After seven months in which the immigration of Jews from Persia (Iran) to Israel was halted, during the winter season of 1952/1953, hundreds of immigrants arrived at Haifa Port on May 14, 1953, transferred to Turkey from Persia, and from there sailed to Israel. This signaled the resumption of large-scale immigration from Persia, when more than 80,<> Jews who wished to immigrate to Israel, most of them residents of Tehran, "sat on suitcases" waiting for their turn.
Aliyah from Persia to Israel was considered difficult, expensive and long: a flight through a third country cost the Jewish Agency about $110 per person, a huge sum in those days, and this was compounded by the baggage problem, since passengers were limited to carrying only 20 kilograms per person with them, while most had baggage four to five times overweight.
Therefore, the agency had to transport the excess cargo by land, in a long and winding journey, and the immigrants, who arrived in Israel by plane within 48 hours of leaving Persia, waited anxiously for their cargo for weeks.
In February 1953, the agency decided to transfer all Jews from Persia to Israel by land and sea, since it turned out that the cost of boarding by this way would be 50 percent of the cost of boarding the flight. The overland journey from Persia to a port in Turkey took about ten days, and was accompanied by guides. The convoys traveled by bus and train, and part of the journey was done on foot.
Over the years, most members of the Jewish community left Iran. About 60 percent of them immigrated to Israel, while the rest moved to destinations in the United States and Europe. Today, only a few thousand Jews live in Iran.
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