Last Friday, Hillel Ontario partnered with Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto to host Shabbat dinner for over 120 Jewish and Iranian students.  The following is a reflection of my comments at the event.

Many of us are well aware of the ancient relationship between Jews and the people of Iran, one that dates back millennia.  Speaking from a Jewish perspective, in the 6th century BCE, the Babylonians destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, murdered thousands, and exiled the surviving Jews from the Land of Israel.  After the Persian Empire defeated the Babylonians several decades later, the Persian king Cyrus the Great authorized the Jews to return to their........

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