Exodus of Iranian Jews
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Exodus of Iranian Jews refers to the emigration of Iranian Jews from Iran in the 1950s and the later wave of emigration from the country during and after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, during which the Jewish community of 80,000 dropped to less than 20,000. The migration of Persian Jews after the Iranian Revolution is mostly attributed to fear of religious persecution, economic hardships, and insecurity after the deposition of the Imperial government.
The Iranian constitution nominally respects the rights of non-Muslim minorities; however, the strong anti-Zionist policy of the Islamic Republic created and maintains an uncomfortable dilemma for Iranian Jewry.
Many of the formerly 80,000-strong Iranian Jewish community had left Iran by 1978. Subsequently, more than 80% of the remaining Iranian Jews fled or emigrated from the country between 1979 and 2006. As of early 2013, a small Jewish community of an estimated 10,000 still resided in Iran as a protected minority.