A historic synagogue in Tehran, originally built in 1958, was destroyed on the Jewish holiday of Passover by Israeli airstrikes on April 7th.

The Rafi-Nia Synagogue, located in central Tehran, was one of the longstanding institutions serving Iran’s Jewish community. Constructed in 1958, it stood as both a place of worship and a symbol of the deep historical roots of Judaism in Iran, which stretch back more than two millennia.

“We are Iranian Jews and we are always ready to sacrifice our lives for our homeland,” Bihdad Mikhail, managing director of the Tehran Jewish Association, told MintPress News as he held back his tears while carrying Jewish books that were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

The Mikhail told MintPress that the Jewish community in Iran is vehemently anti-Zionist and have vowed their loyalty to their Iranian homeland against Israeli attacks.

The Mikhail told MintPress that the Jewish community in Iran is vehemently anti-Zionist and have vowed their loyalty to their Iranian homeland against Israeli attacks.

Raw video footage and interviews with the synagogue director however show that the building was completely leveled, with religious materials, including Torah scrolls, buried beneath the rubble. Israel denies deliberately targeting the historic synagogue, with Israeli officials describing the damage as “collateral”.

Raw video footage and interviews with the synagogue director however show that the building was completely leveled, with religious materials, including Torah scrolls, buried beneath the rubble. Israel denies deliberately targeting the historic synagogue, with Israeli officials describing the damage as “collateral”.

The strike has been condemned not only by Iranian officials but also by members of Iran’s Jewish community who told MintPress that “Israel is an ominous Zionist regime”.

Representatives of the community have emphasized that the synagogue was a purely religious space, with no military function, underscoring the broader implications of the attack.

The destruction of the Rafi-Nia Synagogue highlights the often-overlooked reality of Iran’s Jewish population. Contrary to common perceptions, Iran is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East outside of Israel, with more than 10,000 Jews and approximately 100 active synagogues across the country. These communities have maintained religious life and cultural traditions for generations.

Judaism is one of the main recognized religions by the Iranian government providing religious protection to this community.

For many, the attack raises troubling questions about the widening scope of the conflict.

Religious and cultural sites have historically been protected under international law, yet recent weeks have seen increasing reports of damage to UNESCO heritage sites across Iran, either directly or through nearby strikes.

The timing of the strike has also intensified outrage. Reports indicate that the attack occurred during a period of religious observance, amplifying concerns that places of worship are no longer being treated as protected spaces in the expanding war.

Beyond the immediate destruction, the loss of the synagogue represents a deeper cultural blow. Sites like the Rafi-Nia Synagogue are not only places of worship but also repositories of history, identity, and communal memory. Their destruction erases physical links to longstanding minority communities that have coexisted within Iran for centuries.

While Israel claims to be a “Jewish State”, this latest attack against an Iranian synagogue shows Israel’s actions are rooted in destruction, genocide and an attempt to sow chaos.

Source: MintPress News https://www.mintpressnews.com/iranian-jewish-association-describe-israel-as-ominous-zionist-regime-after-israeli-strikes-destroy-historic-synagogue-on-passover/290836/

A historic synagogue in Tehran, originally built in 1958, was destroyed on the Jewish holiday of Passover by Israeli airstrikes on April 7th.

The Rafi-Nia Synagogue, located in central Tehran, was one of the longstanding institutions serving Iran’s Jewish community. Constructed in 1958, it stood as both a place of worship and a symbol of the deep historical roots of Judaism in Iran, which stretch back more than two millennia.

“We are Iranian Jews and we are always ready to sacrifice our lives for our homeland,” Bihdad Mikhail, managing director of the Tehran Jewish Association, told MintPress News as he held back his tears while carrying Jewish books that were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

The Mikhail told MintPress that the Jewish community in Iran is vehemently anti-Zionist and have vowed their loyalty to their Iranian homeland against Israeli attacks.

The Mikhail told MintPress that the Jewish community in Iran is vehemently anti-Zionist and have vowed their loyalty to their Iranian homeland against Israeli attacks.

Raw video footage and interviews with the synagogue director however show that the building was completely leveled, with religious materials, including Torah scrolls, buried beneath the rubble. Israel denies deliberately targeting the historic synagogue, with Israeli officials describing the damage as “collateral”.

Raw video footage and interviews with the synagogue director however show that the building was completely leveled, with religious materials, including Torah scrolls, buried beneath the rubble. Israel denies deliberately targeting the historic synagogue, with Israeli officials describing the damage as “collateral”.

