Are you kidding?” These words (plus a few
others not appropriate for print) comprised
my parents’ reaction when I first told them
that I was going to Iran. To their credit, they
could not have been more supportive once
they got beyond the initial shock. It just took
some calmly conveyed logic. I explained my
Jewish investment in going: 20,000 Jews still
live in the Islamic Republic. I outlined the
fundamentals of civilian diplomacy: when
governments only use hostile rhetoric toward
one another, an obligation falls on ordinary
citizens to offer a more nuanced perspective.
And I assured them that this delegation was
not the first from the United States to go to
Iran; the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)
(
) had led seven prior trips.
Ours would be unique only in its interfaith
focus and its Jewish majority of participants.
My commitment to this type of recon-
ciliation work began during my first year of
the rabbinical program in Israel. Traveling to-
Bethlehem and Hebron on the Encounters
program, I was able to
hear Palestinians speak
of their experience first
hand. The checkpoint
that prevented hun-
dreds from working
and earning a liveli-
hood also prevented
suicide bombings in
Jerusalem cafes. I saw
people on both sides
completely shut out
the narrative of the
other. They stopped
listening out of fear
that acknowledging
the truth of another’s
pain would somehow
negate the truth of their
own. From this experi-
ence, I came to believe that if there is any hope
of conflict resolution, we have to be able to
acknowledge two conflicting narratives si-
multaneously.
When I hung up the phone with my
parents’ blessing, hopping on a plane to
Tehran was still far from a done deal. More
than once, I reminded myself of my friend
stationed with the State Department in Bagh-
dad and how crazy I thought she was to go.
The arrest of an American citizen researching
women’s rights in Iran just before my depar-
ture did not help.
Whatever fears still lingered, I could only
scratch the surface of the conflict by reading
about it from abroad. I needed to go – even
while knowing that our delegation faced se-
vere limitations. Substantive dialogue can be
difficult even in the best of conditions. Our
FOR delegation faced the added difficulties
of losing nuance through translation, the un-
ceasing presence of a government official (as
both a helpful escort and a watchful eye) and
what we came to know as
tarof
,
Iranian hos-
pitality that prevented dialogue from starting
until our hosts poured tea, coffee, and flower-
ing expressions of gratitude around the table.
In spite of these limitations, first-hand experi-
ence would be more valuable than any reading
I could do.
Oscillating between the roles of civilian
diplomats and tourists, we accomplished
everything from a meeting with an
ayatollah
in the Justice Department to climbing the
ruins of Persepolis. Saturday night at the tomb
of the Persian poet Hafez topped my personal
list of memories. It’s no discotheque, but given
the strict morality code, Hafez’s tomb is the
closest singles’ venue that Iranians have to a
JDate booze cruise.
I was quite conscious of my role as a liai-
son between the American and Iranian Jewish
communities. Many of us in the U.S.
cannot help but be perplexed by the continu-
ing Jewish presence there. What makes them
stay? No simple answers exist, but I share with
you reflections on the most common ques-
tions posed to me upon my return.
Are Jews safe there? Well, Jews live very
publicly
as Jews
with a Federation-like infra-
structure and representation in the Iranian
legislative body. The community spoke with
pride about its participation in civil society, par-
ticularly of the Jewish charity hospital it runs
in Tehran. But non-Muslims have fewer rights
in civil and criminal court under the religious
system of law, making them more vulnerable
when engaging with the justice system.
Are Iranian Jews anti-Zionists? Some are.
Some are not. Jewish officials inTehran towed
the government line in claiming that they
simply remove themselves from all issues of
foreign policy. When I saw a teenager wearing
a
kippah
decorated with American and Israeli
flags at a local synagogue, I understood that
policy of avoidance to be coded support of Is-
22
| THE CHRONICLE
MEET HUC-J IR’S STUDENTS
Rabbinical Student as
Civilian Diplomat in Iran
Sarah Bassin, L ‘11
Sarah Bassin on a civilian mission of reconciliation in Iran.
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