Havana is the capital,
major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city/province has 2.1 million inhabitants,
and the urban area over 3.5 million, making Havana the
largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean. Havana is
the center of the Cuban government and the ministries and
headquarters of businesses are based there. Havana
also is the island’s cultural center, and one of
the most beautiful cities in the world. However,
this beauty has faded from many decades of neglect and
disrepair.
Havana’s long history mirrors that of Cuba itself,
with colonization by Spain and an American occupation prior
to the 1958 Revolution lead by Fidel Castro. Following
a severe economic downturn after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991 and with it the end of the billions of dollars
in subsidies the Soviet Union gave the Cuban government,
and the US embargo, the Cuban government turned to tourism
for financial support, with funds generated by tourism
used to rebuild Old Havana with its beautiful architecture
of severely run-down colonial, art nouveau, and art deco
buildings and rehabilitate some streets and squares.
Most of the 1,500 Jews
who live in Cuba today reside in Havana. (The
pre-Revolution population was about 15,000.) People freely
practice their religion given that in 1991 the Cuban
Communist Party decreed that Party members could have
religious affiliations, and by 1992 it was written into
the Constitution that the state was now secular rather
than atheist. In 1994, the first Bar Mitzvah took place
in over twelve years and the first formal bris in over
five years.
The Jewish community
center, the Patronato, is located
in Havana and is the heart of Cuban Jewish life on the
island and a hub of activity. The center is overseen by
Adela Dworin, the President of the Jewish community of
Cuba. On any given day, people hold meetings there – including
the B’nai Brith Maimonides Lodge, and teenagers practice
folk dances for a community festival. The Patronato Sunday
school teaches both Hebrew and Yiddish. Both Jews
and non-Jews fill their prescriptions at the pharmacy located
on the top floor. The pharmacy, which is staffed by Dr.
Rosa Behar, has medicine donated largely by CJRP that is
hard, if not impossible, to find elsewhere in Cuba.
The main synagogue,
Bet Shalom (a conservative synagogue),
is located alongside the Patronato. This beautiful building
was in disrepair until the mid-1990s, but is now fully
functional thanks to contributions from B’nai Brith,
the Joint Distribution Committee, the Federation, the Canadian
Jewish Congress, and many individuals. Equally important
to Jewish life in Havana and Cuba are Adath Israel (the
Orthodox synagogue) and Centro Sefardi (the Sephardic synagogue
also affiliated with the Conservative Jewish movement in
the U.S.).
The Adath Israel synagogue in Old Havana houses the only
mikvah in Cuba and has a wooden altar carved with scenes
from Jerusalem and historic Havana. The synagogue was completed
in 1959 near the city’s port where most Jews lived
when they first arrived in Cuba. It is in a neighborhood
of crooked and narrow streets and buildings in much need
of repair. Religious services are held daily, with only
men reading from the torah since it is an Orthodox temple. The
energetic and enterprising synagogue treasurer, Yacob
Berezniak Hernandez, is continually looking for ways to
help synagogue members.
The Centro Sefardi’s long-time
leader was Jose Levy Tur, a former merchant marine who
taught himself Hebrew and Jewish history. He made
the difficult decision to leave Cuba, making aliyah to
Israel to join his daughter. The
Centro Sefardi now is lead by the dynamic Mayra Levy.
El Centro is the last remaining institutional legacy of
Sephardic life in Cuba. Weekly services are held in a small
room because the main sanctuary has been rented out and
is no longer is in use for Jewish prayer and ritual. On
Friday nights and Saturday mornings, older Sephardic Jews
gather to eat together and pass the time chatting after
prayers.
The Jewish community has two cemeteries in Guanabacoa,
on the east side of Havana harbor. The Cemeterio
de la Comunidad Religiosa Ebrea Adath Israel is for Ashkenazim
and dates from 1912. People enter the cemetery by walking
under a Spanish colonial gate with a Star of David. To
the left of the gate is a small memorial to the Holocaust. Behind
the Ashkenazic cemetery is the Cementerio de la Union Hebrea
Chevet Ahim for Sephardic Jews which also has a memorial
to the Holocaust
