History of the Jews in Afghanistan

Jews lived since ancient times in Afghanistan, but the community has been significantly reduced due to persecution and emigration. Today Afghan Jewish communities exist mostly in Israel and the United States.

History

Probably the history of the Jews of Afghanistan goes back to 2500 years into the Babylonian Exile and the Persian conquest.

Surveys of the Jewish population in Afghanistan dates back to the 7th century, where the Taaqati - Nasiri, a people mentioned, the Bani Israel, which was established in Ghor. After a Pashtun legend lived here descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. It is said that the name originated Kabul " of Cain and Abel " and the name Afghanistan from Afghana, a grandson of King Saul.

Moses ibn Ezra in 1080 mentioned 40,000 at Ghazni tributary Jews and Benjamin of Tudela in the 12th century counted 80,000 Jews.

During the invasion of Genghis Khan in 1222 became smaller, the number of Jewish communities increasingly isolated. The population grew until 1839 and again a wave of refugees from Persia reached the size of about 40,000.

Since 1870, the Jews were subjected to persecution on the part of the Afghan authorities who sought to expel. Until 1948, about 5,000 Jews left the country, and after they were allowed to emigrate in 1951, attracted the most to Israel. Until 1969 remained about 300 in her home; of these emigrated most after the Soviet invasion in 1979, so that in 1996 10 Afghan Jews left, most of them in Kabul. Currently, more than 10,000 Jews of Afghan origin in Israel.

The Lost Tribes

Many Muslim and some Jewish scholars are convinced that the majority of Afghans, namely the people of the Pashtuns are descendants of the exiled Lost Tribes of Israel. They cite as evidence for this assertion oral traditions and the names of the various clans, which resemble the names of 2,700 years ago banished from Assyria tribes. This was however not confirmed by a recent genetic test was performed on a small unspecified group of Pashtuns. It could be demonstrated no significant connection between Jews and Pashtuns. Even the Pashto is argued, if a Hebrew origin should be seized. One might conclude, these claims would have been incurred as a result of Islamization of Afghanistan among the Pashtuns. It is assumed that many tribes had a Jewish posterity as it designed to be equivalent to the influential folks who mentioned the Koran as Jews, Greeks (see Alexander in the Qur'an ) and Arabs to whom they had contact, but apparently waned their genetic contribution in of the population, rather than the demographics of Afghanistan to fundamentally change.

Afghan Jews today

More than 10,000 Jews of Afghan origin currently living in Israel. The next comprehensive Afghan- Jewish population lives in New York City with 200 families. They mostly live in Flushing, Forest Hills, Jamaica, or Queens.

Rabbi Jacob Nasirov is head of the Orthodox Jewish community of Anshei Shalom, the only Afghan synagogue in the United States. Its members have roots not only in Afghanistan but also in Yemen, Syria, Russia, Iraq, Morocco and Lebanon.

Today (2008 ) is probably only a single Afghan Jew living in the land of Zebulon Simentov (* 1960) in Kabul.

Sources

' Only one Jew ' now in Afghanistan
The Virtual Jewish History Tour - Afghanistan
Production Notes of Play "The Last Two Jews of Kabul "

History of the Jews in: Africa | Europe | North America | Oceania | South America

Religion ( Afghanistan)
Judaism in Asia

Babylonian captivity Arab people Flushing, Queens Forest Hills, Queens Mountain Jews History of the Jews in Indonesia History of the Jews in Iraq History of Israel Yemenite Jews History of the Jews in Saudi Arabia

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