The Jews of Herat
The Jewish cemetery in Herat, Afghanistan
So I’ve posted on the last Jew in Afghanistan before, but the New York Times, continuing its interest in far-flung Jewish communities, has a piece up on Herat’s Jewish past.
I was heartened to read this passage:
“It’s important that Heratis understand for future generations that this was a very rich society in the sense of its religious diversity and it’s pluralism,” he added.
and this:
The Taliban, though responsible for harassing the family at times, resisted damaging the graves.
“The Taliban were not the worst of our problems. We had neighbors who would try and desecrate the graves or steal the stones, they were the worst, but we would tell them to stop and tell them what they were doing was unIslamic,” Abdelaziz said.
“We knew all of the families here … If they wanted to visit here they could, but they don’t.”
While this community will probably never return to Afghanistan, it is nice to see their synagogues restored for the history of Afghanistan, and while there are old Jewish communities vanishing all the time, new one’s are sprouting up as well, in unlikely places, and this story certainly tells that there is nothing incompatable with Jews and Muslims living harmoniously side by side. It is, though the story is complex, the norm in their history, and in the present.
