Iranian Jews, upon arriving in America, try to integrate and assimilate by joining synagogues. They look for outlets for Jewish expression, and there is no equivalent for their Jewish life in Iran--there is no American Jewish expression that fits the Iranian model. The rabbis in Iran were more liberal than the Orthodox rabbis in the United States, yet more traditional than the Reform rabbis, and that is why many Persians have gravitated towards the Conservative movement as a compromise. Iranians Jews attend a variety of Conservative Jewish synagogues located throughout Los Angeles, and the Iranian Jewish community consider Valley Beth Shalom one of them.

Some Iranian Jews come to Valley Beth Shalom because it is close to their homes and they have found it to be a synagogue which respects tradition, is highly intellectual, welcomes kids, and is warm and welcoming. Others attend Valley Beth Shalom because it is a Conservative synagogue, which matches their conception of Jewish life and worship better than Reform or Orthodox. Valley Beth Shalom attributes its Iranian Jewish congregants’ preference for Conservative synagogues over Orthodox ones is that Orthodox Judaism is a European construction which never existed in Iran. Orthodoxy is a movement that built walls to protect the community and its children from the encroachment of the corrupting culture of Europe, and Rabbi Feinstein believes that “Persians did not have that problem,” because they did not have that kind of interaction with the surrounding culture due to the Islamic culture rejecting Persian Jews and effectively segregating them. Rabbi Feinstein also believes that Mizrahi Jews are more easygoing people than European Jews.

In short, the Iranian Jews who attend Valley Beth Shalom do so because they feel that the elements of Conservative Jewish match the Judaism they grew up with more closely than Reform Judaism or Orthodox Judaism.

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