Back of the Envelope

Now this is interesting. It's supposedly a press release from the Jews living in Iran in support of their government (hat tip Michael Rubin in The Corner):

The Association of Iranian Jews…renewed its commitment in a message issued on the threshold of the Jewish religious festival of the Passover, which starts Monday night.

"In obedience to the instructions of Jesus, in the new Iranian year, which has been declared year of national unity and Islamic solidarity, Iranian Jews voice their readiness to defend all national interests of Iranians and to observe the guidelines set by Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) for the sake of strengthening national unity and solidarity in the fight against present-day pharaohs," the message said.

Notice the reference to Jesus. Now, I'm hardly an expert on Iranian Jews, but to quote Jesus not just approvingly, but as a source of authority who should be obeyed, does not represent orthodox Jewish beliefs. While there could very well be Christian Jews in Iran, I doubt they're in charge of the Association of Iranian Jews. So what can we make of this? Pure propaganda written by the Iranian government, whose knowledge of Judaism and Christianity is equally abysmal, or, as Michael Rubin suggests, are "Iranian Jews living in the Islamic Republic (there are still around 20,000) ... signaling that something is very wrong"? Either way, it fails to convincingly demonstrate the support of Iranian Jews for the revolutionary government.