From Revolutionary Iran To Outreach In California: Rabbi Danny Yiftach-Hashem

00:00 Speaker 1 Rabbi Danny Yiftach Hashem grew up in Iran. In early 1979, he and his Jewish schoolmates would walk home from school. Revolution was in the air in Tehran, and even on the ground.

00:13 Speaker 2 Our fun going back from school to home was to find empty shells, casings of bullets, you know, on the streets. "Hey, I found this size. Hey, I found that size. Hey, mine is this color," and so on and so forth.

00:27 Speaker 3 Every time they were coming back home, they had a story of shooting, dying, people running, uh, escaping.

00:37 Speaker 1 That's Danny's mother, Yaffa Yiftach Hashem. She worried about her kids' safety, and her own. One day she was walking home on a public street when a man approached her and said...

00:49 Speaker 3 "You should go and thank God that so far Khomeini didn't ask us to kill you guys. We're waiting for that day." And you could feel that you're not safe anymore. You don't know what's gonna happen next. Nobody was comfortable, and every day and every month and every year, the situation got worse and worse and worse.

01:17 Speaker 1 It was so bad that Danny, only about 12 at the time, remembers his parents pondering a difficult question as the Iranian revolution intensified.

01:27 Speaker 2 What to do? How are they going to save the family or the kids?

01:32 Speaker 1 Little did Danny and his family know that a bold plan of action had been put into motion by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in late 1978. It was called Operation Exodus, and it was led by Rabbi JJ Hecht, executive vice president of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education. That operation would save hundreds of Jewish children by 1981. More than four decades later, it's still making a positive impact on the entire world. I'm Gary Wolak, and this is Lamplighters, stories from Chabad emissaries on the Jewish frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable, and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances, and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories.

02:44 Speaker 2 I do have vivid memories of Iran.

02:46 Speaker 1 For Danny Yiftach Hashem, those memories include a fairly comfortable life in Tehran. He and his family kept Shabbos and kosher law. Danny's father, Reuven, was a clothing merchant, and his mother taught Hebrew and Judaic studies at a branch of Otzar HaTorah. Yaffa says Danny was a gifted student.

03:07 Speaker 3 You know, always he was smart, and all day long he was learning with me Torah and, uh, you know, all Limudei Kodesh. So, uh, my kids, they grew up in Jewish school and the same school that I was teaching, and, uh, uh, Baruch Hashem, we had a good life.

03:30 Speaker 1 But that began to change. In the late 1970s, Yaffa first saw the warning signs in the school where she taught. The Khomeini regime sent overseers and spies into schools. At Otzar HaTorah, the new girl would line students up and lead them in a morning round of sloganeering. "Death to America," was a popular one, closely followed by, "Death to Israel." Yaffa protested, saying...

04:01 Speaker 3 No, because, uh, Yisrael is, uh, our father's name, so, uh, we can't say that.

04:09 Speaker 1 That wasn't convincing enough, so Yaffa's students came up with a workaround.

04:14 Speaker 3 In Persian, when you say, um, Yisrael, somehow you could say Ezrael. Ezrael is Malach Hamavet.

04:24 Speaker 1 Or the angel of death.

04:26 Speaker 3 So the girls were saying Ezrael, not Yisrael.

04:33 Speaker 2 You could imagine all the discussions that would be happening behind closed doors in, in every family. What does all of this mean? Where is all of this going?

04:41 Speaker 1 Danny was young, but he had a clear picture of what was going on.

04:45 Speaker 2 There was the revolution taking place, the uncertainty, the chaos. I recall coming back from school during 1979, and the kids coming back from the Jewish school would hang together as we walked through the streets. And we would, uh, suddenly hear screaming and chaos and people pouring into the streets, so we would run back towards the school, then we would find another alley to go through, and, and again, we would hear shooting.

05:16 Speaker 3 So, uh, it was hard. Yeah. It was scary.

05:20 Speaker 1 Sometimes the warning signs were right outside their front door.

05:24 Speaker 2 Whether it was all the protests that was going on, pro and anti the revolution. In the beginning it was the army stepping in to quell the revolution, and then later on, when the revolutionary forces gained strength and it became their rule and their law, so that was another tough scenario to go through and to see. So quite quickly I figured out, no matter what happens here, which side is gonna be the winner, the chaos seems to be permanent. So there was a lot of anxiety as to what's gonna be and what the plan of action should be.

06:10 Speaker 1 Dani's parents weren't sure it would be possible to leave as a family, but they didn't want to send their children out of the country on their own. But then...

06:18 Speaker 3 One Shabbos that we were in shul, they announced that we can't take the family, but we're able to take the kids from 10, let's say, till 20. We could take them.

