of dusty prayer books -- one is 400 years old , he says -- spending holidays with visitors from Europe and the U.S. and surviving off donations from Jews around the world . Historical evidence suggests a sizable Jewish community in Afghanistan since the Middle Ages , according to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise , a nonprofit group . Afghanistan 's Jewish population reached 40,000 in the mid-19th century , the group says , and began declining around 1870 with the passage of anti-Jewish measures . Israel 's creation in 1948 drew most of Afghanistan 's remaining Jews . Simintov 's synagogue -- the last in Afghanistan 's capital -- sits inconspicuously in a courtyard behind busy city streets , though a close inspection reveals Stars of David in second-story metal railings . The interior is adorned only by broken light fixtures and ceiling fans . But Simintov says he is hardly in hiding . `` They 're all like my brothers here , '' he said of his fellow Afghans . `` It does n't make a difference whether I 'm here or in Israel . '' That was n't the case under Taliban rule , which ended with the
Kabul , Afghanistan -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- 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 , is n'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 do n't know why I 'm still living here , '' he says . `` It 's God 's will . '' He has n't seen his daughters -- now ages 14 and 16 -- since his one trip to Israel 12 years ago . But the bald and bespectacled Simintov says he is content guarding a cupboard full