1

Ten tidbits about Cuba in general if you are contemplating a trip there

1. Don’t worry about forgetting your credit cards; cards from U.S. banks are not

accepted. Neither are U.S. dollars. Its best to bring Euros with you to get the

best exchange rate. Dollars are penalized at a 10% premium. You can change

your money for the local currency at banks.

2. There are no Starbucks, but Cuban coffee is delicious and ubiquitous.

3. Music can be heard on every corner, in hotel lobbies, in restaurants, and in

clubs.

4. Bathrooms are not necessarily equipped with paper; bring your own

5. Those ’57 Chevys like your mother’s have no seat belts nor emission control

devices; bring a mask to Havana if you have breathing issues.

6. Streets and sidewalks are riddled with potholes; bring supportive shoes.

7. If you like ice cream, hope that the one flavor served when you are there is your

favorite.

8. You can take out $400 worth of souvenirs, including $100 worth of cigars.

Longest cigar in the world is at the fort.

9. Yes, you do fill out a form selecting one of the 12 acceptable reasons you are

travelling: family reunion, government business, profession, religious activity,

education, public performance, humanitarian. Don’t worry; officials do not

seem to be verifying.

2

10. Martin Luther King and Ethel/Julius Rosenberg memorial plaques are in the

LaRamba park.

11. A meal in the finest restaurant (La Guardia) goes for about $23 including

drinks. Fish, rice and beans, and vegetables are available everywhere for

careful eaters.

12. .People you see walking down the street carrying dozens of cartons have picked

up their monthly ration. Each Cuban receives 7 pounds of rice, half bottle of

cooking oil, one piece of bread per day, chicken, fish, spaghetti white and

brown sugar, and cooking gas. There are extra rations for children and elderly;

milk is provided for pregnant women and children under 7. Farmers markets

offer more food. Also, 2 pounds per month of Kosher meat is available to Jews

who signed up in advance for the Passover food distribution. Thus there are

Cubans asking to convert for the meat.

3

Brief History

From 500 BCE Taino culture dominated

1492 Jews expelled from Spain began coming, among them Luis de Torres

as an interpreter.

1613 In Havana converso Francisco Gomez de Leon was executed for

Judaizing. Jews from Brazil began arriving.

1834 Some Sephardic Jews from Dutch Indies and Ashkenazim from

Europe began to settle.

1895-8 Cuban Jews supported independence and Jose Marti.

1906 U.S. Jews came to invest in Cuban sugar cane and founded the United

Hebrew Congregation and cemetery (1910)

1914 Sephardic Jews from Turkey emigrated and founded Chevet Ahim

synagogue after they were refused admission to the American

synagogue. YMHA helped the Eastern Europeans. Jewish mothers

sent girls from Europe to marry their sons. Ezra Society, La Buena

Voluntad resettled. Menorah Sisterhood taught Spanish at Cuban

Ellis Island.

1921-24 U.S. Emergency Quota Act restricted Jews, who then went to Cuba.

Synagogues were founded in Camaguey, Holguin, Santiago, Banes,

Matanzas, Guantanamo, Santa Clara.

4

The Joint established Cuban branch. Ashenazim founded Zionist

Union; Sephardic founded school. 100 Americans, 5,200

Ashkenazim, 4,700 Sephardim whom HIAS and YMHA helped

resettle.

1925-1933-5 Jewish Communists who died fighting tyrannical President

Machado were memorialized in Jewish cemetery.

1933 Jews became self-employed as peddlers, manufacturers, sugar mill

owners because new law favored hiring of native Cubans. 1935 ORT

formed Cuban Committee to aid Eastern Europeans. Meyer Lansky

set up gambling and hotels.

1939 Restrictive laws Jewish organizations paid landing fees for destitute

refugees. St. Louis , Flandre and Orduna ships from Hamburg,

France, and England were refused entry when Jewish agencies

couldn’t raise additional money for landing fees by the deadline. Also

Cubans and Americans were afraid of German spies coming in as

refugees. Capt. Schroeder of the St. Louis was honored by Israel for

trying to land in Havana. Jewish diamond workers came.

