Remembering Passover in Iran

The following are reflections of Stanley Abramovitch, who served as the director of JDC’s welfare and Jewish community development programs in Iran during the 1950s. Today, Mr. Abramovitch continues his many decades of service to JDC as Country Director for the North Caucasus and Central Asia.

Iranian Jews have their own customs for each Jewish holiday.

Decades ago, the Jews who lived in the Mehaleh, the Jewish ghetto, would start preparing for every Jewish celebration well ahead of time. During the last years of the Shah, many Jews improved their financial position sufficiently to move out of the ghetto into the northern parts of Teheran. They, too, prepared for weeks in advance of a holiday. This was especially true for Passover: some began the process before Purim, a month ahead; at a minimum, most Jews agreed that Purim was the latest date to begin Pesach preparations.

The first step was to whitewash the walls of the home. Everything was taken out of the living quarters to be cleaned, repaired, and examined for possible dirt and breadcrumbs. Even the rooms were all whitewashed. Traveling from one town to another before Passover, one could observe the whitewashing of Jewish homes in the ghettos and outside of it. In fact, not only Jews cleaned their homes during this season: Muslim Iranians also whitewashed their homes for the local New Year—no Ruz—an Iranian holiday dating back centuries, to Zoroastrian religious roots. The Jews believed that many of these villages used to be inhabited by Jews, who were accustomed to house cleaning at this time of the year; and that even after being converted to Islam, they maintain this custom.

House cleaning is only the first part in the preparations for Pesach. Food plays an important role in Jewish communities around the world, and Iran was no exception. Meat and rice are the staples of the Iranian diet. For Pesach evening, meat and rice balls were cooked, to be enjoyed with meat soup; and rice mixed with raisins, almonds, and other dry fruits, was among the many varieties of rice dishes prepared for the holiday. Crusty brown flat slices of potatoes placed on the bottom of the rice pot were considered a delicacy and divided among the children, who clamored for the Takhte-Dig, or "the bottom of the pot."

All homes prepared Charoset, as did their European counterparts. Iranian Charoset was made from a large variety of dry fruits and nuts, including pistachios and almonds, combined with locally produced wine and crushed into a paste. As the import of Israeli goods first developed in the late 1950s into the 1960s, Jewish households historically had to rely on local fruits and foods for their Passover dishes.

Matzot were baked by each family. The women of the household prepared the dough and baked the matzot in an oval oven similar to the one used all year round to bake the local flat round bread. The women were careful not to allow the dough to ferment, and if necessary, a man helped to attach the thin matzot to the hot inside walls of the oven and to remove them before they got burned. The baker had to be swift and skilled. When diplomatic relations were established between Israel and Iran, imported machine-made matzot replaced the thicker, locally baked version.

The highlight of the seder was the recitation of the poem Dayenu – "It is enough for us." All adults, and in particular all the children sitting around the table, were given spring onions with long stalks. When the reading of the Haggadah reached Dayenu, everyone would "beat" his/her neighbor with the spring onions, singing the poem aloud energetically. We are told that some of the customs of the Seder—and some of the poems—were introduced to keep the children from falling asleep. As the seder usually stretches late into the night, the spring onion "battle" was sure to awaken tired children who looked forward to this game.

The conclusion of Pesach was celebrated with a picnic outside the home. Families left town for a large park or an orchard, where they would enjoy festive food without the Pesach restrictions. This treasured tradition, like the Moroccan Mimouna, which concludes Pesach with a "block party" style feast and dancing, was preserved in all Jewish homes. Both customs celebrate the arrival of spring, emphasized by the outdoor celebration.

Pesach was a great occasion for Iranian Jews: it marked the end of winter, and ushered in the spring with renewed hope for the present and the future, always emphasizing the family unit and the importance of maintaining Jewish traditions—together as one.

April 2008