ROOTS RADIO EPISODE 3: a WORD from BABA JOON
Translated from Persian
Hi, my name is Daniella Kahen, and I'm going to interview my grandfather, Mehdi Babof.
O.K., Baba Joon, where were you born? Could you please tell us more about your family?
I was born in Tehran, in a family of eight- six children and my parents. I had five sisters, and I was the only boy. I was born in the Jewish Ghetto in that time before Reza Shah (the king of Iran) which was the Qajar period (1785 – 1925). The Jews had only one area there, and they did not have the right to come out of the Jewish Ghetto or buy a house in other streets.
Because of that, this area always was full of Jews that were sick, because of the bad quality of water and streams of water full of rats and dead cats. These came to the underwater reservoirs and infected the drinking water. Many people had saalak (a disease) or kachali (baldness) or Malaria or many kinds of other diseases. At that time a normal life expectancy was 40. The area of the Jews was near the part of town where all the trash of the city would be thrown (Sareh Chal) and the smell of that trash always lingered. (02:00)
All the Jewish people were desperate and poor at the time, and did not have a lot of money. They would walk around on the streets to sell clothing and shirts or they may have had small supermarkets, or small groceries or butchery or carry things for people and businesses. The majority of the Jews did not have an education. If anyone had the ability to read, it was only about Torah and Hebrew that they learned from their Rabbis. They couldn't read or write in Persian.
Fortunately, when the Qajar king traveled to France, Alliance Israeli of France visited the king and asked for permission to open schools in Iran, and the king accepted.
So, the French came to Iran and in Jewish areas started to build Jewish schools, one in Tehran, one in Shiraz, in Esfahan, Hamedan, and they built these Jewish schools in other cities that Jews were living. The secret to Iranian Jews prospering during the Pahlavi regime were these Jewish schools that Alliance Israeli established in Iran. In these schools, they taught the children how to speak Persian, French and Hebrew. And sometimes they gave the children clothes for free to help the poor.
I was born three years after Reza Shah came in to power, but when Reza Shah came, he first created the “boy scouts” for kids and they taught the children how to dress, how to live, how to travel, how to swim in the Amjadiyeh pool (sports arena) that they built, how to exercise - and I have great memory of all they taught us.
I remember I was 6 or 7 and I was shorter than other students, in the Reza Shah era I went to a parade and because I was very short and walking faster, I was trying to be there before others, it was written in the newspaper that the short kid was trying to get there before others. So, in the Reza Shah period, it was very hard for us and people had to walk to school in harsh cold snowy winters, and no one even had good shoes or warm clothes or jackets. Students would be shaking as they walked to school and it was a long way. The Alliance Israeli school was in Jaleh street and it would take at least between half an hour to 40 mins to arrive and the same for returning home (6:12).
Parents usually gave their kids a boiled egg, a little bit ground beef or cheese and bread for lunch. All people living in the (Jewish) Ghetto were poor. Some of them were so poor that for example in a family of 7 or 8, the father would bring home 1 or 2 loaves of bread and he would cut it in small pieces and give each child a portion according their age. Sometimes kids asked for more bread. Iranian Jews situation was very sad and painful at that time because they couldn't come out from Ghetto area, and sometimes the ruling Muslim majority came to the Jewish areas and attacked them after clergyman motivated them to do that. At that time Jews would sell them wine and alcoholic drinks (alcohol is prohibited in the religion of Islam), so when they would attack the Jews they would break all the bottles, beat the Jews and damage everything (7:44).
At the time when we were there in the Jewish Ghetto, there were eight synagogues. A big one was Ezra Jacob synagogue that has a big yard with a Tanoor (a big oven made with plaster and mud) for making Matzah on Passover. But the other seven synagogues were in very narrow streets, where no more than two people could walk in together. The reason for the synagogues being built in these narrow streets was so that if the ruling Muslim majority wanted to attack, they couldn’t come with more than two people at a time and the Jews could stop them and you couldn’t have 50 people, for example, come and attack the synagogue. Also, there was a low roof in the front of the little street so that nobody could come with a horse inside the synagogue and attack everyone. But the Jews were very orthodox and religious. They loved their religion and they observed Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah and the other holidays very strictly. (9:03)
Our family, thank G-d, was okay financially because my father sold antiques and I didn't experience hardship like other Jews at that time. But compared to today's life, I had hardship, because for example; my shoes had holes most of the time, and on my long walks to school my shoes would become full of mud and soak my shoes from the hole. Winters in Iran were very cold, and our shoes would become full of mud and water in the harsh winters. The heaters that they used in class were with coal and they created a lot of smoke in our class, and in each class were about 50 to 60 students. (10.00)
But the great thing was that when Reza Shah was in power, he let the Jews freely leave the Jewish Ghetto. And when we graduated from Alliance school, and universities opened at that time, the Jews who studied French and had a strong education, entered the university as soon as possible. They mostly became physicians, pharmacists, dentists, and started working and opened their businesses. Most - about 90% - of pharmacy and importers of medicine for the pharmacies were in the hands of the Jewish people. 90%. The majority of Jews had become doctors, the majority of those who graduated from university. The businessmen, because they spoke French, went to France and brought silk fabric to sell, and those who spoke English went to England and they would bring fabric from England. They opened up stores in Lalezar (a popular street in Tehran, Iran). And slowly many of the Jews became rich.
