The Secret Jews of Mashhad, Iran

Located in the Kashaf River valley between two mountain ranges, Mashhad today is the second largest city in Iran and the capital of the province of Khorastan in northeast Iran, bordering Afghanistan.

In its early history, due to its strategic location along the Silk Road, Mashhad suffered numerous invasions and raids. In 1736, the area was conquered by the Iranian ruler Nadir Shah, and Mashhad became the imperial capital.

Jews from Mashhad, Iran during a visit in Bukhara, Uzbekistan c 1930s. World Jewish Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Until then Jews were not allowed in Mashhad, which is considered one of the holy cities of Islam because the burial site of the eighth imam or Shi’a Islam is located there. But Nadir Shah, who was Sunni and intended to convert the local Muslims to Sunni Islam, decided to change the long-standing policy. He invited 40 Jewish families to Mashhad in order to grow the local economy and increase the city’s commercial ties.

Under Nadir Shah’s protection, the Jewish community of Mashhad grew and prospered, despite the open hostility from the local Shi’ite Muslims. The Jews’ commercial activities benefited the local Muslims as well, bringing them unknown wealth and prosperity.

In 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated by his enemies. The Jews were expelled to the outskirts of the city and forced to wear identifying marks on their clothes. They had to pay high taxes and obey many restrictions, such as not using public bath houses.

Nader Shah and two of his sons

On March 27, 1839, the Muslims of Mashhad were observing the holiest day for the Shi’a sect, the day of mourning for Mohammed’s grandson Hussein. The Jews, meanwhile, were preparing for Passover, which was in three days.

That day, a Jewish woman went to a Persian doctor to seek help for a skin condition on her hand. The doctor recommended that she wash her hand in a dog’s blood. The woman hired a Persian boy to catch and kill a dog for her. The boy did so but then got into an argument with the woman about payment.

Angry at the woman, the boy stormed off, yelling at the top of his lungs that the Jews killed a dog in order to mock the Muslims. He claimed that the Jews even called the dog Hussein.

The rumor spread quickly and thousands of Muslims, already filled with religious fervor on their holy day, rushed to the Jewish quarter. They murdered, raped, and looted. They desecrated the Torah scrolls and set the synagogue on fire. After 35 Jews were murdered and many more wounded, the surviving Jews of Mashhad were forcibly converted to Islam.

The “new Muslims” were brought to the mosque and forced to declare their allegiance to Islam. In return, all the previous restrictions were removed. The Jews no longer had to pay extra taxes or wear distinctive clothing. They had to take on Muslim names. Their synagogue was converted to a mosque. Outwardly, Mashhadi Jews looked and acted no different from their Muslim neighbors.

However, despite the special officers appointed to oversee the “new Muslims” and prevent them from practicing their original faith, Mashhadi Jews continued observing Judaism in secret. For generations, they married only within their community and taught their children about their Jewish roots and Jewish practices.

Mashhad in 1858. Giannozzi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Double Lives

Rachel Betsaleli, a retired Israeli librarian who left Mashhad at age eight, recalls living as a secret Jew¹:

I remember my mother sitting in our home, rolling wicks for the candles, which had to be kosher. She made wine in the basement, all we’d need, plus matzah for Pessah. She learned how from her mother, who learned from her mother. They’d give all the maids the day off, and then they’d cook and bake. On Shabbat, to avoid working, the parents would send the children to mind the shops. If someone came in, they’d just say, ‘My father is not here. Could you please come back?’ I’m proud of how my grandparents and parents managed. It couldn’t have been easy.

Mashhadi Jews had other tricks too²:

Shabbat candles were always lit under cover, so they couldn’t be seen from the windows. Families kept dogs and cats, so they could feed them the Muslim meat they bought while they themselves ate kosher meat, shechted [ritually slaughtered] in secret and smuggled home under the women’s chadors, or long cloaks. In the market, the Mashhadi purchased Muslim bread like everyone else, but as they walked home, they gave the bread to the Muslim poor. In their basements they ground their own wheat and baked their own bread.

At the same time, Betsaleli’s family maintained an outward appearance of pious Muslims:

My father attended mosque. On Muslim days of mourning, the men would cry and slap themselves, and so did my father. The Jewish men would attend mosque, then gather together afterward in secret for the Jewish service. On Ramadan, they’d pretend not to eat, and at night, just like other Muslims, they’d set a lavish table, welcoming all Muslims to come and eat.

