Yehuda Gerami, speaking in Fairfax, VA, says the land of Jerusalem is holy, not Israeli government and Zionism!
Iran’s chief rabbi calling the assassination of General Soleimani by US brutal said on Sunday evening that Israel collaboration in this illegal US act put the Jewish community in danger.
“The situation was very sensitive,” said Rabbi Yehuda Gerami, speaking at Chabad of Northern Virginia in Fairfax, Virginia. “We felt that sensitivity, not from the government. But people, they talked about revenge.”
“We felt there could be a danger,” he explained. “Then we decided to go give interviews and say we were not for it, that we don’t agree with this war.”
Gerami said that he decided to condemn the strike publicly on the news and to pay his condolences to Soleimani’s family in order to calm the situation, which was effective.
Rabbi praises Iran’s security situation, says: “Iran is the only place where synagogues don’t need any security.”
Gerami said that he tells Iranian officials that the Land of Jerusalem is and will always be holy to Jews, irrespective of who governs it.
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“The Holy Land is the land. That’s what is written in the Torah,” he said.
Gerami also spoke at length about daily life in Iran as a Jew. He said that the economic situation is extremely difficult and that Jews are hit by the effects of the sanctions as well.
In 2020, Germani lashed out at then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Israelis as Iran marked its annual anti-Israel Quds Day, saying to Israelis in Hebrew: “You don’t represent Judaism.”
On his US trip, Gerami has also visited Persian Jewish communities in Los Angeles and New York and is slated to fly back to Iran on Monday.
