The Last Jew in Afghanistan

Zablon Simintov is one-man Jewish community —not just in the city of Kabul, but for the entire country of Afghanistan:

Zablon Simintov is always guaranteed the best seat in his local synagogue here, but the privilege comes with a downside: he’s the last Jew in Afghanistan.

The country’s 800-year-old Jewish community — an estimated 40,000 strong at its peak — is now a party of one.

But Simintov, for his part, isn’t going anywhere soon. For more than a decade, he has refused to join his wife and two teenage daughters in Israel.

“My family call me all the time and say, ‘Come here, you’re the last Jew in Afghanistan, what are you doing there?’ ” he says.

Simintov, a former carpet dealer, refuses to answer that question. “I don’t know why I’m still living here,” he says. “It’s God’s will.”