Congratulations Babak Ourian

I would like to also welcome our first Persian Jewish Curator Private User.

I am delighted that we at last have a Persian Jewish Curator.

Welcome Babak Ourian !

Thank you once again. I know there are a lot of Iranian Jews who use this site and some seem pretty active. Maybe when they see that I became a curator, they will apply as well.

Private User,

Try and find one yourself. You can refer them to submit a self nomination. That was done with Thomas Föhl (c).

Private User So excited to have a Persian curator to help expand our knowledge of the venerable ancient Persian culture. Below are some Persian related projects begun on Geni.

1. http://www.geni.com/projects/Iranian-Persian-Kings-and-Queens/13333

2. http://www.geni.com/projects/Ancient-Mesopotamia/18774

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Persian_scientists_and_scholars

4. http://www.geni.com/projects/VOC-Directors-in-Persia/17999

5. http://www.geni.com/projects/Zoroastrianism-Magi/13185

6. http://www.geni.com/projects/Bahá-%C3%AD/192

7. http://www.geni.com/projects/Persian-Jewish-Genealogy-Portal/14079

8. http://www.geni.com/projects/Notable-Jews-of-Persia-the-Arabian-Pen...

9. http://www.geni.com/projects/Purim-The-Jewish-Queen-of-Persia/10621

Malka, It is quite interesting I am going to read/study it at time. I see that you are my 51st cousin 11 times removed. The family line passes through so many Persian kings and Shahs that I wonder are we Jews or Persians.
Please have a look. .

Martin Andreas Karl (Dries) Potgieter It seems that Sassanid Princess Dara Izdadwar my 45th great grandmother is the connection: http://geni.com/pPjN5

Private User, an expert in this complicated intermingling can probably best answer your questions.

Malka, just one more interruption and then I will leave this discussion to go its normal way. Your 45th great grandmother is my 1st cousin 44 times removed.

May I add my congratulations to Babak Ourian as well.

Jew (Hebrews) have lived in Persia for well over 2,500 years. Why does being Jewish and Persian need to be mutually exclusive ????

Again - WELCOME

Thank you, Rick. Since Judaism is a religion and being Persian/Iranian is a nationality, it's like comparing apples and oranges. There are probably 100,000-150,000 Iranian Jews living in the US, Israel, Iran and other countries around the world. They compromise a very small minority of the general Iranian population. So I guess we use the term Persian Jews to distinguish them from Persian Muslims or Persian Christians. :)

Welcome, Babak. Good to have you here to help out.

!מועדים לשמחה

Pesaj Alegre!

J

Someone asked: "The family line passes through so many Persian kings and Shahs that I wonder are we Jews or Persians."

Jews of varying politics and nation-states who like all of the rest of the diaspora, intermarried with local populations when it benefited us to do so. This is not a condition isolated to Jews - a Jewish wife was often one of many wives to bind a particular family and group as occurred in Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Arabia, Yemen.

A friend of mine, Tamara Saidian, refers to herself as a Persian Jew; and I accept her self-description without challenge.

Welcome Baback :)

Hello Babak (and/or other people who are knowledgeable about Persian Jewry too),

In my family it has always been said that my 7th great-grandfather @David Schuschan was from Persia. We do not have any proof of that, and I have never read about any other Persian Jews that ended up in Holland in the 17th or 18th century.
Do you think that is probable or historically credible?

I myself have always suspected that it is just a case of etymology, I mean that later generations supposed there was a connection between the surname Shushan and the Iranian city of Shush.

On the other hand, there is a well known Sephardi surname Bensusan, and I don't suppose all Bensusans are originally from Shush. But then again, my Amsterdam Schuschan (spelled in a lot of different ways) family appears to have been Ashkenazi rather than Sephardi. Or at least, they associated with the Ashkenazim rather than the Sephardim in Amsterdam.

So, I have a lot of questions:
- is it possible that my Amsterdam family has Iranian origins?
- would there have been any migration possible from Iran to Holland around the year 1700? I think there were some commercial relations through the Dutch East Indies Company.
- If an Iranian Jew would live in Amsterdam at that time, would you expesct him to associate with the (Yiddish speaking) Ashenazim or with the (Portuguese speaking) Sephardim?

I am grateful in advance for any ideas on the subject.

Best regards,
Heleen Sittig

Hi Heleen!

It's definitely possible that your ancestors came from Persia. There were trade routes from Europe through Persia to India and China at least as far back as the 15th century. So it's possible that your 7th great grand father was a merchant who eventually settled in Holland.

Whether they would associate with Ashkenazi Jews or Sephardim, it could be either. Your 7th great grandfather may have married into an Ashkenazi family and followed their traditions.

Have you considered doing an ancestry genetic test? When I did mine, it showed that I have anywhere from 0.5% to 2% European ancestry that wa probably Ashkenazi and from Italy. I assume that at some point one of my ancestors went to Europe and brought a bride back. But from the test results I can't tell whether this happened 200 years ago or 500 years ago. So if you do the test and it shows any trace of DNA from a middle eastern background, then it makes the story more likely.

All the best,
Bob

Welcome Babak, Although I can neither speak a word Iranian or Hebrew. It is nice to have you with us. As I can speak German I can in a way speak Yiddish,
I am still puzzling with my Iranian/ Jewish part. I have tested me against my 51st Cousin 11 times removed Namely RANDY SCHOENBERG, AND AS IN THE CASE AS WITH MALKA, the road is the same , Persian Shahs, Princesses , Armenians kings and that. The Jewish line splits of roughly 300 years after Christ.

My Dna measured against a Normal German is as follows:

GERMAN ME (SOUTH African)
46% 42% Northern European
36% 36% Mediterranean
17% 20% Southwest Assian
With the Greeks it compares as follow;
Greek Me
54% 42% Mediteranean
28% 36% Northern European
17% 20% Southwest Assian.

With me being of south African Stock I have expected a whole other outcome.. It seems that only 2% of me is not accountable.

Thank you for your answer Bob/Babak!
Anyone has found other Jewish Iranian migrants to Holland or other European countries in about 1700?