It's hard to imagine this stark reality. The best approximation puts the Jewish population in Iran at slightly more than 10,000 people. Now. Today.
The vast majority of Iranian Jewry live in Teheran, with a population of about 6,000 to 7,000. After that comes Shiraz with about 2,000, then Isfahan with about 1,500.
These are not hidden Jews; they are Jewish Jews.
There are 25 synagogues in Iran. 11 of those synagogues are fully functioning. In addition to religious services, most of these synagogues also provide their communities Jewish educational schools.
According to Al Jazeera, the Tehran Jewish Committee, the coordinating national Jewish body, operates five Jewish day schools and two kindergartens in Tehran.
The schools teach Hebrew language, Jewish history, and religious studies.
They also provide instruction in secular subjects.
The five schools have an enrollment of several hundred students in each school.
These institutions operate under government supervision.
They incorporate official Iranian educational curriculum requirements while also teaching Jewish studies.
They’re like Jewish day schools globally.
The questions loom large:
—How has the Iranian Jewish community dealt with the current US Israel attack?
—How have the Jews of Iran been treated by the rest of Iran and by the regime?
—The answers are hard to discern. It's very difficult to get an accurate assessment.
There is an internet blackout.
And if not for Elon Musk dropping his portable Starlink internet systems into Iran, we would know even less than we know now.
We would have no news at all about what is happening.
As the Starlink systems dropped from the sky there was a race to grab them.
Locals and resistance fighters rushed in to grab their link to the world as did members of the regime.
The regime’s goal was to swoop in, grab, gather and confiscate the systems.
The resistance ran to gather them in the hope of gaining access to communication both internal and external.
Iranian Jews have a 2,700-year-old history of keeping their heads down. The situation today is equal parts different and the same.
Since Feb. 28, 2026, Jewish schools have been closed.
There have been no public celebrations, no weddings, no bar-mitzvahs. Nothing that will attract attention. This is not paranoia - it is a practical historically effective response to a crisis. It is a learned response. It comes with experience.
The official statement released after Feb. 28, 2026 by the Persian Jewish community was very similar to the statement they issued in June of 2025.
It's a template.
It's almost a replica of the many statements they have issued, over the years, in times of crisis. It contains a statement, issued by the Committee, reiterating their long-standing opposition to Zionism.
It explains that "Judaism is a religion, not a political ideology," and that Iranian Jews "completely separate themselves from the Zionist regime."
This wording is essential for the very survival of Iranian Jewry regardless of whether the regime falls or remains standing. It is the language the Jewish community must speak to survive.
There is a Jewish seat in the Iranian parliament, their representation to the regime. Since 2024, Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi has held the position of Chair of the Tehran Jewish Association. It is he who sits in the parliament.
Siamak Moreh Sedgh, his predecessor, held the post for 12 years.
Ironically, since the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Jewish community, like the Muslim community, has become more traditional, more Judaically observant.
Synagogues and schools became the center of the Jewish community social life.
The Tehran Jewish Committee makes certain that kosher food is available, that kosher slaughterhouses function, that they produce matzah for Passover.
Jews are permitted to consume wine and arak.
Muslims everywhere are forbidden all alcohol at home or in public. Jewish women, like all Iranian women, must cover themselves especially their hair when outside their homes.
Before February 28, the large Jewish library had an extensive reading room with a portrait of the founding Ayatollah Khomeini adorning the wall. What hangs there now, we do not know.
We do know that any affiliation with Israel was considered treasonous.
In June, 2025, a 70- year-old Jewish man was arrested for having traveled to Israel 13 years earlier. Under the regime Jews were forced to attend pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies.
Jews of Persia have dealt with upheaval for millennia. They did not suddenly wake up on February 28 and discover that they were threatened more significantly than they had been the day before.
Today they may be facing different types of threats and different risks - but the Jews of Persian will not be destroyed.
They will not be destroyed by the regime or by whatever political power should emerge.
Jewish history is deeply engrained into Persian society.
Jews living in Iran may not live free and equal as they would in the United States or Israel, but even under the most oppressive Islamic regime they had a protected status and were free to live Jewish lives.
They even had a very popular, now shuttered, Jewish hospital.
It closed not because of the war or anti-Jewish sentiment or persecution.
The hospital closed due to financial problems stemming from sanctions.
Do not look to see Jews in the resistance.
They have learned to not stand out, to keep their heads down, to wait for the dust to settle.
Micah Halpern is a political and foreign affairs commentator. Follow him on Twitter @MicahHalpern. Read more Micah Halpern Insider articles — Click Here Now.