The Persian Jews of Israel

The Persian Jews of Israel, numbering approximately 55,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a repatriated diaspora community of Iranian Jews in Israel They are an Diaspora people, in the Jews people cluster of the Jewish Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Judaism. They primarily speak Persian, Iranian.

Tehrani Jews in United States photo
Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Copyrighted ©️ 2025 BalkansCat - Shutterstock Used with permission

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Northern African and Middle Eastern Peoples
Country: Israel
People Cluster: Jews
Primary Language(s): Persian, Iranian (pes)
Primary Religion(s): Judaism
Population: 55,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG011756
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Persian Jews of Israel

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Judaism
Religious Affiliation: Judaism

%
Judaism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Persian, Iranian
Language Family: Indo-European

%
Persian, Iranian Speakers

Bible Resources in Persian, Iranian:

Or check out the Persian, Iranian bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Next steps for the Persian Jews

The Persian Jews are Unengaged and Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Next steps for the Persian Jews

The Persian Jews are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Next steps for the Persian Jews

The Persian Jews are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Persian Jews of Israel

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
read1 Chronicles 16:26

Pray that those among them who are lost and seeking after worthless idols will have the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news, seeing that Jesus is better than any idol.

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
readPsalm 19:3

Pray that God will lead them to His Word, and where it is not available, ask that He will raise up those who will produce gospel media in their heart language.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
readColossians 4:2

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving, as they bring needs before the Lord.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
readJohn 1:12

Pray that believers will have the opportunity to clearly share the good news with the lost here, so that all people can be invited to trust in Jesus and become children of God.

Jew, Judeo-Persian (ROP3 - 115645) reported in the following countries:

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Definitions page.

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