Posted by Iranian on October 4, 2007, 1:57 am, in reply to "Last Jew in Afghanistan marks Yom Kippur alone " --Previous Message--
66.209.102.5
Roughly you would be the only one that would find a Jew in Afghanistan.
: KABUL (AFP) - Zebulon Simentov, the
: last Jew in Afghanistan, is once
: again marking the Jewish holy day of
: fasting in solitude, in a deserted
: synagogue in the capital of a
: devoutly Islamic nation.
:
: "I have everything I need for
: the 24 hours of praying and
: fasting," Simentov tells AFP
: before the start of Yom Kippur, the
: Day of Atonement, at sunset on
: Friday.
:
: Around two decades ago, there were
: still about 20 Afghan Jewish
: families living in Kabul, although
: all were from Herat -- the largest
: city in northwestern Afghanistan
: near the border with Iran.
:
: Through the Soviet occupation of the
: 1980s, the subsequent civil war and
: the Taliban's 1996-2001 regime, all
: went to Israel or moved to
: neighbouring former Soviet republics
: -- undoing a Jewish presence built
: up from the seventh century.
:
: Only Simentov has been left behind,
: becoming by default the guardian of
: Kabul's empty synagogue.
:
: The room where he receives visitors
: was once a prayer room for women. On
: the wall are pictures of Afghan
: President Hamid Karzai and the late
: ultra-orthodox Lubavitch rabbi,
: Menahem Scheerson.
:
: Adjoining this room is the
: bare-walled "small
: synagogue" for men, where he
: prefers to pray.
:
: Simentov, approaching 50, dislikes
: the "big synagogue" across
: the corridor -- another large and
: dirty room in which stands only a
: platform traditionally reserved for
: the rabbi.
:
: A cupboard built into the wall faces
: Jerusalem. Its doors are open and it
: has been stripped of its treasure, a
: scroll of the Torah.
:
: The precious document was stolen by
: a Taliban during the rule of the
: Islamist movement which was driven
: from government six years ago by a
: coalition led by the United States.
:
: The man "wanted to sell it,
: thinking it was valuable,"
: Simentov says in Dari, one of the
: main languages in Afghanistan. He
: says he reads Hebrew perfectly but
: prefers not to speak it.
:
: "Today that Taliban is jailed
: at Guantanamo Bay and I am waiting
: for him to be freed so I can ask him
: to return the Tables of the
: Law," says Simentov, who wears
: a Jewish cap called a kippa, but is
: otherwise dressed like an Afghan.
:
: Simentov is alone. His wife and two
: children are in Israel, which he
: says he has not visited since 1998.
:
: "I have been the only Jew in
: Afghanistan for two years," he
: says. Ishaq Levin, the synagogue's
: former guardian, died from illness
: two years ago aged around 80.
:
: Simentov says it is not easy to
: practise his religion alone.
:
: But he has obtained special
: permission from a rabbi in Tashkent,
: capital of neighbouring Uzbekistan
: and home to 15,000 Jews, to
: slaughter his own meat in the kosher
: way that can normally only be done
: by a special rabbi.
:
: Otherwise this former carpet
: salesman appears perfectly
: integrated into Kabul, where he is
: well-known by people who live around
: the synagogue, and warmly greeted
: when he is outside.
:
: Jews have lived in several regions
: of Afghanistan and legends abound
: about their presence.
:
: One says the Pashtuns, one of the
: main ethnic groups in Afghanistan,
: descended from a tribe from Israel.
: Another says the name Afghanistan
: comes from Afghana, grandson of King
: Saul -- the first king of the
: ancient Kingdom of Israel.
:
:
:
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