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JewishHistoryעברית

Expulsion of Jews from northern Afghanistan

Date
September 1933 – November 1933
Location
Northern Afghanistan (Mazar-e Sharif, Andkhoi, Maimana)Afghanistan
Then part of
Kingdom of Afghanistan
Perpetrators
  • Government of Afghanistan (State)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Category
Expulsion, Persecution
Confidence
DisputedSadjed states that expelled Jews were to live only in Herat, Kabul and Balkh. Koplik's thesis abstract states that Jews had to reside in Herat, Kabul or Kandahar. Both agree on the expulsion from Mazar-e Sharif and Maimana; Koplik also names Andkhoi. JTA in 1934 describes a broader anti-Jewish campaign but does not list the northern towns.

Summary

In September 1933 the Afghan government ordered Jews living in the northern provinces, including Andkhoi and Mazar-e Sharif, to leave those towns. Ariane Sadjed records a decree expelling Jews from northern towns such as Maimana and Mazar-e Sharif and restricting residence to designated cities. Sara Koplik's SOAS thesis states that a firman in September required Jews removed from Afghan Turkestan not to live within 30 miles of the frontier, that a 24 September telegram reported an order to return to towns of birth within a month, and that by the end of November Jews in Mazar-e Sharif, Andkhoi and Maimana had been expelled. The first orders were issued under Muhammad Nadir Shah, who was assassinated on 8 November 1933; the expulsions were carried out after his death. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported from Persia in July 1934 a campaign of restrictions on movement and religious liberty against Afghan Jews under the new king, Muhammad Zahir Shah.

Sources

  1. Ariane Sadjed, Iranian, Afghan or Central Asian? Patterns of mobility among Persianate Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Central Asian Survey (2024)
  2. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933-1952. SOAS University of London
  3. Trials of Jews in Afghanistan Bared in Persia. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1934)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 15,300,000[6]c. 1933USHMM, citing the American Jewish Year Book, estimates 15.3 million Jews worldwide in 1933 (about 9.5 million of them in Europe).
  • Kingdom of Afghanistan: 4,000 – 5,000[65]c. 1933Koplik: during 1933–1952 the Afghanistani Jewish community only reached approximately 5,000. AJYB 1940–41 / 1946–47 list 5,000 for Afghanistan (1939–45). OEAW summary: about 4,000 Jews living in Afghanistan at Israel's establishment; a hardship migration of about 2,000 in 1933–39. Kingdom of Afghanistan under Nadir / Zahir Shah.

Sources for population estimates

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