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Slowly but Surely...Losing the Persian Tradition |
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Written by Eman Esmailzadeh
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The old Persian Jewish Traditions, and knowledge of it, are being lost. I, personally, can only think of a handful of customs or minhagim specifically persian (dayenu?), which is testament to the level of culture loss in our 2000+ year old community. Take prayer for example, there are very few people, myself included that know truly persian jewish tunes and melodies of prayers, some even complain that they are boring and sad. Most worshipers either pray with Americanized boy-band type melodies with choruses and high pitches, or they pray with Arabized melodies with sounds coming strictly from the throat and the nasal.
I would also say that an understanding of the level of religious life and observance in Iran has also been lost. You can be hinted to this misunderstanding of the youth, when they ask you ‘Are you a Conservative or Orthodox Jew’? The concept that there was only ONE type of jew in Iran is totally foreign to them. They do not understand that in Iran, there were all types of levels of religious observance, some much stricter than others, but nevertheless the entire community was accepting of everyone and everyone respected the Divinity of our Holy Torah!
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