It’s all the fault of America ending an endless war, you see — if it actually ends at all. He is leaving “fearing that the U.S. military’s promise to leave the country will leave a vacuum to be filled with radical groups such as the Taliban.”
All right. But the Americans have been there for 20 years. Why is he the last Jew in the country? Didn’t the Jewish community thrive while the Americans have been there? To attach this to some never-ending obligation to remain in Afghanistan and ignore the ugly reality of Islamic antisemitism is establishment media propaganda at its finest.
“The last known Jew in Afghanistan is leaving,” by Gabe Friedman, JTA, April 4, 2021 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
The man who has been known as the last Jew in Afghanistan for well over a decade is leaving for Israel, fearing that the U.S. military’s promise to leave the country will leave a vacuum to be filled with radical groups such as the Taliban.
“I will watch on TV in Israel to find out what will happen in Afghanistan,” Zabulon Simantov told Arab News on Sunday….
His wife, a Jew from Tajikistan, and their two daughters have lived in Israel since 1998. But Simantov has stayed in his native Afghanistan to tend to its lone synagogue, located in the capital Kabul, through decades of violence and political turmoil, including a period of Taliban rule and the country’s war with the U.S.
“I managed to protect the synagogue of Kabul like a lion of Jews here,” he said to Arab News.
Simantov, a carpet and jewelry seller, was born in the Afghan city of Herat, which decades ago was home to hundreds of Jews. He eventually moved to Kabul but fled to Tajikistan in 1992 before returning to the capital city.
Without him around, the synagogue will close, ending an era of Jewish life in the country that scholars believe began at least 2,000 years ago.
“If the Taliban return, they are going to push us out with a slap in the face,” Simantov told Radio Free Europe last week for an article on the exodus of many of the country’s minority populations.
Krishna says
That’s how Hindus, Buddhist and all peacefull religions in Afghanistan went away
americanpatriot says
Well, Krishna,
This will happen in the remaining non-Muslim lands too but we non-Muslims are still thinking that such complete Islamic success of being able to wipe out non-Islamic societies cannot happen easily. We can look at practical examples in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Bangladesh, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia where either Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism existed before the arrival of Islam. Islam is like a very deadly cyanide which can wipe out anything on its path. We non-Muslims remain ignorant despite such deadly historic and real proof.
Now that Muslim Strategists are aggressively pursuing to achieve global domination everywhere in the not-yet-Muslim-majority countries, they are confident to succeed and accomplish what is enjoined them by their Allah in Quran 2:193.
In today’s time, jihad and jihad activities of Muslims are being waged non-stop everywhere in the world with billions of dollar support from Middle East. There is only two different means of advance of Islam either by peaceful jihad waged by non-violent method by dutiful Muslims or violent jihad waged by Muslim terrorists all targeted against non-Muslims.
It is time to wake up and educate about this to our ignorant folks.
Infidel says
Well, good for him! I always thought he needed to have his head examined for remaining there as long as he did. Finally, he’s doing what’s sensible. There is no way that US troops were gonna be there forever. That synagogue will probably be converted into a mosque
Hopefully, the remaining Christians, Sikhs and Hindus hightail it out of that country to India, and then the Pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajiks and others can fight among themselves
mortimer says
Inf, that his home.
Infidel says
Yeah, but when one’s neighborhood becomes a dump, one moves. If you had a home in the south side of Chicago years ago and you saw it morph into what it is today, would you just remain there, or would you sell it and buy a better place?
He is a rabbi of a synagogue that has no congregants. None! What exactly was his mission in life?
gravenimage says
Yes, this was his home. But that every one of his fellows has been driven out or murdered sadly shows that this stretch of Dar-al-Islam does not welcome him.
mortimer says
Robert Spencer’s tongue-in-cheek humor is delicious. Yeah, what an old chestnut: Blame the USA and the Little Satan Israel for good measure.
Muslims think that Islam has all the answers … whereas, in reality, Islam has nothing to offer in the modern world. Too bad the Last Jew has to leave his life-long home because of all those bigoted Afghan Muslims. (That’s pretty blunt, but accurate.)
Aminu Mohammed says
Jihad watch hates Muslims and there can never see anything good in islam
marc says
The 2 things are actually very different, there are many Muslims who we would see as good, those who put humanity before Islam. The same can be said of any other belief system. But islam itself, unreformed in anyway, if followed as per scripture is particularly abhorrent as a belief system, it’s hatred and calls for violence against non-believers features largely in the koran. So no, there is no broad hatred of Muslims here, if I see it expressed in comments I ban the user (many being provocateurs for the other side), but people are free to hate the book the koran, just as they would mein kampf which is just as hateful to me. If you put a book before the rest of humanity, you yourself are worthless.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Marc.
gravenimage says
Does Aminu Mohammed have a problem with Muslims in Afghanistan having driven out, forcibly converted, or murdered its entire Jewish population–or the fact that this is what pious Muslims have planned for *everyone* who does not submit to the bloody horrors of Islam?
Note that Aminu Mohammed does not say Aminu Mohammed does not say what is good about Islam–“marrying” little girls? Stoning women to death? Persecuting all Infidels? Slaughtering unbelievers?
Opposing these horrors are what this Mohammedan considers “hate”.
Chris says
Oh? There is something good in islam? By good i mean for non violent people. You won’t fool anyone here.
gravenimage says
Afghanistan: The last known Jew in the country is leaving
………………
I feel for Zabulon Simantov–he has made a brave stand.
I was worried about his being murdered by a pious Muslim for a long time now–and he would certainky be targeted by the Taliban when they return. I hope he and his wife and family can make a good life in civilized Israel now.
Infidel says
I never understood – if he had sent his wife and daughters to Israel for safety, what exactly was he doing in Kabul? One good thing about the announcement of US withdrawal by Trump was that it has resulted in re-uniting his family. If it’s good for all the illegal aliens south of the border, wouldn’t it be good for the Simantovs as well?
Incidentally, is he ethnically Tajik? Originally from Herat, which is majority Tajik, then moved to Tajikistan and then Kabul!
gravenimage says
Infidel, I am no expert on Zabulon Simantov, but what I have heard is that his wife decided to flee with the children in the late ’90s. Simantov was saddened but agreed it was best for the safety of the children.
Herat at one time had a significant Jewish population–Jews in the region predate Islam. The Synagogue in Herat has been largely destroyed, which is why he went to Kabul. As I understand it, his family’s roots go way back in Afghanistan, which is the main reason he has been so reluctant to leave–that, and that there is now no one else.
The Taliban stole the Synagogue’s Torah at one point, and he has never been able to either reclaim it or find a new one in Afghanistan.
This is all very sad–but better that he leaves and survives. I hope he can find some belated joy with his family and a real community of his fellow Jews.
James Lincoln says
gravenimage,
I think that Torahs in Afghanistan are a trifle scarce…
gravenimage says
Grimly true, James.
Infidel says
Graven, I had read that cities like Herat and Buqhara had significant Jewish populations. I understand that the Samanids and other rulers may have wanted them there to make any progress, since muslims weren’t gonna do it, but what exactly enabled them to last that long, given that those cities were often battlefields b/w conflicting muslim empires throughout the middle ages
gravenimage says
Infidel, obviously this history is only partial:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Afghanistan
You can see that there were times when it was illegal for Jews to leave–this is actually quite common in the history of Islam and its dealings with non-Muslim populations, and may explain why they sometimes stayed even when things got really bad.
Recently Iran has done the same–making apologists’s crowing over Iran still having a Jewish population deeply perverse.