Trump's refugee ban is keeping out 700 persecuted Iranian Jews

“We knew this was coming, so we tried very hard to promote exceptions, particularly for Iranian religious minorities,” Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS, said in an interview.

An Iranian cleric walks past a Jewish symbol of a menorah, shaped to spell the Hebrew words "shalom olam," meaning "world peace," during a ceremony commemorating the Jewish soldiers who died in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) at a Jewish cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 6, 2025.

(photo credit: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

ByASAF ELIA-SHALEV/JTA

MARCH 6, 2025 21:38