During the years of 1892 to 1910, there had been a few pogroms against Jews, in Shiraz and other towns, culminating in 1910 Shiraz blood libel, resulting in thirteen deaths, injury, robbery, vandalism and near-starvation for the 6,000 Jews of Shiraz.[211]
Historian Ervand Abrahamian estimates 50,000 Jews were living in Iran around 1900,[212] with majority of them residing in Yazd, Shiraz, Tehran, Isfahan and Hamadan.[212]
The violence and disruption in Arab life associated with the founding of Israel in 1948 drove an increased anti-Jewish sentiment in neighbouring Iran as well. According to Trita Parsi, by 1951 only 8,000 of 100,000 Iranian Jews chose to emigrate to Israel.[213]
Anti-Jewish sentiment was on the rise under prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh,[214] and continued until 1953, in part because of the weakening of the central government and strengthening of clergy in the political struggles between the shah and Mossadegh. According to Eliz Sanasarian, from 1948–1953 about one-third of Iranian Jews, most of them poor, emigrated to Israel.[214] After the deposition of Mossadegh in 1953, the reign of shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the most prosperous era for the Jews of Iran. According to the first national census taken in 1956, Jewish population in Iran stood at 65,232,[215] but there is no reliable data about migrations in the first half of the 20th century. David Littman puts the total figure of emigrants to Israel in 1948–1978 at 70,000.[216][verification needed]
The tensions between the loyalists of the Shah and Islamists through the 1970s initiated the mass-migration of Iranian Jews, first affecting the higher-class. Instability caused thousands of Persian Jews to leave Iran prior to revolution - some seeking better economic opportunities or stability, while others afraid of the potential Islamic takeover.