12 Friday, Feburary 17, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Israel Is Holy to the Persecuted Bahai Faith
By HADASSAH BAT-HAIM
World Zionist Press Service
HAIFA — Since its estab-
lishment in Persia in 1844,
the Bahai faith has been
subject to persecution and
oppression in that land. A
youth named Mirza Ali
Muhammad became known
as the Bab, or the Gate, re-
presenting a doorway
through which believers
could advance to
enlightenment.
Persia was a backward
country at the time. The
majority of its people lived
in misery and ignorance.
Power was in the hands of
the Moslem mullahs, and
women were born to per-
petual degradation and
suppression. Slavery was an
accepted trade, and the very
small minority of rich citi-
zens lived in unbelievable
luxury.
The new religion —
heralded by the Bab and es-
tablished by the Prophet of
the Bahai faith, Baha'u'llah
— was anti-slavery, in-
sisted on monogamy and
marital loyalty, forbade the
use of drugs and alcohol,
provided education for all
its children and, greatest
horror of all, taught that
women are spiritually equal
to men, and sit in Bahai
governing councils.
The Bahai Universal House of Justice in Haifa.
All of these principles
(except the ban on alco-
hol) was the stuff of revolt
to the mullahs, and mem-
bers of the Bahai were
assaulted, beaten,
burned, imprisoned, dri-
ven from their homes and
liable at any time to ar-
rest and execution with-
out trial.
Under Shah Reza Pahlavi
and his European-educated
son Reza Mohammad, the
situation improved. Bahais
opened their own schools
and hospitals, many of their
business ventures pros-
pered, and several Bahais
were trusted advisers to the
royal family. The mullahs
were still hostile, but ad-
vanced communications
protected the Bahais in
world public opinion.
Now, that flimsy shield
has been removed as the
present government is not
concerned with its interna-
tional image. From the time
that the fundamentalists
took over, all the minority
religions knew that difficult
days were ahead. Chris-
tians and ZOroastrians are
severely restricted and
closely watched, but the
special hatred of the mul-
lahs is directed towards
Jews and Bahais: the Jews
because they had rejected
the teachings of the founder
of Islam; the Bahais because
they accept a prophet who
came after Muhammad.
The Bahai faith, which is
represented at the United
Nations, is denied the
status of a religion by the
Khomeini regime. There
are currently more than
300,000 Bahais in Iran, but
the government maintains
that it is just a wayward sect
of Islam which must be
coaxed back into the fold. If
Bahais prove recalcitrant,
they must be annihilated.
In February 1983, the
president of the Islamic
Court in Shiraz stated pub-
licly that there is no place
for Bahais in Iran, and
members should recant or
they will be dealt with "like
other hypocrites . . . who
have religious and satanic
gatherings."
The pattern of persecu-
tion is all too familiar. It
begins with the arrest
and disappearance of the
leaders, then the warning
to employers not to em-
ploy Bahais. Wholesale
dismissals follow,
businesses are confis-
cated, hospitals are de-
nied supplies and then
closed down. Villages
where the majority of
people were Bahais have
been set on fire, and vil-
lagers have been made to
stand in the blazing sun 30 or so children go to local
for three days without schools with Persian as
food, water or shelter.
their main language.
One of the accusations
They work under the
against the Bah ais in Iran is direction of the highest
that they are Zionists and administrative institu-
spies for Israel. This is be- tion in the Bahai, the
cause the World Center of Universal House of Jus-
the Bahai is in Israel. In tice. This Council of Nine
fact, the Bahai have been is democratically elected
associated with the Holy every five years. The
Land since 1868 when Ba-
most recent election was
ha'u'llah, the founder of the in April 1983, when Bahai
faith, arrived on its shores representatives from 130
as a prisoner and exile. He nations gathered in Haifa
had been banished from his for the convention. Only
native Persia, and re- a few thousand of their
mained incarcerated in the co-religionists have been
prison city of Akko and its saved from Iran by the
environs until he passed
Israel Center of Bahai.
away in 1892.
The new Seat of the Uni-
His shrine near Akko,
versal House of Justice
(Acre) and the shrine of the building dominates the
Bab in Haifa, are the two mountainside looking down
most holy places in the over Haifa Bay. It was de-
world for Bahais.
signed in a classical Greek
It was Baha'u'llah who style, and uses marble
told his followers not to
which came from the very
teach his faith in the Holy
same quarry that supplied
Land, and this practice is
marble for the Acropolis.
still followed. The Bahais The carving of the marble
have no missionary activi- was done in Italy, and Zim
ties in Israel. The 250 mem-
ships brought it to Israel.
bers of the Bahai who live in
Except for the cost of the
Israel now are all religious marble, two-thirds of the
volunteers who have come
$20 million spent to con-
to Haifa from various na- struct the building was
tions to serve from two to spent in Israel, helping the
five years at the World local economy.
