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As protests grip Iran, fears grow for a Jewish New Yorker held prisoner there
As Iran is gripped by its most intense wave of protests in years, concern is mounting over the fate of Americans imprisoned by the Islamic Republic — particularly Kamran Hekmati, an Iranian Jewish man from Great Neck, New York, who was sentenced to two years in prison while traveling to Iran for business. His crime was traveling to Israel 13 years ago for his son’s bar mitzvah.
Hekmati, 70, suffers from aggressive bladder cancer and is currently being held at the Evin prison in Iran, which is notorious for its particularly harsh conditions. Hekmati, a father and husband, is a jeweler and a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals of the village of Great Neck Estates. He was born in Iran, moved to the United States over 55 years ago, and holds dual Iranian and American citizenship. Prior to his arrest, Hekmati had reportedly traveled to Iran about three times a year without issue.
Barry Rosen, a Jew and former U.S. diplomat who was held hostage in the U.S. embassy in Iran for 444 days, said there are currently about eight Americans wrongfully imprisoned in Iran. Hekmati is the only Jewish captive.
Amid the current unrest in Iran, Rosen, a founding member of Hostage Aid Worldwide, said his organization is facing major challenges “getting information out about what is happening to the hostages.” “Right now,” he said, “the captives are not the most important issue in Iran for the State Department” or other organizations that could help.
Despite those challenges, Rosen said the current moment could present a rare opportunity to see American prisoners like Hekmati freed, as the United States comes to the negotiating table with significant leverage amid President Donald Trump’s threats to involve the U.S. militarily.
“There could possibly be a deal,” Rosen said, “but there has to be three or four prongs to this situation.” Any agreement, he added, would necessarily involve not only freeing American prisoners, but also restrictions on key security issues like Iranian nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile production.
That leverage comes against the backdrop of heightened regional conflict following the war between Israel and Iran this summer. Community members in Great Neck say Hekmati was captured by Iranian authorities around the time of the Twelve-Day War. “The regime wants to use him as an example of Israel’s use of Iran’s Jewish population as ‘Israeli’ infiltrators,” Rosen said.
Fear and hope among Great Neck’s Persian community
News of Hekmati’s imprisonment reverberated through his hometown of Great Neck, which has a significant Iranian population that is largely Jewish, and where nearly half of all households include a Jewish resident.
For Elizabeth Shirian, who was aware of Hekmati’s frequent travel to Iran, the news was both frightening and grimly unsurprising. About 10 years ago, while on a family trip to Istanbul, she ran into Hekmati at a restaurant as he was on his way to Iran. Even then, she said, “We thought, ‘Wow, he’s such a risk taker.’”
Shirian said her uncle was taken prisoner around the time of the Islamic Revolution in Iran for his alleged connection to Israel and was released after about a year. As unrest in Iran grows, she said her concern for Hekmati has only intensified. “Being a Jew imprisoned in the Islamic Republic of Iran is not something that typically ends well,” she said. “And now I think they’re even more ruthless than they were back then.”
Another community member, Ebby Victory, said Hekmati’s imprisonment has erased any lingering sense of normalcy for Iranians in Great Neck who had continued traveling to Iran prior to his arrest. “His situation has definitely made people more cautious about going back to the country,” Victory said.
The case has also drawn attention from elected officials representing the area. “When Mr. Hekmati was unjustly imprisoned in Iran late last year, I immediately reached out to Secretary Rubio and urged him to take swift action,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, whose district includes Great Neck, said in a statement to the Forward. My staff will be receiving an updated briefing from the State Department on Mr. Hekmati’s status in the coming days,” he said. Rep. Suozzi added that he will “continue to both work for his release and stand with courageous Iranian protestors.”
Amid protests, Jews in Iran retreat from public life
Rosen said Hekmati’s imprisonment reflects the increasingly precarious position of Iran’s Jewish community during moments of national crisis. “The Jewish community in Iran is playing a very tough balancing act,” Rosen said. “The balancing act is, ‘I’m Jewish and I’m not pro-Israeli.’” This distinction becomes even more critical during moments of upheaval. “The Jewish community knows that they have to be very, very careful in what they say and do right now,” said Rosen.
According to Rosen, between 20 and 30 Jewish Iranians have been taken prisoner in Iran since the Twelve-Day War, most accused of working with the Mossad or Israel. That number is significantly higher than anything he has seen from the regime in many years. Since the war, Rosen said, the situation for Jews in Iran has grown deeply precarious, and the protests have only intensified that reality.
“From what I gather, they’re not out,” Rosen said. “They just are not congregating anywhere, because they don’t want to get caught up in a situation where they might get arrested for some demonstration.”
For Iran’s Jewish community, Rosen said, the overriding priority remains survival. “It’s a vise that they’re in right now,” he said. “How do you survive in this situation?”
