Jewish Cubans, Cuban Jews, or Cubans of Jewish heritage, have lived in the nation of Cuba for centuries. Some Cubans trace Jewish ancestry to Marranos (forced converts to Christianity) who came as colonists, though few of these practice Judaism today. The majority of Cuban Jews are descended from European Jews who immigrated in the early 20th century. More than 24,000 Jews lived in Cuba in 1924, and still more immigrated to the country in the 1930s. Following the 1959 communist revolution, 94% of the country's Jews emigrated, most of them to the United States.[1] In 2007 an estimated 1,500 known Jewish Cubans remained in the country, overwhelmingly located in Havana.[2] Several hundred have since immigrated to Israel. Considered one of the most important Latin American Jewish sites, Beth Shalom Temple is the epicenter for current Jewish life in Cuba and still conducts weekly Shabbat services.
In addition to the descendants of Cuban Jews living in the United States, there is also a significant population which claims descent from non-Cuban Jews and from Cuban gentiles.
Before the Cuban Revolution
Grave of a Jewish girl at the Jewish Cemetery of Havana
Cuban Jewish history possibly begins in 1492 with the arrival of the second expedition of Christopher Columbus to the Americas. Columbus was accompanied on that voyage by interpreter Luis de Torres, who may have been a Jewish converso. Some Jews fleeing Portuguese-ruled Brazil in the 17th century settled in Cuba and despite inquisitions and persecutions, Jewish merchants based in Cuba engaged in flourishing international trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the contemporary Jewish community does not represent a line of continuity with Jews who settled in Cuba in the 17th and 18th centuries. It began to form after Cuba gained independence from Spain following the Spanish–American War of 1898. At the end of the 19th century, American Jewish businessmen and war veterans began to settle on the island. They engaged in import and export as well as sugar and tobacco farming. In 1904, they founded Union Hebrew Congregation and in 1906 a Jewish cemetery was established. In the early 20th century, Sephardi Jewish immigrants from the Ottoman Empire began to arrive and in 1914, they established their own community organization, Union Hebrea Shevet Achim. Most of the Sephardi immigrants arrived poor and turned to peddling or managed to build small businesses.[3]
In 1920, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe began arriving. By 1924 there were 24,000 Jews in Cuba, with many working in its garment industry.[1] For most Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Cuba was merely a transit point on their way to the United States. Most of those who arrived between 1920 and 1923 had left by 1925. However, the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which severely curtailed Jewish immigration to the United States, left thousands of Jewish immigrants now unable to proceed to the United States, and as a result they settled permanently in Cuba, a good deal residing in Parque Central, Havana.[4] Throughout the rest of the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of Jewish immigrants continued to enter Cuba from Europe, largely as a result of Nazi and fascist persecution (see also MS St. Louis). The Jewish immigrants from Europe came during an economic downturn and found it difficult to integrate into a country lacking industry and inundated with cheap labor from Haiti and many turned to peddling to make ends meet. Jewish refugees from Antwerp introduced the diamond polishing industry to Cuba during World War II, establishing 24 plants in one year. With the growth of the Jewish community, various Jewish communal organizations emerged. The main communal body of the Eastern European Jewish immigrants was the Centro Israelita, and during the 1920s it came to offer a range of activities and services from welfare assistance, a clinic, a library, a language school, a student center, and a drama club. The Cuban Jewish community split into three sectors: Americans, Sephardim, and Ashkenazim, each with its own cemetery and communal activities. The Jews' economic situation gradually improved and by 1959 the Jewish working class had nearly disappeared.[3]
After the Cuban Revolution
In the aftermath of the revolution, nearly 95% of the Jewish population left Cuba for the United States, many settling in Miami. By September 1960, as many as 3,000 Jews had already departed Cuba and approximately 1,500 remained by 1997. Additionally, between the years 1948 and 1997, 661 Cuban Jews immigrated to Israel and in 1999 another 400 Cuban Jews departed for Israel as well.[5]
