 On a Sunday morning at 2 a.m. earlier this year, a local Iranian Jewish mother was on the phone crying hysterically after her son had been arrested for drug possession and locked up in the L.A. County jail downtown. She didn't call her relatives, her rabbi, or a lawyer for help -- she called Dara Abaei, an Iranian Jewish youth mentor and activist.
Helping this mother at an hour when most people are asleep is just one of the many volunteer activities Abaei performs to support young Iranian Jews and their families. For the last 18 years, Abaei, 39, has dedicated countless hours to tackling serious difficulties that are often considered taboo within the Iranian Jewish community.
Whether the crisis is homelessness, drug addiction, hunger, spousal abuse, gang activity or religious intermarriage, Abaei has worked -- often virtually single-handedly -- to help find solutions for individuals in need. Abaei responds to as many as 10 to 15 cases per week, and spends many hours per month on his cellphone for this work.
"In my opinion, he may be among just a handful of people who started this crusade to help those with real issues out of pure love of the community," said Dariush Fakheri, founder of the Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center in Tarzana. "Whoever knows him or has been touched by his presence has benefited from him."
More than 15 years ago, Abaei formed the Jewish Unity Network (JUN), a nonprofit based in the Pico-Robertson area, to provide activities for the local 10,000 to 15,000 Iranian Jewish youth between the ages of 13 and 26. He handled his volunteer work while juggling a full-time job in construction consulting and trying to feed his family of five. Sensing a greater need for his assistance, members of the community two years ago increased funding for JUN in order to hire Abaei full time as the group's executive director.
"Yes, I took a pay cut from my last job, but I thought it was necessary to help these kids, because I never had this kind of coaching support from the community when I was young," Abaei said. "Even if one Jewish youth is helped, it's like saving the world."
"The truth is, 90 percent of his community work is done in private and in confidence, so much of it actually goes unnoticed," said 24-year-old Eman Esmailzadeh, a Brentwood resident. "If it's flying to Alaska to help convince a community member not to leave Judaism or visiting Jewish prisoners in jail -- wherever help is needed, Dara is there."
Abaei said JUN will continue to collaborate with various other Iranian and Ashkenazi Jewish groups and hopes to raise enough funds to purchase a facility where young Iranian Jews can gather for cultural and religious events.
"Our goal is to inject positive Judaism in our youth and offer them leadership skills," Abaei said. "Then when they are older, in 20 or 30 years, they will more likely be involved in the Jewish community and issues concerning Israel." Karmel Melamed is an internationally published freelance journalist in Southern California. You can read more from Karmel at www.JewishJournal.com |
