The Mashadi Jewish Community is a Jewish community whose history goes back more than two hundred years in Iran. This group of Jews started off by living in Mashhad, which is the second largest city in Iran. Life in Iran was very difficult for these Jews. They were constantly oppressed by dominating radical Muslims of the time. But despite all the struggles they came across, these Mashadi Jews never let go of their faith. They risked their daily lives in order to preserve their culture and religion. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, they made plans to leave Iran and left for the United States and Israel. They left with only the possessions they were able to carry.
The Mashadi Jewish Community started in 1746. It was during this time that Nader Shah asked forty Jewish families to move to his capital, Mashad, to guard his treasury. They were forced to live in their own separate neighborhoods, and were seen as unclean by the Shiite majority, Jews were also prohibited from doing business with the majority population, so they created businesses among themselves and other neighboring cities. Because of their growing population, they were soon able to create a small synagogue and school. Eventually, the Muslims started realizing that the Jews were honest and fair in business and began engaging in business with them.
In 1839, a traumatic historical event happened to the Jews of Mashad. A false rumor was spread that the Jews were mocking the Islamic religion. Angry mobs began attacking the Jewish neighborhoods. Many Jewish homes, religious articles, books, shops, and the synagogue were destroyed. By the end of the day, thirty-six Mashadi Jews were killed. This incident was then called the Allah-dad. At this point the Jews were given two choices: either convert to Islam or be killed. This was a big controversial issue concerning the Jews at the time. They had to face the huge dilemma of whether they should give up their lives or their sacred religion. Leaders of the Jewish community decided that the best decision at the time was to accept Islam in order to save their lives. The entire Mashadi Jewish community, which consisted of approximately 200 families, took Islam upon themselves.
They were now called Jadid-Al-Islam which means New Muslims. But they weren't willing to give up their faith too easily. Although they physically embraced Islam in public, they always kept Judaism in their hearts and inside their homes. These Jadidim began living double lives; outside they were acting as Muslims and inside they were Jewish. On the surface they wore Islamic attire, went to mosque, observed Muslim holidays, and showed the sincerity of their conversion. On the inside, they prayed the Jewish prayers in dark basements, they made their own meat according to Kosher Jewish law, and they kept Jewish holidays. They had to publicly adopt Muslim names but secretly parents gave their children Hebrew names as well. Although all the Jewish prayer books and scrolls were destroyed, they were able to reproduce some in order to study and pray. After attending Mosque services, they would sneak into their secret dark underground basements to study and pray Jewish prayers. In Judaism, there are very strict dietary laws called Kashrut. In order to avoid transgressing this law and still maintain their public Muslim Image, the Jews would buy non-kosher meat and either throw it out or feed it to their dogs when they got home. They had special underground places where they would slaughter the animals according to strict kosher law. On the seventh day of every week, Jews have a day of rest called Shabbat. On this day they must refrain from physical daily activities such as work and technology, so they ran into many problems on Saturday. They weren't allowed to work and do other activities as Jews, but as Muslims it was a regular day. They couldn't close their businesses because the Muslims would have surely figured it out. As a solution to this problem they hired outside workers, and sometimes sent their children to the stores. They were told to give unreasonable and even outrageously ridiculous prices to customers to limit the chance of people buying the items and making a business. If anyone asked the child where his father was, he was told to say that the father was ill or he stepped out for a bit. Parents were in constant fear that their child would accidentally reveal their real identity. One of the huge issues of controversy that the Mashadi Jews faced was the issue of intermarriage. It was very important for them to make sure their children don't marry outside the Jews. At the same time, they couldn't say no to a Muslim man who asked for their daughters hand in marriage. In order to avoid this issue, the Jews would marry off their children from very young ages. This way any suitor who asked for their child, they can say they were already married. This was a very effective way in keeping marriage among themselves. People may criticize this because they didn't give their children a chance for love. Most marriages were predetermined from birth. But this worked for them. They grew to love each other. The keeping of their faith was more important to them than an emotional love. People of that generation rarely complain about lacking in love before marriage. This importance of marrying among each other still holds practice today. Although it has greatly decreased, most marriages in the Mashadi Jewish Community are among themselves.
It was difficult living this double life. The Muslims were constantly doubting the sincerity of these Jews so they would randomly check on them. They had to be on constant watch, and made sure everything they did was done in complete privacy. They even built underground tunnels connecting their houses, in order to be able to go from house to house without looking suspicious. They would wait until their children got a little older to teach them of their Jewish identity, because they didn't want to risk it getting slipped to the wrong person. Although there were very close cases of suspicious neighboring Muslims, miraculously their real identity was never unveiled. There are people who criticize this decision to stay in Iran through these struggles. They say it was their own fault they were living in these circumstances, because they stayed. But they don't realize that they weren't able to flee the country. The Muslims forbade them from leaving, and the journey of escaping was far too long and risky. Therefore, most Mashadi Jews decided to stick together and keep their public Muslim identity. But they always had faith that they would someday be able to freely practice their religion. They never let go of Judaism and continued to teach their children, and celebrated all the holidays.
The Mashadi Jews to went through a lot of struggle and controversy in their lives. Judaism was so important to them and they continued to observe Judaism in private. They built underground connecting tunnels, in which they practiced all the Jewish laws and traditions. Through great effort, they were able to keep their Jewish faith without getting revealed.
This went on for about one hundred years. The Mashadi Jews lives drastically improved after Reza Pahlavi's rise to the throne in 1925. During his reign, there was a period in which they had religious freedom. They were now able to live a productive public Jewish life. However, in 1946 there was another angry mob attack. After this the Jews decided they had to leave Mashad, and moved to Tehran. In Tehran, they once again were able to have religious freedom and practices. Under the reign of the Shah, the Jews prospered and became prominent members of society. Always remaining unified, they were able to build eleven Mashadi synagogues and a few Jewish schools.
With the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Mashadi Jews decided their time in Iran was ending and to flee the country immediately. Because they had no time, and the journey was too risky to bring anything else along, they left only with what they could carry with them. Some Jews went to Italy, some to America, and some to Israel.
Mashadi Jewish Community[1] Allahdad Incident[2]