Iran's Jewish community are suffering persecution from the country’s harsh regime, they have told the JC. The harassment includes attacks on their homes and businesses, and repeated interrogations by the regime's security forces, as well as job losses and social restrictions. Jewish children are forced to attend pro-government rallies and burn Israeli flags.
"Life has become much harder since the conflict escalated last year," said "Jalil", not his real name, a man in his seventies speaking to the JC from Tehran.
Jalil owns a small shop in central Tehran. Over the past year, he says, it has twice been vandalised. "One morning I arrived at my shop and found the windows smashed," he recalled. "Someone had painted on the wall in black: 'Zionists, get lost.'"
"In our neighbourhood everyone knows which businesses are Jewish-owned, and ordinary people have always treated us with respect," he said. "This wasn't done by local people. It must have been pro-regime supporters – the same people who gather every night at demonstrations in support of the government."
For decades, Jalil said, his family deliberately avoided politics to stay out of the authorities' sights.
"We have always been viewed with suspicion because the regime associates Jews with Israel," he said. "I always told my family not to become involved in politics to avoid scrutiny. But since the 12-day war, and especially after the mass protests in January 2026, everything has changed. They cannot punish Israel or America, so they take their revenge on us – ordinary Jewish people."
Jalil's account was echoed by two other Jewish business owners who alleged that their businesses had been targeted by forces linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
One jewellery shop, in a city whose location cannot be disclosed to protect the owner's identity, was allegedly raided by members of the Basij paramilitary force, which operates under the IRGC. According to the owner, officers seized gold and jewellery before leaving.
"'This is the spoils of war. You're lucky we aren't taking your wife and daughter with us,' one of the officers told me," the shopkeeper recalled.
The economic pressure has extended beyond business owners.
The JC spoke to five Iranian Jews who said they had lost jobs in either the public or private sector over the past year.
Yakub, not his real name, had worked for a financial organisation for more than two decades before being dismissed.
"Last summer I was summoned by Herasat," he said, referring to the internal security and intelligence unit that operates within government offices and many state-affiliated organisations. "They asked whether I had relatives living in Israel. Before I even answered, they showed me photographs of Israeli citizens who shared my family name."
Officials then instructed him to publish anti-Israel and anti-Zionist material on his social media accounts.
"I told them I wasn't political," he said. "They threatened to refer my case to the IRGC Intelligence Organisation. The following week my contract was terminated."
Since losing his job, Yakub says he has struggled to find work.
"I couldn't find another job in my profession. To feed my family I even applied to work as a driver for Snapp, Iran's equivalent of Uber, but my application was rejected."
Public declarations of loyalty have become another means of survival.
Following the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic, Iran's Chief Rabbi publicly declared his support for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a move that many Iranian Jews told the JC reflected the pressure on communal leaders to demonstrate loyalty to the regime.
"We, the Jewish community of Iran, stand today with all our hearts alongside the Islamic Republic and the people of Iran," he said in a public statement. Condemning Israel's military campaign, he added: "Zionism is at war with the Iranian nation."
Many of those interviewed dismissed the statement as one made under duress.
"We don't take him seriously," said Lea, not her real name, a young Jewish entrepreneur speaking from inside Iran. "He repeats what they tell him to say. We are Iranians, and we hate the regime as much as everyone else."
Lea said members of her own family took part in the anti-regime protests in January despite the risks.
"We know that if they arrest us, they could accuse us of working for Israel," she said. "People have been executed on allegations of spying for Mossad. We are terrified that, as Jews, we are even more vulnerable."
Iranian authorities have announced the execution of several people in recent months on charges of spying for Israel or collaborating with Mossad. International human rights organisations have criticised a number of the prosecutions, raising concerns over due process and allegations that confessions were obtained under coercion.
The pressure has also extended into the digital lives of Iran's Jews.
Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, the Jewish representative in Iran's parliament, publicly acknowledged that members of the community had come under scrutiny because of their social media activity. In an open letter dated December 7 2025, he revealed that he had been summoned by Iran's security authorities and urged Iranian Jews to unfollow Israeli Persian-language media channels.
Sameyah wrote that officials questioned him because "some members of the community had posted comments or liked content deemed false", which, he said, had "created misunderstandings among the country's intelligence organisations".
He urged members of the community to remove comments and "unusual" likes that could be interpreted as politically sensitive.
The letter offers a rare public glimpse into the level of surveillance facing Iran's Jewish community, suggesting that even engaging with Israeli Persian-language media online can attract the attention of the security services.
Pari, not her real name, a university student from a small city in Iran, said the consequences reached into higher education.
"The internet had been shut down, so I couldn't unfollow the accounts I had been following," she said. "When I was called in, university officials showed me a record of my social media activity. It included Israeli government Persian-language accounts, anti-regime activists and international news outlets. They told me I was no longer allowed to return to university and that I should wait to be summoned by the court."
For Roya, not her real name, the pressure is on her children.
"My children go to a state school," she said. "They are regularly taken to pro-government rallies. Because the school knows they are Jewish, they are told to burn Israeli flags and chant anti-Israel slogans."
She said her ten-year-old son was assaulted after failing to participate enthusiastically.
"He wasn't shouting loudly enough," she said. "One of the teachers responsible for enforcing the regime's ideology hit him and called him 'dirty'."
Roya said she dreams of leaving Iran but cannot afford to do so.
"I worry every day about what will happen to my children," she said.
Iran is home to one of the Middle East's oldest Jewish communities. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, an estimated 100,000 Jews lived in the country. In the decades that followed, intimidation, arrests and the execution of prominent members of the community prompted tens of thousands to flee, primarily to Israel, the United States and Europe. Today, around 20,000 Jews remain, making it the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel.
Several Iranian Jews told the JC they fear the current wave of intimidation could escalate beyond discrimination and economic pressure.
Many pointed to the fate of Habib Elghanian, the prominent businessman, philanthropist and president of the Tehran Jewish Society, who became one of the first high-profile civilians executed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Elghanian was arrested by an Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal, convicted on charges including corruption, ties to Israel and Zionism, and "friendship with the enemies of God", before being executed by firing squad on 9 May 1979.
Roughly half of the 20 Iranian Jews interviewed for this investigation referred to Elghanian's execution, saying it remains a defining moment in the collective memory of the community and a constant reminder of what they believe could happen if political conditions deteriorate further.
"The older generation never forgot what happened to Habib Elghanian," one interviewee said. "Whenever the pressure increases, people begin talking about him again."
Several interviewees also expressed frustration with the officially recognised leadership of Iran's Jewish community, accusing some communal representatives of publicly echoing the regime's positions and, in doing so, legitimising measures that place further pressure on ordinary Jews. Others, however, acknowledged that community leaders operate under extraordinary constraints and may see public displays of loyalty as necessary to preserve the community's continued existence.
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