To the Editor:
Thank you for sharing Rosanne Klass’s essay about the Jews of Afghanistan with your distinguished audience [“In the Tents of Kabul,” October 2007]. I have been familiar with her writing for some time. She has truly been a bridge between the United States and Afghani-stan, from well before the time when the latter entered the national vocabulary of the former.

Rosanne Klass tells of an Afghanistan very different from the country that we know today. The landscape that she describes is that of my own childhood: peaceful, bucolic, simple, tolerant. This is why throughout the decades many Afghans have discovered an earlier edition of her book about their country, Land of the High Flags, and recommended it to friends—to their Afghan friends as a reminder of what has been lost and to their American friends to show them the beauty of Afghan culture before our contemporary troubles began.

Rosanne Klass’s encounter with Afghanistan’s Jewish community was especially affecting. Most people do not know that Afghanistan was home to a vibrant Jewish community for centuries. This vital component of Afghan history and culture often escapes the attention of historians of the Middle East and South Asia, and remains a mere footnote in the study of world Jewry. The Afghan Jews whom I have been lucky enough to meet have recalled a culture of tolerance and respect in which they lived alongside their fellow citizens. They are proud of their Afghan heritage, and the tragedy of Afghanistan has been their tragedy as well. Many expressed a wish to return one day.

Today, Afghanistan’s Jewish population stands at one, out of 30 million Afghans. This gentleman is the last living testament to over a thousand years of history and culture. However, a 1998 report by the International Survey of Jewish Monuments noted fresh Hebraic inscriptions made in pencil on the walls of the Yu Aw synagogue in Herat, suggesting that more Jews may be living in Afghanistan clandestinely.

To those who know the story of Afghanistan’s Jews intimately, the history books cannot be considered complete unless they devote a chapter to the triumphs and struggles of our country’s Jewish citizens.

Said T. Jawad
Ambassador of Afghanistan
Washington, D.C.

_____________

 

Rosanne Klass writes:
I was not aware of the graffiti found in the synagogue at Herat. It would be interesting to know what they said—and whether they are still there after another tumultuous decade. In any case, I thank Ambassador Jawad for his gracious comments. I am glad if my essay and my book can offer a glimpse of the Afghans as they were in better times past, and may someday be again, one hopes, in better times to come.

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