It was a golden age for Jews in Iran. In the 1950s, a religious Jew – Younes Dardashti – became a national celebrity, singing at the Shah’s palace and on the radio. In the 1960s, his son Farid became a teen idol on TV. They were beloved by Iranian Muslims. But at the height of their fame, they left the country. It has always been a mystery to our host Danielle Dardashti and her sister Galeet – Why did their family leave Iran? Now, in a documentary podcast series, the sisters reveal painful secrets unspoken for generations. The Nightingale of Iran is a story that will resonate with outsiders everywhere.
Danielle and Galeet were interviewed by Andrew Martin, the UK-based host of The Family Histories Podcast , a positive, conversational, fun show about family history and family historians – the often un-sung heroes tirelessly breathing life back into collective social history. If you like what you hear, you can find other episodes of The Family Histories wherever you listen to podcasts.
Danielle & Galeet have created a live show and they’ve taken the show on the road to several cities around the world! Performances include: A multimedia presentation telling the poignant story of The Nightingale of Iran A musical performance by Galeet and her full band, performing Monajat - the musical piece where she duets with old recordings of her grandfather Younes Dardashti, The Nightingale of Iran A moderated discussion and Q&A that takes listeners behind the scenes! This bonus epi...
Danielle and Galeet joined Millie Efraim on Persian Girl Podcast to discuss the tapes their family recoreded starting from the 1950s that were used throughout the Nightingale of Iran series, the reception of their podcast, their theory on the lasting effects of the "Motreb"/artist stigma in Jewish Persian communities, and why there are so few Jewish Persians in art and culture philanthropy and academia.
Danielle Dardashti, co-creator of The Nightingale of Iran, guests on podcast " Jews on Film .” Danielle is interviewed by hosts Daniel Zana and Harry Ottensoser, discussing the 2007 animated film "Persepolis," co-directed by Marjane Satrapi. They discuss Marjane’s split sense of identity. Danielle shares parallel stories from Nightingale. They chat about the pros and cons of various modern storytelling mediums. And they close out the episode ranking the film's "Jewishness" in terms of its cast &...
Danielle and Galeet joined Abigail Pogrebin on JBS's In the Spotlight to discuss their documentary podcast series The Nightingale of Iran, in which they reveal painful secrets and explore why their family left Iran in the 1960s at the height of national fame.
This is a conversation Danielle and Galeet had with Moment Magazine Deputy Editor, Jennifer Bardi, about their search for the truth and what they discovered about their family along the way.
This is an interview Galeet did with John Schaefer on New Sounds on WNYC, about her album Monajat, where she sings with samples of her late grandfather Younes Dardashti, The Nightingsle of Iran. Galeet shares selections from the album and she’s backed by an all-star ensemble that includes Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on oud and bass; Max ZT on hammered dulcimer; Zafer Tawi on violin, ney, vocals, percussion; Philip Mayer on drums; and John Stanesco contributing electronics.
IKAR synagogue, Los Angeles, California. Kabbalat Shabbat post-dinner discussion with Danielle and Galeet Dardashti, about The Nightingale of Iran, moderated by Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter Asaf Elia-Shalev. Introductions by Rabbi Morris Panitz. Thank you to Rabbi Sharon Brous for inviting us!
One of the first events to celebrate the release of The Nightingale of Iran was with Danielle and Galeet's home town crowd, at Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in New York on March 19, 2024. The conversation was moderated by Philissa Cramer, the editor in chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The event was organized by: Lisa Goldberg, Laura Solomon, Felicia Lebewohl Rosen, Liz Haas Edersheim, and Danielle Thomas. For more Nightingale bonus content and to support our work, please visit www.nightingaleof...
Danielle and Galeet speak with Drora and Dalya on this episode of the Reclaiming Identity podcast. They discuss growing up un-Persian, discovering their family’s story, and the personal impact of The Nightingale of Iran podcast.
Danielle and Galeet were recently interviewed on Can We Talk? , the podcast of the Jewish Women’s Archive. We loved our conversation with Nahanni Rous and so we are sharing it with you here today.
Thank you for listening to The Nightingale of Iran! All six episodes are out now. For those of you who have finished listening to our series, today we are sharing something a little different. This is an episode of History Daily , a podcast with new episodes every weekday. Each episode of History Daily focuses on a particular day in history and the human stories behind what happened. We’ve picked an episode about the day in 1979 when the Shah fled the Iranian Revolution. It’s 20 minutes long and...
When people asked “Where are you from?” Danielle was never sure if they wanted to know the places she’d lived or whether they just thought she looked foreign. She didn’t know many families like hers in mainstream Jewish America. These days, there’s growing awareness about the diversity of the Jewish experience. Co-creators / Co-executive producers - Danielle Dardashti and Galeet Dardashti The Nightingale of Iran - nightingaleofiran.com Presented by The Jewish Telegraphic Agency , a publication o...
Houri Dardashti, Danielle and Galeet’s grandmother, had long dreamed of moving to Israel from Iran. But life was improving for Jews in Iran, and her husband Younes had become a famous radio star there. So it seemed to her that the dream of moving to Israel wasn’t going to happen. But after Farid left Iran for college in America, one by one his siblings started leaving Iran for Israel. And eventually, Houri and Younes moved to Israel, too. But Younes, the Iranian star, felt like an outsider in Is...
On his way from Iran to America, where he planned to study architecture in college, Danielle and Galeet’s father Farid spent the summer in Israel. While walking down a Tel Aviv street one day, a man recognized him from Iranian TV and invited him to sing at an event that week. The night Farid sang, a family of visiting Americans heard him, and it changed the course of his entire life. Once he arrived in the United States, a new pursuit pulled Farid further and further away from his Iranian identi...
Danielle and Galeet’s father, Farid Dardashti, was born in Tehran in 1942, the oldest of Houri and Younes Dardashti’s five children, all of whom had natural musical talent. Farid’s gorgeous voice kept earning him invitations to perform, but his parents didn’t want him to pursue music. To make them proud, he applied to study architecture in America. While waiting for his visa and acceptance to college, he got offered his own weekly show singing on Iranian TV. He quickly became a teen idol. But wh...
Danielle and Galeet's grandfather Younes Dardashti grew up an orphan in Tehran's Jewish ghetto. He was gifted with a gorgeous voice, but had a difficult childhood. He lived with an abusive uncle who forbade him from singing. In his late teens, he left his uncle's house, got a job with the Iranian Railroad and, years later, he married Houri Aziz-Zadeh. In the 1940s, life changed rapidly for the Jews of Iran - a new Shah granted equal rights to Jews, women, and other marginalized groups. Jews coul...
Sisters Danielle and Galeet Dardashti grew up in a Jewish American family band: The Dardashti Family. They sang international folk music in 12 languages – English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Greek, Spanish, French, Japanese and more – but never any songs in Persian. This seems odd to them since both their father and grandfather were famous Iranian singers during the “Golden Age” for Jews in Iran, before the Islamic Revolution. Danielle and Galeet make a discovery that takes them back in time, and ...
Their grandfather was a famous singer known as The Nightingale of Iran. Their father was a Tehran teen idol. It’s always been a mystery to our host Danielle Dardashti (storyteller / documentarian) and her sister Galeet Dardashti (anthropologist / musician) : What drove their Persian Jewish family to leave Iran during a golden age for Jews, so long before the Islamic revolution? The Nightingale of Iran – a new audio documentary about identity, belonging, and music – reveals painful secrets unspok...
