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JewishHistoryעברית

Execution of Habib Elghanian

Date
9 May 1979Hebrew date: 12th of Iyyar, 5739
Location
TehranIran
Then part of
Islamic Republic of Iran
Perpetrators
  • Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal (State)
Killed (estimate)
1[1]Habib Elghanian, chairman of the Jewish Association of Iran, shot by firing squad. Encyclopaedia Iranica records the confiscation of his property and that of his immediate family.
Country

0.0014% of the Jewish population of Islamic Republic of Iran (c. 1979)[63]

Worldwide

0.0000077% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1980)[4]

Category
Persecution
Confidence
High

Summary

Habib Elghanian, a Tehran industrialist and chairman of the Jewish Association of Iran, was arrested on 16 March 1979, tried on 8 May by an Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal, and shot before dawn on 9 May. The court charged him with being a Zionist spy, a corrupter on earth, and a friend of God's foes, and with meeting Israeli leaders. The Washington Post reported the firing squad and the charge of contacts with Israel and Zionism, and that the killing alarmed Iran's Jewish community, then given as about 80,000. Encyclopaedia Iranica states that he was the first Jew executed under the Islamic Republic and that the execution contributed to the exodus of Jews from Iran. His family was banned from holding a memorial service; he was buried at night in the Beheshtieh Jewish cemetery in Tehran.

Sources

  1. Shaul Bakhash, ELQANIAN, HABIB. Encyclopaedia Iranica
  2. William Branigin, Iran Executes Jew, Citing Tie to Israel. The Washington Post (1979)
  3. Habib Elqanian: One Person's Story. Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 13,034,000[4]c. 1980DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1980 in the 2024 Year Book chapter (original AJYB figure that year was 14,527,100).
  • Islamic Republic of Iran: 70,000 – 72,000[63]c. 1979AJYB 1981: 70,000 Jews in Iran at end-1979 estimates. DellaPergola 2020 retrospective table lists 72,000 for Iran in 1970. Islamic Republic period beginning 1979 — not Qajar or Pahlavi earlier totals.

Sources for population estimates

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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
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  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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