Persian Jewish actress Bahar Soomekh earned some serious attention last year when she played a young Iranian in \”Crash,\” the Academy Award winner for best picture. She\’s now appearing in an even bigger role — playing alongside Tom Cruise in the thriller, \”M:I:III.\” On the eve of the film\’s debut, Soomekh spoke about growing up Persian Jewish in Los Angeles and about her career.\n
In 1470, five corpses were found in the charnel of a church in Endingen on the Rhine. Eight years earlier, a Jewish man named Elias had sheltered a family of five beggars in his home during the Passover/Easter season. Assuming that Endingen\’s Jews had murdered the family in order to use their blood for ritual purposes, the governor ordered that Elias and his brothers, Eberlin and Mercklin, be arrested and interrogated.
Three years ago, Raymond P., a 28-year-old Iranian Jew, was a full-fledged member of a notorious Los Angeles street gang. He sold drugs and suggests that he may have participated in violent crimes. He doesn\’t want to talk about specifics but explains by saying he was desperate to pay for his drug habit.
Surrounded by seven young children, Yehuda Richter tells me over Shabbat lunch how he decided to move from Los Angeles to Elon Moreh, a settlement on the outskirts of the place Jews call Shechem and the Arabs call Nablus.
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