Heroic Jewish Women of Mashhad

The bulk of the work of maintaining Jewish observance in secret fell on the women. It helped that in order to pose as good Muslims, they had to wear a chador, a traditional Muslim garment that covered them from head to toe, leaving only their faces open. Tent-like, a chador gave women an opportunity to conceal various Jewish items and transport them from one place to another. Thus, it was the illiterate women who brought the men Torah scrolls, tefillin, prayer shawls, and other ritual objects.

The women also ensured that their families only consumed kosher food. Before Passover, they would stay up late at night, baking matzah after their young children would go to bed, so that the children wouldn’t have anything to divulge to their Muslim neighbors.

Raising children and educating them about their heritage was the main job and the most impressive accomplishment of Mashhadi Jewish women. The women married young. Betsaleli recalls³, “My grandmother was married when she was nine-years-old. Her aunt married at six. That way, if a Muslim asked to marry them, they were already committed.” This was the trick that enabled the Jews of Mashhad to marry within their community, despite the pressure from the local Muslims to intermarry.

The women raised large families. Life was difficult and medical care primitive. Many Mashhadi children did not survive childhood. Those that reached adulthood remember their mothers’ devoted care for them, as well as constant worry and many precautions they had to take to keep their families safe. Betsaleli recalls⁴:

My mother was very strict with us. I wasn’t even allowed to go to my best friend’s home alone – my friend was Persian, and that was okay, but I couldn’t go to her home unless one of our maids came with me. That upset me sometimes, because I wanted to be able to do the same things my friends did… Now I understand why my mother was so cautious. She had the responsibility of raising eight children in a very dangerous country. She had to be very careful about what she allowed us to do.

Undercover Rabbis

Like every Jewish community, the secret Jews of Mashhad needed rabbis to teach them Torah and to conduct religious ceremonies. In the generation of the forced conversion, the existing rabbis continued to perform their duties in secret. But they worried about the subsequent generations.

One of the Mashhadi rabbis, Rabbi Rafael Akalar, had a son, Mordechai, born in 1850. From a young age, Mordechai loved learning and showed a special gift for languages. In the local school, Mordechai learned about Islam and mastered the Persian language. At home, his father taught him Torah, and Mordechai applied himself with unusual diligence, becoming a Torah scholar in his own right. He also learned how to perform circumcision, ritual slaughter, and other rabbinic duties.

Upon his father’s passing in 1883, Rabbi Mordechai Akalar became the unofficial rabbi of the Mashhadi Jews. He officiated at many secret Jewish weddings, circumcised Jewish babies, and helped the local Jews with obtaining kosher meat. In the evenings, under the cover of darkness, Rabbi Akalar would visit local families and teach their children Torah. The rabbi would not accept any payment for his services.

Seeing a need, Rabbi Akalar translated classic Jewish texts, such as the prayerbook and the Passover Haggadah, into Persian. The books, first handwritten and later printed in Jerusalem, are still available today.

Rabbi Akalar was able to leave Mashhad and move to Jerusalem in 1927. His son, Rabbi Rafael Akalar, remained in Mashhad and continued his father’s work.

Rabbi Mordechai Akalar at the entrance to his home in Jerusalem. מאת נפטר – תמונה בבית סבי, שימוש חופשי, https://he.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1975007

A British Subject in Mashhad

Towards the end of the 19^th century, James Basset, a Christian missionary, visited Mashhad. In his book⁵, he writes that about 300 Jewish families lived in Mashhad, all of them “called Jadeed, or new ones, in reference to their recent conversion to Islam⁶.” Clearly, decades after the forced conversion the Jews still constituted a distinct population in Mashhad.

Basset tells of Benyamin, “one of the most influential Jews of this city⁷,” who was a British subject. Britain had been involved in an armed conflict with Afghanistan. When the British were ambushed and cruelly massacred by the Afghans, two British officers were rescued by Benyamin’s father, who assisted them in their escape from Afghanistan.

The British wanted to reward their Jewish rescuer for his help. Unfortunately, Benyamin’s father’s involvement was discovered, and he was executed by the Afghans. On further investigation, the British found out that Benyamin, the rescuer’s young son, had been taken to Mashhad. Britain granted Benyamin British citizenship, appointed a guardian for him, and paid him pension of 75 rupees per month for the rest of his life.

Basset describes Benyamin at the time of their meeting as “a man in middle life. He seemed to be well disposed, and desirous that his children should receive a British education⁸.”

