The Tomb of Esther and Mordechai, in Hamadan, Iran. Photo: Philippe Chavin via Wikimedia Commons.
Iran’s Jewish community has confirmed that there was an attempt to set fire to the tomb of Esther and Mordechai on Friday, but authorities intervened.
According to U.S. government-funded Iran-based Radio Farda, the extent and the exact nature of the attack on the site in western Iran remains unclear and no perpetrator has been identified yet.
State news agency IRNA reported from Hamedan on Saturday morning that the orchestrate of the attack had tried to enter the building through an adjacent bank but had failed in his attempt.
The report also said the Jewish site “had not sustained damages.” It claimed that the perpetrator’s face had been recorded on CCTV footage and police were looking for him.
An eyewitness told VOA Iran that he saw several fire trucks rushing to the shrine of Esther and Mordechai on Friday but authorities prevented people from getting close.
So far the Jewish Associations of Hamedan and Tehran have not commented on the incident, Radio Farda reports.
The tomb is believed by some to be the resting place of the Old Testament queen Esther and her relative, Mordechai. Esther was the queen of the Persian King Ahasuerus. She is credited with helping save the Jewish people from being massacred.
Elan Carr, the US Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, strongly condemned the attack on the tomb and called the Iranian regime “the world’s chief state sponsor of antisemitism”.
“[Iran] must stop incitement and protect its Jewish community and other minorities,” Carr wrote in a tweet.
“We are outraged by reports that the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamedan, Iran, was desecrated by arson last night,” the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement on Friday.
The statement also alleged that members of the Iranian Basij militia have threatened to raze the tomb of Mordechai and Queen Esther to the ground, as earlier revealed by Uganda Christian News.
