The Jews of Afghanistan: A History Spanning Centuries

Introduction

Apparently, Afghanistan and Israel seem to be two distinct countries with different diasporas, cultures, and religions. One can label them as enemies with regard to what Israel is doing in Gaza and the seizure of Jerusalem. Afghanistan represents a population having extreme Islamic views, while Israel upholds Zionist beliefs. But the astonishing fact here is that the Afghan people and Jews have deep-rooted historical ties with each other.

For hundreds of years Afghanistan hosted a large, flourishing Jewish community. With roots in antiquity, the Afghan Jewish community built rich lives in the face of political upheaval and many other challenges. Initially, the Jewish communities lived in Afghanistan, Iran, and other Central Asian countries. However, with the passage of time, they migrated and returned back to Israel. These communities are now residing in Central Israel and Jerusalem, often informally referred to as “Little Kabul.” Let’s critically analyze this intricate relationship between the two communities and their contemporary standing.

Jews in Afghanistan

A big part of the Jewish population escaped to Persia and settled in the regions that constitute present-day Afghanistan in the Babylonian exile, 6th century BCE. Afghanistan was, at the time, under the Khorasan kingdom; it is very probable that Jews were residing there. Also, the ancient Hebrew writings and traditions testify that there were numerous Jewish settlements in the Balkh and Samangan parts of Afghanistan. In his documentaries, the 12th-century Jewish traveller Rabbi Benjamin stated that as a result of the Babylonian exile, the scattered Jewish people moved to the Middle East and Asia, where a large number of the Jews at that time lived in Ghazna, now Ghazni.

There had been in the metropole of Ghazni, under Sultan Mahmud, a Jewish community of 8,000 whose function included service in government and the operation of mines on behalf of the court. Further proof of the existence of a prosperous Jewish settlement in Firoz Koh, located on the road between Herat and Kabul, is provided by Hebrew inscriptions on gravestones and stone slabs. Jews lived in Herat during the 17th century as well. In 1839, a significant percentage of the Jews of Mashhad, Iran, fled to Herat (in what is now Afghanistan) following an edict that forced them to convert to Islam under Shiite Persian rule. Likewise, persecutions led to some migration of Russian Jews to Afghanistan in the 20th century. These Jewish diasporas brought their own cultures and lingo with them to Afghanistan.

Afghan Genizah—Ancient Hebrew Prayer Book

Afghan Genizah is the collection of old Jewish documents that were discovered in northern Afghanistan during the 11th and 12th centuries. This special in-depth collection elaborates on the lives, culture, religion, and business practices of Jewish communities along the Silk Road. The documents were found in caves near the region of Bamiyan, a historical kaleidoscope that at various periods played host to long-distance trade routes between Central Asia and what is now Persia, India, and the Middle Eastern world.

These manuscripts span from the 11th to the 13th century and are comprised of legal texts, biblical commentary, and personal letters in Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, and Judeo-Persian. The “Afghan Siddur,” perhaps the oldest known Hebrew prayer book, dates back to the 8th century and is the most popular and vital part of the Afghan Genizah. The Afghan Genizah is considered one of the most important discoveries of Jewish manuscripts made in modern times.

Aliyah and Love of the Holy Land

The spiritual connection to the land of Israel was strong among the Afghan Jews. They also gave frequent donations to charity funds that were directed to the Jews in Jerusalem and Safed. Since the late 19th century, these Afghan Jews started to arrive in the Bukharian Quarter of Jerusalem, and they started to settle there, mainly by making Aliyah. The spiritual and territorial ascendancy is called Aliyah. The first Aliyah was the journey of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan. Therefore, the local Jews, too, have usually designated their migrations throughout history as Aliyah. Most Afghan Jews had settled in their homeland, the State of Israel, by 1950, carrying with them a longtime conviction that Jews were their people and they belonged to the Holy Land.

Afghan Enclave in Israel

In February 1950, the representatives of the World Jewish Congress approached the ambassador of Afghanistan to the United Nations, Sardar Mohammad Naeem, and pleaded with him to request King Zaher Shah to permit the freedom of migration of Afghan Jews to Israel. The same month, the tolerant king of Afghanistan reacted positively to the World Jewish Congress in October that year, and nearly all the Jews in Afghanistan slowly abandoned Kabul to seek a better life, through Kandahar and Herat in Iran, and then to Israel.

All of them retained their Afghan citizenship. The 1979 invasion by the Soviets and the resulting uncertainty led most Jews to flee Afghanistan. The communities of Afghan Jews today flourish in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, and Bnei Brak. They still retain their own distinct traditions, a mixture of Afghan culture and Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish cultures. The Afghan Jews came in with their own heritage of Judeo-Persian tradition.

They were Judeo-Persian and Dari dialect speakers, had the Afghan-Jewish wedding rituals that were full of poetry and music, and also maintained their unique religious practices that were influenced by centuries of living under Islamic Afghanistan. Zebulon Simentov was the last known Jew remaining in Kabul and maintained the sole functioning synagogue until he left in 2021, when the Taliban reclaimed control.

The forerunners of the Soviets, Afghan Jews, in their progressive business activities effectively helped them to rise in the business world through their experience in the trade of textiles, jewels, and other small trades, which they had mastered over the years in Afghanistan. The contemporary population of the Afghan Jews makes up “Little Kabul” in Israel, and they keep speaking Dari or Judeo-Persian, with the younger generations frequently undertaking cultural rediscovery efforts, scholarly studies, and community historical records.

Conclusion

The Afghan Jewry is still upholding its traditional and cultural practices in Israel. The movement and assimilation of the Jewish people of Afghanistan to Israel is a classic case of a diasporic pattern of modernity involving forcible migration, cultural survival, and accommodation. The Afghan Jews, despite being numerically small, retained their own linguistic, liturgical, and culinary traditions based on years of living in Herat, Kabul, and other centers in Afghanistan.

They retained them in the resettlement in Israel and adapted to the broader Israeli social and institutional context. Their experience highlights the shift in negotiation of identity under duress that minority communities can easily experience to find security and opportunity without resorting to loss of communal memory and religious life.

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