Escape Attempts

Yearning to live openly as Jews, many “new Muslims” attempted to leave Mashhad. They had to be extremely careful because renouncing Islam in a Muslim country was liable for death penalty. Some secret Jews moved to other cities within Iran and joined the existing Jewish communities there. They changed their names and concealed their city of origin. Others managed to leave Iran and form new Jewish communities in Afghanistan, the Russian Empire, or even India.

Several Mashhadi Jews embarked on a pilgrimage. Mecca wasn’t their true destination; they were headed to Jerusalem.

In the 1890s, several secret Jews of Mashhad came up with a brilliant idea. The local Muslim authorities had long encouraged the “new Muslims” to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca. Some had gone and, upon returning, received the status of Haji and a more influential position in Mashhad.

When several Mashhadi Jews embarked on a pilgrimage, their true destination was not Mecca but Jerusalem. On the way back from Mecca, they escaped from their caravan and managed to reach Jerusalem, where they settled and established two synagogues: the synagogue of Haji Yeheskel and the synagogue of Haji Adoniyahu. The synagogues, located in the Bukharan neighborhood of Jerusalem, are still active today.

The entrance to the Haji Adoniyahu synagogue in Jerusalem. Gveret Tered, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A Blood Libel and Leaving Mashhad

For almost a century, the Jews of Mashhad continued living double lives. In 1925, when Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power, he brought religious freedom to Iran. The Jews of Mashhad celebrated. They no longer had to hide their identities.

However, shortly before Passover 1946, Jews of Mashhad were once more attacked by a violent antisemitic mob that accused them of using the blood of Muslim children for their matzah. The Jews fled for their lives, with the majority settling in Tehran. Others managed to leave Iran for other countries.

After the Iranian revolution of 1979, religious persecution and antisemitism returned to Iran in full force. Many Jews fled Iran. Among them were the Jews of Mashhad and their descendants who had relocated to Tehran.

Mashhadi Jewish Communities Today

Mashhadi Jews remain a close-knit community. In Europe, United States, and Israel they have built synagogues and communities that maintain their cherished traditions. In the United States, the largest population of Mashhadi Jews is located in Great Neck, NY.

Talia Bassali, a descendant of Mashhadi Jews, wrote in 2015⁹:

The Mashadi community is deeply traditional while also moving forward into the modern world, Torah values in tow. Tremendous importance is placed on education – Jewish and otherwise – ensuring a connection between past, present, and future. Passionate support of the State of Israel is also a central focus of the community, as it is a dream our ancestors never even dreamed of and one our grandparents saw come true.

Just like every Jewish community around the world, we bring our distinct, uniting history and culture as a meaningful contribution to the world around us; we offer a unique flavor to the diverse family that is the Jewish people.

Sources:

Yocheved Miriam Russo. The double lives of Mashhadi Jews. Jerusalem Post, August 22, 2007. Available at https://www.jpost.com/cafe-oleh/ask-the-expert/the-double-lives-of-mashhadi-jews, retrieved on March 9, 2025.

Nabila Levian. The Secret History of Iran’s Mashhadi Jews. Available at https://theshabbatdrop.com/p/the-secret-history-of-irans-mashhadi, retrieved on March 10, 2025.

The Marranos of Mashhad: The Story of a Jewish Community That Led a Double Life for 120 Years. ANU Museum of the Jewish People. Available at https://www.anumuseum.org.il/blog/mashhad/, accessed on March 10, 2025.

Walter J. Fischel. Secret Jews of Persia:A Century-Old Marrano Community in Asia. Commentary, January 1949. Available at https://www.commentary.org/articles/walter-fischel/secret-jews-of-persiaa-century-old-marrano-community-in-asia/, accessed on March 10, 2025.

Rabbi Mordechai Akalar: https://www.hamichlol.org.il/%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%93%D7%9B%D7%99_%D7%90%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%A8

1. Yocheved Miriam Russo. The double lives of Mashhadi Jews. Jerusalem Post, August 22, 2007. Available at https://www.jpost.com/cafe-oleh/ask-the-expert/the-double-lives-of-mashhadi-jews, retrieved on March 9, 2025.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. James Basset. Persia: The Land of the Imams. New York, C. Scribner’s sons, 1886.
6. Ibid., page 230.
7. Ibid., page 231.
8. Ibid., page 232.
9. Talia Bassali. Connecting the Dots: What You Need to Know About the Mashadi Community. YU Observer, September 18, 2015. Available at https://yuobserver.org/2015/09/connecting-the-dots-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-mashadi-community/, accessed on March 10, 2025.

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