The strike has been condemned not only by Iranian officials but also by members of Iran’s Jewish community who told MintPress that “Israel is an ominous Zionist regime”.

Representatives of the community have emphasized that the synagogue was a purely religious space, with no military function, underscoring the broader implications of the attack.

The destruction of the Rafi-Nia Synagogue highlights the often-overlooked reality of Iran’s Jewish population. Contrary to common perceptions, Iran is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East outside of Israel, with more than 10,000 Jews and approximately 100 active synagogues across the country. These communities have maintained religious life and cultural traditions for generations.

Judaism is one of the main recognized religions by the Iranian government providing religious protection to this community.

For many, the attack raises troubling questions about the widening scope of the conflict.

Religious and cultural sites have historically been protected under international law, yet recent weeks have seen increasing reports of damage to UNESCO heritage sites across Iran, either directly or through nearby strikes.

The timing of the strike has also intensified outrage. Reports indicate that the attack occurred during a period of religious observance, amplifying concerns that places of worship are no longer being treated as protected spaces in the expanding war.

Beyond the immediate destruction, the loss of the synagogue represents a deeper cultural blow. Sites like the Rafi-Nia Synagogue are not only places of worship but also repositories of history, identity, and communal memory. Their destruction erases physical links to longstanding minority communities that have coexisted within Iran for centuries.

While Israel claims to be a “Jewish State”, this latest attack against an Iranian synagogue shows Israel’s actions are rooted in destruction, genocide and an attempt to sow chaos.

Source: MintPress News https://www.mintpressnews.com/iranian-jewish-association-describe-israel-as-ominous-zionist-regime-after-israeli-strikes-destroy-historic-synagogue-on-passover/290836/

From independent Australian journalist Caitlin Johnstone:

Israel is already aggressively sabotaging the Trump administration’s two-week ceasefire with Iran by slaughtering huge numbers of civilians in Lebanon, a nation which is explicitly off-limits for any attack under the ceasefire conditions agreed to by Tehran.

The US and Israel are trying to claim that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire agreement, but Pakistan, whom the US appointed to mediate the agreement, says this is false. The New York Times reports that the White House took part in Pakistan’s public messaging which explicitly included Lebanon in the ceasefire conditions, before changing its tune after Israel attacked.

Iran has reportedly responded to these violations by again halting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

This serves as yet another reminder that the world can have peace or it can have Israel — but it cannot have both. Israel is a genocidal apartheid state whose entire existence is premised upon a strategy of unceasing violence and abuse in the middle east. As long as that state continues to exist in its present iteration, peace will never be attainable.

Democrats in the House and Senate are finally moving on a War Powers Act to stop the US president from going to war with Iran, and I’d say better late than never but at this point that would barely even be true.

Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Chris Murphy are currently slamming the president not for his horrifying mass atrocities in Iran but for losing the Strait of Hormuz and failing to achieve objectives like completely disarming their conventional missile program.

As I have said here previously, it’s clear that the reason the Democratic Party failed to oppose Trump’s warmongering with Iran was because they supported it too.

The actual, official 2024 Democratic Party platform accused Trump of “fecklessness and weakness” for failing to go to war with Iran during his first term. Kamala Harris labeled Iran the #1 enemy of the United States. In their 2024 debate, Harris repeatedly slammed Trump for being too soft on America’s enemies and announced that she “will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

I’ve seen a lot of people trying to argue that Trump’s depravity in Iran proves everyone should support Democrats, but it’s clear the Democratic Party is just the more polite-looking face on the same evil power structure.

The Grayzone’s Wyatt Reed has an article out about a freakish BBC article which cited an anonymous Iranian who allegedly told them he supports the US and Israel “hitting energy infrastructure, using an atomic bomb, or leveling Iran.” Following public outcry, the quote was removed and replaced with completely different words — initially without any editor’s note of any kind.

Reed documents how the BBC reporter behind the story, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, is a London-based Iranian monarchist with an extensive history of agitating for regime change war against her home country, including with the US government propaganda operation Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Last month The Times ran an article titled “Some Iranians say one thing’s worse than bombs: no bombs”. Western powers are always aggressively pushing this self-evidently false claim that people in empire-targeted countries want bombs dropped on them, in much the same way slavery proponents argued that Africans were happiest as slaves because God made it their nature to serve.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s impossible to have enough disdain for the western press.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-193682839

https://thegrayzone.com/2026/04/07/senior-bbc-iran-reporter-opposition-activist/

https://vimeo.com/1181733009?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

Clip from a Twitch stream she posted on YT Original video: https://youtu.be/CrFKvQ06XUU