From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian

From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women between Religion and Culture

A fascinating look at the lives, culture, and religious and ritual observance of three generations of Iranian Jewish women in the United States.

Saba Soomekh offers a fascinating portrait of three generations of women in an ethnically distinctive and little-known American Jewish community, Jews of Iranian origin living in Los Angeles. Most of Iranâ€™s Jewish community immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the government-sponsored discrimination that followed. Based on interviews with women raised during the constitutional monarchy of the earlier part of the twentieth century, those raised during the modernizing Pahlavi regime of mid-century, and those who have grown up in Los Angeles, the book presents an ethnographic portrait of what life was and is like for Iranian Jewish women. Featuring the voices of all generations, the book concentrates on religiosity and ritual observance, the relationship between men and women, and womenâ€™s self-concept as Iranian Jewish women. Mother-daughter relationships, double standards for sons and daughters, marriage customs, the appeal of American forms of Jewish practices, social customs and pressures, and the alternate attraction to and critique of materialism and attention to outward appearance are discussed by the author and through the voices of her informants.

â€œâ€¦an astute anthropological study.â€ â€” Lilith

â€œâ€¦Soomekhâ€™s study offers some valuable insight into the history, culture, and society of a sometimes insular and somewhat inscrutable segment of Los Angelesâ€™s contemporary Jewish community â€¦ a sound and accessible study.â€ â€” H-Net Reviews (H-Judaic)

â€œSoomekh traces the innovation and maintenance of being Jewish in From the Shahs to Los Angeles, providing a valuable contribution for study and a story on immigrant communities in the U.S. thatâ€™s accessible to the reader outside the insular community of Iranian Jews in Los Angeles.â€ â€” Portland Book Review

â€œAs many as 40,000 Iranian Jews live in the Los Angeles area â€¦ Saba Soomekh, an Iranian-born member of this community, has written an informative profile of the three generations of women in this community â€¦ As an insider, Soomekh has a unique perspective on these three generations on the basis of her own experience, her background research, and interviews with members of each generation.â€ â€” Jewish Book Council

â€œâ€¦Saba Soomekh draws a compelling ethnographic portrait of what life was and is for [Jews] in Iran and the United States.â€ â€” Canadian Jewish News

Saba Soomekh is Assistant Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

Country	USA
Author	Saba Soomekh
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9781438443850
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	SUNY Press
Manufacturer	SUNY Press
NumberOfPages	234
PublicationDate	2012-10-11
Publisher	SUNY Press
ReleaseDate	2012-10-11
Studio	SUNY Press

From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women between Religion and Culture

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