The post As protests grip Iran, fears grow for a Jewish New Yorker held prisoner there appeared first on The Forward.
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High-Stakes US Special Forces Mission Rescues Airman From Iran After F-15 Crash
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission supporting Operation Epic Fury during the Iran war at an undisclosed location, March 9, 2026. U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
US forces staged the audacious rescue of an airman behind enemy lines after Iran downed his fighter jet, officials said on Sunday, resolving a crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs escalating the war, now in its sixth week.
The airman rescued by special operations forces, who Trump said was a colonel, was the weapons-systems officer on the downed F-15, a US official told Reuters.
“Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured but “he will be just fine.”
The officer was the second of two crew members on the warplane that Iran said on Friday had been brought down by its air defenses. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said several aircraft were destroyed during the US rescue mission, Tasnim news agency reported.
Reuters reported on Friday that the first crew member had been retrieved, triggering a high-profile search by both Iran and the United States for the remaining airman.
Iranian officials had urged citizens to help find him, hoping to gain leverage against Washington in the war Trump and Israel launched on February 28.
Trump has threatened to escalate the conflict in the coming days with attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Had Iran captured the airman, the ensuing hostage crisis could have shifted American public perception of a conflict that opinion polls show was already unpopular.
Trump said the airman was rescued “in the treacherous mountains of Iran” in what he said was the first time in military memory that two US pilots had been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory.
The official told Reuters that as the weapons-systems officer was moved from near a mountain to a transport aircraft parked within Iran, US forces had to destroy at least one of the aircraft because it had malfunctioned.
U.S. AIRCRAFT HIT
The rescue effort, involving dozens of military aircraft, encountered fierce resistance from Iran.
Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.
Separately, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, the officials said, though the extent of crew injuries was unclear.
Still, Trump was triumphant.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” he said in his statement.
US air crews are trained in what to do if they go down behind enemy lines, measures known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, but few are fluent in Persian and face a challenge in staying undetected while seeking rescue.
The conflict has killed 13 US military service members, with more than 300 wounded, US Central Command says. No US troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.
While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as being in tatters, they have repeatedly been able to hit US aircraft.
Reuters reported on US intelligence showing that Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability. Until just over a week ago, the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal.
The status of about another third was less clear, but bombings probably damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.
The US and Israeli war on Iran has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the global economy with soaring energy prices that are fueling fears of inflation.
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On Easter, Pope Leo Urges World Leaders to End Wars, Renounce Conquest
Pope Leo XIV waves from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) message, on Easter Sunday at the Vatican, April 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Pope Leo urged global leaders in his Easter message on Sunday to end the conflicts raging across the world and abandon any schemes for power, conquest or domination.
The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, lamented in a special message to the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square that people “are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent.”
“Let those who have weapons lay them down!” the first US pope exhorted. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!”
Leo did not mention any specific conflicts in the message, known as the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing. It was unusually brief and direct.
The pope said that the story of Easter, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead three days after not resisting his execution by crucifixion, shows that Christ was “entirely nonviolent.”
“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars,” Leo urged.
Leo, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has been forcefully decrying the world’s violent conflicts in recent weeks and ramping up his criticism of the Iran war.
In a sermon for the Easter vigil on Saturday night, he urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace.
The pope made a rare direct appeal to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging him to find an “off-ramp” to end the Iran war.
In his address from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday to the Square below, decorated with thousands of brightly colored flowers for the holiday, Leo offered brief Easter greetings in ten languages, including Latin, Arabic and Chinese.
The pope also announced he would return to the Basilica on April 11 to host a prayer vigil for peace.
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Temple Mount Set for Limited Reopening to Jews and Muslims
Israeli National Security Minister and head of Jewish Power party Itamar Ben-Gvir gives a statement to members of the press, ahead of a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
i24 News – Israeli authorities are preparing to partially reopen the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to both Jewish and Muslim worshipers for the first time since the start of the war with Iran, under a tightly controlled and highly restricted security arrangement, i24NEWS has learned.
According to details obtained by i24NEWS, the Israeli police, backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are also expected to permit limited access for Jewish worshipers to the Western Wall as part of the same phased plan.
Under the framework, access to the Temple Mount and surrounding holy sites would be restricted to small groups of up to 150 people at a time. In the event of a missile alert, all visitors would be immediately evacuated in accordance with emergency protocols.
The decision follows a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing demonstrations in a limited format. Police argue that a consistent standard must apply across both civic gatherings and religious sites, with Ben-Gvir insisting that “there cannot be one rule for demonstrations and another for the Temple Mount.”
However, the reopening contradicts recommendations from the Home Front Command, which has advised keeping sensitive sites closed due to the ongoing risk of missile attacks.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin has proposed transferring authority over such security-related decisions exclusively to defense officials, an initiative that could reshape the balance between the judiciary and security establishment regarding restrictions on public access.