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NEW YORK — The case of 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying — which burst into the headlines this week with news of the trial's first "confessions," apparently originated as a power struggle within Iran's Jewish community.

But it wasn't long before the dispute was sucked into the greater drama that has convulsed Iran during the past few years — the pitched battle for supremacy between Iranian hardliners and their reformist rivals.

And if history serves as a guide, presumably this won't be the last time Iran's 2,700-year-old Jewish community will be a pawn in the country's political struggles.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 — even as Iranian Jewry has shriveled from 100,000 to some 25,000 — 17 Jews have been condemned to death, primarily accused of being spies, according to Jewish groups in the United States. Two Jews were executed in Tehran three years ago.

The next to be sentenced to death could be Hamid "Dani" Tefileen, 29, reportedly a shoe-store clerk; Shahrokh Paknahad, 23, a part-time Hebrew teacher; and Ramin Nemati, 23.

Tefileen confessed Monday, the first day of the proceedings in the southern city of Shiraz, while the other two confessed Wednesday. The trial is expected to resume Monday.

After facing the Revolutionary Court on Monday, Tefileen was broadcast on Iranian state television, confessing to having been trained in Israel by the Mossad, the foreign intelligence agency of the Jewish state.

After Wednesday's proceedings, Paknahad told reporters he had organized a spy network for Israel in Isfahan, 200 miles northwest of Shiraz. Also on Wednesday, Nemati told the court he had passed defense information to Israel while he was in the Iranian military service, which is compulsory.

American Jewish observers, human rights groups and foreign diplomats denounced the hearings as a political show trial. They assumed that the three were coerced to confess.

For 16 months, Tefileen had been in solitary confinement, with human contact limited mostly to his interrogators. He was the first of the 13 to be arrested.

It is unclear whether Tefileen — who said he was trained for spy activity during a 1994 trip to Israel — will be a fall guy, or if his confession is a harbinger for the entire group. A conviction could bring anything from six months in prison to a death sentence.

Tefileen, who worked in his father's shop in Shiraz, is said to be a devoutly religious man, as are all the accused.

And that, in part, may have been what landed them in this predicament.

The steady emigration of Iranian Jews since 1979 has left a vacuum in leadership, as many top religious and community figures were among the emigres who headed to Israel and the United States.

The Jewish leadership was traditionally based in Tehran, the capital. Jews more or less were allowed to maintain a communal life, as long as it was low key and it was not seen as a threat to the Islamic state

Appeasing the authorities ensured a modicum of security, said Sam Kermanian, secretary-general of the Los Angeles-based American Iranian Jewish Federation.

However, recent years have seen Jews in Shiraz — a bastion of religious conservatism in general — grow more committed and energetic in their religious life, Kermanian said.

Most Iranian Jews are Orthodox, but the Shiraz community appeared to be growing more fervent in its practices, which many young Jews in the region found appealing.

Because of that growing appeal, the Shiraz Jews soon became a source of irritation to the Iranian authorities, who presumably preferred dealing with the leadership in Tehran.

The Shiraz Jews allegedly ignored warnings from both government officials and Jewish leaders in Tehran to tone down and limit their activities, Kermanian said.

The arrests in January and March 1999 of 13 Jews — most of whom are from Shiraz — may have been meant to send a message.

Little is known about the 13, but among them is the chief spiritual leader of Shiraz, several part-time Hebrew teachers, a university professor, a cemetery worker, an office clerk, a tailor and a 17-year-old student, according to sources here.

"The Iranians implicitly mentioned that the arrests were related to the warnings," said Kermanian. "They needed to make it clear to the people that they were serious — basically to punish them and scare them off — and that they were going to be released shortly."

Other observers, however, suggest that the hardliners — vying to maintain a grip on power in the wake of political victories by reformists — had already fingered the Jews as the engine to whip up Islamic fervor and undermine the liberalizing efforts of moderates such as Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

In his confession, Tefileen said he visited Israel in 1994. Interviewed by state television after Monday's hearing, Tefileen reportedly also admitted to being trained and paid by the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. After the hearing, the authorities assailed him of carrying out this work for "the love of Israel" — and for the money.