The period where Reza Shah ruled Iran was brightest period for Iranian Jews to be free. In 1320 (1941) the World War started and England and Russia attacked Iran and exiled Reza Shah from Iran and then Mohammad Reza Shah (Reza Shah's son) came to power who was only 22 years old and did not have the charisma and strength like his father. His father started working with the Iranian military as a child (12:00) until he became king. His father defeated the clergyman because they were the ones who controlled the education systems, Justice system, even marriage and divorce. They would issue religious orders/laws that did not always make sense for people and would take bribes, but Rezah Shah stopped all of them and built schools, created a court system, and cut their off their power. But because Mohammad Reza Shah was very young and the time that he was king the county was occupied, he did not have the power so he could not force them and the clergymen became stronger again and took some controls again in the Pahlavi era.
(13:00)
What was your earliest relationship with the state of Israel?
A: In my living period in Iran, Israel did not exist yet. When we were in Iran, before 1948 when Israel was established, Israel didn't exist. But a short time before creating Israel, Jews in Iran started “khalootz” (pioneers), a movement was started at the end of the War that gave hope to Iranian Jews that Israel (a State for the Jewish people) will be created because many German Jews and Polish Jews were already moving to Israel with the intention to start to build Israel. (14:00) Because Balfor agreed that the UK will let Israel have a land there. When in 1948, Israel became a State, some people in Iran started to encourage Iranian Jews to move there and started to choose young people so they could work there. They didn’t let the elderly go at first. The first group that moved to Israel was a group of twenty young adults from the ages of 19 to 21 who volunteered to go help build Israel, and I was included in that group. At that time, there weren’t any flights between Iran and Israel. There weren’t any trips to Israel (15:00).
Then we got an airplane with help from Zoochnoot and they took us to Cyprus, where we stayed for two days. After these two days, a small airplane for 20 people arrived and took us to Haifa. In Haifa, they made a camp, small tents for one or two people with a bed on the ground and nothing else. And there was a hall for lunch and dinner. They divided people into groups and gave them food. After 2-3 days, they moved the 20 of us to a Kibbutz in Kinneret, which was one of the best Kibbutz in Israel because it was close to the Lebanon border. There was a 4,000 person capacity there with a basement full of weapons. There were some people from the army, some colonels and heads of army came to check everything and to teach shooting and fighting to young people. They taught them to fight and stop enemies in possible attacks from Lebanon. (17:00).
Kinneret Kibbutz was close to Kinneret Lake, it was about a 10 min walk to the lake from our Kibbutz. Usually we went there with a car, and we swam in the lake sometimes like on Shabbat. When we went to the Kibbutz, we started to work from day one. They gave each of us something to do in a small wooden room. We were two to three people living together in one room, sleeping and working. Some of us picked potatoes, some tomatoes, some bananas, some of us would feed the cows, some would clean, some would cook in the kitchen. They gave everyone a job to do but (18:00) bc at that time we couldn't speak in Hebrew and only knew Persian, they put four to five of us together in one place so we could talk and communicate together as we worked.
Living in a Kibbutz was a cohabitation. Nobody charged anyone, money didn't have a significance there, everyone did his job in turn for others, sometimes people who lived there for 20 years brought food for others, and we’d eat breakfast there together. In the morning, around 5-6am, we’d work without breakfast but later, around 7, they’d serve us breakfast. After that, we were working again, until lunch. And then we worked for a total of about 8 hrs. For me, since I had never done work like that before, it was so hard working there. One day, me and a man called Elias Khodadad, they asked us to unload a big truck full of potatoes in the storeroom.
They put some timbers there so we can go up on the timber, and it was 40-50 pounds, he put it on my shoulder and sometimes I put it on his, so we can go to the truck and bring potatoes down. It was 5 tons of potatoes for us two to take and unload. In the evening, our backs, were all scratched up (laughing…) and because we weren't used to this kind of work, it was so hard for us! All in all, we stayed there about two months (20:00).
