Jews have been living in Afghanistan for over at least 1500 years. In the middle of the 19th century, they totaled 40,000. After World War II, that number was reduced to 5,000. By 1969, there were 300. In 1996, after the Soviet invasion, they dwindled to 10. In the early 2000s, that number became... two.

You would think that those two, Itzhak Levin and Zablon Simintov, would become the closest of friends. Wrong! They hated each other. The two couldn't divide the lone Kabul synagogue between them. Each reported to the Taliban, claiming the other was a Mossad agent. That led to beatings and jailings.

When Levin died in 2005, Simintov proclaimed himself the winner. For the past decade, he tried to upkeep the crumbling synagogue, opened and closed a restaurant, and lived off the donations of both Jewish groups and Muslim locals. Simintov's wife and family live in Israel, but he does not want to leave.

Zablon Simintov, the last Jew in Afghanistan.