Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Iran

The Jewish community of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its Majlis seat and its statements against the Zionist entity; the pre-1979 alliance, the Iran-Contra arms, covert operations and the wars of 2024–2026

Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Iran have swung from alliance to war. Under the Shah, Iran recognised "Israel" de facto in 1950. It later became a close but informal partner under David Ben-Gurion's "periphery" strategy. Since the 1979 revolution the Islamic Republic has treated "Israel" as an enemy. The two states exchanged direct attacks in 2024 and fought wars in 2025 and 2026. Iran's remaining Jewish community has a reserved seat in parliament, and its leaders publicly condemn "Israel".

Jewish community and religious life

Community today

On the eve of the 1979 revolution there were 80,000 Jews in Iran, 60,000 of them in Tehran. "In the wake of the upheaval, most Iranian Jews fled the country", according to the World Jewish Congress. The Tehran Jewish Committee puts the Jewish population at about 9,000. The constitution recognises Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians as religious minorities, and one of the 290 seats in the Majlis is reserved for Jews. According to the Iranian American Jewish Federation, Tehran had 16 synagogues, 11 of them active. The committee says four Jewish schools and two preschools operate in Tehran, but their principals must be Muslim. Hebrew may not be taught in schools, only in synagogues. In 2023 the community warned Jews to keep a low profile on al-Quds Day. The historian Lior Sternfeld considers 15,000 the most credible estimate. He notes that Iranian passports bar travel to "occupied Palestine", although many Jews visit "Israel" through third countries such as Turkey.

Tehran Jewish Committee and the Majlis seat

The Jewish seat in the Majlis has been held since 2020 by Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi (also written Homayoun Sameh). He is a pharmacist who was elected to the board of the Tehran Jewish Association (the Tehran Jewish Committee) in 2009 and later chaired it.

During the June 2025 war, community leaders issued strong statements against "Israel". The Jerusalem Post reported several of them, all published in state-aligned Persian media:

• Younes Hamami Lalezar, spokesman for the Beth Din (religious court) of the Tehran Jewish Committee, called Benjamin Netanyahu's decision "unjust and criminal". He said the "murder of civilians, women and children by the criminal Zionist regime and the evil Netanyahu must be met with decisive force".
• Sameyah wrote in an open letter that "daily launches of thousands of drones and missiles would be the least appropriate reply".
• The Jewish Association and Community of Isfahan expected a "crushing and regret-inducing response".

Ynet reported that Sameyah told the community: "Israel is committing war crimes — crimes against humanity. Iranian Jews are part of the Iranian people." He had earlier said that Iranian Jews take part in Quds Day rallies every year.

How far is it Zionist? Not at all, in its public stance. The committee and the Jewish MP publicly reject "Israel" and Zionism and take part in state anti-Zionist events. Diaspora analysts quoted by The Jerusalem Post say such statements "reflect political pressure rather than private sentiment". Family ties to "Israel" have drawn official scrutiny. After the June 2025 war, according to Human Rights in Iran, at least 35 members of the community in Shiraz and Tehran were questioned about relatives in "Israel" and warned against keeping in touch with them.

Chabad

No Chabad centre in Iran was found.

Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Iran

The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists Chief Rabbi Yehuda Gerami as Chief Rabbi of Iran and Rabbi Eliyahu Saidiyan as Chief Rabbi of Isfahan.

Zionist movement and advocacy

No Zionist organisation can operate openly in Iran. On 15 June 2025 the Supreme National Security Council said that actions "in favour of Israel" would face the death penalty. These included efforts to "legitimize or sanitize the image of the Zionist regime". Officials' rhetoric is openly hostile. After 7 October 2023 the Majlis Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the "Zionist regime will never have peace until the day it is annihilated". The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, said: "We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime."

Israeli state and commercial ties

Before 1979

Iran recognised "Israel" de facto, without a formal announcement, on 6 March 1950. Mohammad Mosaddegh's government closed Iran's Jerusalem consulate in July 1951. After the 1953 coup, relations grew, shaped by Ben-Gurion's "periphery concept" of alliances with Iran, Turkey and Ethiopia. "Israel" trained Iranian students and officers and sent experts in agriculture and other fields. Iran sold crude oil to "Israel" in 1958–67. After 1967 the two states jointly built the Eilat–Ashkelon Pipeline. Trita Parsi's Treacherous Alliance (Yale University Press) traces these "secret alliances" and the later rivalry.

Iran–Iraq war and Iran-Contra

During the Iran–Iraq War Israeli officials still hoped that Iran would see the value of an alliance. Encyclopaedia Iranica quotes David Kimche: "our big hope was that the two sides would weaken each other to such an extent that neither of them would be a threat to us". SIPRI records Israeli supplies to the Islamic Republic in 1985–86:

• 508 second-hand BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles in 1985;
• 500 more TOW missiles in 1986, noted as "Part of 'Iran-Contra' deal; financed by USA";
• 300 AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles in 1985, with status uncertain.

See Iran-Contra.

Rivalry after 1991

Encyclopaedia Iranica argues that "the real turning point in Israeli-Iranian relations was not in 1979, but in 1991". With Iraq defeated and the Soviet Union gone, the two became rivals. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics country table for 2022–2025 does not list Iran, and SIPRI records no Israeli transfers to Iran other than those of 1985–86.

