History of The Jews in Afghanistan

History Of The Jews In Afghanistan

Jews are said to have resided in Afghanistan for nearly 1,500 years, but the community has been reduced greatly because of emigration. Afghan Jewish communities now exist mostly in Israel, and the United States.

It was Afghanistan to which Jews turned to when escaping religious persecution in Iran and central Asia. It was in the ancient cities of Herat to the west and Kabul to the east of Afghanistan that they found refuge. The Jews had formed a community of leather and karakul merchants, poor people and money lenders alike. The large Jewish families mostly lived in the border city of Herat, while the families' patriarchs traveled back and forth on trading trips across the majestic mountains of Afghanistan on whose rocks their prayers were carved in Hebrew and sometimes even Aramaic, moving between Iran, Afghanistan, India and central Asia on the ancient silk road.

Today, only one Jew, Zablon Simintov, remains residing in Afghanistan. He cares for a synagogue in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and receives aid from sympathetic Muslims, and also from Jews around the world.