Karmel Melamed
L.A.’s Iranian Americans keep tabs on new freedom protests in Iran
In the wake of the Feb. 14 Iranian protests for greater freedom, which took place throughout that country, Iranian Americans of various religious backgrounds in Southern California have been closely monitoring the developments and voicing support for those seeking democracy.
Promoting unity, Judaism among local Iranian Jews
Southern California’s Iranian Jewish community has long been divided over a host of social and religious issues, often discouraging hopes among the elders for community continuity. Eman Esmailzadeh, a 27-year-old engineer and community activist, is one of a small number of young people who are now focused on reuniting this immigrant community, in part by encouraging teenagers to identify with their Judaism.
Iranian Jewish group’s ‘Project Jacob’ to spur commercial research in Israel
For a little more than three decades, the Los Angeles-based International Judea Foundation (known as SIAMAK), among the oldest and most active of the local Iranian Jewish nonprofits, was known for looking out for the needs of the Iranian Jewish community here and abroad. Now, as the local Iranian Jewish community has matured and prospered in Southern California, SIAMAK has turned some of its focus to Israel, creating a program to nurture and develop innovative medical, high-tech and alternative energy research at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University (BGU). Dubbed “Project Jacob” after the biblical patriarch, the program is the brainchild of Dariush Fakheri, SIAMAK’s president, a businessman and entrepreneur who lives in Encino. With an initial investment of $200,000 last February, SIAMAK funded three projects at BGU.
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