|
| |
Religious humanitarian
missions to Cuba - For information contact Stanley
Cohen or Nina Kaplan, Cuban Mission office of B'nai B'rith
Phone: 877-222-9590 - E-mail: bbrelief@earthlink.net
The Cuban Jewish Community: Today and
Tomorrow
Judith E. Golub
America’s fascination with Cuba continues today: U.S.
policy toward Cuba was raised during the recent Presidential
campaign and Cuba has a new President, Raul Castro, who has taken
over from his brother Fidel after his almost half century in
power. He has introduced a series of economic that permit
private farmers to plant certain crops on unused state land for
profit, allow people to take title to state-owned homes and stay
in hotels formerly restricted to foreigners, and loosen controls
on consumer goods such as cell phones and computers. (These are
luxuries most people cannot afford with an average monthly income
of $19.50 and rising inflation.)
While much attention is focused on these reforms and the larger
question of where Raul Castro will take Cuba, I have a different
focus: the Jewish community in Cuba and its well-being in the
months and years ahead. My interest comes from my involvement
for the past five years with the B’nai Brith Cuban Jewish
Relief Project (CJRP) that Stanley Cohen of Pittsburgh created
in 1995. Since 2004, I have participated in four missions to
Cuba that CJRP organized, each time recognizing that it is
well worth the time and effort it takes to begin to understand
Cuba and the Cuban Jewish community.
The Project’s goal is to help ensure that a vibrant Jewish
community not only remains, but flourishes, in Cuba. The CJRP
brings much needed material goods and Judaica to members of the
Cuban Jewish community. The Project also has saved lives,
Jewish and non-Jewish, because of the millions of dollars worth
of medicine, mammography equipment (and doctors to train how
to use them), and a suction machine to alleviate problems caused
by Tay-Sachs that the project also has brought into the country.
Importantly, the CJRP stands with the community
so that they do not feel alone. Yet, the Project’s work is not “charity” in
any sense of the word. Why? Because there is a much more
than an equal exchange that takes place: for the material and
spiritual support the Project brings, mission participants
experience a Jewish community that does not take its Jewishness
for granted, a community that feels deeply and expresses continually
and vigorously the importance of being Jewish.
I can only speak for myself when I say that I
have never before experienced the intensity of that energy. It is addictive,
and goes a long way toward explaining why I have returned several
times to Cuba with the Project. What have I learned about the
Cuban Jewish community from these missions? A little
about the history, a little more about the conditions of daily
life, and still more about the aspirations of community members.
First the history. While it is unclear when Jews first came
to Cuba, it appears Jews have lived in Cuba for many centuries:
Some even say that three Jews came with Columbus. Others later
emigrated from Brazil, escaping from Portuguese persecution in
the 16th and 17th centuries. In the early 20th century, Jews
came from Turkey and Eastern Europe, and later in the last century
to escape the Holocaust. In fact, during World
War II, Cuba provided safe haven for about 30,000 Jews, many
of whom left to resettle elsewhere after the war’s end.
About 1,500 Jews now live in Cuba, the vast majority in Havana,
but also in Santiago de Cuba and smaller towns including Camaguay,
Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, Sancti Spiritus, and Guantanamo. The
current population is down from the pre-revolution figure of
15,000 Jews. Many fled to the U.S. soon after the Revolution
and, in the following years, the small size of the community
and the challenges associated with practicing religion lead to
a very high intermarriage rate.
The atmosphere began to change in the 1990s after
the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of its aid program
(which took about $6 billion annually out of the economy) which
brought on an economic crisis in Cuba called the Special Period,
more commonly referred to as the “Do Without Period.” With the
Soviet’s leaving Cuba, the Cuban government ended policies
that discouraged people from practicing their religion (such
as denying decent jobs to those who practiced), and opened up
of the country to tourism to help fill state coffers. In 1991,
the Cuban Communist Party decried that Party members could have
religious affiliations, and by 1992 it was written into the Constitution
that the state was now secular. Change was further spurred
on by Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1998 as well as
what some characterize as Fidel’s Castro’s interest
in the country’s religious communities.
