Zabulon Simintov always removes his skullcap worn by Jewish men, before entering his café in a dilapidated building that also houses Afghanistan’s last synagogue. “Let me take off my cap, otherwise people will think something bad about me,” Simintov says cheerfully as he descends grime-caked stairs to the ground-floor café.
The Star (h/t David Powell) In his 50s, Simintov is the last known Afghan Jew to remain in the country. He has become something of a celebrity over the years and his rivalry with the next-to-last Jew, who died in 2005, inspired a play.
Mindful of Afghanistan’s extremely conservative Muslim culture, Simintov tries not to advertise his identity to protect the Balkh Bastan or Ancient Balkh kebab café he opened four years ago, naming it after a northern Afghan province. “All food here is prepared by Muslims,” he says.
Now the café, neat and shiny, faces closure because kebabs are not selling well — largely because of deteriorating security in Kabul that has made people frightened to eat out or visit the city.
Simintov used to rely on hotel catering orders but even these have dried up as foreign troops begin to withdraw from Afghanistan, further weakening security and investment. “Hotels used to order food for 400 to 500 people. Four or five stoves were busy from afternoon to evening,” he says. “I plan to close my restaurant next March and rent its space.”
At lunchtime, a single table is occupied with a pair of customers ordering tender meat on long skewers and other Afghan dishes. Neither appear to know about Simintov’s history and say they came only because a cafe next door that made a special dish of Afghan noodles had shut down.
Little is known about the origins of Afghan Jews, who some believe may have lived here more than 2,000 years ago. A cache of 11th-century scrolls recently discovered in the north provided the first opportunity to study poems, commercial records and judicial agreements of the time.
The community was several thousand strong at the turn of the 20th century, spread across several cities. They later left the country en masse, mostly for the newly created state of Israel. Simintov’s wife and daughters also left for the Jewish state, but he decided to stay behind with his Afghan “brothers.”
A native of the western border city of Herat, the cradle of Jewish culture in Afghanistan, Simintov displays dog-eared posters and prayer books when he shows visitors around the dilapidated synagogue.
He pulled a shofar — the ram’s horn used for Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement — from a dusty cupboard and blew into it with little effect. Simintov also maintains a nearby cemetery, marked by little more than a few broken pieces of stone in an unkempt yard.
Other religions have fared even worse than Judaism. There are no Afghan Christians left, at least none who is open about it, and the only permanent church is inside the Italian diplomatic compound. There is a small Hindu population, but it is shrinking rapidly.
Simintov’s personal ill fortune is linked to the increasing risks of running a business. More than a dozen years since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban movement to end its five years in power, fear of bombs, shootings and crime is still part of daily life.
Simintov said the café had lost $45,000 and all the valuables collected by his father were stolen before the Taliban were ousted in 2001. He hopes that renting the café’s space might generate enough money to renovate the synagogue.
Much of the whitewashed building’s interior, including the synagogue’s floors and walls, are covered in a black film. It survived the Taliban, but the contents were ransacked.
However resolute Simintov remains about practising his faith, he is embittered — even enraged — by misfortune and by the failure of the U.S-led NATO force to create conditions for peace and security without the threat of the Taliban. “It is better to see a dog than to see an American,” he said. “If the situation in the country gets worse, I will escape.”
Vladimir Lenin says
Afghanistan along with Pakistan and other countries need a Communist government which will defeat the islamists and create a secular society. This was Afghanistan in the 1970s and before and it still can be that way but first Pakistan needs to be governed by the Communist Party of Pakistan and soon Afghnaistan will fall as well (Domino Theory) and then secularism will win. Communism is better than islamism.
dragonfFIRE01 says
need to leave before john Kerry gives away this country in the bargain. we don’t need to bow to karzai’s demands
Cranky says
As John Kerry sees it, he’ll continue to stir up trouble in the Ukraine in order to get it’s government to agree to join the EU, then the Ukranians can flood into the other EU countries while all those Muslims down in Greece and Italy can be moved in to take the homes of the native Ukrainians while they are away undercutting everyone else’s wages.
Cranky says
He and other Jews can do what they like. I know that as both an atheist and a gentile I wouldn’t want to spend one second in that rat sewer of a country.
Aaron... says
He’s a courageous man, but he has nothing to do more in this country.
Christopher Ring says
The Anglo-American Alliance must acknowledge the real reason they are in Afghanistan:Oil and Gas reserves,and the planned oil pipeline linking the Caspian Sea Oil and Gas infrastructure to the pipeline to the Arabian Sea.Until the real agenda is exposed,social and political problems can never be remedied.
AlreadyDead says
After this article gets out publicizing him as Afghanistan’s last Jew I’d guess he’s in more danger than he was before. I’ll bet there are plenty of Afghani scuzzlum assholes who would like to be the one to kill Afghanistan’s last Jew, and brag about it.
cat says
It is time to leave this hell hole of afghanistan and best to do it before the troops leave. afghanistan will return to the full blown hell hole it was before we spent trillions and lost so many brave soldier’s lives for absolutely no cause or reasonable reason.
vostok says
Yesh it’s time to get out of that muz infested rathole
perceptor1 says
There must be no return of the Taliban or it will have to start again. Afghanistan needs more infrastructure so the people will never consider going back to the bad old days of the Taliban desperados.
BareNakedIslam says
Too late, the Taliban is all but running the country now.