Center, with the status of
The money used to con-
temporary residents. Their struct this building was all
from voluntary donations
made by Bahais around the
world. The Bahai Faith is
entirely self-supporting,
creative energy, for which
and Bahai World Center
he knew only one sacred neither seeks nor accepts fi-
name — Russia."
nancial support from the
The Steinberg essays public nor the government
on "The Philosophical of Israel nor any other gov-
Premises of Jewish His- ernment.
toriography" and
Some of the Bahais who
"Jewish World History
(On the Occasion of sent money to help build
Simon Dubnow's 70th this building and support
Birthday, 1930)" are of their holy places were
immense value for stu- Bahais from Iran — leading
dents of the many re- to the ludicrous accusation
cords relating to Jewish by the Iranian government
history. —P.S. that Bahais are Zionists.
Dubnow, Dostoevsky Covered in Steinberg Essays
A debt of gratitude is due
the World Jewish Congress
for having made available
and for assuring perpetuity
for the writings of one of the
most distinguished Jewish
scholars of this century. In
the Ktav-published "His-
tory as Experience," WJC's
cultural department has in-
corporated major essays by
the late Dr. Aaron Stein-
berg, who had served as
head of the department.
This volume was issued to
mark the 80th birthday of
Dr. Steinberg (1891-1975)
and was published post-
humously. Dr. Steinberg
did his own selecting of the
issues to be included in the
volume honoring him for a
lifetime of many creative
activities.
Educated in Heidelberg
and St. Petersburg, where
he was professor of philos-
ophy, Dr. Steinberg lived in
Germany in the 1920s and
1930s. Upon the emergence
of the Nazi regime, he
moved to London, joining
the World Jewish Congress
cultural department. He
was delegated as the WJC
representative to UNESCO,
serving in both positions for
many years.
It was as translator of
the historic works of
Simon Dubnow into
German that he gained
wide recognition.
Noteworthy also in the
outstanding contributions
by Dr. Steinberg were his
two books in which he pre-
sented studies of the anti-
Jewish attitude of Russian
writer Feodor Dostoevsky.
Major essays on Dubnow
and Dostoevsky, selected by
Dr. Steinberg for inclusion
in "History as Experience,"
emphasize the noteworthy
contributions to his genius
as interpreter of and com-
mentator on major Jewish
events and their relation-
ships to their neighbors.
Dubnow's inerasable
leadership in the ranks of
Jewish historians, Dos-
toevsky's anti-Jewish re-
cord and the effect it had
among his contemporaries,
are two aspects in Jewish
experience that needed
evaluation and received it
from the highly-
authoritative Aaron Stein-
berg.
Perhaps this quotation
from one of Dr. Stein-
berg's essays, first pub-
lished in Yiddish in Paris
in 1928, and later in
English in 1949, provides
the fullest explanation of
Dostoevsky's approach
to the Jewish aspect of
his thinking:
"In order to sense even
remotely the full bitterness
of the doubts which tor-
mented Dostoevsky, one
should not forget, even for a
moment, that his boldest
practical conclusions fol-
lowed from the postulates of
his faith.
"The
passionate
enthusiasm with which for
decades he asserted the
rights of Russia over Con-
stantinople, was, in the last
analysis, nourished on the
invincible conviction that
the keys for the Holy Land,
for Palestine, would come to
Russia, together with
Tsar'grad (Constantinople);
this is easily verified by
more attentive reading of
Dostoevsky's writings on
the Eastern question:
"According to Dos-
toevsky, Palestine had to
be, whatever else came to
pass, an inseparable part of
Russia; there, where the
First Coming took place, the
Second would also occur;
and if it were true that this
was to occur in Russia, then
Palestine not only would be,
but already was, Russian
land. While the people of Is-
rael existed, while it was
not yet expunged from the
lists of the living, the Holy
Land would remain as be-
fore, the promised land of
the seed of Israel, and the
rights of Russia, together
with its universal-historical
mission, were once again
called into question.
"Thus, in every possible
area Dostoevsky came into
conflict and the Jews: in the
world of dialectical thought,
within his soul torn be-
tween faith and doubt, and
in the sphere of current
political conflicts. However,
all these dimensions of his
spiritual horizon always in-
tersected at one single
point: in that ultimate
source of his inexhaustible
Hungarian Jews Mark Holocaust
• •••• ...
This drawing of Hungarian Jews in an SS labor camp was done by one of the
forced laborers, Zeev Farkash. Under the name of Zeev, the artist is today one of
Israel's outstanding cartoonists, best known for his work in the Hebrew daily
Haaretz. The first World Conference of Hungarian-speaking Jews will convene in
Israel in July, 40 years after the destruction of 860,000 Hungarian Jews by the
Nazis.