Lior Sternfeld refreshingly departs from mainstream accounts of modern Iranian Jewish history by pointing out the multiple ways through which the Jewish community engaged with its broader Iranian environment. This makes it a very important voice in the sometimes-static discourse about Middle Eastern Jewish identities. Sternfeld focuses on the decades 1920–1980, during which massive transformations in social class and political agency unfolded in Iranian society, and among Jews as part of it. By assessing how Jews started to take part in the political life of modern Iran, the author refutes one-sided identity concepts that pit “Jewish” and “Iranian” identities against each other.
Chapter 1 deals with demographic changes in Iran during and after World War II. Reza Shah (reigned 1925–1941) introduced new ideas of nationalism to Iran, and we learn about the country's ensuing struggle to remain neutral in the face of the emerging Second World War and the conflicting interests of the Great Powers. Sternfeld describes the arrival of Jewish refugees to Iran, mostly from Poland, in 1942–43. Together with the later influx of Iraqi Jews, who increasingly arrived in the 1950s, he portrays aspects of a diverse culture, in which many parallel and interacting worlds of “Jewishness” were possible.
The second chapter discusses the Iranian political sphere after 1941 and the shaping of national identity. Sternfeld focuses on Jewish participation in the leftist Tudeh Party, including the different reasons that led Jews to join it, as a way to enter local society as patriots or to rebel against tradition, family, or religion. He is careful not to overemphasize communist ideology, as many leftist Jews supported local goals, decoupled from Marxist ideologies, and prioritized Iran's interest over Soviet ones “in order to become more Iranian” (46).
Besides well-elaborated interviews with individuals who were members of the Tudeh Party, Sternfeld bases his analysis on two leftist Iranian Jewish newspapers: Nissan and Bani Adam. However, not enough context is provided about the newspapers and their readership to determine how representative they were. Both were published for a short period, and these publications’ status within the broader Jewish community in Iran must be clarified.
Chapter 3 deals with Zionism and Iran's relationship with Israel during the Pahlavi era in more detail. It is remarkable that Jews had “multiple identities” (65), that is, it was possible to be an Iranian nationalist, Jew, communist, and Zionist. Zionism was an opportunity to escape oppressive political and economic hardships, rather than an ideological commitment. This explains why predominantly poorer segments of the Jewish community moved to Israel, while those who had experienced upward mobility did not see any reason to leave Iran or chose other destinations for emigration. Sternfeld manages to describe the significance of Zionism and related patterns of migration in a nuanced way. The author concludes that in the 1950s, the image of the Jew in Iranian society was positive.
Chapter 4 discusses the years leading up to the revolution in 1978/79. Sternfeld tackles the seeming contradiction between Jews having reached “full integration” in the public sphere under the Pahlavi monarchy, while they still “overwhelmingly did not appear to support the continuation of the monarchy” (93). Such generalized statements must be questioned, for neither can one speak of the same degree of integration among the different strata of Jewish society at the time, including the conflicts resulting from these differences, nor is there sufficient evidence provided to describe the political inclinations of an overwhelming majority. The chapter introduces the Association of Jewish Iranian Intellectuals (AJII) as the main venue for Jewish leftist activities. The bylaws of the AJII mirror the political discourse of the time, envisioning a model society in which universal values of solidarity would yield a just and open community where Jews would be equal citizens. Sternfeld furthermore discusses the activities of the SAPIR hospital during the revolution of 1979 and argues that Jews also participated in almost exclusively Muslim political organizations. This unfamiliar part of Iranian history is an important intervention in modern historiography, which tends to be shaped by the presumption that “Jewish” and “Muslim” interests were conflicting.
It is an innovative and bold move to portray the Jews of modern Iran—many of whom were strong Iranian patriots—as active members of their broader society. The focus on leftist activism presents the reader with a fascinating, yet distinct aspect of Iranian Jewish history. As a generalization of these phenomena to the Iranian Jewish society as a whole is not supported, it would have added some clarity if these limits were spelled out more concretely at times. Last but not least, the book raises questions about the state of scholarship on Jewish-Iranian history, as Sternfeld has not been able to visit Iran to date. The wider political implications of this situation are obviously not his to tackle. But Between Iran and Zion does raise questions regarding issues of representation and the need to challenge scholarship about Iran based on mediated knowledge and an imagined present, born of recollections from the past. Sternfeld promotes a differentiated reading of Iranian Jewish history and his contribution is significant in that he refutes portrayals of the life of Jews among Muslims as an ordeal, for which the only solution was emigration to Israel. This intervention is a valuable starting point for further research on how the lives of Iranian Jews were intertwined with their social environment, and how their allegiances evolved over time, rather than exclusively and statically self-identifying as “Jews.”
