In 1930, Rachel and Raphael Capeluto—Jewish immigrants from the island of Rhodes—founded the Seattle Curtain Manufacturing Company, which was to play a major role in the local Sephardi community, then as now one of the largest in the U.S. Their factory, having ceased operation some time ago, was sold last year, and recently demolished. As Hannah Pressman writes, it was located in a neighborhood known as the Kosher Canyon, which was “the original commercial and religious heart of Seattle’s Jewish community.”

In a recent interview with a Western a journalist, an Iranian dissenter accused Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of “imposing famine on us” through “useless uranium enrichment, interfering in internal affairs of neighboring countries, stupid enmity with Israel,” and much else. As Behnam Ben Taleblu and Saeed Ghasseminejad document, the ongoing protests in Iran—which the government has brutally been trying to repress—may have been prompted by economic conditions but have become more broadly political. They outline the conditions leading to the current unrest, their proximate causes, and the reasons they are unlikely to end anytime soon—as well as possible steps the U.S. can take to support the dissenters.