New Details: Hiker Released From Iran Is Jewish

Released US hikers Josh Fattal (center, speaking) Shane Bauer (right) hold a press conference in New York, USA, on 25 September 2011. EPA..

New York - By now, the whole world knows the name and face of Joshua Fattal, the 29-year-old Elkins Park native who spent 26 months in an Iranian prison before being reunited with his family last week in Oman and arriving back on U.S. soil on Sunday.

But one aspect of the story that has largely gone unreported is the fact that Fattal is Jewish.

Josh’s father, Jacob Fattal, was born in Iraq and moved to Israel before ultimately settling in the United States. Josh Fattal became a Bar Mitzvah at Rodeph Shalom’s suburban campus. He traveled to Israel several times, the last time just before meeting up with his friends in Syria and going on to Iraqi Kurdistan, where they crossed the border to Iran and were arrested.

It’s no accident that the Jewish side of the story has largely been kept under wraps, according to family friend Brian 

Gralnick and others familiar with the situation.