Afghanistan's only Jew: Zebulon Simantov

Afghanistan's only known Jewish inhabitant, Zebulon Simantov, blowing a ceremonial horn, or shofar, in his home which is a room in the country's only functioning synagogue, on Flower Street, in Kabul. Simantov was born in Herat in 1959. He married a Jewish woman from Tajikistan in 1992 and they moved to Israel together in 1998, but he only stayed for two months. He said he left his family in Israel and returned to Affghanistan. The only other known Jew in Kabul died in 2005. The two men famously hated each other. Both blamed the other for losing their ancient copy of the Tora, when the Taliban were in power. There used to be around 40,000 Jews in Afghanistan, many of whom had fled persecution in neighbouring Persia, but an exodus to Israel began in 1948.