A display of Library resources related to Iranian Jewry and talks on the same topic, as well as scholarly presentations on the history and culture of Jews in Iran, highlighted daylong presentations at the Library of Congress on Nov. 3.
This 1872 photo shows a Jewish wedding proposal ritual in Central Asia, with the groom second from the left. - Prints and Photographs Division
The Hebraic and Near East Sections of the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library sponsored the second day of a two-day conference, “Iranian Jewry: From Past to Present.”
The conference began on Sunday, Nov. 2, at the University of Maryland. The university’s Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian Studies presented three sessions that concentrated on history: “Jews and Persians in Ancient Iran,” “Jewish-Persian Relations in the Nineteenth Century” and “Iran and Israel in the World Today.” A webcast of that program is available at www.ricps.umd.edu/jewryvideo.html.
The university’s program concluded with an evening performance of Izra Malakov’s “Bukharian Jewish Folklore Ensemble.”
The Library’s Hebraic and Near East Sections hosted the Nov. 3 session, which may be viewed on the webcasts section of the Library's Web site.
Carolyn Brown, director of the Office of Scholarly Programs in the John W. Kluge Center, greeted more than 100 people attending the Nov. 3 session at the Library of Congress. She said the scholarly presentations would “illuminate the deeply intertwined history of Jews and Iranians.”
Ibrahim Pourhadi, the Iranian world area specialist in the Near East Section, spoke briefly about the Persian-language collections that he was instrumental in developing from the time he began to work at the Library more than 55 years ago.
In the foreground is a contemporary Pentateuch in Hebrew and Persian translation, and in the rear, Sefer Sharh Shahin Torah, the Pentateuch in Persian poetry by the 14th century Jewish poet, Shahin. Also on display is Padyavand, a collection of articles on Iranian Jewish history, other works on Iranian Jewish history, audio oral histories and films on Iranian Jews. African and Middle Eastern Division - Lee Avdoyan
The display of resources related to the seminar topic included books, journals, films, oral histories, maps, and a photographic album from the Library’s collections in custody of the African and Middle Eastern Division, Humanities and Social Sciences Division (General Collections), Prints and Photographs Division, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division and the Geography and Map Division.
Peggy Pearlstein, head of the Hebraic Section, and Hirad Dinavari, reference librarian for the Iranian world, discussed resources in Judeo-Persian and Farsi in the custody of the Hebraic and Near East Sections as well as resources in other languages and formats throughout the Library. Pearlstein noted that the Library’s early Judeo-Persian collection began in 1912 with the first gift of books from philanthropist Jacob H. Schiff and the founding of the Hebraic Section.
Dinavari showed romanization tables and demonstrated a variety of searching strategies to locate items using the online catalog. Professor Maria Subtelny commented afterwards that the demonstration “was quite helpful for scholars.” The session closed with a progress report by Professor Vera Moreen, who is serving as section editor of “Persia/Iran” for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, itself a testament to scholarly interest in Iranian Jews.
Professor Parvaneh Pourshariati, Ohio State University, began the Library session with “Jews in Medieval Persian Cultures,” an overview of Jewish settlement in Persian lands and in particular Jewish participation in overland trade in Iran in late antiquity (roughly 100 B.C. to A.D. 750). Professor Maria Subtelny, University of Toronto, looked at an Islamic ascension narrative in medieval Iran as a venue for conversion of Jews. Professor Moreen, an independent scholar, focused on colophons of Judeo-Persian texts that were written in Hebrew letters. She said the existence of more than 1,200 manuscripts in Western library collections “attests to the literacy of Jews in Persia, and sheds light on the intellectual and material culture of Persian Jews.”
Judith Goldstein, Shalom Sabar and Evan Rapport discussed Jewish material culture and folk art. Rapport examined the differences in status between musicians in Iran and Central Asia, noting the broad appeal of Bukharian Jewish music to non-Jewish audiences in Central Asia. This presenter also focused on the revival of Bukharian Jewish music in the American diaspora after it had almost disappeared in its homeland.
In the final Library session, Orly Rahimiyan looked at the image of Jews in Iranian cinema, and Dalia Yasharpour discussed the Haggadah of the Jews of Kaifeng, China, and its connections to a Haggadah used by the Jews of Iran.
