Zebulon Simantov, considered the last Jew in Afghanistan, has just arrived in Israel with the help of the Jewish Agency, according to information revealed this Monday by the Israeli public channel Kan. This arrival marks the end of a long journey which began in September 2021, when he fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took power. When he left Kabul, Simantov benefited from the support of American Jewish businessman Moti Kahana to return to Turkey, where he remained in recent years. “I was in danger every day. I watched over the synagogue for years, but I no longer had a choice,” he confided in an exclusive interview with Kan 11, his first interview after leaving the synagogue. Afghanistan.
In this same conversation, he expressed his wish to go to the United States, a project which had encountered administrative obstacles. He also spoke of his desire to return to Israel to reunite with his friends, a wish that has just come true.
The Jewish Agency, which facilitated his immigration to Israel, declined to comment on this particular case, indicating that it was “unable to comment on this specific situation.”
Simantov's departure from Afghanistan marked the end of a thousand-year-old Jewish presence in this country. His exfiltration became urgent after the withdrawal of American forces and the establishment of the Taliban regime, a Sunni terrorist group hostile to religious minorities. His presence as the last Jew in Afghanistan was the subject of significant international media coverage, symbolizing the disappearance of historic Jewish communities in Central Asia.
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