Zebulon Simantov, 69, the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan has left the country after two Jewish Americans, businessman and CEO of the GDC security firm Moti Kahana and Rabbi Moshe Margareten persuaded him to flee the Taliban.

According to a report by Kan News, Simantov left on a bus alongside the children of dozens of local families, crossing to an undisclosed neighboring state en-route to the U.S.

The report states that Simantov didn’t want to leave – even when the Taliban took over the country following the withdrawal of American troops on August 31 – certainly not to Israel, where his ex-wife, whom he is unwilling to provide a gett (bill of divorce) currently resides. According to The Forward, Simantov had reportedly demanded money to leave Afghanistan and grant interviews.

Kahana recounts how he told Simantov that not only was his life, but those of his neighbors and their families, desperate to ensure their departure from the terrorist-controlled state, on the line so long as he remained before finally persuading him to leave. Simantov was reportedly afraid of radical Islamist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda reasserting their presence in Afghanistan with the Taliban's assertion of power.

The perilous journey to the border lasted a number of days and despite an official promise by a Taliban spokesman not to hurt the last remaining Jew if he stayed behind, when Simantov and the bus he was traveling on reached the border, Taliban militiamen weren't eager to allow their exit, impeding the departure.

He is now expected to travel to New York, but Kahana believes Simantov will eventually end up in Israel, where his wife continues fighting for the divorce papers that elude her to this day.

Prior to the Taliban takeover, Simantov had said he was planning on moving to Israel after the High Holidays.

Simantov, who worked as a carpet and jewelry merchant, was born in the Western city of Herat, which used to be home to hundreds of Jews. He eventually moved to Kabul but fled to Tajikistan in 1992 before returning to the capital city.

In 2005, despite the passing of another Jew who had remained in the country, Simantov decided to stay behind despite threats from the Taliban and alleged attempts to convert him to Islam.

His wife, a Jew from Tajikistan, and their two daughters have lived in Israel since 1998, with Simantov remaining in his native Afghanistan to tend to its lone synagogue, located in Kabul, through decades of violence and political turmoil, including a period of Taliban rule and the country’s war with the U.S.

“I managed to protect the synagogue of Kabul like a lion of Jews here,” Simantov told Arab News in an interview dating back to April.

Without him around, the synagogue will shut its doors, ending an era of Jewish life in the country that scholars believe began at least 2,000 years ago.