06:33 Speaker 1 The we of whom Yaffa speaks were local Jewish community leaders and Chabad emissaries who had traveled into Iran to begin the dangerous mission of evacuating Jewish children in an effort they were secretly calling Operation Exodus. The next day, parents secretly met with the shluchim and local leaders to discuss the plan in detail. Yaffa and Reuven were there.

06:57 Speaker 3 Many people came with their kids, and they explained more about it, and they gave us a paper and said, "Okay, if you agree either with taking them to America or to Israel, write their name, their age, and your phone number, and we're gonna call you." We did that, and, uh, they said, "Okay, you go home, and you make yourself ready, ready, ready."

07:29 Speaker 1 Dani packed a small bag and began to deal with a flood of emotions.

07:33 Speaker 2 Fear of separation from parents and being away from family, not knowing when and for how long that's going to be, when you're gonna see each other again, and at the same time, excitement.

07:45 Speaker 1 Right before Purim, Yaffa got a call. A car would quickly arrive to bring Dani to the airport.

07:51 Speaker 3 So really chick-chock they did that.

07:55 Speaker 1 Yaffa and Reuven came too.

07:57 Speaker 2 I was choked up, but I held it back because I didn't want my parents to see me crying.

08:03 Speaker 1 But then another emotion surfaced, anxiety.

08:06 Speaker 2 Are they going to stop the airplane or stop the kids, stop me from boarding onto the airplane? When you got a flight with 100 kids without their parents boarding a flight, that could raise some red flags.

08:21 Speaker 1 But nobody was stopped. Dani boarded the flight from Tehran to Rome with about 100 other Jewish children leaving via Operation Exodus. Did you know any of the other kids on the flight?

08:33 Speaker 2 No, I did not know any of them.

08:36 Speaker 1 Or he didn't know any of them at that time. Yaftach Hashem would later befriend many of them. Dani and his fellow Jewish Iranian escapees spent a few days in Rome and then boarded a flight to New York, arriving in March 1979, right after Purim. From the airport, they were taken to a location in Brooklyn for a meal.

09:00 Speaker 2 And after the meal, they announced that, "Okay, everyone grab your suitcases. Each child will get a card with a name of a family that you're gonna be going to. Present that card and your suitcase to one of the volunteers, and they will match you up with a driver that is gonna take you to that family." So I recall at the end of dinner getting that card, and I gave it to one of the bachurim. Said, "Okay, where's your suitcase?" So I went back 10, 15 feet to grab my suitcase and come back.

09:34 Speaker 1 But there was a little problem.

09:35 Speaker 2 Who did I give the card to? Every bachur had a beard, a hat, a white shirt and a jacket. It's like they all look alike.

09:42 Speaker 1 Remember that Dani Yaftach Hashem is from a Persian family. He wasn't yet familiar with the Ashkenazic traditions, including dress, followed by many in the Chabad world, but he found another yeshiva student who gave him a card sending him to the home of a different host family. Dani settled into life in Crown Heights with hundreds of other Iranian children arriving in waves once or twice a week. A temporary school was established for all of them. They learned English and Hebrew and basic Judaic studies. Dani stayed with different host families, including Rabbi Berel and Rendell Alenic and Rabbi Menachem and Miriam Lifshitz. 6,000 miles away, a Jewish mother worried about her son.

10:30 Speaker 3 So at the beginning, we didn't know where he is and what to do.

10:35 Speaker 1 But Dani, a Jewish boy worried about his mother, began calling relatives' homes from a Crown Heights phone booth. His parents didn't have a phone, so at first, messages were relayed back and forth.

10:47 Speaker 2 Would have to stand with rolls of quarters at a public phone. These days, nobody can relate to that, but in those days, that's how it was if you were trying to call out of the country. I would have to call, let's say, the home of my grandparents or a different relative to give a message and coordinate a time to have my parents at their home so I could call.

11:06 Speaker 1 Dani read about escalating events in Iran and asked how his parents and siblings were doing amid the chaos.

11:12 Speaker 2 They would either tell me that, "Oh, no, everything is fine and dandy," because they were afraid to say anything over the phone, or they were worried that I'm gonna get worried, so they were hiding it from me. So I would see images on one side. At the same time, I understood they can't really talk.

11:30 Speaker 1 Yaffa worried about how Dani was doing as a guest in the home of a host family, but Dani told her about the host families he stayed with.

11:38 Speaker 2 Very warm, very welcoming.

11:41 Speaker 1 6,000 miles away, a mother's concern was eased. As Danny adjusted to his new life in the US, Passover, the Jewish festival of redemption and freedom, was approaching. Special Passover Seders with a Persian flavor were arranged for the Iranian children at the headquarters of Rabbi Hecht's National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education.

