User:Jadenmb/sandbox

I. Persian Influence of Afghanistan Jewry

 * briefly mention Persian jews and influence of Persian empire on early afghan jewry
 * link to Wiki main article about Persian jews

Lost Tribes of Israel

 * Afghan jews claim ancestory to the lost Israelite Tribes
 * First temple period vs. Second Temple period

Balkh

 * Balkh was a main center for Jewish live in the ancient Afghanistan.
 * The city was said to have been the burial place of the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, and the home of the prophet Jeremiah.


 * Talk more about Balkh and the cultural significance of the city
 * trade and migration patterns for central asian jews

Herat

 * talk about importance of the city in silk route, and other trade
 * mention travel writings to give account of what life was like
 * modern day ruins still exist of the jewish cemetery

Khorashan

 * talk about political and economic influence within Persian empire
 * talk about influx/efflux of jews in the city

Mongol Era


 * mongols conquered northern Afghanistan
 * jews were forced out or fled but some migrated south or to russia area

II. 1800s-1932

 * precursors to refugee crisis
 * persectution of bukhara jews from Soviet Union/Russia and other coutnries
 * pogroms force jews ot flee to central asia
 * reemrgence of Herat??? (check for validation on this info).
 * Islamic State building, Rule of 'Abd al'Rahman Khan
 * decreasing tolerance for Jews

III.Soviet Refugee Crisis (1932-1936).
In 1919, the Soviet Union was the first country to recognize Afghanistan independence from Britain which started the relationship between these two countries1,3. During the 1920s, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union enacted strict broider laws and enforcement, which limited the migration of Jews fleeing persecution under Stalin's rule.

By the early 1930s, some 60,000 refugees had fled from Soviet territory to Afghanistan. In 1932, Muhammed Nadir Shah created a border treaty with the Soviet Union preventing asylum seekers from fleeing the the border and into Afghanistan. Later than same year, Afghanistan began deporting refugees back to Soviet Union or specified Chinese territories. Soviet Jews already in Afghanistan, who were attempting to flee further south, were detained in the capital city of Kabul, while any Soviet Jews apprehend at the border were immediately deported. Soviet Jews were accused of espionage and the intent to disseminate radical Bolshevist propaganda.

However, by 1933, non-refugee Afghani Jews, those who had lived there for decades if not centuries, were also targeted. All Jews who were citizens of Afghanistan were ordered to relocate to their birthplace, which was most often Herat or Kabul. This was an attempt by the government to further enforce the policy that Jews were not natives of the Northern provinces of Afghanistan. After Muhammad Nasir Shah was assassinated in 1933, his son continued the harsh fate fo the Jews. By the end of 1933, nearly all of the Jews in northern cities had been expelled, and returned back to Central Afghanistan.

In 1935, a delegate to the Zionist Congress declared that an estimated 40,000 Bukharan Jews had been killed or starved.

In the summer of 1935, riots erupted in Herat, the Afghan city with the largest Jewish population, due to a dispute between two boys, one Jewish and one Muslim. The two boys got into a fight over unknown reasons, causing the the Muslim boy to fall down the stairs. The jewish boy Aba Ben Simon, was blamed, and others began spreading rumors that he was trying to forcibly convert the other to Judaism. This incident caused Herat’s Shiite Muslims population to take up arms against the Jews and pillage their shops, homes and beatings at the hands of the mobs. Jewish women, regardless of their marital status, were subjected to being kidnapped and raped, and sometimes were forcibly converted and married off to their attackers. Some Jews fled Herat, and were never allowed to return.

Some Jews tried to flee to India. The Indian government categorized them by passports: Iranian, Russian and Afghani. Those with Russian passports were once again accused of Bolshevist ties and denied entry. Though these refugees technically belonged to no state, their original country of origin kept their passports valid so that the Indian government could deport them at any time. The Indian government tried to deport many Afghani and Russian Jews back to the Soviet Union for violating “behavioral conduct” codes of India.

The Jewish Life in Kabul and Herat continued to worsen. Many Jews fled illegally into India during the 1940s. Thousands of Jews fled to Palestine, (and eventually Israel after it was established in 1948). Some Jews also made it all the way to the United States, settling mainly in New York City’s borough of Queens.

IV. Afghani Jewish Art

 * discuss archeological finds and art rediscoveries
 * possibly provide brief overview of languages and relation to visual art
 * find any music that may exist and insert recording

Israel

 * talk bout assimilation into Israeli culture

United States

 * many jews came to US during WWII
 * asimialtion/ non assimialtion
 * connection to Afghanistan or central Asian jews

VI. The Last Jew in Afghanistan
Zabuloun Simintov (link) is the last known Jew in Afghanistan. He currently libves in the the capital city of Kabul, where he works selling Kebabs and maintains the last standing synagogue in all of Afghanistan. He lives alone; his family migrated to Israel.

References:


 * 1) Sara Koplik. "The Demise of Afghanistan's Jewish Community and the Soviet Refugee Crisis (1932-1936)." Iranian Studies 36, no. 3 (2003): 353-79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4311548.
 * 2) Fischel, Walter J. "The Rediscovery of the Medieval Jewish Community at Fīrūzkūh in Central Afghanistān." Journal of the American Oriental Society 85, no. 2 (1965): 148-53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/597986.
 * 3) Aharon, Sara Y. "From Kabul to Queens: The Jews of Afghanistan and their Move to the United States." American Sephardi Federation. Decalogue Books. (2011).
 * 4) Brauer, Erich. "The Jews of Afghanistan: An Anthropological Report." Jewish Social Studies 4, no. 2 (1942): 121-38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4464446.
 * 5) Gnoli, Gherardo. "Jewish Inscriptions in Afghanistan." East and West 13, no. 4 (1962): 311-12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29754617.
 * 6) Jewish Virtual Library. "Balkh." https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/balkh
 * 7) Shterenshis, Michael. "Tamerlane and the Jews." Routledge Publishing. (2013). ISBN: 9781136873669.
 * 8) Motevalli, Golnar. "Relics of Old Afghanistan Reveal Jewish Past." Reuters. (2009). https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-synagogue/relics-of-old-afghanistan-reveal-jewish-past-idUSTRE55N01P20090624
 * 9) Green, Nile. "Afghanistan's Islam: From Conversion to the Taliban." University of California Press. (2017).