Today we’d like to introduce you to Tabby Refael.
Hi Tabby, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born into a Jewish family in post-revolutionary Iran in the 1980s. It was an Iran of theocracy, deep discrimination and violence, which continues today. As both a Jew and a female, I wasn’t exactly a favorite citizen of the antisemitic and misogynistic regime.
But my ancestors had called Iran (and before 1935, “Persia”) home for 2,700 years when Jews first came to the Persian Empire. Iran was the only home I had ever known. But when the country went to war with neighboring Iraq for eight long years during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and my family was forced to run for our lives from daily Iraqi air raids, we finally (and miraculously) escaped the country through the amazing help of HIAS (then known as the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society). We temporarily joined thousands of other Iranian Jews and Jews escaping former Soviet bloc countries in Italy. In 1989, we were granted protected refugee status in America, constituting the single most important moment of my life.
My family and I were resettled in Los Angeles, and I immediately fell in love with my new city. But this was LA in the 1990s. No sooner had we escaped the turmoil in Iran that we experienced the 1992 Los Angeles riots/uprising, complete with mandatory curfews and tanks on main streets. Still, LA was an amazing place to be in the Nineties. Over the years, I attended wonderful public schools and became invested in my own community of Iranian Americans in Los Angeles, the largest Iranian diaspora in the world. I studied Public Diplomacy at USC (master’s degree) and co-founded the nation’s first Iranian-American Jewish civic action organization, called 30 Years After. It is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that helps ensure that younger generations in our community understand and embrace the blessings of civic involvement, including voting and voter education.
Currently, I serve as a weekly editorial columnist for The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles and have also contributed to Los Angeles Magazine, Newsweek and other publications. I also speak widely about the imperative of combatting American ignorance about Iran and the greater Middle East and aim to highlight the lesser-known stories of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. I’m also deeply committed to exposing and fighting antisemitism from both the Left and the Right, as well antisemitism that emanates from the Middle East.
Oh, and I love to cook Persian food.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Several years ago, I realized that I suffered from PTSD related to being a child survivor of the Iran-Iraq War. And as for living in America, it wasn’t exactly easy being a broke and hairy refugee in Beverly Hills (my parents felt blessed that they could pay reasonable rent prices for an apartment right on the border of the city so that my sister and I could take advantage of the incredible free public schools there). I was desperate to assimilate in America. Probably a little too desperate. That might explain why my first priority as a new “American” first grader was to secure some precious bologna in my lunch bag that would surely render me similar to my classmates. It never worked. Ever the Persian chef, my mother always found a way to stuff the bologna into an already-crammed pita bread sandwich with Persian cucumbers. Let’s just say it took me nearly a decade to gain a semblance of normalcy in this country. And thank goodness for [college] financial aid packages and Cal grants.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
According to my calculations (and several random interactions on the street), there are one or two readers who enjoy my weekly columns in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. I’m especially known for chronicling the glorious madness of an immigrant and refugee community that still struggles to find its place in the tapestry of the American and Jewish experience. If only my work paid me in ripe persimmons. I’d be so happy.
Perhaps some feel warmly toward me for making them laugh in particular columns or essays, whether the Jewish Journal or Los Angeles Magazine. I love that. Life is hard for everyone (and much harder for some); I’m simply trying to add to a reader’s happiness rather than detract from it (that’s Twitter’s job).
I’m truly proud of having earned six writing awards this past year — two from the Los Angeles Press Club (Southern California Journalism Awards), including First Place in Commentary, and four from the American Jewish Press Association (including three First Place awards).
Mostly, I’m proud of a recent Jewish Journal column I wrote titled “If the Pilgrims Had Been Jewish.” I love that darn column.
I’m also proud of possibly holding some kind of record for “Most Rejections from Literary Agents Who Don’t Truly Understand My Comedic Memoir” (I’m still waiting to publish this no-doubt masterpiece). I’m also writing scripts for what I hope will be a [comedy] series about my strange, strange life.
In truth, I don’t take credit for any of my accomplishments. I was very, very lucky to have escaped Iran and been redeemed in America. Everything I do and everything I am is a metaphoric greeting card of gratitude to the forces, both divine and human, that have helped me for years.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
If, after having kids, managing multiple work, family and personal To-Do lists, and contracting COVID twice in one year, I can still enter a room and know why I am there or what I needed, I feel unabashedly successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tabbyrefael.com
- Instagram: @TabbyRefael
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/tabbyrefaelwriterpage
- Twitter: @TabbyRefael
Image Credits
Photo of Tabby at a lectern/microphone: Photo courtesy of Jonah Light Photography Screenshot of Jewish Journal: Photo courtesy of The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles Black and white photo: Photo courtesy of Tabby Refael Screenshot from Los Angeles Magazine: Photo credit: Los Angeles Magazine
