Daily Podcasts Video Research

As protests grip Iran, fears grow for a Jewish New Yorker held prisoner there

JL;DR SUMMARY As Iran faces significant protests, concern rises for Kamran Hekmati, a 70-year-old Iranian Jew with American citizenship from Great Neck, New York, who has been imprisoned in Iran. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish CommunityIranHuman RightsProtestsDiplomatic NegotiationsImprisonmentAmerican Jewish RelationsIranian JewsKamran HekmatiGreat Neck

Places mentioned

Paris, Île-de-France, France
"Protestors shout slogans during a demonstration to support mass rallies denouncing the Islamic republic in Iran in Paris on January 11, 2026."
Iran
"As protests grip Iran, fears grow for a Jewish New Yorker held prisoner there"
Great Neck, New York, United States
"particularly Kamran Hekmati, an Iranian Jewish man from Great Neck, New York, who was sentenced to two years in prison while traveling to Iran for business."
New York City, New York, United States
"Simone Saidmehr is an editorial fellow at the Forward. She previously served as a research assistant at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where she worked on the Koret Project for Arab-Israeli Relations."
Istanbul, Turkey
"About 10 years ago, while on a family trip to Istanbul, she ran into Hekmati at a restaurant as he was on his way to Iran."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 72801
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-01-15 05:31:05 UTC
Curated 2026-01-15 08:31:04 UTC