One day, I wanted to go to Tel Aviv. They gave me a ticket and money and a place in Tel Aviv to stay. I came to Tel Aviv, and unfortunately, after a while, I had an accident and the bones of my back broke. I went to the hospital and was hospitalized there for ten months at Hadassah Hospital. They really took good care of me there, including the physicians. There was a professor, Marcos, who made a special device for my back, so that my back bones would heal in place. (21:00) They took care of me very well for the entirety of the ten months I was staying there. After that, because I had some health problems due to stress, I struggled and then I was released from the hospital and started to work again. Next question.
I want to know how you were feeling about Israel so…
We all were full of feelings for Israel, otherwise we wouldn’t move there! We all were full of feelings for Israel and after our group of 20, the institute in Iran was sending youngsters to Israel, and then they expanded to Jews in Kurdistan, where there were Kurdish people. They were hard workers farmers; they were sending them with all their families. At that time in Iran, there were 120,000 Jews, after creating Israel, 40,000 of these Jews moved to Israel. And after that, there were only 80,000 Jews in Iran. So right before the Iranian Revolution (1979) there were 80,000 Jews in Iran (since many moved to Israel).
Did you ever think that the revolution (Enghelab) would happen to Iran?
It’s something that nobody thought would happen in Iran. A revolution. Because the period before the revolution was mostly a time of peace, calm, and comfort. People became very rich and wealthy and everything they needed was there. There were many jobs, and many foreigners came to Iran to work including from Korea, the Philippines, and other countries. The most brilliant period of Iran's history is the last years of Mohammad Reza Shah's period. I remember that we had a factory seven to eight years before the revolution. We had workers, and paid them seven Tomans each those days. There were so many workers that we could all hardly fit in the factory. But in the last few years, we paid 50 Tomans to a worker and begged them to come and work, but there was a lack of workers (because our business was flourishing and in high demand).
Most of Jews became very wealthy because they had an upper hand in running the businesses, were in construction, established many factories. Most of the Iranian Jews lived a comfortable life. I remember that we had a house in Pahlavi street and I built a house in around Esfandiyar street and they lived there for four years. But unfortunately my family couldn't be there a long time, they were moved here to the (US) and we stayed here.
And nobody imagined that a revolution would happen, because the Iranian army had 400,000 members, they had police stations and Iran had good and friendly international relations with other countries, people were rich, they were selling oil, factories were successful, Iran had high imports, good exports, so Iranian shoe factories were exporting shoes for millions of dollars to the Soviet Union (Russia), exported grains, exporting rice to Russia. Iran also exported so much food to other countries and nobody believed a revolution would ever happen.
(26:00)
When did you realize that you had to leave Iran?
Honestly, when Khomeini came to power (as a result of the revolution), he started to kill all Iranian commanders, and Jews started to get scared. I remember that (Rabbi) Hakham Yedidia, and many more people, went to Khomeini. Hakham Yedidia was shaking when he was talking to him. And from this great fear, we understood that the situation was very bad. And subsequently, they arrested Mr. (Habib) Elghanayan who was the head of the Iranian Jews and then when Arafat came, they sacrificed Mr. Elghanayan – they killed him. After this matter, we realized that if a person that was a great man like Elghanian, who was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and built many factories, the tallest buildings in popular streets in Iran, a person who was the head of the Jewish Federation, could be captured and killed, then it could happen to any other Jews at anytime. My wife and kids were out of Iran, fortunately, and they moved here to the US to be with my son Kambiz. They wanted to come back to Iran and even enrolled the kids in school, but when they saw that the situation was getting worse every day, I told them to not come back here (Iran) and (28:00) they stayed in the US permanently and didn't back.
Next question. What are you most proud of in your life?
Honestly, I have two ethics that I'm most proud of. First, I always do what I promise to someone, and I am always on time for whoever I promised. If I have an obligation or debt I'll pay it off on time. Second, I always help anyone that needs my help, and I don't hesitate to help. If someone is sick, I will take him to the doctor. If someone is poor, I will help him out. If someone needs a job, I'll give him a job. If it's possible for me to guide someone, I'll do it. If someone is in trouble or has a problem, I will be present for them. Anything I can do to give them peace and calm so they can move forward, I will do everything that I can.
What's your words of advice for the next generation?
My advice to them is that you should always have perseverance and keep trying. Always be honest, and do not lie in both businesses and life. Always fulfill your promises, and do not make promises to someone if you don’t intend to fulfill them. I believe religion is a good thing, but the best thing to do is help others. Sa'edi (a very famous Iranian poet) said: "Worshipping is nothing but serving people". If someone worships God and then abuses people, it is better to not worship God, but serve people.
Ok, thank you Baba Joon for your time!
Thank you! I am proud of you, my dear granddaughter.