“I am incredibly hopeful for the future of my sisters and brothers back home in Iran, because I know that this regime is an anomaly in Persian and Iranian history,” says American broadcast journalist and former State Department envoy Ellie Cohanim. “Remember, we are the people who had Cyrus the Great, in essence, be the first to give religious freedom to the world, and also encourage the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild our Temple.”

Born in Tehran to a Jewish family, Cohanim, 49, recounts her lineage to a proud tradition of Iranian Jews that trace back their ancestry thousands of years, going as far back as the First Temple period. Cohanim describes her family as culturally Iranian, and that the country and Iranian people still hold a special place in her heart.

“In my family, there was always a love of Persian culture,” explains Cohanim. “Specifically poetry. My parents to this day are part of an Iranian poetry night that they have with some friends who are Jewish, Muslim and Bahai... and really nobody cares about each other’s religion. But what brings them together is their deep love for Persian poetry and music. So that was the kind of home I grew up in, where we had this deep appreciation for this very ancient civilization that is just part and parcel of who we are.”

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