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Karmel Melamed

Karmel Melamed

Activists campaign against visit of anti-Semitic Iranian comedian

After local Iranian-Jewish community activists received information in February that Akbar Abdi, an Iranian Muslim comedian notorious for his anti-Semitism, would be traveling to the United States from Iran to perform Farsi language shows in Southern California, they launched a grass-roots campaign to have the U.S. Department of State revoke the comedian’s visa.

Joseph Samuels: Exposing crime against Iraqi Jews

His voice cracking with emotion, his eyes welling with tears, Joseph Samuels, 84 and a retired Jewish real estate developer, recalled the pogrom’s angry Muslim mobs in Baghdad that his Iraqi family and the Jewish community there faced during the Holocaust.

Shared history of persecution unites Mizrahi, Sephardic Jews

A band of young, Jewish musicians filled the halls of Hillel at UCLA with traditional Sephardic music as more than 120 local Sephardic Jews gathered at the center on Nov. 24 to commemorate Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran.

Local Iranian-Jewish banker and leader acquitted of federal fraud charges

Family members said they watched tears of joy and relief run down the face of Shokrollah Baravarian, an 82-year-old Iranian-Jewish former banker and community activist, on Oct. 31 after a jury in a downtown Los Angeles federal court acquitted him on four charges of conspiring with his clients to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of tax revenue.

L.A.’s Iranian Jews must launch new Iran advocacy campaign

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to speak to a Southern California Christian group about the significant human rights violations that the Iranian regime has waged against the Christians, Jews and other religious minorities living in Iran today.

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