Israelis show growing interest in learning Persian, school says

Israel’s Persian community is estimated at around 250,000 people, though only about 50,000 were actually born in Iran, with the rest being second- and third-generation Israelis of Iranian descent.

By TPS

As the war with Iran continues to shape daily life in Israel, one of the country’s largest language schools is seeing growing interest in an unexpected direction: Persian.

Dialogue, a long-established language school at Israel’s Open University that teaches a wide range of languages, will be offering Farsi classes in the summer, the school’s manager told The Press Service of Israel.

“Over the past year, we received a number of inquiries from people interested in the possibility of learning Persian, which we had not taught before. So we decided to take up the challenge and build a new course to teach the language,” Tamir Agasi, the school manager, told TPS-IL.

For Dialogue, which has been operating for 42 years, the introduction of Persian marks a new challenge, particularly because the reason for the heightened interest remains unclear, according to Agasi.

“We do not know the reasons for the rise in interest. We do not know if it is because of the geopolitical situation, but there is interest,” she said.

Interest in learning Persian has been rising globally in recent years, particularly in academic settings.

According to the U.S.-based Modern Language Association, university enrollments in Persian in the United States increased by more than 80 percent in the early 2000s.

The MLA linked the demand for Persian studies to broader international developments, noting that interest in the language tends to rise alongside political and cultural engagement with Iran.

The new course is designed to provide students with basic communication skills, including the ability to introduce themselves, tell simple stories, and manage everyday situations, Agasi said. The focus, he added, is on practical spoken language.

What makes the move notable is that Open University courses are open to the public, not just degree-seeking students.

Dialogue’s teaching staff includes instructors who speak Persian at home, as well as those who have formally studied the language, Agasi said.

Israel’s Persian community is estimated at around 250,000 people, though only about 50,000 were actually born in Iran, with the rest being second- and third-generation Israelis of Iranian descent.

The Israel-Iran war began on February 28 with a joint Israel-American strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, Iran has launched missile attacks on Israel and Gulf states, while Israel and the United States have continued to strike targets in Iran.

The first course is expected to open in June, with up to 20 participants, and will be conducted entirely online, Agasi said.