|
In the News
Article, The Jerusalem Post: By Sara Aharon 'Discovering Afghanistan's 1,000-Year-Old Jewish Life: Acquisition of Rare Medieval Documents from Afghanistan Sheds Light on Jewish History and Muslim-Jewish Relations" Op-Ed, The Jerusalem Post: By Sara Aharon 'Raiders of the Lost Archive: Don't Return to the Rescued Written Treasures of Iraqi Jews to Baghdad' Web Interview with Sylvia Browder: 'Promoting Female Writers and Entrepreneurs' For Full Interview: www.sylviabrowder.com [Excerpt Below] Sylvia Browder: Hi Sara...Please give our readers a brief introduction of yourself and a little about your book. Sara: Hello Sylvia... From Kabul to Queens tells the unknown story of the Afghan Jewish community and, perhaps surprising to many readers, of the relative tolerance and peace in which Afghanistan’s Jews and Muslims lived together. Much of Jewish history tells of persecutions, of violence. But that wasn’t the case in Afghanistan, where about five to six thousand Jews lived in the mid-twentieth century. Sylvia: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? Sara: One of the main themes was how Muslim and Jews lived mostly in harmony alongside each other in Afghanistan. True, it wasn’t rosy all the time: the Jews were a tiny minority and considerably wary of their Muslim neighbors. But the Sunni Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, expressed respect for the Jewish people. The Pashtuns believed that they descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and thus viewed Afghan Jews as a group akin to their brothers. Today if Afghan Pashtuns were asked about their origins, I could not predict what they might say. The state of international politics and the American presence in Afghanistan could easily foster resentment against Jews. Yet I hope that From Kabul to Queens makes its readers think about a different time in recent history when Jewish and Muslim groups in Central Asia and the Middle East were not adversaries. |
BUY THE BOOK
NOW AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK! 
|
Sylvia: Why should we buy your book?
Sara: I hope that through From Kabul to Queens, readers can discover a completely different side of Afghanistan, one where minorities lived relatively in peace. It’s a very different image than the wars and utter violence against women we see on TV all the time.
Sylvia: Do you have any advice for other writers?
Sara: I would humbly suggest to other aspiring writers to let the story lead you, not vice versa. It’s too easy to get caught up in deciding how you want to end it and how you’re going to get there. Especially for history works and non-fiction, allow the material you’re researching and analyzing to speak to you.
Sylvia: Great advice! What is your POWER WORD? Why this word?
Sara: My power word would probably be “calmness.” I write the best when I’m in the zone, as I like to think about it, with little noise or distraction. My mind gets calm and zeroes in on the material and the narrative.
Sylvia: Did you visit Afghanistan to write your book?
Sara: I’m flattered every time I get asked this question. But no, I did not visit Afghanistan. To be an American civilian in Afghanistan is dangerous; to be Jewish even more so; and to be a woman maybe the most life-threatening. If you happen to be all three, as I am, then going to the war zone of Afghanistan is perilous to say the least.
Still, I felt it was important for From Kabul to Queens to also highlight the current state of Jewry in Afghanistan. The book contains colored pictures of synagogue and Jewish grave restorations from just the past few years.
Sylvia: Sara, this has been very interesting and educational. Thank you for your time. I enjoyed learning more about you and your book!
Sara: Thank you Sylvia for this opportunity!
The Jewish Week's "36 UNDER 36"
Following the publication of From Kabul to Queens: The Jews of Afghanistan and Their Move to the United States, Sara was named to the The Jewish Week's annual list (2012) of 36 young leaders and innovators contributing to the Jewish community.
Interview with The Forward
"Q&A: Sara Y. Aharon on Jews of Afghanistan" [Excerpt Below]
By Shoshana Olidort
“From Kabul to Queens: The Jews of Afghanistan and Their Move to the United States” by Sara Y. Aharon tells the story of Afghanistan’s Jewish community and its resettlement in the United States. The American Sephardi Federation held a book launch party November 3 at the Center for Jewish History. Before the event, Aharon sat down with 'The Arty Semite' to talk about her book and about the Jews of Afghanistan.
What were relations like between Jews and Muslims in Afghanistan, and how did this change with time?
