Migration as extended negotiation: Iranian Jews across Iran, Israel, and the United States

This article examines the migration of Iranian Jews following the 1979 Revolution, challenging conventional narratives that frame Middle Eastern Jewish emigration as a unidirectional flight from persecution to safety. Drawing on archival sources, published memoirs, and oral history interviews, it introduces the concept of “exit without closure” to describe a distinctively middle-class, transnational migration pattern in which departure was undertaken with the assumption that return remained possible. Unlike other Middle Eastern Jewish communities, which faced permanent rupture from their countries of origin, Iranian Jews maintained properties, businesses, and trust networks across borders, applied for temporary, rather than permanent residency, and in many cases returned to Iran before ultimately settling abroad. The article traces three phases of post-revolutionary migration – revolutionary chaos and open possibilities (1979–1980), the Iran-Iraq War and gradual consolidation (1980–1988), and the foreclosure of return (1988–present) – and examines how class position, legal categories, and transnational networks shaped migration decisions. Individual narratives illustrate how migration operated as an extended negotiation rather than a singular rupture, ultimately producing the distinctive diaspora community known as Tehrangeles.