Zablon Simintov

Zablon Simintov (born 1959) (Dari:زابلون سیمینتوف) (Hebrew:זבלון סימינטוב) (Yiddish:זאַבלאָן סימינטאָוו) (Persian:زابلون سیمینتوف) (Pashto:زابلون سیمینټوف) is an Afghan-Israeli who is a retired businessman who was thought to be the last Jew in Afghanistan  until his distant cousin Tova Moradi was discovered in 2021. Moradi also fled Afghanistan in October of 2021 with her 20 grandchildren to Albania. Moradi married a Muslim man yet still remained Jewish.
Simintov was born in Herat. Simintov had lived with the third last remaining Jewish person in Afghanistan, Ishaq Levin or Issac Levi who is also known as Yitzhak Levi or Yitzhak Levin, who died on Wednesday January 26, 2005, aged around 80. They also had a fued. The Taliban tortured both Simintov and Levi/Levin. The Taliban were so tired of them fighting they released them both from jail. Simintov lived in Kabul from the time he came back from Turkmenistan until he left Afghanistan. Simentov says that he knows former President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani personally but this is not confirmed or denied.  

His residence was severely damaged during the Taliban's rise to power in the Second Afghan Civil War, which forced him to move into the city's only synagogue. Simintov also sold wine that he made but was arrested by the Taliban due to selling his wine. Simintov says it is not easy to practice his religion alone. However, he has obtained special permission from the nearest rabbi, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to slaughter his own meat in line with kosher dietary laws. That can normally only be done by a specially trained and qualified Jewish ritual slaughterer. He says that he receives special kosher packages for Passover from Afghan Jews living in New York City. In an interview with the Jewish American magazine Tablet, Simintov highlighted the difficulties of being the isolated and only remaining practitioner of Judaism in Afghanistan. He has stated that he wore his kippah also known as a yarmulke or a koppel only in private and was hesitant to allow visitors into the synagogue in Kabul that he had been maintaining. 

His wife and two daughters live in Israel. When asked during an interview whether he would emigrate to Israel, Simintov retorted, "Go to Israel? What business do I have there? Why should I leave?". He said "I don't speak Hebrew. I am an Afghan." Simintov lived in Turkmenistan very briefly for only 2 months before returning to Afghanistan. In September 2021 Simintov fled Afghanistan after granting his wife a get which is a Jewish religious divorce. Get refusal can lead to a prison sentence in Israel. Simintov lives in Israel as of 2025. Simintov decided to leave Afghanistan not because of the Taliban who is an ally of Al-Qaeda and of the Pakistani Taliban but because of more extreme groups that also adhere to Islamism such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as ISIS or ISIL. Simintov left Afghanistan with 29 other Afghans. Simintov was the caretaker of the Kabul Synagogue until his last day in Afghanistan. First he stopped in Pakistan. Then he went to Turkey. The reason he left Turkey for Israel is because he is using a wheelchair and because of other health issues. On 7 September 2021, shortly after the Taliban takeover, he left Afghanistan with the help of a private security company that had been organized by Israeli-American businessman Mordechai Kahana and American rabbi Moshe Margaretten from the Tzedek Association. He has either Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes which was the cause of death of his rival and 3rd last Jew in Afghanistan Yitzhak Levi (see above for age of death and other names) but it is not specified if diabetes is still Simintov's primary ailment. On 15 August 2021, three weeks before the first of the High Holy Days also known as Ten Days of Repentance, the Taliban captured Kabul in 2021. After receiving death threats from the Taliban and the ISIS-KP, Simantov emigrated to a presently undisclosed country before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah on 6 September 2021. He brought 30 other refugees with him, including 28 women and children. He said to not vote for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden in the 2024 United States presidential election. 

His business history involved being a carpet and gemstone trader and a kebab restaurant.  His family had been part of a thriving Jewish community in Herat that generally had businesses. His business faced severe challenges due to the ongoing conflicts and political instability in Afghanistan.      

He was interviewed by Drew Binsky in a YouTube video in 2019. Simintov was in the documentary Cabal in Kabul (French:Cabale à Kaboul) with Isaac Levi.He left Afghanistan with the help of a private security company that had been organized by Israeli-American businessman Mordechai Kahana and American rabbi Moshe Margaretten from the Tzedek Association.   
References

Category:1959 births
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century Afghan people
Category:Asian Jews
Category:Israeli Jews
Category:21st century Israeli people
Category:Jewish businesspeople
Category:Afghan businesspeople
Category:Bukharan Jews
Category:Israeli businesspeople