Ahead of Friday's presidential elections in Iran, the rabbis of Iran's Jewish community are calling on their congregants to head to the polls.
The candidates, all members of the conservative camp loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, include Saeed Jalili, former senior nuclear negotiator, Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani, former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Raisi’s vice president, and reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, who is not seen as having much chance.
The most prominent candidate remains Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf who is considered highly radical and is close to the Supreme Leader. Whoever is elected will replace Ebrahim Raisi who was killed in a helicopter crash two months ago.
The letter calling on Jewish Iranians to vote was penned by Rabbi Younes Hamami Lalehzar, one of the leaders of the Iranian Jewish community.
Last week, Jewish-Iranian MP Dr. Homayoun Sameh invited representatives of the six candidates for a meeting at the Yosef Abad synagogue in Tehran.
Dr. Sameh noted that the "six honorable representatives discussed their approach to religions and religious minorities."