The Jewish-Iranian community in the US has intensified its efforts to gain the release of Kamran Hekmati, the only Jew imprisoned in Iran following Iran’s war with Israel in June who is still incarcerated, Kan News reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the Jewish-Iranian community is working with many parties, including leading Chareidi askanim in New York and senior US officials, to secure Hekmati’s release.

During and after the war with Israel, the Iranian regime arrested 21,000! people, including 35 Jews, who were accused of allegedly collaborating with Israel. All were eventually released except for Hekmati, a jeweler and longtime resident of Great Neck, Long Island.

Hekmati, who immigrated from Iran to the US at the age of 13, traveled from New York to Iran in May for a family visit. After the war ended in July, he was arrested and thrown into prison.

In August, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced him to a four-year sentence in the notorious Evin Prison for visiting Israel 13 years ago for his son’s bar mitzvah (although the law banning travel to Israel was passed only about seven years ago). His sentence was later reduced to two years.

Hekmati, who traveled to Iran many times in the past without incident, underwent surgery for aggressive bladder cancer and was receiving chemotherapy every three months before his trip in May. He was scheduled to continue treatment upon his return to the US.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)