The last Jew in Afghanistan: Caretaker of Kabul synagogue survives conflict with good luck, whisky and donations from friendly Muslims



Zebulon Simentov lives, eats and prays alone as he is the last known Jew in a country dominated by conservative Muslim culture.

Mr Simentov is the caretaker and sole member of Afghanistan's only working synagogue. The last eight or nine Jewish families left after the 1979 Soviet invasion, he said.

Fond of whisky and aged about 50, Mr Simentov lives in the dilapidated two-story synagogue in Kabul and gets by on donations from Jews abroad and sympathetic local Muslims.

Zebulon Simentov, the last known Jew in Afghanistan, prepares Shabbat dinner in his Kabul home

Shirgul Amiri (right) gestures behind the back of Zebulon Simentov, who lives in a country dominated by conservative Muslim culture

In the late 19th century, Afghanistan's Jews numbered about 40,000, many of them Persian Jews who had fled forced conversion in neighboring Iran.

Beginning with an exodus to Israel after it became a state in 1948, the community has been in decline ever since.

Mr Simentov's wife and children moved to Israel years ago, but he stayed even through the Taliban regime.



Mr Simentov pours himself a cup of chai during Shabbat dinner in his Afghan home

Though Mr Simentov has a Muslim friend who visits a few times a week, he spends most of his days in the company of his pet partridge, reading a Hebrew prayer book and watching Afghan TV

He was born in the western Afghan city of Herat in 1959 and says Afghanistan is home.



But having survived numerous beatings under the Taliban, he now only wears his yarmulke, or skullcap, in private.

Until 2005, Mr Simentov shared the house with one other Jew, but the two feuded and lobbed allegations at each other of having let a sacred Torah scroll go missing and of having spread rumours that resulted in Taliban beatings.



The last known remaining Jew in Afghanistan lights the candles at the start of Shabbat in the synagogue he cares for in Kabul

A shofar and Hebrew texts sit where a Torah was once kept in the synagogue overseen by Zebulon Simentov

When his 80-year-old housemate died, Mr Simentov said he was happy to be rid of him.