When Rochelle Goldberg’s eighth grade Bais Yaakov students performed her musical drama, Journey’s End, in January, 2016, little did she realize that the play – the sixth original play she has written for the school – would hit a nerve.
“When I was thinking about ideas, I realized that no one had ever done a play with a Persian theme,” recalls Mrs. Goldberg. “I have always noticed that some of the Persian girls feel like second-class citizens – not quite fitting in. Some fit in so easily, but a significant group does not. Of course, that was my personal feeling; I took a chance and gambled with my gut feeling. It’s a shame that it hadn’t been done earlier. But it ended up being so much more than a play.”
The poignant play was performed again by Bais Yaakov’s eighth grade students a few weeks ago. Renamed Generations, it was directed by Mrs. Goldberg and production heads, Mrs. Sossie Ansbacher and Miss Gila Jacobovitz, as well as student production heads, Tova Rachel Paige and Rivkah Moinzadeh. The story featured the special connection between “Elinor,” a 16-year-old Persian student, played by first-generation American Shira Shifteh, and her great-grandmother, played by Shira Shapiro (who worked with the Persian girls to get the accent down!). The role of Elinor’s mother, Mrs. Delshad, was played by Shanit Gholian, also a first-generation American.
The plot revolves around a group of classmates who are assigned a “Jewish heritage project,” for which they must interview a family member or a non-relative who is at least 70 years old, focusing on what life was like for the person when he or she was young. They are to find out as much as they can about Jewish life in whatever place the interviewee lived, and whether the person experienced persecution for being Jewish. While researching her personal family background for this essay, Elinor hears about her rich Persian heritage – which she always assumed was boring – for the first time from her great-grandmother.
“While rehearsing our original production, I was shocked to learn that most of the girls in the eighth grade had no idea, or very little idea, of the history of the Persian Jews in general and, more specifically, within our community, and even within their own families,” said Mrs. Goldberg. “In fact, even the Persian girls thought I made the whole story up.”
Mrs. Goldberg’s eyes were opened further after the original performance, three years ago, when Aviva, the protagonist, proudly went up to her real mother, Roya Nafisi, who was still sitting in the audience, and found her in tears. Although the play is subtle and sprinkled with lots of humor, it turned out to be an emotional experience for her mother, who admitted that the personal life story of her husband her David, Aviva’s father, was very similar to the one portrayed in the play. It was a real eye-opener for Aviva and her classmates (especially her fellow Persians), as well as the Bais Yaakov administration and staff.
“I didn’t make up any of it, of course,” notes Mrs. Goldberg. “I spent days and days doing research for this play, and I knew many Persian boys who have spent time with my family over the years.”
Mrs. Goldberg and her husband, Bill, the yeshiva’s food service manager, moved to the Ner Israel yeshiva campus in 1985. At that time, there were many young boys who had been rescued from Iran and brought to the Yeshiva. The Yeshiva, and especially Rabbi Naftoli Neuberger [see sidebar], gave them a safe home, taking care of their every need. Many of these young men moved on to become great rabbis and built beautiful Persian communities across the United States from Los Angeles to Great Neck, New York, in addition to right here in Baltimore.
“My husband and I had the pleasure of hosting these boys at our Shabbos table, where they shared their stories with us,” notes Mrs. Goldberg, who combined a number of their personal escape stories in her play. “The boys told us of being hidden in trunks of cars and riding through the desert on camels with smugglers who carried guns and could kill them at the drop of a hat. They were young – most of them only 12 or 13 years old – and traveled alone without parents or family. Many of them never saw their families again; some families did make it here and were reunited.”
Adds Mrs. Goldberg, “After the performance of Journey’s End, I had many phone calls from parents applauding the topic. Persian parents admitted to not telling their children because they felt they were either too young or it would frighten them – similar to the feelings of Holocaust survivors in their time. I had no idea of this. The boys who passed through my house did tell their stories.
“I thought I was just writing a play, but in the end, I found that the play raised awareness, and I feel very proud to have publicized this very special culture, which needs to be better known. There should be hundreds of books written, just as there are about the Holocaust,” concludes Mrs. Goldberg. “It would be so good to see the Persian people take their long-deserved place in American Jewish culture. I know that the Persian girls in the eighth grade are so proud. They feel special, and it is long overdue.”
SIDEBAR #1
Lessons Learned
by Margie Pensak
While writing this article, I wondered what some of Generations’ main players had to say about it. Here are their thoughts:
Mrs. Sossie Ansbacher and Miss Gila Jacobovitz (production heads): “We are so excited to be doing a play that highlights the backgrounds of all different types of Jews. It is so important for children today to understand where they come from and the mesiras nefesh that their families displayed in order for them to live freely.”
