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Other Middle Eastern Jewish communities have all but disappeared, but Iran is still home to around 15,000 Jews (or perhaps 30,000 according to some estimates). On the eve of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, some 80,000 to 100,000 Jews lived in Iran, but by 2008, over 60,000 had emigrated, especially from Tehran, among them the majority of the community’s leaders, philanthropists, and professionals. Iran’s remaining Jews live mainly in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Towns and villages …

OF IRAN, one of the oldest Jewish populations in the Diaspora. A version of this article is available in print Volume XV, Fascicle 1, pp. 89-112 This entry will be divided into the following sub-entries: JUDEO-PERSIAN COMMUNITIES i. INTRODUCTION Jewish communities have been living upon the Persian plateau since ca. 721 BCE, when King Sargon II (r. 721-705 BCE) relocated large communities of conquered Israelites “in the cities of the Medes” (western and northern regions of present-day Persia; 2 Kings 17:6; 18:10-11). The most signific…