Photograph of a plaque which reads: “The synagogue of Haji Adoniayahu son of Aharon Hacohen of the Crypto-Jews of Mashhad, dedicated by the Cohen Aharon family in 1902.” at the Haji Adoniyah Synagogue in Jerusalem, Israel; 2007. x
Jews first settled in the Iranian city of Mashhad in 1741, when forty Jewish families were relocated by the Persian ruler Nader Shah to guard the treasures he had brought to Mashhad after conquering India. He chose the Jews for this work because he did not trust the local population. Mashhad’s status as a holy Muslim city meant that it was closed to non-Muslim settlement, therefore the Jews settled in a Jewish quarter which was called the “place of celebrations.”
Although Mashhad’s Jewish community was segregated from the rest of the city, they prospered as merchants and traders. However, tensions between the local Shiite population and the Jews erupted on March 27, 1839. Following an accusation against a Jewish woman, the Jewish quarter was attacked by a mob. Between thirty and forty Jews were killed, the synagogue was burned, homes were looted, and Jewish children were abducted. Following the riots the entire community of nearly 2,400 Jews was forced to convert to Islam; an event which became known as the Allahdad. Many of those who had been forcibly converted to Islam continued to practice Judaism in secret.
There were also organized attacks against Jews in 1891 and 1902, which led to emigration of Jews from Mashhad. When Reza Shah Pahlavi became the ruler of Iran in 1925, things improved for the Jews in Iran and Mashhad and some began practicing Judaism openly again. Following a wave of anti-Semitism in 1946 across Iran, most of the Jews - including those who had been forcibly converted - left Mashhad for Tehran, and after 1948 to Israel.
