Jews Undercover in Iran and Tisha B'Av

This video about Iran, I feel, is apropos (yup, I heard a rabbi use that word about 3 years ago, and since that day I can't get it out of my head. However, when I use that word, it just sounds pretentious, so pretend I used one of its synonyms, "relevant") to Tisha B'Av, which started tonight.

Tisha B'Av, Hebrew for the "Ninth of Av," "Av" being one of the Hebrew months, is a day that recognizes many of the worst tragedies befallen by the Jewish people that occurred, specifically, on that day. From the denial of the Jews' entrance to Israel in 1312 BCE, to the destruction of both the first and second Temples in 586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively, to the beginning of the deportation of Jews to Treblinka from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered on this day alone (millions of Jews died as a result of all the events occurring on this day). So, a mournful day, indeed, today is. (sorry for the awkward sentence, but sometimes I occasionally speak like Yoda, and apparently type that way, too).

Back to this video on Iran. Since today is a sad say, it is a day Jews demonstrate our sadness by focusing on... sad things. So, I've embedded the video, Jews Undercover - Iran, by Journeyman Pictures, for you to watch. Although parts, toward the end, are [a tad] uplifting and positive, the general message is that although Jews are becoming more devout in Iran, its still Iran.

Being 13 minutes long, it's a relatively long video for someone with the average American attention span, or at least the average person who watches videos on youtube. So, not relatively, it's a short documentary about the Jews that are still left in Iran and how they live their lives, Jewishly. Before watching this video, I was under the impression that there weren't any Jews left there, but minorities are "protected" under Iran's democratic law, so 1/4 of Iran's Jews are still there.

So, learn something, be sad, and watch this video: