Habib Elghanian

Life & Legacy

Habib (Habibollah) Elghanian (Persian: حبیب (حبیب‌الله) القانیان; 5 April 1912 – 9 May 1979) was a prominent Iranian Jewish businessman and philanthropist who served as the president of the Tehran Jewish Society and acted as the symbolic head of the Iranian Jewish community in the 1970s. He was arrested and sentenced to death by an Islamic revolutionary tribunal shortly after the Iranian Revolution for charges including corruption, contacts with Israel and Zionism, and "friendship with the enemies of God", and was executed by firing squad on 9 May 1979 in Tehran, Iran. He was the first Jew and businessman to be executed by the Council of the Islamic Revolution.