A Jewish Renaissance in Castro's Cuba

(1.) The study of the Jews of Cuba is a relatively recent scholarly concern. Robert Levine, of the University of Miami, and Margalit Bejarano of the Hebrew University, have done much of the research. Levine published a full-length work entitled Tropical Diaspora: The Jewish Experience in Cuba, published by The University Press of Florida, 1993. Levine has also collaborated with Mark D. Szuchman of Florida International University, who was born in Havana to Polish Jewish parents, to produce a considerable amount of research on Cuban Jews now living in South Florida. Fort more information see Robert M. Levine, "The Story of 'Hotel Cuba' and Original Video Tape," Website: www.Jewishcuba.com.

(2.) Margalit Bejarano wrote her doctoral dissertation at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on the history of the Jewish community in Cuba from 1898 until 1939. Some of her published articles include "The Jewish Community of Cuba 1898-1939: Communal Consolidation and Trends of Integration under the Impact of Changes in World Jewry and Cuban Society" [in Hebrew], Institute for Contemporary Jewry Annual Vol. 5 (1992): 305-327; "Antisemitism in Cuba under Democratic, Military, and Revolutionary Regimes, 1944-63," Patterns of Prejudice Vol. 24, No. 1 (Summer 1990): 32-46. She has also written extensively on antisemitism in Cuba in the l940s and 1950s, including a monograph written in 1996 in Spanish on the Jews of Cuba entitled La Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba.

(3.) Havana historian Maritza Corrales Capestany is now working on a series of monographs on the history of the Jews of Cuba up until 1973, the year that Cuba broke diplomatic relations with the State of Israel. Corrales has done extensive research on the history of individual Jews who have lived in Cuba during the course of the twentieth century. She is in the process of tracing the personal history of each and every person who was ever buried in a Jewish cemetery anywhere in Cuba. She has also produced an extensive analysis of state-held death records to find out what was the listed cause of death and to try to draw out social history conclusions from that information. Similarly, she is also in the process of making comprehensive lists of each Jewish-owned business in the various cities of the country up until 1960.

Corrales is also working on the history of Jewish refugees who arrived in Cuba during World War II, as well as the incident of the St. Louis the ocean liner carrying l,l28 Jewish refugees from Germany that anchored off the coast of Cuba in 1939. Corrales has also inspired the most recent article to appear on Judaism in Cuba, which was "El Judaismo: Caracter[acute{i}]sticas en Cuba" by Daisy Farinas Guti[acute{e}]rrez, published in Panorama de la Religion en Cuba (Havana: Editora Pol[acute{i}]tica/La Haba[tilde{n}]a), 1998, p.57. Guti[acute{e}]rrez'sa article was written for a collection on religion in Cuba published in time for Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in 1998.

(4.) Geoff Simons, Cuba: From Conquistador to Castro (London: Macmillan, 1996), p. 221.

(5.) Interview with Joseph Levy, Centro Sefaradi, Havana, November 1999.

(6.) Moishe Asis "El Judaismo Cubano," Website, www.Jewishcuba.com.

(7.) Ann Crittenden, "Jews in Cuba," The New York Times, December 12, 1977.

(8.) Mimi Whitefield, "Jews in Cuba: The Fragile Flame," The Miami Herald, December 9, 1990, p. H-4.

(9.) Margalit Bejarano, "Antisemitism in Cuba under Democratic, Military and Revolutionary Regimes 1944-63," Patterns of Prejudice Vol. 24, No. 1 (1990): 32-46, see P.32.

(10.) Robert Lacey, Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1991), p. 324.

(11.) Robert M. Levine, Trapical Diaspora: The Jewish Experience in Cuba (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993,) pp. 251-252.

(12.) Interview with Maritza Corrales Capestany, February 2000, Havana, Cuba.

(13.) Magalit Bejarano in an interview with The London Sunday Telegraph.

(14.) For a summary of the development of Israeli-Cuban foreign relations, see Allan Metz, "Cuban-Israeli Relations: From the Cuban Revolution to the New World Order," Cuban Studies Vol. 23 (1993): 113-134.

(15.) Interview with Adela Dworin, Vice President of the Patronato, Havana, November 1999.

(16.) Although the Cuban Communist party reversed its position on religion in the early 1990s, there had been a gradual tempering of attitudes that occurred over a relatively long period. On the evolution of the relationship between church and state up until 1984, see John M. Kirk, "From Counterrevolution to Modus Vivendi: The Church in Cuba, 1959-84," in Cuba: Twenty-Five Years of Revolution 1959-1984, edited by Sandor Halebsky and John M. Kirk (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1985), pp. 93-113.

(17.) These statistics were culled from the Amario Pontifica Vaticano.

(18.) On the amazing endurance of religion in Communist Cuba, see Teresita Pedraza, "'This Too Shall Pass': The Resistance and Endurance of Religion in Cuba," Cuban Studies Vol. 28(1999): 16-39.

