Freedom Rings

After being smuggled out of Iran and losing his fiither,
Alfred Lavi dedicates his life to Torah and medicine.

father would have had a greater
Angeles, where he had relatives. He
"I left Iran for two reasons —
chance of recovery if it were not for
graduated from UCLA in 1993 with a
admission to medical school was
Staff Writer
the poor access to medical services in
degree
in
molecular
biology.
In
1995,
impossible for Jews, and the Iran-Iraq
Iran," Lavi said.
the
year
he
began
medical
school,
his
war," for which any unmarried Iranian
ooking at Alfred Lavi, you
But his life is not all medicine.
mother
and
other
siblings
arrived.
boy could be drafted, Lavi said.
wouldn't expect to hear har-
"Because I had experienced the
Lavi
was
driven
to
medical
school
At the time, it cost $2,000 to be
rowing tales of escape and
loneliness of being an immigrant and
by
his
father's
unfulfilled
yearnings
smuggled
out
of
Iran
to
Pakistan,
years of lonely struggle.
the sadness of losing my father, I was
and also by circumstances that befell
through Afghanistan. That included
The diminutive, smooth-cheeked
compelled to help others in my
camel riding, one whole day of
29-year-old, whose knitted kippah is
community," he said.
walking and days in the back
clipped onto a mass of dark, wavy
In 1990, Lavi established
of a truck.
hair, has endured loneliness and loss
the
UCLA chapter of Chabad,
Thinking he would be in
on the path to carving out a better life
serving
as president for three
Pakistan for Rosh Hashanah,
than the one he had in Iran.
years.
Lavi
packed
his
shofar.
But
due
The hardest part of leaving his
Often asked how he can
to closed roads and heightened
homeland in 1986 was not the 10
keep
a clear vision of his goals
,security, he left Iran on
days Lavi, then 16, spent on a camel
after
so
many obstacles, Lavi
Shabbat evening, which coin-
in the desert. It wasn't the two months
quotes
from
a letter from
cided with Rosh Hashanah in
in Pakistan, the six months in Vienna
Pierre
to
Marie
Curie: "We
1986. On the second day of
or the six years in Los Angeles.
must
eat,
drink,
sleep, be idle,
the holiday, he blew the shofar
It was that he never saw his father
love,
touch
the
sweetest
things
in the middle of the desert. He
again.
in
life
yet
not
succumb
to
still has that shofar, although it
The youngest of four siblings, he
them. It is necessary in doing
was the favorite child, the one through has holes from banging against
all this, the higher thoughts to
the side of a camel.
which his father hoped to fulfill his
which
one is dedicated remain
During the desert trek, Lavi
own dreams of becoming a physician.
dominant
and continue their
endured scalding days and
It's been a long haul. Lavi, who
unmoved
course
in our poor
freezing nights. The trip terri-
recently spent a month doing a
heads.
It
is
necessary
to make a
fied the teenager, who didn't
surgery rotation at Botsford Hospital
dream
of
life,
and
to
make
a
know when, or if, he would see
in Farmington, spent his first years in
dream
of
reality."
his family again.
the United States collecting trash in a
Lavi's dream now takes
"You have a feeling of being
Los Angeles movie theater and catch-
place
in L.A., where he is a
in the middle of the ocean, and
ing up in school. When his sister-in-
third-year
medical student,
you do not know if you will
law and her two children arrived, he
planning
to
specialize in
make it to shore, if you're
put off medical school to work and
surgery.
He
would like to
going in the right direction.
support them.
return
to
Botsford's
surgery
You give your life to the hands
Under the Shah's rule, Iranian Jews
program
for
his
residency.
of someone you've never seen
were free to practice their religion and
before," he said.
attend Jewish schools, which the gov-
Alfred Lavi: A life of struggle and triumph.
Lavi stayed in Pakistan for
ernment allowed to close on Shabbat
two
months,
waiting
for
an
and Jewish holidays.
Clarifications
exit visa. He remembers it as
Lavi speaks lovingly of Iran's beauty
his
family
—
in
Iran,
one
sister
an "ugly" place, where the taxi cabs
and the strong family values of the
"unnecessarily lost her hearing at the
slow down only long enough to allow
Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper visits
Jews who lived there. In fact, he led
hands of an ill-trained doctor. As I
passengers to jump in or out, and
nursing home residents in his
the way for his family to become
watched my sister suffer, I burned
where no women walk the streets.
capacity as a chaplain with the
Torah-observant. At 9 years old, Lavi
with the desire to understand her ill-
Finally, he went to Vienna, a popu-
Jewish Community Chaplaincy
started following the dietary laws and
ness," he wrote in his application to
lar pit stop for Middle Eastern Jews
Program of Jewish Home and
observing Shabbat.
med
school.
heading
West.
There,
he
spent
six
Aging
Services.
But when Ayatollah Khomeini came
He
ids°
was
motivated
by
his
months
learning
English
and
Torah
to power in the revolution of 1979,
father's untimely death in 1988, of
with Rabbi Menachem Zehnwirth,
Daniel Miller was involved in the
everything changed. Jewish schools
leukemia,
one
week
after
he
was
diag-
who
now
lives
in
Baltimore
and
teach-
Tu
B'Shevat project at Akiva
could continue to function, but they
nosed;
es at the Talmudical Academy and at
Hebrew Day School, which was
could no longer close for Shabbat or
"Oren in his death, my father
featured in the Feb. 20 edition.
the Torah Institute.
holidays. To compensate, the schools
inspired
me further. Like my sister, my
In
March
1987,
Lavi
headed
to
Los
saved Jewish studies for religious days.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

L

❑

3/6
1998

19

