A well known figure in the Afghan capital, Simentov, who is in his early 60s, had lived through decades of conflict and political turmoil, including the Taliban's previous rule over the country from 1996 and 2001.
Historical evidence suggests Afghanistan was once home to a sizable Jewish community. It reached 40,000 in the mid-19th century and began declining around 1870 with the passage of anti-Jewish measures, according to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, a nonprofit group. Most of the remaining members of the country's Jewish community left following Israel's creation in 1948 and then in 1979 after the Soviet invasion, the group said.
The recent US withdrawal and subsequent Taliban takeover triggered an exodus of thousands of people from the country, including foreign nationals, Afghans who had worked with American and British forces and long-persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Hazaras, who feared they would be killed once the Taliban returned to power.
The original plan was for Kahana's security team to take Simentov and 18 others and get them out of the country. But when they arrived, there was around 100 other people with him. At the first border crossing they were told they could not enter as a group of 31, only three people could cross at a time, Kahana said. Simentov refused for the group to be split up and so they had to drive 14 hours to the next border crossing he said.
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