JTA — Sharon Nazarzadeh had no idea when she put a Nowruz celebration on the calendar again at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan just how poignant the festivities would be.

Nazarzadeh first marked the Persian spring equinox festival at the museum, where she is events director, in 2024. She was inspired by her own family’s traditions, imported to the United States from Iran in 1978 — just before the Islamic Revolution that turned Israel into Iran’s enemy and drove most Jews from Iran. Her grandfather had been the chief rabbi of Tehran.

This year, the festival unfolded under the shadow of war, with the United States and Israel jointly battling Iran’s Islamic Republic regime. Iranians in the diaspora now have some tentative hope that there could be a change for the better in their homeland, while the estimated 8,000 to 15,000 Jews who remain inside Iran are thought to be in new peril.

“With every Nowruz, with every new day, we say, ‘Okay, this is the time to move forward. This is the time of rebirth, a new beginning,’’ Nazarzadeh said. “Nowruz means ‘new day.’ And this is my wish, of course, for all Iranians, whether they’re living in diaspora or living in Iran or elsewhere.”

The Persian holiday, more than 3,000 years old, is celebrated by Iranians of all religious backgrounds. For Iranian Jews, the celebration of this holiday typically lands between Purim........

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