Iran and the Jewish people: An alliance before war

Throughline

NPR

History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Israel and Iran have been in almost constant conflict for nearly 50 years. Media tends to frame the violence as endemic, and inevitable — but it’s not.

Between the creation of Israel in 1948 and Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, the countries cooperated, if cautiously. And the bridge between them was one of the largest and oldest Jewish populations in the Middle East: a thriving community of Iranian Jews.

Today on the show, the story of Iran and Israel, told through the life of Jewish Iranian Habib Elghanian.

Guests:
Roya Hakakian, author of Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran

Shahrzad Elghanayan, author of Titan of Tehran: From Jewish Ghetto to Corporate Colossus to Firing Squad - My Grandfather's Life

Meir Javedanfar, Israeli-Iranian political scientist and teacher at Reichman University
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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
0:05.4	investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish.
0:11.1	More information is available at Hewlett.org.
0:16.0	You can have a lot of consciousness. No one of our children. About 2,500 years ago, a king, a king, and no longer had no child,
0:24.6	his mind,
0:26.6	about 2,500 years ago,
0:30.6	in ancient Persia, what's now Iran,
0:33.6	a king, Tostin turned in his sleep.
0:36.6	A nightmare consumed his mind.
0:44.8	He saw visions of a baby growing into a warrior,
0:49.3	a warrior that would one day forcefully take his throne.
1:01.0	No. that would one day forcefully take his throne. The usurper in his dreams was no stranger. It was his own infant grandson. The king awoke,
1:08.7	terrified of the prophecy, and he ordered his servant to kill the baby at once.
1:14.2	But the servant couldn't bring himself to do it.
1:17.9	Instead, he secretly smuggled the baby
1:20.4	into the care of a shepherd who raised him.
1:38.8	Okay. The boy grew up in the countryside,
1:40.6	healthy and strong.
1:46.0	He became a decorated warrior, leader, and general. He set his sights on his grandfather's throne and launched a rebellion.
1:56.0	Soon, the prophecy became reality.
2:05.6	The king was overtaken by the grandson he'd feared for so long.
2:10.6	Persian lands had a new leader.
	...

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