Karmel Melamed
Author promotes moderate faith for Iranian Jews
October 26, 2011
After their immigration to Southern California more than 30 years ago, the majority of the area’s Iranian Jewish community poured their energies into re-establishing themselves financially. Following their success, some Iranian Jews have turned their attention to promoting philanthropy in the arts, education and Israel in recent years.
30 Years After hears calls for political, social action
October 13, 2010
Despite being caught in the middle of a labor dispute involving the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel and its workers, the Los Angeles-based Iranian Jewish political and civic action group 30 Years After (30YA) welcomed roughly 1,200 people, most of them local Iranian Jews, to its second biennial conference on Oct. 10. About a dozen picketers from UNITE HERE Local 11 lined up outside the Hyatt during the early morning hours, along with protesting members of the Jewish Labor Committee, but despite their presence, the conference moved forward uninterrupted.
30 Years After conference targeted during hotel labor dispute
October 9, 2010
The Los Angeles-based Iranian Jewish political and civic action group 30 Years After will host its second biennial conference at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel on Sunday, Oct. 10, in the middle of a bitter labor dispute between the Hyatt and the hotel’s worker union “Unite Here – Local 11”.
Young Iranian Jews to show strength with second 30 Years After conference
October 6, 2010
After splashing onto the scene two years ago, 30 Years After, the L.A.-based Iranian Jewish political and civic action group, is slated to host its second biennial conference, Oct. 10 in Century City, drawing a bevy of elected federal and state officials as speakers.
Remembering Ebi: Why we fled Iran
July 28, 2010
“I will never forget when I first saw his body — they shot him with one bullet at point-blank range in his heart,” my father, George Melamed, shared with me a few weeks ago, reflecting on his friend — and brother-in-law’s brother — Ebrahim (Ebi) Berookhim, who was executed in an Iranian prison on July 31, 1980, at the age of 30. For the past 30 years, my father has rarely spoken of this young Jewish man’s killing and the circumstances that propelled our family’s abrupt flight from Iran. During these past three decades, he’s tried to forget how Ebi was unjustly accused of being an Israeli and American spy, then ruthlessly murdered by Iran’s radical Islamic regime.
Ezri Namvar quits Nessah Synagogue board
April 6, 2010
Facing mounting community criticism for his alleged involvement in what has been called a Ponzi scheme, Ezri Namvar, an Iranian-Jewish philanthropist and businessman, last month voluntarily resigned from the Board of Trustees for the Beverly Hills-based Nessah Synagogue. Namvar sent an e-mail on March 16 to Nessah\’s board members, notifying the organization of his immediate resignation. Namvar was forced into involuntary bankruptcy in December 2008 and accused by investors of creating a Ponzi scheme that lost as much as $500 million loaned to him — most of it by Los Angeles\’ Iranian Jews.
Business fraud scandals devastate L.A.’s Iranian Jews.
February 17, 2010
Just over a year ago, Ezri Namvar was forced into involuntary bankruptcy and accused by investors of creating a Ponzi scheme that lost as much as $500 million that had been loaned to him — most of it by Los Angeles’ Iranian Jews. Many of his former investors once knew Namvar as a friend and trusted adviser, but they now say their lives have been turned upside down by their losses. Adding to their pain is the fact that, although the accusations surrounding Namvar have earned him the community’s ire, he is not the only object of their anger. Two other investment fraud scandals involving two other local Iranian Americans have since piled onto the local community’s difficulties.
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