Iran\’s growing nuclear threat has activated members of Los Angeles\’ Iranian Jewish community to participate in this year\’s presidential campaigns and make their voices heard.
The horrid bus bombings in Beersheba on Tuesday, which claimed the lives of 16 Israelis, including a 3-year-old boy, are grim reminders that the war on terror continues to rage in Israel.
For centuries, Persian Jews have traditionally raised funds for religious activities by auctioning off or bidding on aliyot, the bringing out of the Torah and other rituals during Shabbat and holiday services. But after 25 years in Los Angeles, Persian Jews are beginning to embrace the concept of membership.
As Iran\’s fundamentalist regime has increased its persecution of Jews and become a major sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East, local Iranian Jewish leaders have stepped up efforts to inform U.S. officials of the increasing danger posed by the Islamic nation.
In August 1939, Menashe Ezrapour could have escaped the horrors of the Holocaust by boarding a train in the French city of Grenoble, but instead, he chose to stay, ultimately becoming the only known Shoah survivor of Iranian Jewish descent interned in concentration and work camps during World War II.
The people of Darfur, most of whom are farmers, need to be safe in their own land. They need immediate relief — food, medicine, shelter — and the opportunity to rebuild their lives.
Over 30,000 people have been brutally murdered in the Darfur region of Sudan. At least 120,000 are living in tent camps, now being hammered by rains that turn the dust to mud. Diseases that thrive in the soggy ground continue, along with malnutrition, to drive the body count higher.