Muslim-Jewish relations were mostly tolerant and peaceful. There were 5,000 to 6,000 Jews in 20th-century Afghanistan, so there was no reason to feel threatened by the Jewish community. The tide began to turn after Afghanistan gained independence in 1919, with the surge of nationalism that brought on resentment toward non-Muslims. There were some anti-Jewish decrees. Jews were expelled from outlying trading villages and moved into cities, which forced many into extreme poverty. But by the fifties and sixties these restrictions had tapered off, and most Jews left Afghanistan after the founding of the State of Israel, with the majority emigrating en masse in the height of the sixties.
Afghans, like Iranians, are ethnically Persian. How would you describe the differences between Persian-Jewish and Arab-Jewish relations in the region?
Jews’ relations with Persians have been largely more accepting and more tolerant than in Arab countries, which are much closer to Europe — closer to, let’s say, ideas coming from Europe in the ’30s and ’40s, and, more importantly, closer to Palestine. For Persians, the Palestinian problem is not their problem.
In your book, you mention that Jews in Afghanistan were strictly observant. How has this changed with their move to the United States?
The idea of labels is European. For Afghan Jews, there is no such thing as denominations, and observance doesn’t affect identity. Even if you drive on Shabbat, that doesn’t mean you’re not religious.
How has the Afghan Jewish community adapted to the larger American Jewish community?
There are likely about 1,000 Jews of Afghan descent in the United States today, and I would say they have adapted to the American Jewish world and the American world much quicker than the larger “Sephardic” communities like the Iranian and Syrian communities, with their own enclaves in Great Neck; L.A.; and Deal, N.J. There is no Afghan enclave.
What are you hoping that readers will take away from this book?
A few things: the story of a Jewish community that has not been told from an academic perspective in English. I also hope that readers will take away a different model of Jewish-non-Jewish relations. And the fact that although it’s a small Jewish community, Afghan Jews still deserve to have their story told as a separate book and not as part of a larger book on Jews in the Muslim world, which lumps them together with Jewish communities they’ve had no connection with.
The Jewish Week, Text/Context Section, "A Disappearing Community"
By Sara Y. Aharon
For the Full Article: "A Disappearing Community"
'“You’re from Afghanistan? Is that in South America?”
Such was the comment my surprised grandfather received from one curious and well-meaning New Yorker, decades ago. In this post-9/11 world, it’s hard to remember sometimes that Afghanistan did not always dominate the news. Yet Afghanistan, for me, always held a completely different meaning: the country that my grandparents and their baby boy, my father, eagerly and voluntarily left to start over in the new Jewish state during the 1950s. They eventually made their way to New York in the 1960s.
My paternal grandparents used to live in Herat. Both their families had been in this famed western Afghan city since the 1700s. In Afghanistan the Jews’ lives revolved around religion; the vast majority observed traditional Judaism quite strictly. No named Jewish movements — such as Reform or Conservative Judaism — were transplanted from Europe to Afghanistan. To be “Jewish” or “religious” in this isolated country essentially held the same meaning, namely adherence to laws regarding prayers, the Sabbath, kashrut and ritual observance.
By the 20th century Afghanistan’s total Jewish community numbered just 5,000-6,000 souls, with about 1,000 in Kabul, the more modern capital, and the rest in Herat... [For the full article]
Sara: I hope that through From Kabul to Queens, readers can discover a completely different side of Afghanistan, one where minorities lived relatively in peace. It’s a very different image than the wars and utter violence against women we see on TV all the time.
Sylvia: Do you have any advice for other writers?
Sara: I would humbly suggest to other aspiring writers to let the story lead you, not vice versa. It’s too easy to get caught up in deciding how you want to end it and how you’re going to get there. Especially for history works and non-fiction, allow the material you’re researching and analyzing to speak to you.
Sylvia: Great advice! What is your POWER WORD? Why this word?
Sara: My power word would probably be “calmness.” I write the best when I’m in the zone, as I like to think about it, with little noise or distraction. My mind gets calm and zeroes in on the material and the narrative.
Sylvia: Did you visit Afghanistan to write your book?
Sara: I’m flattered every time I get asked this question. But no, I did not visit Afghanistan. To be an American civilian in Afghanistan is dangerous; to be Jewish even more so; and to be a woman maybe the most life-threatening. If you happen to be all three, as I am, then going to the war zone of Afghanistan is perilous to say the least.
Still, I felt it was important for From Kabul to Queens to also highlight the current state of Jewry in Afghanistan. The book contains colored pictures of synagogue and Jewish grave restorations from just the past few years.
