Do You Drive a BMW?

Senior writer Allison Hoffman explores the city with the most Persian Jews in the whole world today in Tablet Magazine. This is, of course, Los Angeles. Though for the first decade or two after the 1979 revolution there was some thought that perhaps they would return one day, at this point, with thousands of them having grown up purely American—”the first generation of Persian Jews to come of age outside their country since the time of the Babylonian exile”—it is clear that they are there to stay (“there” primarily being Beverly Hills). There have been some clashes with the more entrenched Ashkenazic community, who don’t take as kindly to ululating and breast-feeding in shul, but if there is such a thing as intrafaith ecumenicism, it has been practiced quite well within L.A.’s Jewish community—the Second Intifada was a particularly strong moment of bonding—and today, Persian Jews retain some old-country customs (like celebrating the Persian new year, Nowruz, and living in, um, opulent houses) while nonetheless being members in good standing of the Jewish community.

Persian Gulf