Younes Nazarian, an Iranian-Jewish community leader and self-made billionaire philanthropist, died March 18 in Los Angeles. He was 91. Local Iranian-Jewish community members remembered Nazarian as a pro-Israel advocate who gave millions to organizations in Israel as well as to Jewish and non-Jewish causes in Southern California. “He truly believed that strengthening Israel was the…
Wine flows freely in the ancient story of Purim, which takes place in ancient Persian. Buzzed on wine, King Ahasuerus asks the beautiful Vashti to come party. At two other wine-soaked feasts, the heroine Esther sways the king against the evil Haman. Wine all but disappeared from modern-day Iran following the country’s takeover by Muslim…
In the annals of Jewish film festivals, “Sin La Habana” is likely the only entry to begin with a Santeria ritual involving the sacrifice of chickens. Sadly, the film, playing as part of New York’s Jewish Film Festival Jan. 15, is also one of a select few to spotlight a Mizrahi bris. The feature debut…
Iranian American and Jewish activists are voicing support for striking Iranian oil workers who are demanding Iranian regime’s state-owned companies pay their past due wages, pay higher wages, and provide other benefits. Iranian American activists who are not Jewish said the latest Iranian energy workers’ latest nationwide strike, now entering its third week,has been a…
The grassroots Iranian opposition group that posted an anti-regime billboard in Times Square is now turning to the American Jewish community for help. “The American Jewish community has had a proud history of supporting social justice and human rights causes,” said Ali Ebrahimzadeh, a Muslim-born opposition activist to the Iranian regime. “We are now asking…
Los Angeles police are investigating the mental health of the suspect in the brutal bludgeoning murder of 104 year-old Youssef Mahboubian. “In my opinion, he snapped that day,” Detective Steve Castro of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Bureau homicide division told the Forward. “He flipped out.” The suspect, 47-year-old Adam Dimmerman, =was arrested on…
Los Angeles police have no motive for the brutal slaying of 104 year-old Youssef Mahboubian, discovered in his Encino, California home on March 18, bludgeoned to death by a suspect armed with an axe and a knife. Mahboubian was a beloved father and grandfather whose family is active in the Los Angeles Jewish community. Los…
I was in third grade when I experienced my first Hebrew School seder. Of course I had seders every year with my Iranian Jewish family, yet everything about this seder felt so weird to me. Waxy paper cups held what they called haroset— dry chunks of chopped apples and walnuts doused with cinnamon. Haroset is…
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