Rita Jahanforuz

RITA JAHANFORUZ: I don't know, sometimes music could do things that a lot of politicians couldn't do, because you know, it makes us feel the real thing, that we are one.

ALEISA FISHMAN: Iranian-born Rita Jahanforuz is one of the biggest pop stars in Israel. With the release of her recent album, sung almost entirely in her native Farsi, Rita is developing a fan base in Iran as well, despite the fact that her music is banned there. Although she does not consider herself a political person, Rita is proof that individuals can challenge a system of state-sponsored antisemitism by reaching across cultural boundaries.

Welcome to Voices on Antisemitism, a podcast series from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum made possible by generous support from the Elizabeth and Oliver Stanton Foundation. I'm Aleisa Fishman. Every month, we invite a guest to reflect about the many ways that antisemitism and hatred influence our world today. Recorded during her recent North American tour, here's Rita Jahanforuz.

RITA JAHANFORUZ: I was born in Iran, but I was raised in Israel, and I'm a mixture of so many cultures. I have had classic voice lessons and I'm a pop-rock singer, but the first music I ever heard, it's Persian music. My mother had a warm, beautiful voice, and her singing filled up our home while she was cooking and cleaning. She used to click her fingers to the rhythm and so this music really goes in my blood. This is the soundtrack of my family life.

[sings Shane a cappella]

I remember the place that we lived in Iran was a place that most of the generals of the army of Iran lived there. And there, we couldn't tell that we are Jews. They told us—the kids—not to tell that we're Jews. And my sister, she was 14 years old. She learned in a Muslim school, and the teacher didn't know, so one morning she asked her to come and, in front of the class, to say the prayer. And she said, "Well, I can't, and I don't know." And everyone, you know, all the class, they were in shock. She came back really crying and devastated, and my father came back home at night and he said, "Well, I believe that this is the time that we should leave to Israel."

[pop version of Shane]

Two years ago, I went back to my bag of records that my mother had brought from Iran, and whenever there was a song that touched my family life, I took it out and I started to work on that. And soon, after two, three months, I understood that I'm going to do a Persian record.

At the beginning, when I told my friends and my colleagues that I'm going to do a whole record in Persian, they said, "Oh, you're crazy, you must be out of your mind. You're going to sing a whole record in Ahmadinejad's language?" But in less than a month, it became a gold-selling record. And it's a big hit in Israel; it's a big hit in Iran. They sell it on the black market because it's forbidden music. But I get so many e-mails from Iranians, from Iran; that they say that they love the music, love me, love Israel. And they are not at all the regime who represents nowadays Iran. There is the regime and there is the people. So I see that project as a stone that you throw, you know, in the water, and it makes circles, first very small, and then bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And suddenly I start to understand that maybe not politicians, but the simple people, maybe the people from the inside of those countries can reach each other and try to connect.

[Gole Sangam]

ALEISA FISHMAN: Voices on Antisemitism is a podcast series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Join us every month to hear a new perspective on the continuing threat of antisemitism in our world today. We would appreciate your feedback on this series. Please visit our website, www.ushmm.org