The last known member of Afghanistan’s Jewish community leaves the country and takes away dozens of women and children

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Zebulon Simentov lived and maintained the only synagogue in Kabul, which survived in part from overseas donations. A well-known figure in the Afghan capital, Simentov, who was in his 60s, had experienced decades of conflict and political turmoil, including the previous Taliban rule over the country in 1996 and 2001.

Simentov and 30 other people traveled by van through the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan and negotiated several Taliban checkpoints on Monday before entering “a neighboring country,” Jewish New Year Rosh Hashana said Moti Kahana, a Israeli businessman and philanthropist who organized his escape.

Simentov has been credited with helping save dozens of children by refusing to leave them in Afghanistan, Kahana said.

Historical evidence suggests that Afghanistan was once home to an important Jewish community. It reached 40,000 in the mid-nineteenth century and began to decline around 1870 with the passage of anti-Jewish measures, according to the American-Israeli cooperative, a nonprofit group. Most of the remaining Jews in Afghanistan left after the creation of Israel in 1948 and then in 1979 after the Soviet invasion, the group said.

Simentov’s status as the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan has received widespread media attention in recent decades, with numerous reports detailing his persistent refusal to leave the country, even after his wife and their children moved to Israel.
During an interview with CNN in 2010, Simentov recounted past experiences with the Taliban, describing how the group “interfered in everyone’s business.” Simentov told CNN that he was arrested four times during the previous Taliban rule and that he was beaten while in custody.

The recent withdrawal from the United States and the subsequent capture of the Taliban triggered an exodus of thousands of people from the country, including foreigners, Afghans who had worked with American and British forces and heavily persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Hazaras. they feared they would. to be assassinated once the Taliban return to power.

Despite the danger, Simentov initially refused to leave his home, Kahana said.

His neighbors, however, convinced him that he was unsure, and if the Taliban did not get there, the Islamist militant group ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) could set an example. He had been told that people were talking about him and that they would kill him, Kahana said.

The U.S. helped four U.S. citizens leave Afghanistan on the ground, an official says

He believed Simentov finally conceded “when he could hear more shots in the area and when the Americans left and the airport closed.”

Kahana runs a U.S.-based organization called GDC Inc., which provides humanitarian diplomacy and security and logistics advice in difficult regions of the world. He facilitated the escape of the last Jewish families out of Syria’s Aleppo and organized buses from Syria to Israel in 2016 so that women and children could receive medical check-ups.

The original plan was for Kahana’s security team to take Simentov and 18 other people and get them out of the country. But when they arrived, there were about 100 more people with him.

In the end, 30 people were allowed to go in addition to Simentov, almost all women and children, Kahana said.

The exit from Afghanistan was “terrifying and dangerous,” Kahana said. The long journey consisted of sleeping in the plants and going through the Taliban checkpoints.

At the first border crossing they were told they could not enter as a group of 31 people, only three people could cross at a time, Kahana said. Simentov refused to split the group and had to drive 14 hours to the next border crossing, he said.

They spent 24 nervous hours in Kahana when the group lost communication for a day before they finally reached security on Wednesday evening. It is retaining the name of the country for its safety.

“He saw the opportunity to help his neighbor’s children by leaving and he was becoming too dangerous to stay,” Kahana said of Simentov. “He really saved the kids by taking them with him.”

And the only synagogue in the country? Simentov’s neighbors told him they would keep him afloat, Kahana said.

CNN’s Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.

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