(19.) On the "Special Period," see Cuba--Per[acute{i}]odo Especial: Perspectives, La Haba[tilde{n}]a, De Ciencias Sociales, 1998.

(20.) Tom Masland, "Learning to Keep the Faith, Newsweek, Vol. 125, No. 11, March 13, 1995, p.30.

(21.) Kenneth Bandler, "Communities Reclaim Property as Local Jewish Needs Multiply," Jewish Telegraphic Agency April 1996.

(22.) Bandler, "Communities Reclaim Property."

(23.) Author's interview with Adela Dworin, Havana, November 1999.

(24.) Author's interview with Salim Tache, Administrator of Adath Israel, Havana, November 1999.

(25.) The Cuban government is actively seeking investors to help salvage buildings in dire need of repair. But because of Cuba's communist orientation most postential investors have been extremely reluctant. There is certainly a fear that if the Communist regime should fall unrestricted development would destroy historic landmarks. A popular T-shirt is sold in Little Havana in Miami that shows a drawing of the Malec[acute{o}]n, the area of Havana along the sea front, with wall-to-wall fast-food restaurants. A Florida organization, the Cuban National Heritage, is devoted to developing zoning codes that would restrict South Florida developers from wantonly destroying sites of historical importance.

(26.) Laura Gooch, "Cuba's Jews Struggle to Renovate their Crumbling Synagogues," February 16, 1999, published in the Cleveland Jewish News. I would like to thank Ms. Gooch for giving me a copy of her paper.

(27.) Interview with Maritza Corrales Capestany, Havana, February 2000.

(28.) Lesley Pearl, "Bay Area Jews Visit Cuban Shul for First Bar Mitzvah in Twenty Years," Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, June 13, 1997.

(29.) Pearl, "Bay Area Jews Visit Cuban Shul."

(30.) Eitan Behar, communication to the author, December 27, 1999.

(31.) Behar, communication to the author.

(32.) Behar, communication to the author.

(33.) Behar, communication to the author.

(34.) Behar, communication to the author.

(35.) Behar, communication to the author.

(36.) Behar, communication to the author.

(37.) Richard D. Heideman, the International Chairperson of B'nai B'rith's Center for Public Policy, stated, "In keeping with B'nai B'rith's 153-year tradition of providing aid to Jews throughout the world, we have created this special committee to assist in improving the lives of this isolated community who are in desperate need of even the basic necessities of life.... We plan to obtain and send educational and religious materials written in Spanish and sponsor more humanitarian missions. The needs are immense" (B'nai B'rith press release, February 12, 1997, Website: www.bnaibirth.org).

(38.) Cecile S. Holmes, "Impoverished Cuban Jewish Community Fights for Survival," Houston Chronicle, Website: www.cubanet.org. June 1998.

(39.) Countering the Commission's resolution, The Forward, an American Jewish newspaper, presented a conservative political position on the issue of eliminating the economic boycott of Cuba. Its editorial, "Wrong Exodus," published in the October 22, 1999 issue, argued that eliminating the economic boycott would not strengthen human rights in Cuba. According to the writer, Jewish human rights activists have consistently rejected the argument that American investment will weaken a totalitarian regime. Such a position was opposed when suggested as a strategy to liberalize oppressive governments in the Soviet Union and South Africa, and it is almost universally rejected in trying to deal with Iran and Iraq today. The editorial concluded, "It's hard to understand why all of a sudden there's a desire to abandon this pattern and carve out an exception for Cuba. If the Reform movement passes the resolution, it will be encouraging more cash for Fidel Castro's coffers and a weakening of American efforts to contain oth er rogue regimes. Cuba and America would be better off if the ones fleeing weren't the Jews, but the communist dictator and his goons."

(40.) "Proposed Resolution on Opposition to the United States Embargo on Cuba," Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, September 1999.

(41.) Proposed Resolution on Opposition to the United States Embargo on Cuba."

(42.) Proposed Resolution on Opposition to the United States Embargo on Cuba."

(43.) Hiram Marquetti Nodarse of the state-funded Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy in a recent study in the Cuban business magazine, Negocios.

(44.) Frank Smyth, "Letter from Havana," Salon Newsreel, Website: www.salon.com, January 4, 1999.

(45.) Holly Ackerman, "The Balsero Phenomenon, 1991 to 1994," Cuban Studies (1997): 169-199.

(46.) For a history of Cuba as a "sin paradise" of gambling, drugs, and sex see Rosalie Schwartz, Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cube (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997).

(47.) The most comprehensive study of the Cuban American community in South Florida is Maria Cristina Garcia, Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). Also see David Rieff, The Exile: Cuba in the Heart of Miami (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). For a description of Cuban American Popular Culture, see Gustavo P[acute{e}]rez Firmat, Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban American Way (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1994).

(48.) Gary Turbak, "VFW Castro's Communist Cuba," VFWMagazine, Website: www.vfw.org/ magazine, June 20, 1998.

(49.) CNN News Report, January 2000.