They can't go to Israel because there are exit controls in Iran, and the Iranians wouldn't let them go. They could potentially go to another country, and then from another country go to Israel, but they'd have to disguise their intention.
The official position of Iran is that Israel does not exist. They don't even use the name “Israel”. They call it the Zionist entity, even at the UN. I was there once at a UN debate where they kept calling it the Zionist entity instead of Israel, and the chair said they had to call it by its proper name. So for them Israel doesn't exist, and anything that the state has to do that would officially encompass the recognition of Israel doesn't happen.
There are even a few Jews left in Afghanistan. Sometimes people are so tied up with their.... Of course, we saw this during the Holocaust, some Jews would stay, even with the advent of Nazism. Some Jews hope for the best. They have community ties, they're prepared to go along, but there is a price to be paid. This goes back to the hypocrisy of the regime. If you look at the Constitution of Iran, it protects Jewish religious rights, but as long as they're prepared—obviously the large majority of them weren't prepared to do so— to denounce Israel, reject Zionism, then they can lead their lives. I guess it's a choice made in a coercive environment. Most of them have chosen not to make that choice, but a small minority have remained behind.
They're in a difficult situation. I remember just a few years ago about a dozen of them were being prosecuted for being spies for Israel. They were trumped-up charges. They were really being prosecuted for being sympathetic to Israel. I tried to go to Iran to observe the trial, and I asked the Iranian government for a visa. I never got a response.
I think we're concerned about the Jews in Iran. I think we have to be concerned about Israel and the diaspora. We also have to be concerned about those 8,900 who are poorly put upon.