Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, tens of thousands of Persian Jews migrated from Iran, forming one of the wealthiest waves of immigrants to ever come to the United States. Today, the United States is home to 60,000–80,000 Iranian Jews, most of who have settled in the Greater Los Angeles area and in Great Neck, New York. Those in metropolitan Los Angeles have settled mostly in the affluent Westside cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica and neighborhoods of Brentwood, Westwood, as well as the San Fernando Valley communities of Tarzana and Encino. The growth of Los Angeles’ Iranian Jewish community has shifted the demographics and dynamics of the city’s Jewish population and represents an important new chapter in the history of Jews in Los Angeles.
Scholars have only recently begun to examine the history of this prosperous and growing community and only a very few resources for studying Iranian Jews in Los Angeles are publicly available. My own book, From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women Between Religion and Culture, provides an ethnographic portrait of what life was and is like for three generations of Iranian Jewish women in Iran and now in Los Angeles. Eager to provide an opportunity for students at UCLA to learn more about Iranian Jewish history, particularly given the large number of Iranian Jewish students on campus, the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies invited me to develop a course that would provide an opportunity for them to learn more about the history and to understand their family’s history in context and to get more involved in the local community. With the support of a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, since 2014 I have had the privilege of teaching this course, entitled “Iranian Jewish Life in Los Angeles: Past and Present.”
This digital exhibit was developed from the work produced by students in that course. In their readings and assignments, students reflected critically on topics such as historical narrative, Diaspora communities in Los Angeles, immigration, intergenerational relationships, Jewish identity and memory. We examined how immigration has affected different generations of Iranian Jews and the remarkable ways Iranian Jews have rebuilt their community and their own lives. They also received an introduction to digital scholarship, how to effectively tell stories using websites and social media and they received training on how to conduct and record oral history – preparing them to go out into the community and conduct research. They were then given the unique opportunity to apply these historical and contemporary texts to their fieldwork and research and help to preserve the history of the Iranian Jewish community.
Over the ten-week quarter, each student group interviewed and collected information on an Iranian Jewish organization, person, or business that has impacted the Iranian Jewish community in Los Angeles. They also collected “artifacts”- documents, photos, videos and objects- to illustrate the story of Iranian Jewish life in Los Angeles in the digital space. In their exhibitions, students described the history of their community partners, their significance in the Iranian Jewish community in Los Angeles and their impact on the Iranian and larger community. Through working with their community partners, the students cultivated interchangeable relationships through preservation work and capturing vital moments in the Persian Jewish community, thus encouraging students to be active members in the community. The work presented in this digital exhibit is entirely theirs and they should take great pride in their accomplishments: they have helped to create a lasting and important resource for preserving and raising public awareness about Los Angeles’ Iranian Jewish history.
Teaching a course of this type, particularly in ten weeks, poses unique challenges and has truly been a team effort. I would like to thank Todd S. Presner, director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, Mary Pinkerson, the Center’s Community Affairs Coordinator, Caroline Luce, the Chief Digital Curator of the Mapping Jewish Los Angeles Project, Joanna Chen, the Center’s Civic Engagement Fellow, David Wu, Digital Projects Coordinator, David Hirsch, UCLA’s Librarian for Jewish, Near Eastern and Middle Eastern Studies, for their help with the course. I would also like to thank the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for their support. And I would especially like to thank our community partners –Tiffany Saidnia from tt collection; Isaac Larian from MGA Entertainment; Shahla Javdan from The Iranian Jewish Women's Organization of Southern California and The Iranian American Jewish Federation; Carolyn Yashari Becher from The Neuromuscular Disease Foundation; David Matloob from Sinai Temple’s Men’s Club; Joseph Gabbaian at the Fariborz Fred Matloob Unit of B’nai B’rith; Elizabeth Mossanen from Looking Beyond; Tabby Davoodi from Thirty Years After; Bobak Roofian from Urgent Gear Inc; Kavin Novinbakht from Elat Market; Morgan Hakimi from Nessah Synagogue; Rabbi Hertzel Peer and Rabbi Dovid Loloyan from Chabad and Chabad Persian Youth; Sharon Nazarian from the Y & S Nazarian Family Foundation; Shula Nazarian from Shulamit Gallery and Rabbi David Wolpe from Sinai Temple - for dedicating their time to our students and contributing their memories to the project. By doing so, they have helped us to preserve the Iranian Jewish community’s history for years to come.

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