Zabulon Simantov has left Afghanistan and is en route to the United States, sources report.
The last Jew in Afghanistan, Zabulon Simantov, is leaving Afghanistan and is en route to the United States, Ami Magazine reported on Tuesday.
BREAKING: We are pleased to report that Zevulun, the Last Jew In Afghanistan, who our international reporter Shloime @chusidel flew to Kabul to save from the #Taliban as reported in this week’s issue of @Ami_Magazine, is now safe and in route to the United States. pic.twitter.com/nHwpJKNSeg
— Ami Magazine (@Ami_Magazine) September 6, 2021
Journalist Shloime Zionce reportedly flew to Kabul to assist Simantov in his departure from Afghanistan.
Simantov previously claimed he would not leave Afghanistan, and “wasn’t interested” in leaving for the United States, according to journalist Zvika Klein.
* Correction: he had the opportunity to go to the US but wasn’t interested
— Zvika Klein (@ZvikaKlein) August 17, 2021
“I will not leave my home. If I had left, there would have been no one to maintain the synagogue,” he said.
Simantov faced backlash after it surfaced that he has been refusing his wife a get, a Jewish divorce document, for many years.
Attempts have been made to assist his Israeli wife for years, though he is yet to agree to give her a divorce. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief rabbi of Moscow, wrote on Twitter that he had offered to fly to Afghanistan to administer the divorce but that Simantov refused.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post