The Jews of Herat are culturally connected to the Jews of Iran. Many Jews once living in Herat were immigrants from Mashhad, generally considered to be the holiest city in Persia.[7] Mashhad’s Jewish community was founded during the reign of the Persian ruler Nadir Shah (r. 1736–47),[8] who was known for his tolerance toward Jews. Following his settlement policy the increasing presence of hundreds of Jewish families helped strengthen existing Jewish institutions and contributed to the flowering of Jewish life in Afghanistan.[9]

In fact, in 1741 Nadir Shah allowed Jewish immigrants (approximately forty families) to settle in Mashhad. They coexisted peacefully with Muslims for decades in the Iranian city. Over time, however, the Jews began to suffer at the hands of zealous Shi’ites. The Shi’ites, as adherents of one of the two major branches of Islam (Sunnis and Shi'ites), initially attacked them by making false accusations.[10] On March 26, 1839, a hostile Shi’ite mob, consisting of both city residents and Muslim pilgrims, launched an attack on the Jewish Quarter (known as the idgah or “place of celebrations”). This massive attack came to be known in Persian as Allahdad (lit. “God’s Justice).[11] Nearly 2,400 Mashhad Jews who did not flee were compelled to convert to Islam. Thus, the Allahdad against the once flowering important Jewish community put an end to the official and recognized existence of Mashhad’s Jewish community. This violent riot drove them into a dual religious life as forced converts or anusim.[12]
Generally the word “anusim” points to a legal category of Jews in halakha who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically while forcibly converted to another religion. The term “anusim” is most properly translated as the “coerced ” or the “forced .” The term anusim , however, became more frequently used after the forced conversion to Christianity of Ashkenazi Jews in Germany at the end of the 11th century. During later centuries, following the well known forced conversion of Sephardi Jews of the 15th and 16th centuries, this term became widely used by Spanish rabbis and their successors. "Anusim", a film and short historical explainer by illustrator and director Sohini Tal, portraying a small scene of Sephardic Anusim practicing their Jewish life in secret, baking Matzot before Pesach, is an important contribution to this theme.