The tomb of Mordechai and Esther, the famed protagonists of the Biblical Purim story, in Iran was apparently firebombed by unidentified individuals, Ynet reported Wednesday.
A disturbing video of the incident was tweeted out by Iran International. The outlet, writing in Farsi, identified the site as the tomb of Mordechai and Esther, and alleged that this was an incendiary attack.
ویدیوی منتشر شده نشان می‌دهد که بامداد سه‌شنبه ۱۴ فروردین مقبره «استر و مردخای» در همدان با مواد آتش‌زا مورد حمله قرار گرفت
فرماندار همدان گفت که با استفاده از تصاویر دوربین‌های مداربسته در این مقبره، شناسایی عاملان و نیت آن‌ها در دستور کار مراجع قضایی قرار گرفته است
مقبره «استر… pic.twitter.com/lodXLyv3Qp— ايران اينترنشنال (@IranIntl) April 3, 2024
“The governor of Hamedan said that by using the images of CCTV cameras in this tomb, the identification of the perpetrators and their intentions is on the agenda of the judicial authorities,” Iran International reported.
“The tomb is the most important religious site for [Iranian] Jews, a small community under severe pressure by the Islamic Republic in [Iran],” Alireza Nader, a former fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and analyst for the RAND Corporation, wrote in his retweet of Iran International’s video. (RELATED: Massive Iranian Terror Plot Foiled By IDF, Israel Says)
The Tomb of Esther & Mordechai is attacked in #Iran. The tomb is the most important religious site for #Iranian Jews, a small community under severe pressure by the Islamic Republic in #Iran. pic.twitter.com/fPDf3YWtSx
— Alireza Nader علیرضا نادر (@AlirezaNader) April 3, 2024
The footage showed at least two people hurling several Molotov cocktails into the entrance to what was reported to be the Iranian Jewish holy site that ignited on impact with the ground.
The tomb has had similar incidents break out since the start of the Hamas-Israel war, Ynet reported. When Iran’s Chief Rabbi Yehuda Gerami reportedly travelled in March to the holy shrine, the entrance to the site was decked out with a Palestinian flag. The holy site was firebombed back in 2020 as well, U.S. sources said and Iranian media appeared to confirm, according to The Times of Israel. Iranian officials told the press that only minor damage to the holy site was caused by that incident, the outlet reported.
According to the Book of Esther, Esther was a Jewish Queen of Persia during the reign of King Ahasuerus who along with her uncle Mordechai thwarted a scheme by Haman, one of the king’s advisers, to genocide the Jewish community, the Jewish Women’s Archive said. The first account that linked the tombs in Iran with the Biblical figures was a 12th century account by the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, The Jerusalem Post reported.
There remains a small Jewish community in Iran numbering some 9,300 persons in 2023, compared to 100,000 in 1948, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.