1948 Cubans went to Israel to fight for independence and financed guns for

irgun.

5

1949-51 Jewish Ashkenazi and Sephardic populations grew and formed more,

but separate institutions. 3 chapters of WIZO. Aufbau newspaper ads

looked for relatives in Europe. Cuba accepted 600 displaced persons.

12 Jews left for Israel to help found Kibbutz Gaash. 150 young

Cubans made aliyah to create agricultural settlements. Israeli Forest

named after Jose Marti.

1954 Israeli Consulate opened in Cuba; no ambassador sent to Israel from

Cuba. Fidel’s mother was Lebanese and grandfather might have been

Jewish.

1960 Cuba nationalized businesses; 90% of the Jews left for U.S., Puerto

Rica, Mexico, Venezuela. HIAS helped Jewish children leave.

1973 Cuba broke off relations with Israel and trained Palestinians following

Yom Kippur War.

Individual Cubans were still allowed to visit Israel and Zionist clubs

could parade until 1978.

1980 Mariel boatlift included 60-100 Jews; some disabled. Visiting Israeli

scholars allowed into Cuba.

1985 Cuba opened communication with Tel Aviv through Canadian

consulate.

6

1994 “Operation Cigar” allowed Jews to emigrate to Israel. Chabad formed

Canadian Friends of Cuban Jewry as permanent liaison. Hadassah

was opened to hear about Hadassah Hospital and to prevent disease in

Cuba.

2003 Hotel Raquel opened to cater to Jewish tourists. Holocaust memorial

in St. Clara cemetery.

2017 Current Jewish aid organizations are Cuban Jewish Relief Project,

Cuba-American Jewish Mission, Jewish Solidarity. Universities can

set up student visas for arts, music, dance, medicine, Spanish

language. University of Miami Hillel runs alternative spring break to

Cuba. BU journalism and photography students took a weeklong trip

to Cuba accompanied by Steven Kurzer. There was Jewish Cultural

and Musical Weekend in Havana

New Jersey girl gave some bat mitzvah money to a Cuban boy for his

bar mitzvah and then attended it in Cuba. At least 6 synagogues have

Cuban projects.

Reino and Yacov’s mother Adath Israel: guarding old temple in old section, on

pension, sell gifts

7

Ernesto and Fidel, given names have been Cubanized, kids who sang and then

served dinner at Beth Shalom: Middle age guys dedicated to maintaining the

temple, its school and archives, teaching and taking classes.

Jewish dentist: well-trained, would like to emigrate but too hard for license, slow

pay by govt.

8

Dvar Torah

1. Like Moses in the wilderness, there are some who stayed behind in Cuba

after the Revolution for various reasons: old, sick, caregivers of old or sick

relatives, in Cuba is an easier life for them with pension, free medical care, and

extra rations. Others are waiting for papers or winning the emigration lottery and

enduring the hostility that follows. Intermarried couples remain to keep both

families intact. Some parents or descendents of children active in the Revolution;

Fabio Gobart and Manuel Navigrod emigrated in 1920s and 30s from Eastern

Europe to Cuba and became part of Castro’s government. Still others remaining

are too dedicated to Cuban Jewish community and its past to leave.

“To have survived all in the face of the exodus of all Cuban Jews who wanted to

leave was a miracle” Robery Lacey, author of Tropical Diaspora. In 2002 after the

permission to practice religion and decaying synagogues were being renovated”

When I see how much cultural restoration has been performed by you, it reminds

me again why I am so proud to be a Jew” Steven Spielberg.

2. Like the Five Daughters of Zelophehad who spoke out for their rightful

inheritance to preserve their father’s name, Cuban women have spoken up for the

name of their father. From the 1920s Adele Dworin’s father and mother from

9

Pinsk had volunteered at Jewish Center and she worked in its library. Now she is

the face of Ashkenazi Cubans for tour groups, celebrities such as Madonna,

visiting Cuba for her 58th birthday came to temple (disguised out of modesty) and

Justin Trudeau as well as the Fidel and Raul Castro at Chanukah in 1996 and 2011,

respectively. Like the daughters, Adele has adapted the community practices by

including in the Patronato JCC a computer center, Wii and Play station for

youngsters to socialize.

