ABSTRACT
It is not reliably known when Jews first came to Fars province or more particularly, to Shiraz. 1 However, it would seem reasonable to assume that since Jews were living in the Persian capital of Susa (Khuzistan) in the sixth century B.C.E., they would have settled soon after in the other large cities of Persia, including those of nearby Fars. One scholarly traveler claimed to have found Hebrew inscriptions at Persepolis, dating, allegedly, to the period in question ( Vambery, 1884:120). The Jews themselves have a tradition that they came in the days of the First Exile (586 B.C.E.) and refused the call of Ezra to return to Judea. 2
