Israel’s National Library Reveals: Iranian Jews Acquired Kevarim of Mordechai and Esther

Ahead of Purim, Israel’s National Library revealed the exchange of historical letters proving Iranian Jews purchased the kevarim of Mordechai and Esther in the Iranian city of Hamadan. The purchase of the land was in 1971.

The letters reveal negotiations between Jewish representatives in the country and officials in Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government toward the purchase of the land where Mordechai and Esther, whose story is read in Megillas Esther on Purim, are buried.

There is no mention of their kevarim in Jewish texts, making the issue of their kevarim a matter of dispute. According to several traditions dating back to the Middle Ages, the two Jewish figures are buried in Hamadan. According to one of the traditions, following the death of King Achashverosh, supporters of Haman, who attempted to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed, sought to exact revenge from Esther and Mordechai, prompting the two to flee to Hamadan.

Initial evidence of the mausoleum’s ties to Esther and Mordechai was provided by medieval Jewish traveler Binyamin of Tudela in the 12th century, who estimated Hamadan to have around 50,000 Jewish residents and described their kevarim as being situated in front of the synagogue.

The extraordinary exchange was preserved by the ORT organization, maintained in the central archive in the National Library’s Archives.

According to Dr. Samuel Thrope, the curator of the library’s Middle East and Islam Collection, the letters are a testament to Iran’s last shah having seen himself as Cyrus’s successor and having sought to portray that image to his country’s Jews.

In a 1968 letter to the Iranian Jewish community’s representative in Parliament, Lotfollah Hay, Archaeology and Public Education Department Director-General Abdolali Pourmand clarified the country’s Education Ministry would assist the Jewish community in Iran with purchasing the kevarim and the surrounding lands from its owner at the time, the Bazargani Bank. The acquisition would be paid for through the sale of tickets to enter the kevarim, they explained.

In their exchange, the regime’s sense of urgency is apparent. Pourmand specifically asks the Jewish community for its response to the proposed initiative as the government had yet to receive an answer on the matter.

According to the letters, the lands were purchased on Jan. 18, 1970, after which ownership of the plot was transferred to the local Jewish community.

Thrope explained. “This story sheds a unique light on the Jewish community’s ties to authorities in Iran over the years and Cyrus’s special status, both among Jews and the Persian public.”