Menashe Amir ( he, מנשה אמיר; born 27 December 1939) is a long time

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...

broadcaster on

Israel Radio International Israel Radio International or Reka ( he, רשת קליטת עלייה ', or ') is the radio service of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) for immigrants and listeners abroad. Overview Operating since 1950, the shortwave transmis ...

, a channel of

Kol Yisrael ''Kol Yisrael'' or ''Kol Israel'' ( lit. "Voice of Israel", also "Israel Radio") is Israel's public domestic and international radio service. It operated as a division of the Israel Broadcasting Service from 1951 to 1965, the Israel Broadcasti ...

(lit. "Voice of Israel"). He is a former head of the

Israel Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisrael'', which made its first broadcast as an independent st ...

's Persian language division. He is also a leading

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian expert in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and a former chief editor of the

Foreign Ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

's Persian website.

Biography

Menashe Amir was born Manouchehr Sachmachi ( fa, منوچهر ساچمه‌چی) in Tehran,

, on December 27, 1939 in a secular Jewish family. He grew up in the ancient Jewish quarter called "Mahaleh". His primary education was in a Christian missionary school called "Nour-va-Sedaghat", and he continued his secondary education in two Jewish schools named "Ettehād" (Alliance/Unity) and "Kourosh" (Cyrus). He began his journalist's profession at the age of 17, at the Kayhan evening newspaper. Amir made aliyah (immigration) to Israel on October 19, 1959.

Journalism and radio career

He has been working as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and a broadcaster for over 65 years, and broadcasting to Iran for over 62 years. Amir became popular in Israel during his coverage of the 1979

Iran hostage crisis On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over ...

. In 2006, he founded the Persian version of the Israeli Foreign Ministry website, and served as its Chief Editor for 4 years. Currently retired from his post in the Israel Broadcasting Authority, he continues to host his radio program. Amir hosts a daily 1.5 hour

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

program in Persian, which is broadcast every evening to Iran on shortwave radio. The program includes a call-in portion, with Iranian listeners calling a special number in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. While no hard data is available the show is apparently popular in Iran, and some experts estimate that up to 5 million Iranians listen to it. Beside political discussions, the program also broadcasts music banned in Iran. Iranian newspapers often denounce the radio as the "Zionist regime radio", and refute the radio program assertions. In the aftermath of the 2009

Iranian presidential election The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct, popular vote, although the President carries out the decrees, and answers to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state.(see Article 110 of the constituti ...

, the Supreme Leader

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia '' marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president ...

blamed the "Zionist radio and the bad British radio" for misleading the public. This was widely interpreted as a reference to Menashe Amir's program on Kol Yisrael and a reference to ''

BBC Persian BBC Persian ( fa, بی‌بی‌سی فارسی) is the Persian language broadcast station and subsidiary of BBC World Service which conveys the latest political, social, economical and sport news relevant to Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, an ...

''.Israeli Radio Show Captivates Iranians
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', June 24, 2009.

Published works

"Iran, Jews, Israel", a collection of interviews with

Amnon Netzer Amnon Netzer ( he, אמנון נצר; April 9, 1934 – February 15, 2008) was an Iranian-born Israeli historian, researcher, professor and journalist. Netzer was a leading authority on Iranian history and culture as well as Persian and Judeo-Persi ...

, an Israeli expert in

Iranian Studies Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

, was published in Persian in 2014.

References

External links

Interviews with Menashe Amir
on the ''IsraCast'' website

with

on Iran, Jews, Israel {{DEFAULTSORT:Amir, Menashe Iranian emigrants to Israel Iranian Jews Israeli people of Iranian-Jewish descent Israeli Mizrahi Jews Israeli journalists Israeli radio journalists 1940 births Living people

Biography

Journalism and radio career

Published works

See also

References

External links