12:06 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe himself came for a visit to see all the Persian kids sitting around the tables. He even inspected and inquired about the kitchen and about what kind of food is being served, and whether rice is being served or not.

12:21 Speaker 1 In Ashkenazic tradition, rice is considered kidney oat, or legumes. It's not eaten or even possessed during Passover. But Sephardi tradition allows it, so the Rebbe personally saw to it that rice was served to the Iranian children at the Seders.

12:37 Speaker 2 It was definitely a special touch, and I remembered silver wine cups for each child, and it was a Seder to remember.

12:50 Speaker 1 When summer arrived, hundreds of kids were sent to various camps in North America. Danny and a couple of his new friends went to Camp Gan Israel in Montreal. After that summer, he attended Machane Mordechai, a camp in the Catskills, which was exclusively for the children from Iran. Then Danny and about 10 other kids were sent to Los Angeles to attend yeshiva. When he arrived back in Crown Heights, he stayed with a new host family.

13:16 Speaker 2 So that would be the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Yossi and Shira Avtzin. They were newlyweds, tiny little apartment, and it was the holiday of Sukkot the first time that I went there. The warmth, uh, it was just something unparalleled.

13:36 Speaker 1 They became like parents to Danny. Yaffa called the Avtzin home when she could.

13:41 Speaker 3 Oh, they were wonderful, Baruch Hashem, and I really appreciate the Chabad. They arrange all this situation, unbelievable.

13:52 Speaker 2 And of course, they insisted that I go back there again and again every time I was in New York. And eventually, when I went back to the East Coast to finish my advanced rabbinic studies, I was there almost every Shabbos. And that was it. That was home.

14:10 Speaker 1 Danny was by now steeped in Chabad Hasidus and custom. Yaffa remembers that when her youngest son was born in Iran, Danny even had a suggestion for his brother's name.

14:21 Speaker 3 You know what? You could name him Menachem Mendel.

14:26 Speaker 1 That's the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

14:28 Speaker 3 And maybe with, uh, zechut of that, Hashem gonna help you and get out of Iran.

14:39 Speaker 1 But back in Tehran, the revolution was still in full swing. When it had begun, Yaffa had thought-

14:45 Speaker 3 I'm not gonna wait that long. I'm gonna go after him

14:50 Speaker 1 But a quick reunion with Danny in the US was not to be. War had broken out between Iran and Iraq, and it was harder than ever to leave the country.

14:59 Speaker 3 It was impossible. It was war, and they were taking the kids. They were going to schools and taking the kids, 13 years old, 12 years old, to the war. They were taking the kids.

15:15 Speaker 1 Many of those kids ended up fighting and dying on the front lines of what would be a long and brutal war. One by one, Yaffa says, the boys in her extended family ran away to Pakistan. In 1984, they got their chance. They sold their house and paid smugglers to shepherd them across the border, but they failed twice. Yaffa tried a third time and succeeded to get her teenage daughter, two very young boys, and herself into Pakistan.

15:44 Speaker 3 And Danny sent us money from America.

15:49 Speaker 1 With that money, she was able to stay in a hotel for two months with her kids. She filled out an application for refugee status with the United Nations, which it granted.

15:59 Speaker 3 But they told us, "Don't show it to policemen of Pakistan. They are not honest."

16:05 Speaker 1 Yaffa's husband, Reuven, stayed behind, waiting to sell his business and join his wife and children upon word that they had found safe haven. Yaffa and her kids then flew to Austria, where they would apply for a US visa. They stayed in an apartment with other Iranian refugees. Back in New York, Danny was studying at the Chabad Yeshiva in Morristown. He had heard that his mother might have made her way to Austria with his siblings, but he couldn't be sure. One day, at a train station, he bumped into the head of an organization that was helping immigrants in Austria. He asked Danny if he'd like to help out with the Iranian refugees, but Danny declined. He had already committed to helping run some Seders in Italy.

16:53 Speaker 2 A few days pass by, and I suddenly get a phone call that says, "We need you to come there immediately, and we have already bought a ticket for you." What do you mean you have bought a ticket for me? I'm, I'm not ready yet. Uh, I, I can't just fly. "But this is a booked flight. We cannot change it, can't do anything."

17:12 Speaker 1 So Danny decided he'd go to Austria for a few days to look for his mother, and then fly to Italy.

17:18 Speaker 2 But I haven't even told my mom that I might come to visit her in Austria. So I thought to myself, you know what? I will run to the airport, and from the airport I'll, I'll give her a call from JFK.

