From Persian Pop Star to Torah Student: The Unlikely Journey of Behrouz Aharoni

Behrouz Aharoni is a singer and a man whose life has taken extraordinary turns. Born and raised in Iran until the age of 12, Behrouz began singing Persian songs wherever he could, even performing Hebrew songs in his school choir, despite not understanding the language. “I used to sing Chanukah songs, Purim songs, and Pesach songs,” he recalls. “But I had no idea what I was saying. It was an Alliance school, and we only had one hour of Hebrew a week.”

After moving to Israel with his family, Behrouz continued his singing career. “Over the years, I performed with all the great Israeli singers. Eventually, on the advice of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I began singing sacred songs in Persian.”

Sacred songs in Persian? Is there really a demand for that?
“You’d be surprised. There are over 400,000 Jews of Persian descent in Israel, and many of them feel deeply connected to this style of music. It reminds them of their childhood, of home. It’s music full of longing and nostalgia. And plenty of Israelis who aren’t Persian love it too. I’ve released five Persian albums and one Hebrew one, each with more than 60 songs. And I’m just getting started.”

From Singer to Fashion Mogul

Though he had a love of music, Behrouz didn’t always sing songs with Jewish content. “When we moved to Israel, my family settled in Kibbutz Reshafim, a secular kibbutz in the Beit She’an Valley. I had no connection to religion.”

Alongside singing, Behrouz was determined to make money, and lots of it. “I studied electronics and thought I’d work in that field, but I quickly realized that while it could offer a decent salary, I was after something bigger. That’s when I decided to go into business.”

He ended up renting a small clothing shop in the Nachalat Binyamin neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Though he had no background in fashion, he decided to keep selling the merchandise already in the store and soon transformed into a full-fledged fashion designer.

His sharp instincts and business savvy quickly paid off. Behrouz founded Genesis Fashion, which became one of Israel’s most prominent clothing brands. “I sold suits and apparel to hundreds of shops across the country. I even represented Israel in Russia at a prestigious fashion show right after the fall of the Iron Curtain.”

The money started pouring in, just as he had hoped. “Suddenly, I was making huge amounts of money. My biggest concern wasn’t earning. It was figuring out where to invest.”

Beharouz on a special delegation from Israel to Russia

From Success to Spiritual Transformation

His biggest investment would also become his greatest loss. “I partnered with two investors and bought a mall in Rishon LeZion. It wasn’t built yet. It was just an empty plot with enormous potential."

Together, they brainstormed how to make the mall stand out. Behrouz proposed building a cinema complex with a 180-degree screen and rows of reclining seats, an entertainment experience unlike anything else in Israel. The idea was so successful that it quickly attracted a major partnership with Discount Bank, affirming that the project was destined to succeed.

“I felt like I was on top of the world,” he says. “We opened an office in Tel Aviv, and more and more companies came to lease stores in the mall. Demand was exploding.”

But everything changed during a visit to a synagogue in Netanya, where Rabbi Reuven Elbaz led the prayers. “I was staying with a relative and had no intention of praying. I just wanted to hear the melodies as a musician exploring something new. I even drove there, since I didn't observe Shabbat at the time.”

Yet that experience changed everything. “During the rabbi’s sermon, I felt like his eyes pierced straight into my soul. I was captivated by his presence. He spoke about the meaning and power of Shabbat, and it moved me deeply. After the prayer, I went to thank him, and he told me he’d be happy to stay in touch.”

Behrouz walked home that Shabbat and never drove on Shabbat again. Over the next few weeks, he began visiting Rabbi Elbaz’s yeshiva regularly, started wearing a kippah and putting on tefillin, and gradually embraced Jewish observance. “I began keeping Shabbat the very next week.”

Not long after, he met with his mall partners. One of them suggested a highly profitable idea: opening the mall on Shabbat. “Technically,” the partner explained, “the mall will function as a cinema complex, which isn’t bound by the same legal restrictions as regular malls. People will come to the movies and shop along the way.”

But by that point, Behrouz had changed. He was attending Rabbi Elbaz’s weekly lectures and understood this was a serious problem. “I don’t know where I found the courage,” he says, “but I stood up and said: ‘This mall will not open on Shabbat.’”

The reaction was explosive. “My partners were experienced businessmen. The contracts were airtight. We had detailed agreements on how profits would be divided and what would happen if anyone broke the deal. What no one saw coming, not even me, was that I would become religious.”

The dispute went to court, but the mall project collapsed in the meantime. Its stock value plummeted, and Behrouz lost everything, not just his investment but also the loans he had taken out and the money borrowed from family and friends.

“I found myself at rock bottom. I had nothing. The only one who managed to give me strength in that time was Rabbi Elbaz. He told me: ‘Money comes and money goes—but Hashem is sending you a message. He wants you to use your gifts to serve Him.’”

That was the turning point. Behrouz enrolled in a Torah learning program, and that’s what he’s been doing ever since.

“Shabbat Protected Me”: Music with a Mission

On the day the mall was supposed to break ground, a mall he no longer owned, Behrouz was invited to perform at a large religious event. “I sang in front of a huge crowd,” he recalls. “Years later, I looked at photos from that day and noticed something strange—three images in which you can clearly see the letter ‘Shin’ from the word 'Shabbat' formed in flames near my ear. It felt like a sign that Shabbat was protecting me.”

That spirit continues to guide him. About twenty years ago, he began writing the lyrics to a song called “Kotel HaDma’ot” (The Wall of Tears). Over the years, he composed it more than ten different times. Last month, he finally released the song to the public.

He translated the song into Hebrew, English, and Russian and is now working on additional languages. “People hear the song and are deeply moved,” he says. “My goal is to share it in the biggest forums possible and awaken the Jewish people.”

But he’s not stopping there. Behrouz is working with rabbis across the globe to organize a worldwide day of prayer dedicated to the coming of the Messiah. “It will take place on the 15th of Tammuz,” he says. “We’re organizing it with the blessing of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. There will be a mass prayer at the Western Wall and simultaneous prayers around the Jewish world.”

Then he adds with a smile, “But truthfully, we’re all hoping that this event will be canceled and that the redemption will come before then. Just as we were redeemed in the month of Nissan, we hope and pray to be redeemed again. May the exile finally come to an end."