#258 / Editorial
It is rare for political repression to result in massacres on a scale comparable to those that took place in Iran in January. And yet, it is to be feared that these massacres will not find their place in our shared history. A month later, no single place serves as a symbolic reference point, and although a few horrific images have circulated, the one that will remain etched in the collective consciousness is still lacking. This is undoubtedly due in part to the veil of secrecy imposed by the Iranian regime. But that does not explain everything. What remains is a Europe whose common democratic fabric is unraveling and which seems powerless to act in concert against the Russian-Iranian axis, as the four years of war in Ukraine remind us. And the United States, under Trump’s leadership and despite his vehement declarations of intent, has never been so far from matching the image that could fulfill Iranian democratic hopes. This week, we are publishing an interview that Iranian filmmaker and women’s rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi gave to the FAZ on the occasion of the premiere of her film Roya at the Berlinale. In it, she discusses her three experiences of imprisonment and the turning point that January’s crackdown represented for the Iranian people, emphasizing the gap between the Western image and the reality in Iran. Above all, she stresses the need for international solidarity and the Iranians’ all too often disappointed desire to be recognized and supported in their struggle for liberation.
On the other side of the border, this week we look at a country that has barely more Jews than Iran, even though it was once one of the main Jewish centers of the Ottoman Empire. This week, we devote a feature to the history and paradoxical current events of the Jewish community in the Turkish city of Izmir. François Azar first provides the historical background to understand the formation, heyday, and exile of this community. Jacob Ceki Hazan then recounts his personal and family relationship with Ladino, whose transmission connects the dispersed generations. Finally, Camille Scali examines a divided memory: the political, ideological, and economic struggles that underlie current attempts to revalue Izmir’s Jewish heritage.
A snapshot of an incongruous situation is sometimes more telling than a lengthy analysis. Cilly Kugelmann takes this gamble in a text that unfolds old photographs: those of Purim in 1962 at a Jewish youth center in Frankfurt am Main. The strangeness lies in the fact that, using the masquerade as a pretext, young Jews chose to dress up… as Jews. What can we learn about the disorientation of post-Shoah German Jews from this mirror image?