17:29 Speaker 1 Danny barely made it on time for his flight to Austria.

17:32 Speaker 2 And I think to myself, I'll get to Vienna, Austria, and I will call her from the airport to tell her that I'm here.

17:40 Speaker 1 He met a yeshiva bocher on the plane. When they landed in Vienna, his new friend's parents insisted on giving him a ride to his hotel. When they arrived, they insisted on lugging his suitcases upstairs. Danny could only think about calling his mother

17:55 Speaker 2 We get to the third floor, and in the hallway as they say goodbye and they turn around and leave, I turn around and I see my mom is standing in the hallway. Here I am, I didn't give her a heads-up, and I'm literally facing her, about 10 feet away in the same hallway, after at least six years of not seeing her. So I told my mom in, in Persian, I said, "Hello."

18:24 Speaker 3 And yeah, I didn't recognized him.

18:27 Speaker 2 And mind you, I was 13 when I left. So here I am, six years later, I'm much taller, broader. I have a full beard, wearing glasses, and a black hat.

18:41 Speaker 3 And I say, "Shalom, Rabbi."

18:44 Speaker 2 So she responded to me in English and said, "Hello." And I said, "Hi," again in Persian, "Hi. Don't you recognize me?" So she answers in English, "I'm sorry. Do I know you from somewhere?" So I said, "Ma, it's me, Danny." She started trembling. She couldn't move. She couldn't say a word, so I had to kind of walk over step by step, give her a hug, and tell her, "Don't worry, it's me." My two-and-a-half-year-old brother, who was born after I left Iran, was pulling on my mom's clothing and saying, "Is this the Danny that you were talking about? Is this the Danny that you were talking..." It was very cute.

19:29 Speaker 1 It was an emotional reunion, but Danny went to Italy, and his mother and siblings made it to America in 1985. They stayed with Yaffa's parents in Houston, then moved to California the next year. Rivain safely arrived in 1987. Danny went back to yeshiva and received his rabbinical ordination in 1988. He was married to his bride, Sonia, shortly thereafter.

19:54 Speaker 2 We were both focused on shlichus. We were both focused on what type of home we want to have, and that really laid the foundation.

20:05 Speaker 1 The young couple moved to Los Angeles. For the next 30 years, Rabbi Danny was involved in Jewish education as a teacher, and was the director of Bais Chaya Mushka and Bais Rebbetz Schools for Girls. Over the years, hundreds of graduates went on to become Chabad emissaries all around the world. He was also involved with a drug rehab center run by Chabad. His schedule was extremely full.

20:30 Speaker 2 You know, there's a famous saying, if you want something done, give it to somebody who's busy, right?

20:37 Speaker 1 So in 2003, Danny and Sonia assumed leadership roles at the aforementioned Chabad House in Marina del Rey. They've also raised 11 children.

20:46 Speaker 2 There were people who thought we were crazy. Like, "What, you're not busy enough, you guys? What, what, what are you doing?" But you know, like any other shliach, uh, and shlucha, when the challenges come and when the needs are right in front of you, you have to step up to the plate.

21:02 Speaker 1 Rabbi unequivocally states that none of his work would've been possible without Rebbetzin Sonia.

21:07 Speaker 2 Whether it was helping me in matters of the school, or in Marina del Rey and running the Chabad House and taking care of the kids. So I will always be indebted to her, absolutely.

21:22 Speaker 3 And Baruch Hashem, I really appreciate Hashem for having this daughter-in-law. She helped my son to make a holy house.

21:33 Speaker 1 Sonia isn't from Iran. She's from a Chabad family in Cleveland, but her husband's story impressed her.

21:39 Speaker 4 His whole personality, you could see who he was because of what he had gone through.

21:46 Speaker 1 And it's impressed others. There's not a large Persian community where they are, but-

21:51 Speaker 4 I'd say about once every two weeks somebody pops in that's Persian. It happens a lot, and then they come and they're really excited that my husband's Persian and they feel really connected.

22:03 Speaker 1 Take the example of Mordechai Hakimpoor.

22:06 Speaker 2 I was very little when the revolution took effect.

22:08 Speaker 1 A few years after the revolution began, then seven-year-old Mordechai, his older brother, and three others paid a smuggler to drive them to the border with Pakistan. They sped past one Iranian checkpoint, but the soldiers were ready at the second.

22:26 Speaker 2 They started shooting at us. All the windows broke. The engine was shot. The driver got shot, but he would not stop. He would just keep going, and the soldiers keep shooting. So at some point, the car stopped in the middle of the desert, and, uh, uh, the guy was shot in the leg, the driver. He goes, "Just run to the mountains." You know, we grab our backpacks from the back of the car, and we run to the mountain.

