A Time to Gloat

I don't know why I find this story so funny, but I do.

A 45-year-old man is believed to have become the last Jew in Afghanistan after the death of the caretaker of the only functioning synagogue in Kabul.

It has emerged that the caretaker, Ishaq Levin, aged about 80, died of natural causes about a week ago.

His Jewish neighbour, Zebulon Simentov, lived with Mr Levin in the synagogue.

Correspondents say that around 5,000 Afghan Jews left the country after the creation of Israel in 1948, with others leaving after the 1979 Soviet invasion.

The death of the man believed to be his only co-religionist does not seem to be a source of grievance for Mr Simentov.

"He was a very bad man who tried to get me killed," he told the Associated Press news agency, "and now I am the Jew here, I am the boss."

Correspondents say that the two men were at loggerheads for some time, with both vying for control of the synagogue and both saying that they had been tortured under Afghanistan's hardline Taleban regime.

I remember seeing this story on the Daily Show, of all places, where it was noted that the only two Jews in the entire nation of Afghanistan hated each other.