In the heart of Tehran, the Rafi-Nia synagogue stood as a testament to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East. Before it was reduced to rubble in an Israeli air strike on April 7, it served as more than just a place of worship. It was a hub for religious practice, community gatherings, and social interaction. For the Iranian Jewish community, it symbolized continuity and identity, a physical manifestation of a long-standing cultural presence.
The strike and its aftermath
Marjan, a member of the Tehran Jewish community, was one of the first to arrive at the site of the attack. Just before 3:30 am, she was roused from sleep by a local friend who had witnessed the strike firsthand. When she reached Malek Lane, near the city’s historic core, the scene she encountered was one of complete devastation. The synagogue and the building next to it had been utterly destroyed.
Emergency services were already working at the site, assisted by the Red Crescent, the Basij—a volunteer paramilitary force—and volunteers from the Revolutionary Guards. Scattered across the streets were pages from sacred books, torn and flying in the wind. People who had fled in panic returned to recover what little remained of their lives.
Marjan described the reaction of the neighbors—those who had long lived in harmony with the Jewish community in the area. Now, they stood in disbelief, weeping silently as their homes and belongings were destroyed in a matter of seconds. 'We had shared so many years of life together,' she said. 'Now, we are left with nothing.'
A community's history in ruins
Hidden at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, the Rafi-Nia synagogue had been the center of a thriving community since the 1950s. The building, originally constructed during the first Pahlavi dynasty, was gifted to the Jewish community in 1958 by its owner, Abdul Rahman Rafi-Nia. Over the decades, it became a place where religious services were held and community groups, such as the Association of Jewish Graduates of Iran, convened.
Marjan, a member of that association, spoke of how the synagogue had been more than a house of prayer. It was a home, a meeting place for families, and a venue for joyous occasions. 'We loved being there,' she said. 'It was a beautiful old house with a charming courtyard where we could gather and celebrate life.'
Narciss M. Sohrabi, a researcher specializing in the urban dynamics of Jewish communities in Iran, was stunned by the news. 'It was a modest building, almost invisible in the fabric of Tehran's cityscape. And yet, it was hit by Israeli missiles,' she said. Sohrabi has spent years studying Jewish spaces across Iran and was intimately familiar with the synagogue.
Sohrabi, affiliated with the Ladyss laboratory in Paris and the Centre for Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, pointed out that the lack of signage on the synagogue was a common feature for Jewish places in Iran. 'That made it difficult to spot,' she said. 'But in the end, it didn’t protect it from destruction.'
Salvaging history from the rubble
Though no one was present in the building at the time of the strike, it quickly became clear that ancient Torah scrolls had been buried beneath tons of rubble. The Jewish community and rescue teams worked urgently to prevent these sacred texts from being lost. The heavy machinery used for clearing the rubble posed a risk to the scrolls, so they were asked to pause their work near the Torah ark.
Marjan and other members of the community gathered what they could from the streets. 'We weren’t trained,' she said. 'But we did what we could.' The rescue teams agreed to slow down operations, allowing for the scrolls to be carefully dug out by hand.
After five days of painstaking effort, the scrolls were recovered, mostly intact. Their wooden cases had miraculously shielded them from total destruction. 'It was a miracle,' Marjan said. 'We had our history back, in some form.'
The Israeli military issued a statement acknowledging responsibility for the strike, claiming it had targeted a senior Iranian commander associated with the Khatam al-Anbiya group. The destruction of the synagogue was labeled 'collateral damage.' In the statement, the military cited the use of 'precision munitions' and measures taken to minimize harm to civilians.