Covert operations and assassinations

• On 27 November 2020 Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed at Absard, east of Tehran. President Hassan Rouhani blamed "the mercenaries of the oppressive Zionist regime".
• On 31 July 2024 the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, where he had attended President Masoud Pezeshkian's inauguration. Hamas blamed "Israel", which did not confirm or deny its involvement.
• In September 2023 the Mossad director, David Barnea, said that the agency and its allies had foiled 27 Iran-directed attacks on Jews and Israelis abroad in the past year. Plots linked to Iran were reported in Greece, Germany and the UK.

Wars of 2024–2026

• April 2024. An Israeli strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus on 1 April killed Iranian generals. On 13–14 April Iran launched its first direct attack on Israeli territory from Iranian soil, Operation True Promise. According to the Israeli military, it involved more than 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and more than 30 cruise missiles. Most were intercepted with US, British and French help, and Jordan shot down some.
• October 2024. Iran fired a barrage of missiles at "Israel" early in the month. It cited Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon and the killing of IRGC and Hamas leaders, among others. On 26 October "Israel" struck missile-production and other military sites in Tehran, Ilam and Khuzestan. IRNA said four air-defence personnel were killed.
• June 2025 ("12-day war"). On 13 June "Israel" attacked Iranian military and nuclear sites, killing nuclear scientists and commanders. Iran replied with hundreds of ballistic missiles, and the US bombed Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan on 22 June. A US-brokered ceasefire followed on 24 June. Iran's health ministry reported 610 killed and 4,746 injured; Israeli figures were 28 killed and 3,238 injured or hospitalised.
• 2026. According to the House of Commons Library, on 28 February 2026 the US and "Israel" began striking Iran, saying they aimed to induce regime change and target its nuclear and missile programmes. The Israeli operation was called Roaring Lion. According to the US Congressional Research Service:
  • Israeli strikes killed Ali Khamenei and dozens of other senior leaders, including Ali Larijani in March.
  • Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen as Supreme Leader on 8 March.
  • Netanyahu repeatedly urged Iranians to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
  • The US-based HRANA counted 3,636 people killed in Iran by 7 April, including 1,701 civilians. Twenty Israeli civilians were reportedly killed by Iranian attacks before the US–Iran ceasefire of 7 April.
  • Iran and "Israel" last exchanged fire directly on 7–8 June 2026, although US–Iran clashes continued.

Migration and aliyah

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records immigrants born in Iran by period:

• 21,910 in 1948–51;
• 15,699 in 1952–60;
• 19,502 in 1961–71;
• 9,550 in 1972–79;
• 8,487 in 1980–89;
• 3,627 in 1990–99;
• 2,392 in 2000–20;
• 99 in 2021, 63 in 2022 and 41 in 2023.

The periods add up to 81,370. Encyclopaedia Iranica cautiously estimates 200,000–250,000 Jews of Persian origin and their descendants in "Israel". This makes them the fourth-largest group from Muslim countries, after those from Morocco, Iraq and Yemen.

Political interference

Each side accuses the other of subversion.

• Iranian claims. Iranian authorities say that "Israel" runs spy networks inside Iran. After 13 June 2025 they arrested "scores of people" for alleged "collaboration" with "Israel". The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Eje'i, ordered trials "extremely quickly". The authorities executed Esmail Fekri on 16 June after what Amnesty International called "a grossly unfair trial". Amnesty and Human Rights Watch reported in September 2025 that more than 20,000 people had been arrested since 13 June, including members of the Jewish, Christian and Baha'i minorities. At least nine men had been executed on political charges and/or accusations of espionage for "Israel". Sameyah posted on Telegram that Jews had been arrested in three provinces. He said that espionage-related charges against those held in Tehran had been dropped.
• Israeli claims. "Israel" accuses Iran of directing attacks on Jews abroad, as in Barnea's 2023 statement. In 2026 Netanyahu openly called on Iranians to overthrow their government.

Jeffrey Epstein

Passport records obtained by ABC News show that on his 1993 application Jeffrey Epstein gave his address as a townhouse on East 69th Street in New York that had been the residence of Iran's ambassador and had been taken over by the State Department before Epstein rented it. The government later ended his lease after he sublet the house without permission.

Ehud Barak's leaked emails

The following items come from Barak's two leaked mailboxes (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered. In April 2015 Amir Gonen forwarded to Ehud Barak an offer from the Norwegian firm Global Geo Services. It wanted a "fast sell" of its "Persian Carpet 2000" seismic database of the Iranian Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman to "Israel Oil Ministry, Israel Defence Ministry or Isramco or any other Israel Authority". The firm cited "Strategic Political aspects of understanding what Resources the Israel 'neighbor' actually have". Barak replied: "Explain to me over the phone".

See also

• Chabad Lubavitch of Iran
• Chabad-Lubavitch in West Asia
• Operation Exodus
• Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States
• Iran-Contra
• Mossad
• Zionist movement
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Iraq
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Azerbaijan

External links

• 7Dorim: Presidents of the Tehran Jewish Association (Iranian Jewish culture site)