As the Biden administration resumes its efforts to persuade Iran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, it is worth remembering the Iranian regime’s commitment to antisemitism.
The regime has tried to hide this commitment, claiming that its calls of “Death to Israel” don’t mean “Death to the Jews.”
“The disappearance of Israel does not mean the disappearance of the Jewish people, because we have nothing against [Jews],” said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2019. “Wiping out Israel means that the Palestinian people, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, should be able to determine their fate and get rid of thugs such as [then-prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
The lady doth protest too much.
Anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and the Iranian regime’s singular focus on denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination in the Jewish homeland is Jew-hatred, plain and simple.
One of America’s most prominent universities shamefully regurgitated Khamenei’s talking point. “The theocratic [Iranian] regime is neither irrationally messianic nor antisemitic in its hard power calculations,” read a page on Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced and International Studies. It was deleted following condemnation on social media by many Iran observers, including this author.
Distorted images of the Iranian regime are by no means unique to the American academy. While the rest of Iran’s Jewish community stays below the radar, one young rabbi—Rabbi Yehuda Gerami—has taken to calling himself the “chief rabbi” of Iran and posting his activities on social media. Gerami, who was educated in the U.S. before returning to Iran, is infamous for condemning Israel and making a “condolence visit to the family of Qasem Soleimani,” following the Trump administration’s elimination of the terror mastermind, according to Ynet.
During his rather strange tour of the United States this month, Gerami claimed that the Jews in Iran are thriving. “Even if someone is caught with wine on the street, if he says that he is Jewish and shows his Jewish identity card, there are no problems,” he told Ami Magazine, seemingly with a straight face.
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Ms. Cohanim was the State Department’s first Iranian-born Envoy, and led diplomatic initiatives which resulted in forging groundbreaking partnerships in the Arab world to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Islamophobia. Ms. Cohanim also persuaded the first-ever Muslim faith group to adopt the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism, all as part of the Abraham Accords efforts. As Deputy Envoy, Ms. Cohanim was the lead official for the State Department in creating and implementing policy on countering anti-Semitism in the Near East and Western Hemisphere regions. She worked closely with Jewish communities in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Colombia in confronting local issues of anti-Semitism.
Ms. Cohanim can often be seen on Fox News and Newsmax; and is a contributor to National Review, Newsweek, The Hill and Washington Examiner.
Ellie Cohanim arrived as a child refugee to the US, after she and her family fled the escalating anti-Semitism in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Previously, Ellie Cohanim was Senior Vice President and Special Correspondent for the Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS) and was an executive at Yeshiva University; The Jewish Theological Seminary; and UJA-Federation of New York. She serves on the boards of the Iranian-American Jewish Federation of NY and Latino Coalition for Israel; and has previously served on the boards of the American Jewish Committee (AJC-NYR), the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Ester Chapter of Hadassah.
Ellie Cohanim received her B.A. in Political Science, Cum Laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University; and conducted graduate study in International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is fluent in Hebrew and Farsi, familiar with German, Arabic and Spanish.
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