JEWS IN A GREAT ESCAPE

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B"H

Comparing these Jews to the Jews in Germany at the rise of Hitler seems very appropriate to me. Also, if they have any family left in Iran, those family members are in danger, if not the whole community. They won't speak against the evil dictator of Iran because of this danger, so don't hold your breath.

I wish we could get every last Jew out right now, but I know that now it will be harder than ever for them to leave.

Pray for them.

M
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IRANIANS FLEE TO ISRAEL IN SECRET EXODUS
By ANDY SOLTIS
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12262007/news/worldnews/jews_in_a_great_escape_299765.htm

December 26, 2007 -- Forty Iranian Jews secretly flew to Israel yesterday, completing a yearlong covert operation to start a new life in the country that Iran's leader vows to "wipe off the map."

The modern-day Exodus was the largest influx of Iranian Jews to Israel since Ayatollah Khomeini established his hard-line Islamic Republic in Tehran in 1979.

PHOTO GALLERY: Exodus From Iran

The smuggled immigrants were greeted by relatives who screamed with joy and tossed candy as they were reunited at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv.

"I feel so good," said a 16-year-old who gave his name as Yosef.

He arrived with his brother, sister and parents and was greeted by grandparents he hadn't seen in six years.

"I just saw all of my family. You can't put that into words," he said.

Being reunited with relatives was only one reason for their secret escape, the immigrants said.

"I was scared in Iran as a Jew," Yosef's brother Michael, 15, said.

Like others, they declined to give their family name to protect relatives still in Iran. The new arrivals - 10 families and three individuals who traveled by themselves - said they had to abandon all their possessions when they fled.

The clandestine operation was conducted by Israel's quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.

It was financed in part by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has raised millions of dollars, much of it from evangelical donors in the United States who believe the creation of a Jewish state follows biblical prophecy.

Iran has one of the world's oldest Jewish communities, and its Jewish population was about 100,000 when Khomeini came to power after the fall of the shah.

It is now down to an estimated 25,000 to 28,000, still the largest in the Muslim Mideast.

Some of the immigrants disputed claims that they suffered from rising anti-Semitism under Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But fellowship founder Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein said they underestimate the dangers.

"Our feeling is that this is very similar to the situation of Jews in Germany in the 1930s," he said. "By the time they realize it's not going to blow over, it'll be too late."

Iran does not recognize Israel, and its passports include wording that bans the holder from traveling "to occupied Palestine" - meaning the Jewish state. As a result, yesterday's arrivals had to travel first to a third country that they refused to identify. They also would not divulge when they left Iran.

Reunited families hugged and prayed together at the airport reception hall yesterday.

"I'm in heaven," said Avraham Dayan, 63, who hadn't seen his son in the 11 years since he made his own secret escape from Iran.

He recalled how he was jailed in Iran in 1993.

"I didn't know that the authorities were listening to my phone, and they came to arrest me," he told The Jerusalem Post.

"They said I was a friend of [Israeli Prime Minister Menachem] Begin, that I was a Zionist, and they threw me in jail."

"I bribed my way out of jail, bribed my way to an Iranian passport and left Iran," he said. He added his son also obtained a new passport by bribes.

Each immigrant will receive a $10,000 grant from the fellowship to start their new life because they came "with nothing," Eckstein said.

With Post Wire Services

andy.soltis@nypost.com