Mashhad, situated in the northeast corner of Iran, is Iran’s second largest city after Tehran. A Muslim place of pilgrimage, with a population of 3.4 million, it attracts 25 million visitors a year.

Despite its renown, Mashhad harbors an embarrassing secret, as the short film, Mashhad, points out.

On March 26, 1839, a few days before Passover, a pogrom erupted there, claiming the lives of eight Jews. Known as the Allahdad, it threw its relatively small Jewish community into a frenzy of profound angst.

Faced with the prospect of further waves of violence, the Jews of Mashhad, numbering in the vicinity of 300 families, were forced to convert to Islam. The converts would be referred to as Jadid al-Islam, or new Muslims.

In conformity with their reconfigured status, they adopted a dual identity. On the outside, they passed themselves off as Muslims. Inwardly, they secretly practiced Judaism, thereby living a life of duplicity. They resembled the Jews of Inquisition Spain, who had been compelled........

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