22:50 Speaker 1 They stayed the night in the mountains, but soldiers found them and arrested them.

22:54 Speaker 2 We were terrified.

22:56 Speaker 1 They were released from custody after a week and a half. When they got their backpacks back-

23:01 Speaker 2 We saw that it's full of bullets. Our backpacks were full of bullets right behind us

23:06 Speaker 1 They had barely survived, but Mordechai and his brother tried again. This time they walked 12 hours through the desert and reached Pakistan. They made it to Orange County, California in 1985. Mordechai graduated high school, took a series of odd jobs, and went into business opening a used car dealership. One day a few years later, he got a visit from a tall, bearded man in a black hat, and this man didn't want to buy a car.

23:37 Speaker 2 So very respectfully I said, "Oh, Rabbi," you know, "thank you for coming in," you know, "Please, step to this side." You know, I'm trying to get him into the corner and hide him as much as possible away from... And I think he kinda caught on to it, because he was smiling, and he was he, he knows what I, what I was up to.

23:53 Speaker 1 The two men talked, and Mordechai's anger quickly surfaced. Mordechai says he was angry at God. He had endured a series of personal problems. He declined to share them with me, but he did share them at that first meeting with Rabbi Danny.

24:08 Speaker 2 And, uh, I was just telling everything that was, thought it was wrong with me and, and with the, with the world, and it was too much to take. So in the middle of my, uh, outburst, this man started crying.

24:21 Speaker 1 And then Rabbi Danny told Mordechai something he says nobody ever said to him before.

24:27 Speaker 2 He says, "Everything's gonna be okay," and I just didn't believe him. I said, "No, everything's not gonna be okay." And then he says, "I promise you, everything's gonna be okay." It started my process of making peace with God, and everything that had happened in the past and an uncertain future.

24:54 Speaker 1 Over the following decade or so, Rabbi Danny took Mordechai under his wing. He checked in on him nearly constantly. Mordechai says he wasn't Jewishly observant at that point, but-

25:05 Speaker 2 Rabbi Danny really didn't tell me what road to choose or what to do. It was always up to me to make the decision.

25:12 Speaker 1 After about 13 years-

25:14 Speaker 2 I decided that Judaism and Chabad Judaism, Orthodox Judaism is the path for me.

25:27 Speaker 1 These days, Mordechai Hakimpoor studies Torah as much as he can. He says he wants to open a center where Jews and non-Jews alike can study Torah, particularly the Seven Noahide Laws. I ask him what he's gained from his friendship with Rabbi Danny and Rebbetzin Sonia Yaftach Hashem.

25:45 Speaker 2 Their love and kindness and their support throughout the years, I can't fit them in, in a sentence or in a word.

25:56 Speaker 1 In 2012, the Yaftach Hashems' oldest son, Dovid, married Mushki Avtzin, the daughter of Yossi and Shira Avtzin, the couple who hosted Rabbi Danny shortly after he arrived in the US. Now they were actual family. The Avtzin's son, Mendy, is junior rabbi at Chabad of Marina del Rey. These days, Rabbi Danny Yaftach Hashem is running learning programs for men and women in Marina del Rey and Venice, and even in Iran. He established an online seminary for about 150 Jewish women living there. For these, he collaborated with fellow shluchim who were on that plane from Tehran 43 years ago, Rabbis Daniel Marpor, David Loyohan, Yohanan Mansouri, Binyamin Lavian, and Shimon Kashani. They were just some of the 1,800 children rescued in Operation Exodus from 1978 to 1981. Rabbi Danny Yaftach Hashem marvels at how they've all come full circle.

27:03 Speaker 2 And here we are, four decades later, and those very same boys, actually all the fellow shluchim that are involved in this project are from the same groups of kids that came out of Iran. And to have those very kids be able to give back to the Jewish community, whether it be back to Iran or Marina del Rey or Los Angeles or New York or anywhere in the world, doesn't make a difference. The fact that they have become a force to give back and bring other Yidden closer to Yiddishkeit, that's the vision that only the Lubavitcher Rebbe could implement.

27:44 Speaker 1 So Yaffa, do you think that your son would be where he is now, doing the things he is doing now, without the Lubavitcher Rebbe's vision?

27:53 Speaker 5 I don't think so, no. All this happened because of Chabad.

27:58 Speaker 2 You're a shliach, and you have a purpose. That's why God put you at that moment in that location. Anywhere and everywhere you are, you're a Lamplighter.

28:18 Speaker 1 I'm Gary Wolik. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com. And if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast at L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. This is a Lubavitch International podcast.