza in the city of Mashhad, northeastern Iran, on October 1, 2023. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
March 27, 2026, 4:44 pm
187 years after deadly Iran pogrom, Mashhad crypto-Jews are focus of Jerusalem exhibit
Now at Israel’s National Library, display shows how the Jewish community of Iranian city outwardly acted as Muslims for over a century after a massacre on March 26, 1839
By Zev Stub
Iranians shop at the Tajrish Bazaar in northern Tehran on March 19, 2026, on the eve of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. (AFP)
March 23, 2026, 7:27 pm
Iranian Israelis mark Nowruz, the Persian New Year, as an act of solidarity and resistance
Their ‘Haft-sin’ tables set with symbolic items and Persian dishes, those with roots in Iran focus on brethren back home as the Islamic regime clamps down amid war with the US and Israel
By Jessica Steinberg
Iranians and Jews celebrate the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in north London, February 28, 2026. (Meir Porat)
March 1, 2026, 10:44 pm
Iranians and Jews celebrate Khamenei’s death shoulder to shoulder in north London streets
After their Persian neighbors showed support following Oct. 7, Jewish Londoners return the gesture, joining jubilant crowds Saturday night cheering the prospect of regime change
By Lianne Kolirin
Iranian Jews, Bijan Barchorderi, a restaurant owner (left); and Isaac Simanian, a merchant, sell Persian specialties at the Levinsky Market in south Tel Aviv, January 22, 2026. (Sharon Wrobel/ The Times of Israel)
February 4, 2026, 8:40 am
Skirting bans, Iranian products from spices to salves find way to Israeli stores
Using 3rd-country loophole, merchants and restaurateurs at Tel Aviv spice market sell authentic goods from Islamic Republic, though closure of Turkey conduit sending prices skyward
By Sharon Wrobel
Billboards in Sderot announcing the upcoming first Iranian Film Festival, November 25-26, 2025 (Courtesy)
November 14, 2025, 4:57 pm
Iranian film fest hosted in Sderot celebrates all things Persian
Nowruz festival brings award-winning films and musicians for two-day event, November 24-25
By Jessica Steinberg
Two shoppers select items at a grocery store in the "Tehrangeles" neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
July 5, 2025, 8:31 pm
End of Israel-Iran war tests the harmony of LA’s huge, mixed-faith Iranian community
Fallout of the 12-day war has come to ‘Tehrangeles,’ the largest Iranian diaspora community in the world; ‘It’s been an emotional roller coaster,’ says one local
By DEEPA BHARATH
The old flag of Iran used prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution stands on the National Mall in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on June 20, 2025. (Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP)
June 25, 2025, 7:30 pm
For Iranian-Americans, Israel-Iran war brought out complex feelings of fear and hope
While much of the diaspora is desperate for change in Tehran, most agree it can’t come from US or Israel: ‘We want to do it internally… not through bombing’
By MARIAM FAM
Iranian-born wind musician Amir Shahar, middle, in rehearsal ahead of the Oud Festival, November 3-12, 2022 at Jerusalem's Confederation House (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
November 6, 2022, 6:56 pm
Sounds of Sufism combine with Persian music in Oud Festival
Sitar, ney, daf and santur are some of the instruments recruited to tell the story of a 13th-century mystic’s voyage, highlight of an annual event celebrating Middle Eastern music
By Jessica Steinberg
Israelis rally in Independence Park in Jerusalem on October 6, 2022, in solidarity with Iranian women (Amy Spiro/Times of Israel)
October 6, 2022, 8:35 pm
Israelis rally in Jerusalem in solidarity with Iranian women protesters
‘We want to say here in Israel that we believe you deserve your freedom,’ says co-organizer Shoshana Keats Jaskoll, as protesters wave signs in Hebrew, English and Farsi
By Amy Spiro
A woman accused of contacting a foreign agent from Iran, arrives for a court hearing in the Jerusalem District Court, January 20, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 20, 2022, 6:31 pm
In questioning, women in Iran espionage case insist they had no sinister intentions
Report quotes 2 targets, who had both faced marital problems and are now accused of spying, saying agent offered them money, tried to lure them abroad
By Michael Bachner
Illustrative: Likud MK Keti Shitrit attends a Knesset committee meeting on June 21, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 12, 2022, 10:21 pm
‘I was in total shock’: Likud MK among those targeted in Iranian espionage operation
Keti Shitrit says one of women nabbed by Shin Bet reached out to ask for help in getting her son transferred into the IDF’s elite 8200 intelligence unit
By ToI Staff
An undated Facebook profile picture that was used by an alleged Iranian intelligence operative, known as Rambod Namdar, to make contact with Israeli citizens, several of whom were indicted on January 12, 2022. (Shin Bet)
January 12, 2022, 5:06 pm
Shin Bet arrests 5 Jewish Israelis suspected of spying for Iran
Suspects photographed sensitive sites in Israel, attempted to get their kids to join army intelligence units; Bennett tells citizens ‘to be vigilant’ against such online attempts
By Judah Ari Gross
Left: The book cover of 'Titan of Tehran.' Right: Habib Elghanian, a prominent leader of Iran's Jewish community, seen during his trial in Iran that led to his 1979 execution. (Collage by Grace Yagel/JTA)
January 6, 2022, 3:11 am
An Iranian Jewish leader was executed in 1979. His granddaughter tells his story
In ‘Titan of Tehran,’ Shahrzad Elghanayan writes about her grandfather, a philanthropist who gave his life rather than abandon his community during the Islamic Revolution
By Howard Lovy
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