Now the last Jew in Afghanistan is packing his bags

For decades Zebulon Simantov refused to leave Afghanistan, despite the Soviet invasion, the murderous civil war, the brutal taliban regime and the occupation of his native country by a foreign coalition led by the United States.

But his stubbornness reached its limit. The prospect of the Taliban’s return to power convinced Zebulon, the last Jew in Afghanistan, that it was time to pack up.

“Why would I stay? They call me an infidel.” In Kabul’s only synagogue, located in an old building in the center of the Asian country’s capital, Zebulon spoke to AFP.

“I am the last, the only Jew in Afghanistan. Things could get worse for me here. I decided to go to Israel if the Taliban returned,” he added.

This eventuality seems likely since the President of the United States, Joe Biden, confirmed the departure of American forces on September 11, when the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the twin towers of New York and the Pentagon, in Washington, which the White House attributed to the Al-Qaeda network.

History and exodus

Born in the 1950s in Herat in western Afghanistan, once a haven for wealthy Jewish merchant families, Zebulon came to Kabul in the early 1980s due to the relative calm of the capital.

Jews have lived in Afghanistan for over 2,500 years. Tens of thousands of them in Herat, where four synagogues survive, witnesses of the ancient presence of the community in this city.

But since the 19th century, the Jews little by little they started to leave the country and many descendants live in Israel.

Over the decades, Zebulon’s entire family has left, including his wife and two daughters.

He is sure to be the last Afghan Jew in the country. Dressed in a shalwar kameez, the traditional loose Afghan outfit consisting of a long shirt over baggy pants, a black kippah on his head and speech bubbles on his forehead, he recalls the 1970s monarchy with a touch of nostalgia .

“The faithful of all religions and cults enjoyed total freedom at the time,” recalls Zebulon, who said he was proud to be Afghan.

The fundamentalism of the Taliban regime

But the country’s recent history has soured it, especially the period between 1996 and 2001, when the Taliban were in power and imposed their fundamentalist vision.

Remember the Taliban wanted to force him to convert.

“The shameful Taliban regime put me in prison four times,” he said, referring to an episode in which a group of Taliban fighters broke into the synagogue.

“They told me it was the Islamic Emirate and the Jews had no rights here,” he recalls.

The Taliban they looted the facilities, a great white painted hall with an altar at one end, they broke Hebrew books, broke menorahs, the seven-branched candelabra of the Jews, and took an ancient Torah, remember.

Despite everything, Zebulon still refuses to leave his country. “I resisted. I made the pride of the religion of Moses, ”he said proudly, kissing the floor of the synagogue.

Zebulon continues to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the day of forgiveness, in the temple, sometimes even in the company of Muslim friends.

“Without me, the synagogue would have already been sold ten, twenty times,” he continues in his Herati dialect, which is distinguished from Dari, one of the two official languages, by its coarse intonations.

Zebulon he lives on alms from his friends and family and cooks the food on a small gas stove.

On a table, in a corner, there are books and photos of his daughters, which he kisses without stopping.

Zebulon admits that in 2001, when US troops drove the Taliban out of Kabul, he believed the country would prosper.

“I thought that the Europeans and the Americans were going to solve the problems. But it was not like that,” he laments.

You will miss your neighbors. “He’s been my client for 20 years. He’s a good man,” said Shakir Azizi, who owns a warehouse across from the synagogue. “If he leaves, he will be missed.”

But Zebulon fears the fate that awaits him if he stays, convinced that the Taliban have not changed.

“They are the same as 21 years ago,” he says. Hoping to feel at home in Israel, he admits: “I have lost faith in Afghanistan … There is no more life here,” he says sadly.

Source: AFP

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