Iranian Jew gives Journal’s Rob Eshman billboard fame in Hollywood

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Karmel Melamed

May 13, 2009

For those individuals who think L.A. area Iranian Jews do not read the L.A. Jewish Journal newspaper and local Iranian Jews do not have influence in the city—they need only open their eyes last Friday May 8th to see the giant jumbo-tron electronic billboard on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood with Rob Eshman’s (the Journal’s editor-in-chief’s) face appearing in color for all to see. Yes, that jumbo-tron billboard is owned by a local Iranian Jewish businessman (who shall remain anonymous) who is both a big fan of this blog and the Journal!

I spoke with him recently and he mentioned the fact that he was moved by Rob’s opinion piece last week in the Journal about the need for more local Jews to run for public office in the city and state. Likewise Rob’s piece has struck a chord with many local Iranian Jews who realize the true value of having Jewish representation in government after many of them were treated as outsiders while living in Iran for centuries. Today with Paul Koretz being the only Jewish candidate running for a spot on the L.A. City Council and Jack Weiss, the only Jewish candidate running for City Attorney, it seems as if the Jewish community and especially the local Iranian Jewish community need to step and get involved with helping to get both candidates get elected if they want to have any real say in their local government.

So the next time you think local Iranian Jews are “nobodies” think again because you may have your face plastered on an electronic billboard in Hollywood! Kudos to Rob by the way, we journalists sometimes deserve to have our names and faces up in lights because we do the hard work of bringing key issues to the attention of the public and we often get attacked for doing so.

You can hear our podcast’s exclusive interview with Paul Koretz from two months ago;