It seems incongruous in Iran, where politicians chant "Death to Israel" and the Israeli flag is often burned, but a new memorial in Tehran is bringing recognition to the country's "Jewish martyrs".
The memorial has been raised in the three-hectare (eight-acre) Jewish cemetery in south Tehran -- a striking reminder of a minority faith whose more than 1,000-year heritage in Iran dwarfs the comparably short 35 years of the Islamic republic.
For leaders of Iran's small Jewish community, the memorial is a welcome sign of openness from authorities despite continued concerns over discrimination.
"When someone looks at this monument, they will think about the sacrifices that were made by these martyrs," said the head of Tehran's Jewish community, Homayoun Sameyah Najaf Abadi.
The names of 10 people have been etched in stone in the memorial, erected in December at the cemetery where thousands of Jews are buried.
Five of them died fighting in the 1980-88 war against Iraq, three were killed by Saddam Hussein's bombing of Tehran during the war and the other two died in the tumultuous early days of the 1979 revolution that ended the rule of the Iranian shah.
The conflict against Iraq is enshrined in the memory of Iranians, with hundreds of murals in Tehran to the 230,000 martyrs, or "shohada", who were killed in the conflict.
Construction of the Jewish monument and the restoration of the 10 tombs of the dead was funded by a foundation that helps families of soldiers killed or wounded in the Iran-Iraq war.
Iran had between 80,000 and 100,000 Jews before the revolution but most have since fled, mainly to the United States, Israel and Europe.
There are now only about 8,500, mostly in Tehran but also in Isfahan and Shiraz, major cities south of the capital.
With one designated member of parliament, Iran's Jewish community is one of three officially recognised religious minorities. Armenian Christians have two designated MPs, while Assyrian-Chaldeans and Zoroastrians have one each.