Rebecca Langus Rodriguez leads the Jewish community in Cienfuegos; Emma far

in Levy leads Jews in Santiago de Cuba.

For the Sephardic Jews Dr. Mayra Levy’s Sephardic Center programs attract youth

from Latin America. In that synagogue is a fitness center with yoga classes. Also

she created a Senior Center named after a Cuban who fought for Israel’s

independence. She also represents Cuba at the America Jewish Committee

meetings and wants other Jews to know Cuban Jews exist.

At the AJC Global Forum in Washington DC, she stated, “We want to be

connected to the Jewish world and Israel, to meet face-to-face with the Jews who

visit us to share their knowledge and make us feel part of the local community.”

10

The Chilean rabbi who runs Cuba’s conversion program noted, “Cuban Jews really

make an effort to become an active part of our Jewish people. They struggle for

it.”

3. Like Public Daily and Festival Offerings prescribed in chapters xxvii and

xxix, Jews believe studying Torah is performing a similar mitzvah. In 1959 there

were five Jewish elementary schools, a Jewish high school; all disappeared by the

mid 1960s when the Revolution eschewed religious education. Now efforts are

being made to reopen some schools. In 1980s the Hebrew Sunday school opened

to teach Jewish identity through language, liturgy, songs, dance, history, travel to

those who had been deprived of it since 1960; some continue studying in

seminaries in Argentina, US, or Israel. The Joint has sent rabbis and teachers to

improve the education since 1991. Adele Dworin is appealing to diaspora for

books, videos, and other teaching aids that can be used in classes at the makeshift

Hebrew school.

4. Like Pinchas who killed the sinning Zimri and Cozbi to end a plague upon

Israel, the Cuban Jews have acted zealously for the entire Jewish community. In

the 16th century Jews sought refuge from Inquisition reaching them Brazil, in

11

1800s they fled the Dutch Antilles, in pre WW1 Jews fled Turkey and Eastern

Europe, in 1920s they fled the pogroms of Ukraine, and in 1938 European Jews

fled Nazism. Men and women of Cuba and the diaspora founded supporting

agencies and synagogues in response to those huddled masses. 1914 Chevit Achim

was founded, Ezra Society and LaBuena Voluntad helped resettle, followed by

YMHA and HIAS in 1924 ORT Cuban Committee in 1935, and Bnai Brith

Maimonides lodge in 1943. Jews in Cuba formed WIZO chapters and supported

Zionism. 1994 group of seventy Jews immigrated to Israel, subsidized by Jewish

Agency. Later in Operation Cigar 400 and then 200 were allowed to go freely to

Israel. Israel invests in the Cuban citrus industry; Cubans study Israeli agricultural

methods. Israel maintains an Interest Section in the Canadian Embassy in Havana

and there are Israeli tourists and expats in Cuba.

In 2011 Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center dedicated the

Holocaust museum with these words: “The honor of affirming the mezuzah on the

entrance to this Holocaust exhibit at Havana’s Sephardic Center and being able to

declare” Am Israel Chai’ together with young and old Jews is proof that Jewish

solidarity and continuity will forever outlast the genocidal goal of the Nazis.”

12

In 2013 Steve Tisch, co-owner of NY Giants and activist in UJA, sponsored

55 Cuban athletes to the Maccabiah. He explained,” It was a perfect opportunity to

combine my passion for sports and my passion for Jews.” (Detroit’s Federation

donated soccer equipment.)

5. Last week we learned that although he initially committed an act of zealous

violence, this week Pinchas receives the covenant of peace from God. Rabbi

Jonathan Sacks says that praise of him shows there are once-in-a- lifetime

extenuating circumstances when inaction would have been catastrophic. But in

general he was required to seek lawfulness and embody peace in the future, even

after he had acted brutally to end the curse on Israel. He and we are charged with

turning to rule of law, peace and healing in the world rather than vengeance. Since

1959, Cubans have had to face and learn to deal with zealots. May that nation turn

its zeal into harmony.

13

14

15

16