The Iranian Refugee Who Loves the Jewish State and Jewish People

Stand for Israel  |  July 29, 2019

Like so many countries across the Middle East, Iran is a dangerous place for Christians and Jews alike. Atour Eyvazian was a Christian who experienced Iranian persecution firsthand. And that is why this friend of The Fellowship’s story, as told by The Jerusalem Post’s Ilanit Chernick is so heartening — Atour truly understands religious persecution, which has led him to be a lifelong supporter of both Israel and her people:

“I feel like I’m home in Israel,” said Atour Eyvazian, an Assyrian/Armenian Christian, who fled religious persecution in Iran.

Eyvazian lives in Texas, but his love for the State of Israel is deeply set. He is visiting the country for the first time this week.

Eyvazian sat down with The Jerusalem Post to share his story.

“I was walking around the market in Jerusalem [Mahaneh Yehuda] earlier and I was smelling the fruit, touching and looking at it, talking to the vendors, to the people – that is how it once was in Iran,” he said, implying that the diversity in Israel was what made him feel like he was back in his home country again.

It’s the first thing he recalled as he began to tell his story.

Eyvazian was born in Iran in 1965, the child of an Assyrian mother and Armenian-Christian father.

“Before the Iranian Revolution in 1979,” he recalled, “people were getting along… that’s what Iran was like, you could walk around freely, no one paid attention to who was Christian, or Jewish or Muslim. Life was good. But then, after the revolution, things became tough for Christians and Jews…