Rivkah Moinzadeh and Tova Rochel Paige (student production heads): “It is such a fun experience to head this production. We love the enthusiasm and cool ideas. In addition, we now understand more about the hard times the Persian families had and how strong their bitachon was and how Hashem kept them safe!”
Tamar Epstein and Abby Pachaev (drama heads): “We knew nothing about the Persian experience, nothing at all. We never learned any of this in school. We are proud to be the drama heads, which gave us this opportunity to have fun and learn something important!”
Shanit Gholian (Elinor’s mother): “Maybe this will show people how important this history is. Our Jews in Iran kept their religion for 2,700 years. It makes me very proud.”
Shira Shifteh (Elinor): “My family did talk about Iran and all that they went through there and how they came to America. But I am glad that now my friends see it, too. We never learn this in school. It’s just like the play says: All anyone talks about is the Holocaust.”
Penina Rosenblatt (nursing home resident): “In this year’s eighth grade play, I play the role of an older lady who survived the Holocaust. My entire family was killed and I remain the sole survivor. I learned a lot from this, more so than if I had read it in a book. Danger, fear, confusion, and an unknown future! That’s what Jews have had to live with for centuries. Jews have been expelled and/or persecuted in so many places. We are so fortunate to live in America.”
SIDEBAR #2
Rabbi Neuberger to the Rescue
by Margie Pensak
In 1978, before the Islamic Revolution started in Iran, Ner Israel’s president, Rabbi Herman (Naftali) Neuberger, visited the country at the request of the Agudah of France, under whose auspices Jewish education operated. The Shah had closed all private schools, allowing only public schools, in order to minimize the Islamic influence. Rabbi Neuberger reported to the Agudah that it would be impossible to bring a yeshiva to Iran under these circumstances, and suggested, instead, that Iranian boys come to yeshiva in America. He started bringing boys to Ner Israel with the hope that they would be Iran’s future Jewish leaders, strengthening Yiddishkeit there with their learning and as trained rabbanim, rebbeim, and mohalim, among other klei kodesh professions.
Life was not only comfortable for the Jews before the Revolution, they prospered under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the leader of Iran, who was good to the Jews. However, soon after the Shah went on “vacation” outside the country, in January, 1979, there were riots in the streets for a few months, after which he was officially replaced by the radical Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iran became a theocracy, and religious komitehs (committees) enforced Islamic codes, which made the situation hard for the Jews, overnight. The Jewish community leader, Habib Elghanian, was executed on trumped up charges of spying for Israel, and the government subsequently started imprisoning Jews for made up reasons. Jews were not allowed to leave Iran, with the exception of students who studied overseas, since the government reasoned they would return home to their parents. Others, who were not students, paid hefty sums to smugglers who they hoped would help them escape safely to freedom in another country.
During the upheaval of the Revolution, through contacts that Rabbi Neuberger had made when times were good, and with the help of a non-Jewish couple, arrangements were made to bring some teenaged Iranian girls to study in Baltimore. A community gathering was held at Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, in February 1979, to find volunteer families who would provide housing for them. Rabbi Hirsch Diskind, (son-in-law of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky) and Rabbi Binyomin Steinberg, who were then the principals of Bais Yaakov high school, chaired the gathering. The potential host families had a plethora of questions, such as when the girls were coming, how many were coming, their ages, how long they will be staying with them, and if they knew English. No one was able to provide the answers to any of these questions. All they knew was that most of the girls would be from Shiraz and, although not well educated in Yiddishkeit, would be open to tradition and not at all rebellious. About six months later, these girls arrived, and the host families were advised to integrate them into their families, have them share in the chores, and be solicitous of their needs while remaining in authority and trying to preserve the girls’ Persian identity.
In 1979, before the Revolution, there were about 150,000 Jews in Iran, dating back to the first Beis Hamikdash; presently, the population is estimated at under 9,000. Several of the Iranian parents of the first-generation American students in Bais Yaakov of Baltimore and Ner Israel – in addition those who live in the heavily-saturated Persian communities in the Greater Los Angeles area and in Great Neck, New York – had to sneak out of Iran to escape this Jewish oppression. Although the Persian yeshiva bachurim had no qualms about sharing their brave escape stories soon after they arrived, as they did with Mrs. Goldberg, it seems that after they married and had families, they were more protective of their children and hid the details of their not-so-distant pasts from them.
