They Prayed in Secret for 100 Years

Did you know there was a Jewish community that survived by pretending to be Muslim for 100 years? This is Mashhad, one of the holiest [music] cities in Iran. In 1839, a mob swept through its Jewish quarter. By the end of that day, the Jews were given an impossible choice: convert to Islam or die. They converted, every one of them. To the world, they were now Muslims, Jadid al-Islam, the new Muslims. But behind closed doors, they never stopped being Jews. For a century, they lived two lives. By day, they prayed at the mosque, kept Ramadan, made the pilgrimage to Mecca. By night, they lit Shabbat candles behind shuttered windows. [music] They wore tefillin beneath their turbans. They kept hidden synagogues, baked matzah in secret, taught their children Hebrew in cellars. They even invented their own secret script, Persian words in Hebrew letters, so their writing could never betray them. And at the heart of it all were the women. Because Muslim men were forbidden to look at them, the women moved unseen, smuggling Torah scrolls, [music] kosher food, and prayer books beneath their veils. They were the keepers of the flame. Some made the pilgrimage to Mecca and secretly slipped away to Jerusalem instead, where their synagogues still stand today. For 100 years, they kept the secret, but one generation let it die. Today, their descendants live openly in Jerusalem, New York, Milan, one of the most tightly-knit Jewish communities on Earth, still here, still [music] Jewish. They were told to stop being Jews. For 100 years in secret, they refused. Follow Jewish Time Machine for the worlds that refused to disappear.