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Persian Palaces in Beverly Hills

Written by PersianRabbi.com Staff

Take a drive down Beverly Drive to visit your aunt in Beverly Hills and you will see the enormous Persian Jewish influence by observing the great number of large white 2-story collumed homes in the area. This great phenomena has annoyed it's old skool American neighbors
...And so the debate goes prime time!

NBC Story on Persian Palaces (w/ Video!)
NBC Story on Persian Palaces
Beverly Hills Weekly Article

Letter in Response to BH Weekly Article:

As a member of the Persian-American community I am not shocked by the letter sent by this anonymous neighbor [discussed in issue #347]. The issue is not whether or not we build so called Roman style palaces, the issue is that we are and have never been accepted by our neighbors.

I am sure SOME of our racist neighbors appreciate the fact that their house property values have skyrocketed since our arrival in 1979, but they do not appreciate living next to what they believe as"bourgeois" Middle Easterners. Homes used to sell for 500,000 to 700,000 in the North Side of Beverly Hills. Now they sell for at minimum $3 million. This price jump has occurred all over the city.

We are not bourgeois Middle Easterners that build mansions to show off to our neighbors or anger our neighbors. We build these homes because some of the so called 'Spanish style' homes our neighbors wish to preserve, and we rightfully purchase, are decrepit and run down. If our neighbors desire to live in such disheveled 80-year old homes, that is their personal preference but why do they insist that we should not be bound by their rules?

It is bad enough that you can live in this city for 50 years and never know your neighbors. But now these neighbors, who don't wish to accept our existence, have the audacity to tell us how to build our homes.

In the style of cowardice so artfully demonstrated by the anonymous letter writer that led to this discussion and coined the phrase "Persian palace" I say,

Dear Cowardly Anonymous Writer,

Please get a life, and please mind your own business. If you don't like Persians living next to you, I sarcastically and humbly apologize for your inconvenience. But whether you like it or not we are here to stay. So you have two options

(1) welcome us to the neighborhood, and treat us with courtesy like fellow human beings,
(2) leave the neighborhood and move somewhere where all the neighbors look like you and live by your rules.

We do not engage in criminal activities nor have wild parties every night. We never destroy or vandalize our neighbors homes, nor do we ever disrespect our neighbors property. Our Persian community is made up of physicians, lawyers, architects, businessmen and other high-ranking members of this community.So please don't worry about our homes, but worry about becoming more culturally competent. Anonymous But Not Racist.

Shawn Abdian
Beverly Hills

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Comments

These newcomers have little concern for
historical Beverly Hills.Recently Gershwins
house was torn down to make way for another
mega mansion.My family and I used to live in
Beverly Hills many years ago but moved and glad
we did.What depth is left in a city or county
when its history has been bulldozed to the
ground.What depth does a country have when all
is based on greed,arrogance and who can build
the largest house.No depth whatsoever!
Posted by Rachel Lang, on Sunday, 18 November 2007 at 12:34

I'm insulted and truly disappointed that this particular network (NBC) and the newscasters involved, many of whom are quite prominent and readily recognizable would participate in such propaganda.
Am I blowing this out of proportion? I don't think so... The US is on the brink of war with Iran and whoever decided to air this questionable piece of 'news' at this particularly sensitive time is definitely not trying to do a service to the 'Persian community'. The fact that these people have the audacity to attempt to denigrate one of the most robust assets of this city in such a cowardly way is at least ignorant and untimely and at most malicious.
Just look at the wording they use throughout the clip… “ 9021 uh-oh,” “BH [due to Persians] has become notorious for tearing down history,” etc… And then they argue that Lucille Ball’s former residence has become “unrecognizable” – so what!!? Maybe it was unrecognizable to begin with. She probably built her home’s facade modestly to avoid unnecessary attention – we all know stars get sick of excess admirers. Don’t get me wrong, I’d watch I Love Lucy as a kid and still think it’s a great show but to set up her memory against the Persian community as a nemesis is just wrong. Then they top it off by strategically editing Hamid Omrani’s words in a less than pleasant fashion making him out to be the “bad guy.” I don’t know the man personally, but I already have respect for him just by the fact that he’s developing Beverly Hills and upping property values throughout the city – he should be given an award if you ask me and I’m sure he probably has received one or two… and from the city of BH too.
The U.S. is all about freedom, competition and the right to pursue one’s dreams – these concepts stand as the pillars of our unparalleled country. If people don’t like the fact that their neighbors are expressing their freedom by building the house they’ve always wanted and competing with their peers by decking out mansion after mansion all the while actively expressing how truly American they are then maybe the disgruntled neighbors should move to a country that has a slightly different philosophy at its foundation.
Maybe I am blowing this out of proportion but what it all comes down to is the fact that the U.S. and Iran are less than friendly at the moment and throughout history nations have elicited propaganda against their targets in preparation for war so that its citizens feel justified by their country’s actions. The English did it to the colonies way back when, the Germans did it against the Jews and oh yes, our very own country did it against Iraq (weapons of mass destruction??).
Okay… after that last paragraph I definitely am blowing this topic way out of proportion (too much free time now that school’s out). The gist of my tirade is that we have to be on the lookout for media output that can come to bite us in the ass. Clips like the one in question will no doubt result in some degree of backlash against our community and I’d like to “nip this problem in the bud” before people decide they can talk smack against us more directly and on a grander scale. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my raving and ranting no matter what you think.
Oh, and I have just one thing to say to Patty Parish, the spokesbiach for the townspeople who are crying over the well-needed facelift of BH… tof, tof.

Dan K.
Posted by Dan Kahen, on Tuesday, 20 June 2006 at 4:16

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