Menashe Amir

Menashe Amir was born in 1940 in Tehran

Menashe Amir was born Manouchehr Sachmehchi in Tehran to a secular Jewish family. He was the second of 8 children. His father worked for the Iranian army, and his mother was a homemaker born in Tehran.

He studied at a Christian missionary primary school and then at the Jewish schools Alliance and Kourosh. At 17, in 1956, he began working as a translator and sub-editor at the Kayhan evening newspaper, where he also wrote about Israel. In 1957 he joined a 2-month seminar in Israel organized by the Jewish Agency.

Amir immigrated to Israel in 1959 and earned a bachelor's degree in political science and Middle East studies at the Hebrew University. In January 1960 he joined the Persian department of Kol Yisrael as an announcer, later becoming an editor and head of the department. His daily program to Iran included calls from Iranian listeners and music banned in Iran.

In 2006 he founded the Persian website of the Foreign Ministry and served as its chief editor for 4 years. He kept working in the Persian department until the Israel Broadcasting Authority closed in 2017. In 2014 a book of his interviews with Amnon Netzer was published in Persian.