The roots of the Jewish communities in Afghanistan, according to tradition, were in the Assyrian exile (720 BCE) and the Babylonian exile (560 BCE). The main centers of the Jewish settlements were in the cities: Mirav, Balkh, Kabul, Nishapur, Ghazni and Herat. There was a large Jewish community n Herat. The Jews there were close to the Jews in Iran due to the geographic proximity. In 1840 about 200 families from Meshad, Iran, came to the city after having been raped and forced to convert to Islam. For a variety of reasons many Jews left the community and by the middle of the 20th century the community was almost non-existent. Many of the Jews were active in trading in cotton and silk. They specialized in dyeing materials. During prayers and in religious studies they spoke Hebrew, however for daily life they used Iraninan-Jewish which has a number of dialects. The Jews of Herat spoke one dialect, whereas those in Kabul and Meshad had their own dialect. At the beginning of the 20th century many Jews left Afghanistan. Some of them came to Israel, although officially it was not until after 1950 that Jews were allowed to leave Afghanistan. All Zionistic activity was forbidden and they were permitted to leave for Israel only at the end of 1951. By 1967 about 4,000 Afghani Jews came to Israel. The collection of artifacts, whose pictures are brought here, belong to Shlomo Chaim Bezalel (originally Bezel), who was born in Herat. Shlomo Chaim was born in 1944 and came to Israel in 1955 with his family: his father, Ajan Elisha and his mother, Rachel nee Aharon, his brother Binyamin and his sister Brucha. Upon their arrival in Israel they were sent to live in the immigrant camp Kfar Gavirol (El-Kubiba) near Rehovot. Shlomo is involved in researching the Afghani communities, as well as other activities. This collection includes photographs of: a baby's dress, an amulet for childbirth, a tablecloth, a challah cover, candlesticks, a fashionable hat, a marriage bill, a ketubah (marriage certificate) and pages from a handwritten dictionary that belonged to Yekutiel Bezel, a family member. The dictionary was of Hebrew words from the mishnah that were not understood. They were translated into Persian-Jewish.
Language:
שפה נוכחית
