The self-made entrepreneur loved and refused to budge when the 1979 revolution was brewing. When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over, my grandfather was imprisoned, put on trial for less than 20 minutes without a lawyer on trumped-up charges of espionage. A firing squad shot him at dawn. His execution, on May 9, 1979, sent shock waves through the Jewish community and most of the estimated 100,000 Jews left. And now almost 40 years later, it hurts to watch the loss of innocent lives in the destruction of this tangible part of my family’s legacy. In fact, my grief over the disappearance of this artifact cannot compare to the immense pain of relatives mourning the loss of life in the fire.