Today, it is noteworthy that there are no security
precautions outside Jewish communal buildings because people
feel safe. Most Cuban Jews feel they are on an equal footing
with others, and the Jewish community is committed to sharing
what they receive from abroad with their fellow Cubans. Within
this context, Cuban Jews have told us that their lives revolve
around three things: “La Familia” (the family),
the economy and their jobs, and “La Comunidad,” the
Jewish community.
- La Familia: It is not uncommon today for
many Cuban Jewish families to be separated from
family members. For some, this separation took
place decades ago, soon after the Revolution. For
others, it is more recent with family members making
aliyah to Israel or contemplating such a move.
(Israel welcomes Cuban Jewish immigration and Cuba
allows a small number to leave each year.)
- The Economy: It is no secret that daily
life in Cuba is hard and that people, including
Jewish community members, struggle to make ends
meet. Although many are extremely well educated
and work as doctors, engineers, and lawyers, most
earn the average monthly salary of only $19.50
which does not go far, even in Cuba. Because they
largely are unavailable unless they are brought
from abroad, most cannot find in Cuba items essential
to practicing Judaism such as torahs, prayer books,
tallits, menorahs and Chanukah candles. And
like others, Cuban Jews deal each day with rationed
food, extremely limited quantities of meat, clothing
they cannot afford, problematic housing, medicine
in short supply, and a country facing an uncertain
future.
- La Comunidad: Given that many are separated
from their families, and every day struggle to
make ends meet, many tell us that the one thing
that anchors them is “La Comunidad,” the
Jewish community, which gives them a meaning to, and a mooring
for, their lives. The importance of La Comunidad is evident
when you visit with members of the community: it is the organizing
principle of their lives as they share a Sabbath meal together
at the synagogue (often their only hot meal for the week),
bring their children to the Patronato Sunday school (that now
has a roster of 70 children), or attend the adult Sunday school
at the Centro Sefardi, and work together to take care of those
in the community in extremis, including people with medical
needs, housing that needs major repairs to be livable, and
retirees who exist on a $10 monthly stipend. The
importance of La Comunidad also helps explain the
fact that Cuban Jews who grew up in homes in which
Judaism was not practiced are coming back and others
with only one Jewish parent or a close relative
who is Jewish are allowed to, and are, converting.
The community center, the Patronato, is located
in Havana and is a hub of activity. On any given day, people
hold meetings there – including the Cuba Chapter of B’nai Brith,
teenagers practice folk dances for a community festival, and
others, Jews and non-Jews, fill their prescriptions at the pharmacy
located on the top floor that has medicine donated largely by
CJRP that is hard, if not impossible, to find elsewhere in Cuba. The
main synagogue, Bet Shalom, 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 Center). The small synagogues in Sancti Spirtius, Camaguey,
Santa Clara, and Santiago, as well as the private homes in Cienfuegos
and in the smaller communities in which people meet to worship
and study Judaism are centers of community life. Community members
lead the services, often with the help of children, because there
are no rabbis now in Cuba.
Equally important in the typography of Jewish life on the island
is the very moving Holocaust memorial located in Santa Clara.
The memorial includes stones from the Warsaw Ghetto that the
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. gave CJRP to carry
into Cuba. Mission participants who go to the memorial with their
Cuban Jewish brethren share a remembrance of a painful past and
the possibilities of a hopeful future.
CJRP’s close ties with the community
have made us aware of needs that go beyond medicine and
Judaica, and out of which the Cuban Jewish Community has
created two special activities: The Tzedakah Project that
began in 2001 to help elderly and handicapped members of
the community, and a fund to respond to emergencies
in the community including making needed repairs to
damaged homes, and acquiring necessary items that may be otherwise
difficult or impossible to obtain in Cuba.
***
The more I learn about the Cuban Jewish community, the
more there is to learn and to do, notwithstanding, and
maybe even because of, the changes the country now is
undergoing. CJRP will continue to reach out to the Cuban
Jewish community, as they will reach out to us, in a
partnership that makes better Jews of us all.
The Cuban Jewish relief Project has organized
four missions in 2009 – March 4 – 12, June
3 through 11, tentative dates of September 9 through 17th,
and December 9 through 18th. To find out how you can participate
in the missions and get involved, please contact Stan Cohen,
International Chairman of the Cuban Jewish Relief Project,
by phone (1-877-222-9590) or email (bbrelief@earthlink.net).
Judith E. Golub, January 2009
|
|
