After arriving in the United States, Ahdieh, the young Baha’i from Nayriz, first encountered the American Baha’i community in New Jersey. He lived near the ‘cabin’ in Teaneck, a racially diverse suburban town a half an hour from Manhattan. Teaneck had voluntarily desegregated its public schools in the mid-60s.
Teaneck’s anniversary of desegregation
Roy Wilhelm, a Baha’i who was in the coffee business, owned a home there with a grove of trees down the hill. Behind his house he built a rustic cabin roughly in the shape of a ship because he loved the sea.
Roy Wilhelm
Roy Wilhelm’s ‘Cabin’
Every year, Baha’is gathered on the property to commemorate the unity feast and talk given there by ‘Abdu’l-Baha during his visit in 1912. Louis Bourgeois, the architect of the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, became so inspired while visiting the property, that he drew the design for the Wilmette temple there.
Ahdieh was in for a shock when he visited the Baha’i Center in New York City. He was used to the beautiful centers in Nayriz, Shiraz, and Abadan. The one in New York City, though, was off the lobby of a dingy hotel on 72nd St., and next to the restrooms, which meant that the unpleasant odors pervaded the meetings.
On his first visit, he knocked apprehensively at the door, and a man opened it slightly. He greeted Ahdieh with “Allah’u’Abha," and he smiled and opened the door wide. This was Roy King. He and the other Baha’is, Ahdieh soon learned, were less formal in their approach to Baha’i meetings and prayers than the Baha’is in Iran but very earnest in their devotion.
Among of these Baha’is was Hooshmand Taraz who, like Ahdieh, was born into a Persian Baha’i family of humble origins. He was kind-hearted and totally devoted to the Faith. Over the years, they became like brothers.
Hooshmand Taraz on the left
Don Kinney whom ‘Abdu’l-Baha had surnamed ‘Vafa’ was there, as well as Bill DeForge, who had the character of a saint. The level of commitment and devotion to Faith of these Americans inspired the young Ahdieh, especially when he considered the temptations that were everywhere in this liberal and fast-moving society.
This community was blessed during these years by the presence of Zikru’llah Khadem who was appointed a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi in 1952. He was the first Hand to reside in the West. During these years, he lived with his wife on Staten Island. He loved Shoghi Effendi so much that whenever he spoke of him, tears welled in his eyes. On Shoghi Effendi’s behalf, he travelled to dozens of countries, among the most of any Hand of the Cause.
Hand of the Cause Zikrullah Khadem