39/660
May 2009/
Iyar 5769
A publication of
A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY
Israel, Iran,
and the U.S.
Aron Rodrigue
Moral Relativism:
Questions for Iran . . . . . . . 1
Kenneth Stein
Iran: A Roundtable . . . . . . 2
Marc Gopin
The Ghost of Cyrus:
Persian Potential for Reform
in the Nuclear Age. . . . . . . 6
Meir Litvak
The Holocaust in Arab
& Muslim Discourse. . . . . . 7
Ruth Lande
“Ipkha Mistabra”
& the Iranian Question. . . . 8
Reuven Firestone
Expressions of Islam:
Iran as a Modern State. . . . 9
Gina Nahai
In Los Angeles. . . . . . . . . 11
Asher Lopatin
Iran and Its Jews:
Update from Purim . . . . . 12
Dora Levy Mossanen
Memories Are the
Cornerstone of Stories . . . 13
Galeet Dardashti
Michal and Tovah:
Ties That Bind Us . . . . . . 14
David Twersky
Book Review. . . . . . . . . . 15
Brant Rosen
NiSh’ma ............. 17
Tamar Kamionkowski
Sh’maEthics . . . . . . . . . . 20
Iran is much in the news these days as the West — and Israel — figure out how to
address a potentially nuclear Iran, strategically and diplomatically. On what basis are
Iran’s policies forged — how pragmatic, or ideological, or for that matter, how fore-
boding are they? Is the Iranian leadership heterogeneous or monolithic, and to what
extent will its ideology trump its pragmatism? This issue of Sh’ma features a roundtable
with historian Kenneth Stein and a number of Middle East foreign policy experts in
which they explore the delicate nature of Middle East geopolitics. It also includes es-
says on the Shi’a Islam practiced in Iran, Persian Jewish life in Los Angeles, the history
and culture of Persian Jews, and some discussion of the condition of Iranian Jewish life
today. While some argue that Jews continue to fare well, others insist that they enjoy at
best second-class citizenship and are muzzled by a repressive regime.
This month we launch a digital edition of Sh’ma. While we will continue to print and
mail the journal to subscribers, we are offering an electronic edition — formatted exactly
like the print edition. In May and June we offer a free “tryout” of the digital edition, which
will include expanded features: articles can be forwarded and are completely searchable.
Sign up now on shma.com. We’ll soon also post online our 40 year archive — a treasure
trove of Jewish thinking. —SB
Moral Relativism: Questions for Iran
ARON RODRIGUE
To subscribe:
877-568-SHMA
www.shma.com
On February 22 the New York Times columnist Roger Cohen published an astonishingly
naïve piece about the Jews of Iran that has received much hostile commentary. He conveyed a benign and somewhat rosy picture of the condition of the Jews and stressed
the warmth and hospitality of the people of Iran.
But the article omitted a highly significant point about the Jews of Iran that raises very important questions about human rights and the question of their universal applicability. Iranian
Jews are currently, by the standards of Western democracies, second-class citizens. While they
can vote, they cannot occupy governmental or bureaucratic positions of authority. One seat is
allocated to them in the Iranian parliament, as part of a quota system of representation for recognized non-Muslim minorities. And they do not have equality with Muslims in the sphere of
justice. For all intents and purposes, they live under an updated version of the old Islamic juridical system of dhimma, a sort of covenant that in Islamic law recognizes Jews and Christians
as tolerated minorities, but keeps them in a position of political and social inferiority.
For most Western observers this represents an intolerable infraction of human rights. Warm
and harmonious relations have frequently existed between members of dominant populations
and subjugated minority groups throughout history. But these days, formal civic inequality
should never be passed over in silence.
Is there a double standard at work here? Are non-Western societies to be held to looser or
lesser standards when it comes to matters of equality? The question arises with the greatest
frequency in issues related to women’s rights and Islam. While many in the West recoil in the
face of the veiling of women and their inferior position in many areas of life in some non-Western societies, others accept such practices as part and parcel of distinctive cultural norms
that one should not attempt to change. According to this line of thought, one should tolerate,