Sylvia: Sara, this has been very interesting and educational. Thank you for your time. I enjoyed learning more about you and your book!
Sara: Thank you Sylvia for this opportunity!
The Jewish Week's "36 UNDER 36"
Following the publication of From Kabul to Queens: The Jews of Afghanistan and Their Move to the United States, Sara was named to the The Jewish Week's annual list (2012) of 36 young leaders and innovators contributing to the Jewish community.
Interview with The Forward
"Q&A: Sara Y. Aharon on Jews of Afghanistan" [Excerpt Below]
By Shoshana Olidort
“From Kabul to Queens: The Jews of Afghanistan and Their Move to the United States” by Sara Y. Aharon tells the story of Afghanistan’s Jewish community and its resettlement in the United States. The American Sephardi Federation held a book launch party November 3 at the Center for Jewish History. Before the event, Aharon sat down with 'The Arty Semite' to talk about her book and about the Jews of Afghanistan.
What were relations like between Jews and Muslims in Afghanistan, and how did this change with time?
Muslim-Jewish relations were mostly tolerant and peaceful. There were 5,000 to 6,000 Jews in 20th-century Afghanistan, so there was no reason to feel threatened by the Jewish community. The tide began to turn after Afghanistan gained independence in 1919, with the surge of nationalism that brought on resentment toward non-Muslims. There were some anti-Jewish decrees. Jews were expelled from outlying trading villages and moved into cities, which forced many into extreme poverty. But by the fifties and sixties these restrictions had tapered off, and most Jews left Afghanistan after the founding of the State of Israel, with the majority emigrating en masse in the height of the sixties.
Afghans, like Iranians, are ethnically Persian. How would you describe the differences between Persian-Jewish and Arab-Jewish relations in the region?
Jews’ relations with Persians have been largely more accepting and more tolerant than in Arab countries, which are much closer to Europe — closer to, let’s say, ideas coming from Europe in the ’30s and ’40s, and, more importantly, closer to Palestine. For Persians, the Palestinian problem is not their problem.
In your book, you mention that Jews in Afghanistan were strictly observant. How has this changed with their move to the United States?
The idea of labels is European. For Afghan Jews, there is no such thing as denominations, and observance doesn’t affect identity. Even if you drive on Shabbat, that doesn’t mean you’re not religious.
How has the Afghan Jewish community adapted to the larger American Jewish community?
There are likely about 1,000 Jews of Afghan descent in the United States today, and I would say they have adapted to the American Jewish world and the American world much quicker than the larger “Sephardic” communities like the Iranian and Syrian communities, with their own enclaves in Great Neck; L.A.; and Deal, N.J. There is no Afghan enclave.
What are you hoping that readers will take away from this book?
A few things: the story of a Jewish community that has not been told from an academic perspective in English. I also hope that readers will take away a different model of Jewish-non-Jewish relations. And the fact that although it’s a small Jewish community, Afghan Jews still deserve to have their story told as a separate book and not as part of a larger book on Jews in the Muslim world, which lumps them together with Jewish communities they’ve had no connection with.
The Jewish Week, Text/Context Section, "A Disappearing Community"
By Sara Y. Aharon
For the Full Article: "A Disappearing Community"
'“You’re from Afghanistan? Is that in South America?”
Such was the comment my surprised grandfather received from one curious and well-meaning New Yorker, decades ago. In this post-9/11 world, it’s hard to remember sometimes that Afghanistan did not always dominate the news. Yet Afghanistan, for me, always held a completely different meaning: the country that my grandparents and their baby boy, my father, eagerly and voluntarily left to start over in the new Jewish state during the 1950s. They eventually made their way to New York in the 1960s.
My paternal grandparents used to live in Herat. Both their families had been in this famed western Afghan city since the 1700s. In Afghanistan the Jews’ lives revolved around religion; the vast majority observed traditional Judaism quite strictly. No named Jewish movements — such as Reform or Conservative Judaism — were transplanted from Europe to Afghanistan. To be “Jewish” or “religious” in this isolated country essentially held the same meaning, namely adherence to laws regarding prayers, the Sabbath, kashrut and ritual observance.
By the 20th century Afghanistan’s total Jewish community numbered just 5,000-6,000 souls, with about 1,000 in Kabul, the more modern capital, and the rest in Herat... [For the full article]
