Free event with free garage parking on Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy.

The Persian Jewish community is the oldest in the diaspora, dating to biblical times. The vast majority of the nation’s Jews left Iran during the late twentieth century, particularly during the period surrounding the nation’s Islamic revolution. A practicing Jewish population remains in Iran, although it is much smaller in size than that of Los Angeles’s expatriate Persian Jewish community.

This evening will feature two unique perspectives on the richness of Persian Jewish religious life. Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh will reflect on the religious life of Persian Jews and discuss the community’s distinctive practices, including a focus on the Persian celebration of Passover.

Ron Lezell will present photographs, video footage, and stories from the three trips he has made to the Jewish communities in Iran since 2014, including the Rabizadeh Synagogue in Shiraz, one of the synagogues central to Rabbi Rabizadeh’s family. This will be an evening to learn about the traditions of this ancient community, as practiced today in Iran and in the Persian diaspora.

Ron Lezell is an independent corporate accounting consultant. He serves on the board of A Wider Bridge, and served on the national boards of the Association of Reform Zionists of America and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Lezell represented the Reform movement as a delegate to the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. He is a founding member of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, where he has served as an officer and board member.

Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh is a Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at the Kitchen in San Francisco. She was born and raised in the Los Angeles Persian Jewish community affectionately known as “Tehrangeles.” After graduating from Boston University with a degree in public policy and education and working as an interior designer, she earned a master’s degree in Jewish education at the HUC-JIR Rhea Hirsch School of Education in Los Angeles. She subsequently received her rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College.

Co-presented by JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav.