A Jewish Renaissance in Castro's Cuba

Judaism, Spring, 2000 by Dana Evan Kaplan

CUBA IS A COUNTRY VISITED BY RELATIVELY FEW AMERICANS. Despite the fact that it is only 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, there are severe restrictions placed on Americans who would like to visit the country. The Clinton administration has recently moved to liberalize some of these limitations, and it is possible for groups on cultural or educational missions to visit the country legally. According to the current law, it remains illegal for most Americans to spend money in the country. Nevertheless, a large and growing number of Americans ignore the ban and visit illegally.

Although we think of it as one large island, the country is actually an archipelago with more than four thousand islands and cays. Most of the population lives on the large main island, which stretches from east to west. There are fields of sugar cane that stretch for miles, large patches of tobacco plants, and all sorts of semi-tropical fruits and vegetables, including some of the tastiest papaya in the world, and glistening white sand beaches dotted with coconut palm trees flanking bright blue water as far as the eye can see.

It would not be an exaggeration to call it a tropical paradise. And yet, as we all know, there are troubles in this paradise. Even so, Jews continue to live here. Let me describe the Jewish community of Cuba today, gleaned from two recent visits, and put contemporary events in the context of the historical background of the past four decades.

A Brief Historical Perspective

Most Jewish immigrants came to Cuba in the early decades of the twentieth century. [1] Many were Sephardim from the Ottoman Empire, as well as Egypt, Algeria, Syria, and other Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Some settled in Havana, but others established homes in other areas, such as Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba, and Santa Clara. [2] The Jewish community in the provinces was heavily Sephardic historically, and today is almost entirely of Sephardic origin. There were also Ashkenazim who arrived from Eastern Europe; about two-thirds were from Poland with others from Russia and Rumania. Most established small businesses. Many of them began working as manual laborers and then opened up small stores in Havana once they had saved up some money. The more successful were eventually able to move into wholesaling, and some became quite affluent. [3]

Many of the Jewish immigrants to Cuba--particularly the Ashkenazim--saw their time in Cuba as a temporary stopover on their way to the United States. After 1921, and even more so after 1924, there were immigration restrictions placed on Jews trying to enter the United States; many Jews eager to leave Eastern Europe felt it was better to emigrate to Cuba where they would be close to America and would be able eventually to move to the United States. Many hoped to receive legal visas, while others believed that it would be possible to enter the United States illegally, either directly from Cuba or across the Mexican border into Texas or California. Some refer to their stay in Havana as "Hotel Cuba," indicating that they never believed that the island was their home.

American Jews also came to Cuba in the aftermath of the 1898 Spanish-Cuban-American War. When the hostilities ended, a United States military occupation began, which lasted for four years. This coincided with the dramatic escalation of American business activities in Cuba, and numerous Americans, including Jews, came to the island looking for economic opportunities. The 1898 intervention in Cuba laid a solid basis for American control of the Cuban economy that would last until 1959. [4]

By the early 1950s as many as fifteen thousand Jews may have been living in Cuba. They enjoyed an unprecedented affluence and stability. Many moved out of Old Havana to the suburbs of Vedado and later to Miramar. Many of the somewhat less affluent Yiddirhists settled in Santos Suares. The affluent Jews in the Vedado area wanted a community center close to their homes, and so a collective of wealthy businessmen called the Patronato--the Patrons, or Benefactors--donated money for a center to be erected in Vedado. Completed in 1953, the new center was called the Patronato de la Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba. Attached to the community center was a synagogue, Bet ha-Keneset ha-Gadol, the Great Synagogue.

The Patronato was built over the opposition of the established Jewish leadership in Haba[bar{n}]a Vieja (Old Havana), but this was of no concern to the newly affluent suburban leaders, who had been able to raise between $750,000 and $1 million for the construction of the center. The membership was just short of one thousand families, mostly Ashkenazim who formerly belonged to the Centro Israelita in Old Havana. There were also some Sephardim, American, and Central European Jews. In the midst of the building and planning, few were aware of the revolution that was almost at their doorsteps. No one anticipated that their thriving communal life would come crashing to a halt at the end of the decade.