Our family has lived in Iran for 2,500 years, and Iranian Jewry has the long history in that land.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
For hundreds of years Iranians have been migrating to many parts of the world. They took Islamic culture to other parts of the world and established it there.
The Iranian people are known for adhering to their undertakings. We have been tested by history. We're an old civilization. We've been tested by history. We haven't aggressed upon any country for 250 years. This is a history that I'm proud of.
My family is a Jewish Iranian family, but I was born in Turkey and raised in Italy. So it's a very mixed background.
Iran is not in any sort of routine groupings. It's not an Arab country. It's not part of the Indian subcontinent. So it's in a neighborhood where it has some unique characteristics. We are a country which embraced Islam, learned Arabic, but didn't change its language or its culture... That's what keeps us unique.
I was born in Iran, left at a very young age - less than a year old - and grew up and was educated in the West.
At face value, the U.S. Congress, there is a - they have a long way to go before they fully appreciate and understand Iranian people.
I left Iran back in 1985. I lived in Turkey for a while, then I went to Germany. I joined a theater company there, and we toured the country.
Fortunately, Iranians are politically active worldwide.
Iranians call California and Iran 'sister cities;' they're very much alike. Iranians feel at home here and the weather is so close to Iranian weather.
I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Pittsburgh. I've never been to Iran, I don't speak the language, and, probably most important of all, my Iranian father left home when I was nine months old. That's the extent of my connection to Iran.