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The Double Lives of Jews in Fanatical Islamic Iran
(Times of Israel) Renee Ghert-Zand - Esther Amini's new book, Concealed: Memoir of a Jewish-Iranian Daughter Caught Between the Chador and America, recalls the Jews in Mashhad, Iran, where her parents' families had survived for centuries by hiding their true identity and practicing Judaism in secret, because of the fanatical brand of Islam dictated by the local imams. Although her parents escaped Iran and arrived in the U.S. shortly after World War II, they never really left Mashhad behind. Amini writes that her father was a very frightened man because of his Mashhadi background. "He was raised in a city that fed into paranoia, where speech was lethal, and the outside world was dangerous....He expected pogroms every day."