AFGHANISTAN'S LAST JEW

Keeping the faith (Wash. Times)
KABUL, Afghanistan — The first question Zebulon Simentov asked his uninvited guest, eyes wide open at the prospect: "Are you Jewish?" There was a tinge of disappointment when the reply came back negative, but the last Jew standing in Afghanistan didn't miss a beat. "Humanity is one; religion doesn't matter," he said.

Moments later, a Muslim friend entered the room, unfurled a prayer rug in the corner and bowed toward Mecca. An open box of Manischewitz matzos sat next to an empty bottle of whiskey on a table nearby.

Locals refer to Mr. Simentov, 47, simply as "the Jew." Originally from the western city of Herat, he dons a yarmulke with his shalwar kameez and swears that "half of Kabul" knows him, though probably not for the reasons he would like to think.

His only other co-religionist in the country, Yitzhak Levin, died in January 2005. The pair lived together in the Flower Street synagogue through the Soviet invasion, the civil war and the Taliban regime. And they grew to hate each other. Among other antics, they held separate services, had vicious shouting matches that neighbors say could be heard down the street and denounced each other to the Taliban as spies for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. ...

Now Mr. Simentov lives alone in the crumbling two-story building, where wrought-iron railings in a Star of David motif could use a fresh coat of blue paint and the courtyard garden has gone to waste. With a brush of the hand, he dismissed having a change of heart since his rival's death. No love has been lost. No one comes to worship at the synagogue anymore, but he continues to pray every day and keep kosher, he said.

A couple of years back, he paid a visit to the rabbi of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, who gave Mr. Simentov the authority to kill his own animals because no other qualified Jews could be found for hundreds of miles.

This was not always the case, Mr. Simentov said, explaining that there were more than 40,000 at the turn of the 19th century as Persian Jews fled from forced conversions in neighboring Iran. The establishment of Israel in 1948 and the 1979 Soviet invasion combined to empty the community. ...

Although Mr. Simentov's wife and two daughters left for Israel years ago, he has no plans of joining them any time soon... "Go to Israel? What business do I have there?" he said, adding that he doesn't speak Hebrew. "Why should I leave?" ....