A blood libel and massacre 187 years ago in northern Iran led to the forced conversion of a small Persian-Jewish community to Islam. For more than a century, however, they continued to keep their faith in secret, maintaining the Jewish traditions as crypto-Jews.

The Allahdad pogrom of March 26, 1839, in the city of Mashhad, is the subject of a new collection of historical objects curated at the National Library of Israel. The library is closed to the broader public due to Home Front Command security regulations during the war with Iran, so the artifacts cannot currently be viewed in person.

However, sharing their story is particularly important during Israel’s war with the Islamic Republic, said Chaim Neria, curator of the Haim…