Following Wednesday's proceedings, Paknahad, told reporters waiting outside: "We were told by Israeli intelligence that if any of us under any circumstances were arrested, we must deny everything and they would help to get us out by bringing to bear international pressure. But that was just lies."

Israel, which is viewed by Iran as an arch-enemy, steadfastly denies any link with the 13 Iranian Jews.

"The accusations against them are cruel lies," said Rabbi Michael Melchior, the Israeli minister in charge of relations with world Jewish communities. He warned Iran that the Jewish state would not tolerate the persecution of Jews elsewhere.

"Just as we fought for Jews who have been in this situation before in Iran and many other countries around the world," Melchior said, Israel will not accept that Jews "again become victims just because they're Jews."

In Iran, Jews are second only to the Baha'i minority as favorite targets of the authorities to rally the public against a common enemy, according to observers.

The intracommunal dispute "played some role at the beginning, but we shouldn't exaggerate it or exonerate the Iranian authorities for pinning this on the Jews," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

"We heard early on they had targeted" the Jews for political purposes, Hoenlein said. "It fits the periodic pattern.

"The difference this time is that we found out about it in time and have been able to do something about it."

Once the arrests became public, the situation was apparently exacerbated, say observers, with Iranian hardliners becoming more adamant about punishing the "Iran 13."

The situation prompted debates among advocates about whether public or private diplomacy would be more effective in securing their release.

"We gave the Iranians many opportunities to negotiate and it all came to naught," said Hoenlein, who has been at the forefront of negotiations on the detainees' behalf, working through his network of contacts in Iran, Europe and America.

Before launching the campaign to secure their release, Hoenlein said his organization conducted its own investigation into the spying charges. Consultations with officials from the CIA, the FBI and the Mossad confirmed that the allegations had been fabricated, he said.

Hoenlein also said it was Tefileen's trip to Israel that seems to be, from Iran's perspective, the smoking gun for the entire case.

"Without him, there's no case," he said. "Getting him to confess was crucial."

Without the international intervention, he speculated, some or all of the Iran 13 might have been executed by now.

In addition to the international attention surrounding the current case, the other major difference from previous spying charges against Iranian Jews is the rising tension within Iranian society. Indeed, the handling of the Iran 13 speaks volumes about the current political climate.

The Muslim fundamentalists who control Iran's judiciary are clearly out to sabotage the small steps taken by their reformist rivals to repair relations with the West, say U.S. observers. At this point, anything less than convictions of some or all of the "Zionist spies" would mean losing face among their followers.

More significantly, in the past two weeks the hardliners have jailed six journalists and shut down 16 reform-minded newspapers that have registered support for Khatami. Among the stated reasons for the newspaper closures was their alleged sympathy for the 13 Jews.

In such an atmosphere, some wonder why any Iranian Jew remains wedded to the land.

Some suggest that everyone who remains has at least one or two relatives in the United States. However, while those who left generally had the financial means to do so, those who remain are said to be either too poor, too old, too complacent — or simply too stubborn to sever a long tradition.

While flowery reports often emerge from Iran on how Jews there are happy, they are vulnerable to more than spying charges. In December, the dead body of a 44-year-old Tehran Jew was discovered. His Muslim business partner, with whom the victim had had a conflict, had reported him to the authorities the previous day, said Hoenlein.

But espionage remains the most popular accusation to make against perceived enemies.

"We cannot go on the assumption this will not happen again," said Kermanian. "As to why stay, that's the million-dollar question for many Jewish communities around the world.

"I guess one answer is that Jews are eternal optimists," he said. "Iranian history has had its ups and downs, and Jews went through it with them. They always survived. I don't think there will ever be a time that Iran will be devoid of Jewish life."

The trial will reconvene Monday when Faramarz Kashi, also a part-time Hebrew teacher, is brought before the Revolutionary Court.

One issue that remains unclear, said Hoenlein, is whether those who "confess" will take the fall for the rest or if the entire group will be punished.