KABUL TO GOTHAM
Afghanistan’s last Jew ready for NYC
Zebulon Simantov, the famed last Jew of Afghanistan, is getting ready to hit the Big Apple.
“I like everything in New York. Everything is exciting,” Simantov told The Post in his first interview since fleeing Afghanistan two weeks ago. “I would like to be a US citizen.”
The wily former carpet dealer — and his backers in New York City — are actively trying to secure travel documents for him to come to the US. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been lobbied intensely over the issue.
If all goes according to plan, Simantov, 62, will stay with relatives in Queens. “I am a businessman I’ll do business there,” he said.
He added that he’s looking forward to a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch ($225-plus per bottle) when he arrives.
The Afghan native stuck it out in the war-torn country through decades of turmoil, including the Soviet invasion, the Taliban, the US-backed government and the return of the Taliban last month.
“I sensed something terrible was going to happen to Afghanistan,” he said. “The Taliban is much crueler than ever before. They kill people now like killing small animals.”
On Thursday the Taliban announced that executions, hand amputations and other Quran-era punishments would return.
Simantov blamed both US political parties for the country’s descent into chaos.
“[Biden] left so fast and he left people behind . . . The terrorist groups were celebrating when the Taliban toppled the Afghan government,” he said, while also calling former President Donald Trump a “madman.”
He added: “I request that American citizens not vote for either Trump or President Biden in the next election in 2024.”
Simantov’s wife and her family left Afghanistan for Uzbekistan — and ultimately Israel — in 1995. Simantov said she had been suffering from seizures.
“It was impossible for me to follow her. She was ill,” he said. The two technically remained married under Jewish law and Simantov only signed the papers granting a divorce (known as a get) last week.
He denied reports he had resisted granting his wife the get in the past, saying the complex procedure had been logistically impossible in Afghanistan.
After initially thinking about trying his luck with the Islamists again, Simantov was persuaded to flee and set off on a days-long overland journey into a neighboring country.
His departure marks the end of the 1,500-year-old Jewish community in Afghanistan. Simantov became the last Jew in the country after the death of Yitzhak Levy in 2005. The two famously hated each other and would regularly denounce the other to Taliban authorities.
“He turned the synagogue of the Jewish community over there to a prostitution house,” Simantov snapped.
Simantov’s rescue was arranged by Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana, who organized the international effort from Randolph, NJ. But Kahana said he was frustrated with the delays in getting Simantov to America.
“I’m not a babysitter,” Kahana said.