In Los Angeles, Iranian Jews Dream of an Iran They Could One Day Visit
LOS ANGELES—Sam Yebri doesn't remember the country his family fled when he was a 1-year-old, exiled from Iran for being in the Jewish minority. But he has followed the politics of the Islamic nation his entire life, wondering if this current moment would ever come.
'For a long time there's been anxiety that my Jewish homeland would be at war with the land of my birth,' said Yebri, a lawyer and community activist. 'To see it actually happen is surreal.'
The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is gripping Iranian Americans in Los Angeles, which is home to the largest Iranian diaspora in the world. For many Iranian Jews, the war brings back memories of their families' expulsion. For some, it also has rekindled what long felt like a far-fetched dream: a future Iran they could possibly visit.
A mile-long stretch of Westwood Boulevard known as 'Tehrangeles' includes Persian bookstores, hookah lounges, grocery stores selling Middle Eastern imports and passport-processing shops with signs in Farsi and English. Visitors can sit down for a slow-cooked chicken kebab over saffron rice before walking a few doors down for orange blossom Persian ice cream.
Standing in his family's Persian rug store this week, Yoni Radfar recounted his Jewish family's harrowing escape from Iran in the early 1980s, after the Iranian Revolution installed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini into power. As they fled by night on horseback, Kurdish coyotes chided a 6-month-old Radfar for crying, afraid he would give away their location.
The family settled first in San Francisco, opening jewelry stores around Fisherman's Wharf, before being drawn south to the larger hub of Persian culture in Los Angeles. 'It was destined for us to move here,' Radfar said. Many Iranian Americans in Los Angeles refer to themselves as Persian, tying them to their cultural and linguistic heritage rather than the current Islamic regime.
Almost 200,000 Iranian Americans live in the greater Los Angeles area, according to Census Bureau data, of roughly a half-million nationwide.
'I would love to visit a free Iran one day,' said Siamak Kordestani, who left Iran as a young boy with his family in the late 1980s to settle in Los Angeles. 'I hope it comes in my lifetime.' He imagines visiting famous archaeological and cultural sites, such as the ruins of the palace at Persepolis and the tomb of Cyrus the Great, a symbol of friendship between the Jewish and Iranian people.
Kordestani, who works in international and government affairs, said he and his friends have celebrated seeing symbols of Iranian state oppression impacted in the recent bombings, such as the Iranian state television headquarters and other government ministries.
Los Angeles's Iranian community began building in the 1970s, starting with waves of students coming to study at UCLA and other universities. It amplified after the revolution with families arriving en masse, and soon Tehrangeles was born. Some say Los Angeles's weather and even traffic were a draw because it felt like Tehran, but Kevan Harris, associate professor of sociology at UCLA, calls that a myth. For one thing, he notes, it snows in Tehran.
Instead, Harris credits typical chain migration: The initial batch of immigrants drew their friends and relatives, and the community grew. Many became doctors and lawyers, started businesses or invested in real estate. Radfar, whose father lost his entire livelihood to the Khomeini regime before leaving Iran, characterized the success of the Iranian expat community as 'honestly living the American dream.'
Iranian Americans are prominent in the civic community, particularly in west Los Angeles. Lawyers and business people stay connected through groups such as the Iranian American Chamber of Commerce and Iranian American Bar Association.
Beverly Hills Iranian Americans were cast into the national spotlight in a long-running Bravo reality show, 'Shahs of Sunset,' that highlighted the glamour and tightknit community among a cast of young adults whose families were part of the diaspora.
Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian has spoken of coming to the U.S. with her family, who is Jewish, as they fled religious persecution in Iran.
Watching the conflict has been painful, but Nazarian views Israel's actions as 'a pre-emptive effort to prevent a potential catastrophe,' rather than an assault on the people of Iran, she said in an email this week.
Yet 'true change in Iran must come from its own people, the people who continue to show extraordinary courage under repression,' she wrote.
Yebri doesn't want to see innocent Iranians caught in the middle of a war, but he sees potential for the current developments to become 'a Berlin Wall moment, a moment in history that can transform the world.' His phone has been pinging constantly with texts and WhatsApp chats with friends exchanging updates and videos, and their dreams of a free Iran.
He hopes to one day smell the Iranian air, taste its fruit and hear poetry on the streets as his family has told him about. In 2007, he started an organization, 30 Years After, to help document the Iranian American Jewish experience and engage the community in civic activism.
The people of Iran, he says, 'just need to be able to breathe again.'
Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com
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