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Amidst escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, the nation’s dwindling Jewish population finds itself caught in a complex web of identity, politics, and survival. With fewer than 10,000 Jews remaining in the country of 90 million, community members express diverse perspectives on the conflict while navigating daily security concerns.

Yosef, an Iranian Jewish historian, draws a sharp distinction between his religious identity and political Zionism. “Zionism has damaged Israel’s reputation globally,” he asserts, noting the absence of influential left-wing movements in contemporary Israeli politics. Like many in his community, Yosef shelters from aerial strikes originating from Israel—a nation he’s expected to feel affinity toward but criticizes for its role in regional destabilization.

The ongoing warfare presents profound personal dilemmas for Iranian Jews who watch conflicts between their homeland and the Jewish state. Sara, a 46-year-old businesswoman from Shiraz, directs her anger toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom she describes as a “charlatan” using military escalation to divert attention from domestic corruption charges. Despite her Jewish faith, she maintains: “I cannot see the country where I was born and raised as my enemy.”

Historical context reveals a dramatic demographic shift: Iran’s Jewish population has declined from approximately 70,000-100,000 before the 1979 Islamic Revolution to just over 9,000 according to the 2016 census. This transformation occurred alongside the severing of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Jerusalem.

Daniel, a 52-year-old Tehran jeweler, expresses dual sorrow witnessing missiles strike Israeli cities while Israeli and American warplanes fly over his own home. “The explosions keep us awake at night,” he confesses, reflecting the anxiety many feel about speaking openly during wartime.

Contrary to expectations, some community members report improved attitudes toward Jews within Iran. Arash, a 71-year-old restaurant owner, observes: “The level of anger toward the Islamic Republic is so high that many Iranians today see Jews as friends.” However, he quickly affirms his primary identity as Iranian and laments governmental policies that have brought the country to its current situation.

As the conflict enters its second week with strikes targeting Tehran’s oil infrastructure, the community’s deepest fear extends beyond immediate violence to concerns about Iran’s future. Yosef articulates this apprehension: “What I fear most is that the final result of this war will destroy the country I love,” capturing the profound tension between national loyalty and religious identity that defines the experience of Iran’s Jewish minority.

Walid Khalidi, the preeminent Palestinian historian whose seminal scholarship documented the displacement and historical narrative of the Palestinian people, has passed away at the age of 100. His death was confirmed by the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS), the Beirut-based research center he co-founded in 1963, which announced he died on Sunday in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Khalidi’s life’s work was dedicated to meticulously chronicling Palestinian society before and after the Nakba—the ‘catastrophe’ of 1948 that saw the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to facilitate the creation of the state of Israel. He earned the moniker ‘the historian of the Palestinian cause’ through his rigorous academic contributions, which included translating and analyzing the diaries of key Israeli figures like first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett.

Under his stewardship, the IPS became an indispensable resource, producing critical studies and translations between Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Among its most significant publications was a detailed examination of the Haganah, the Zionist paramilitary force central to the 1948 events. Khalidi’s research was instrumental in bringing to light previously concealed strategic plans, such as Plan Dalet, which outlined the systematic occupation and depopulation of Palestinian villages.

His encyclopedic collections, including the photographic archive ‘Before Their Diaspora’ and the comprehensive volume ‘All That Remains,’ serve as rare visual and historical records of a vanished pre-1948 Palestine. Born into an academic family in Jerusalem in 1925, Khalidi’s own career was distinguished. He taught at the University of Oxford until resigning in protest over the 1956 Suez Crisis, later becoming a professor at the American University of Beirut until 1982, and finally a research fellow at Harvard University.

Blending scholarship with political advocacy, Khalidi maintained associations with several Palestinian political movements and formally represented Palestinian interests on the international stage, including in the Arab League and at the 1991 Middle East peace talks in Washington. A lifelong proponent of a two-state solution, he articulated it in a 1988 Foreign Affairs article as the only viable framework for a historical compromise in the enduring conflict.