Celebrating Persian New Year in LA, With a 1970s Twist

When pandemic lockdowns began two years ago in spring 2020, many joyous Nowruz (Persian New Year) celebrations around the world, including a famous annual event at UCLA, were put on hold. Over 300 million people worldwide celebrate Nowruz, from the Middle East to the Balkans and Central Asia, and the cancellations proved tremendously disappointing, particularly in Los Angeles, home to the world’s largest Iranian diaspora.

Though Nowruz, which marks the spring equinox, originates in Zoroastrianism, hundreds of millions of people celebrate it — Jews included — because today, it’s a mostly secular holiday. As the ultimate marker of spring, Nowruz is dictated by nature, and therefore immune to political undertones. In Iran, despite repeatedly trying to subvert ancient Persian culture that pre-dates Islam, the regime doesn’t even bother to subdue Nowruz practices, because most Iranians love and embrace the holiday.

This year, Nowruz falls on Sunday, March 20, and with the easing of lockdown restrictions for in-person events in LA, there’s one Nowruz event that’s seized my attention: A celebration called “Disco Jaan,” curated by a young, Los Angeles-based Iranian American Jew named Jonathan York and co-sponsored by NuRoots, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and 30 Years After.

In full disclosure, I’m a founder and current board member of 30 Years After, an LA-based non-profit that promotes the participation and leadership of Iranian American Jews in American civic, political and Jewish life. I’ve known York for nearly a decade, since he was part of the inaugural cohort of 30 Years After’s Maher Fellowship and displayed inimitable creativity. Perhaps because I know York’s artistic capabilities and hosting savvy — his sukkah last year was a cornucopia of colors, Kabbalah and 500 hand-cut wooden flowers — I anticipate that the event will be unlike any other Nowruz celebration in the city. Don’t believe me? The flier says, “Journey back in time with us to the funky underground of 1970s Iran, with its bold art and psychedelic sound.”

The co-sponsors said there’s an inherent value in investing in this unique event. “First-generation Iranian Americans are bringing in two worlds: a deep interest in their familial identity of a place they’ve never been to, but also cosmopolitan sensitivities,” NuRoots Senior Vice President Jason Leivenberg told the Journal. “The identity struggle is meaningful. But this, to me, is the future of the Jewish community: Keeping the integrity of something sacred, but also bringing in the creativity of what the new and modern world asks of us.”

In addition to having participated in The Maher Fellowship, York is also an alumnus of the Federation’s Rautenberg New Leader’s Project (NLP), which trains young Jewish civic leaders. For 30 Years After, co-sponsoring a Nowruz event seemed like a natural fit. “This event is a wonderful opportunity to bring together the greater Jewish community to celebrate life and new beginnings,” said board member Debbie Afar. “But it’s also an opportunity to showcase an era in Iranian culture that’s often overlooked, but that’s remembered fondly by many, particularly those generations who fled their home and who remember an Iran that was very different from the Iran we see today.”

I anticipate that the event will be unlike any other Nowruz celebration in the city. Don’t believe me? The flier says, “Journey back in time with us to the funky underground of 1970s Iran, with its bold art and psychedelic sound.”

York, a 30-year-old lawyer, real estate investor and developer, is an LA native whose parents were born in pre-revolutionary Iran. He earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford before returning for a JD from Stanford Law School, and holds a master’s degree in Real Estate Development from USC. He also finds time, somehow, to nurture a growing art practice, which includes dreaming up and constructing spaces for gathering. I asked him to answer a few questions about what prompted him to host and curate an experiential Nowruz event that harkens back to pre-revolutionary Iran.

Jewish Journal: How did you conceive the idea for this event?

Jonathan York: It was very serendipitous. I had recently been discovering the music and arts of 1970s Iran when The Federation and 30 Years After reached out to ask if I would create a Nowruz event. It was all swirling in my head, waiting to spring out. They read my mind.

JJ: What’s the significance of the name “Disco Jaan”?

JY: “Jaan” is one of my favorite Persian words. It means “life” in Persian, but it also functions as “dear.” You can meet a stranger, add “Jaan” to their name, and you’re friends. So I took “disco” and threw some love on it.

JJ: You were born in the United States years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Why does pre-revolutionary Iran, and particularly the 1960s and 1970s, resonate with you?

JY: There’s an unfortunate tendency in my generation to think either of ancient Iran — the time of Rumi and Esther — or of the theocratic mess that ejected our parents as refugees. We forget that in between there was an enlightened, groovy, sexy Iran. That’s the moment I want to revive with Disco Jaan.

JJ: Do you believe younger generations of Iranian American Jews long for a connection with Iran?

JY: My own primary identities have always been Jewish and American. But I think there’s a natural, human desire to understand the place that bore our families. And until we can visit, culture can be a bridge to that place. I’d love to throw a Disco Jaan party in Tehran one day.

JJ: How did attending college and graduate school in Palo Alto, away from the Los Angeles Iranian community, affect your self-identity?

JY: I spent almost a decade—from age 18 to 27—away from the Persian community, and it gave me the freedom to discover and come to love my culture on my own terms. I’ve been to 51 countries, and the more I travel, the more I appreciate that we have an amazing heritage. When I gave the student commencement address at Stanford, it was largely a love letter to my interwoven Jewish, American and Persian identities. I find the moments where they collide to be the most beautiful.

JJ: What does it mean to curate a Nowruz experience? And what can attendees expect?

JY: My goal is to create a bit of a time capsule: the best of Persian food, art, tradition, and of course, the psychedelic music of the 1960s and 1970s. And it’s important to me that this event is not just for the Persian community, but a chance to share our energy and celebration with all of Jewish LA.

For more information or to purchase tickets to “Disco Jaan,” visit discojaan.com