Koosha Bamdad
Iran
Koosha Bamdad originally hails from Shiraz, Iran, but left the country when he was a teenager. “Iran isn’t a good place to be Jewish,” said Bamdad, who currently lives with his wife and son in Brooklyn. When he arrived, Bamdad moved in with his older sibling who had left the country years earlier. Afterwards, he moved to Baltimore to attend a Jewish boarding school, Ner Israel. “It was tough, moving to a new country without knowing the language, but little by little you get used to it.” After graduating high school, Bamdad continued at the yeshiva and earned his bachelor’s degree.
Bamdad’s brother has his own pharmacy and his brother’s satisfaction impacted him. “I worked in his pharmacy and really liked it,” said Bamdad. “I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”
Bamdad moved back to New York after graduating college and met his wife, a fellow Iranian émigré, in synagogue. (Bamdad’s family and his wife’s family knew each other in Iran.) Looking for a pharmacy program, Bamdad found Touro. “A lot of my friends went to Touro and it’s a very good school,” Bamdad said. “It’s very accommodating if you keep the Jewish holidays.”
Bamdad said that he misses parts of his life in Iran. “When you grow up somewhere and move away you miss a lot of things: the food, the culture, the community. In Iran, especially in a small town, everyone was so friendly. But I love America.”
