New York rabbi curses Persian Jews

Iranian-Jewish friends in Long Island have described to me a long history of issues with other non-Iranian Jews but things are apparently becoming ridiculous. An Ashkenazi rabbi broke into house of a Persian Jewish family in Great Neck who were holding a birthday party for their daughter, and cursed them all :

 The actions of Rabbi Mordechai Aderet — and the sheer incongruity of medieval-like curses being hurled at well-off Persian Jews in Great Neck, of all places — have sent shockwaves through the local Jewish community. . .

Said a guest who attended the party: “It was like bin Laden — all they needed were guns. My daughter was terrified after — she was screaming. She didn’t talk for three days after.”...

“The community is moving in different directions in a way that didn’t happen when we were still living in Iran,” observed community member Ellie Cohanim, who did not attend the party. “There is a group that is becoming more secular, and there’s a group that’s taking on this very haredi brand of Judaism — and neither of those trends is normative to the Middle East. It’s not normative to how our parents and grandparents observed Judaism.”

Comments

[babak]

Ok I live in great neck and I know rabbi aderet personally and know the situation. It was not a bash on persian jews at all because he is persian himself and the party was being held on the night of shiva asar betamuz and he came and scram and yelled at them for having the party that night and having bellydancers at the party as well...

[I don't think he's Persian - the article says he is Ashkenazi, was born in Israel and moved to the US - cs]

[Ray]

Well Cyrus, what do you make out of that. First Vice President Biden and now Hillary Clinton sharply rebuking Israel over its recent decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem. Evidently Hillary Clinton told the Israeli PM that the move was “deeply negative” for US-Israel relations. Could it be Cyrus that we are beginning to see little glimmers of a turning wheel towards justice!! We all know that Obama’s vanity is clearly heart, he was truly humiliated by the Israelis post his speech given in Cairo. The question is how long he can continue to keep his stance before the lobbyists once again bring the President under their suppression! On the other hand of course, Netanyahu will definitely be in between the rock and the hard place, should he give in under Obama’s pressure and risk loosing credibility with his people or to continue taking the same hard-line attitude and risk loosing the support of Obama, or would it finally be Obama who gives in! I guess time will tell, but this one is definitely worth keeping an eye on. Obama’s donation of his prize was certainly a charitable act, but if he manages to stand strong on this one, the lives of innocent people that he saves would be far more charitable than the money he just donated. Besides the whole world community would like to see that just for once, a President of the US has a strong enough will power to overcome the might of the NeoCons and Zionist lobbyists.

[I doubt this is anything more than rhetoric. They may "rebuke" Israel all they want but the funding for building those settlements ultimately comes from the United States.]

[MoonofA]

I don't see anything in that article that is specific to *Persian* Jews.

The fact that the attacked Jews were *Persian* doesn't seem to have a role in the motivation of the attacker. Such things, btw, tend to happen in Israel too. The radical Haredim are trying to get an upper hand in the Jewish sphere no matter where those Jews live or where they are from

I therefore wonder about the headline and the issue being posted at Iran Affairs.

[Actually the article repeatedly references Persian Jews itself, contrasting their situation with Iran, and the headline is an accurate but terse statement of what happened -- a rabbi broke into a party held by Persian Jews and cursed them, in New York.]