Many Jews were initially sympathetic to the Cuban Revolution of 1959 under Fidel Castro, seeing the change in leadership as an opportunity to rid Cuba of the corruption that was associated with the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In the early stages of the revolution, it was not evident that Castro's plans were to ally Cuba with the communist bloc.[6] As Castro's plans became clear, Jewish Cubans who had emigrated from Eastern and Central Europe became increasingly concerned with the impending revolution, as a result of their prior experience with religious intolerance associated with Leninist policies and Bolshevik Russia.[7] During the earliest days of the revolution, the most paramount concern for the Jewish Cuban population was the nationalization of industry and agriculture and the laws which supported it. These measures include the first and second Agrarian Reform Laws, Law 851, and the First Urban Reform Law. The Agrarian Reform Laws of 1959 and 1963 caused strife amongst Jewish landowners and farmers, as the government began eradicating all landed estates and foreign-owned land, in addition to nationalizing all properties and buildings exceeding 67 hectares.[8] Law 851 sparked the nationalization of business and industry within Cuba, beginning with foreign-owned businesses. It entailed the expropriation of Cuban property, not owned by leaders of a previous government, for the first time in Cuba's history. This ranged from large to medium sized businesses, including distilleries, factories, and department stores.[6] Finally, the First Urban Reform Law stripped Jews of their property rental business by turning ownership to tenants and creating longterm rent-free leases. This law also made it illegal to privately rent or sublet properties.[9]
Measures such as the second Urban reform law permitted the Cuban government to seize the property and assets of those who immigrated to the island.[6] In a 2011 survey of Jews living in Cuba, one respondent described the experience of religious Jews during the socio-political environment of the post-Revolutionary period: "People were not persecuted because they practiced religion, but if you wanted to be a member of the Communist Party, or go to university, it was necessary not to be a believer. The same happened to Catholics and to those of other faiths."[10] The language used to describe Jews included, “Judio” for children who were not baptized,[11] “Turquista”, and "Polaco" or "Polaquito" which were synonymous with Jew, regardless of their country of origin.[12] Lastly, during their emigration from Cuba to Israel, Jews were marked as "repatriado" (repatriated) on their passport rather than "gusanos" (worms) as an emigration distinction. This was meant to indicate that those Jews departing for Israel to be “repatriated to their home country”, though few Jews who immigrated to Cuba were actually Israeli.[6]
In 1959, the government declared that the revolution would be a socialist movement and that Cuba would become an atheist state. This shunning of religion helped shaped the religious identity of Jews who remained in Cuba, as well as the exiles who immigrated to the United States, Israel, and other areas throughout North, South, and Central America.[13] The Jewish Cuban identity was morphed by a variety of revolutionary influences, but particularly the bias against those who practiced faith. Those who remained in Cuba either shied away from participation in the revolution or chose to abandon their Jewish identity altogether in order to do the opposite.[10] Up until 1992 when Cuba had adjusted its constitution to reflect that the country was no longer an atheist state but rather secular or "la apertura", Jews had largely discarded their uniquely Jewish practices and abandoned community gathering at places such as El Patrono community center and Chevet Ahim synagogue.[7] For many Cuban Jews, eating Matzo, an unleavened bread eaten during the celebration of Passover, was the only practice they had maintained.[10]
Three of the ten original members of the Cuban Communist Party were Jewish including Fabio Grobart, Manuel (Stolik) Novigrod, and Enrique Oltuski.[11] Fabio Grobart, whose original name was Abraham Simchowitz, immigrated from Poland to Cuba at the age of 19 and brought along with him knowledge of the radical leftist movements from Eastern Europe. He joined the Cuban Communist Party in 1925 and was one of Castro's closest constituents as a member of the party's Central Committee. He represented the party in communist ideology, as he had the ability to translate the readings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from Russian and German to Spanish.[14] Manuel (Stolik) Novigrod was born into a family of Jewish communists and fought directly alongside Castro against Bautista's forces in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.[11] One year after his parents' immigration from Poland, Enrique Oltuski was born in Cuba in 1930. His collaboration with Ernesto "Che" Guevara while representing Las Villas as its leader of the 26th of July Movement enabled him to ascend to highest-ranking Jew in the revolutionary government. Following the revolution, Oltuski was relied on, acting as the vice minister of the fishing industry, as well as working with the Ministry of Culture in order to maintain a historical account of the revolution.[15]
In February 2007 The New York Times estimated that there were about 1,500 known Jews living in Cuba, most of them (about 1,100) living in Havana.[2] Cuba has one kosher butcher shop on the entire island. For a time it had no rabbi, but by 2007, one was based in a Havana synagogue. He often encourages visiting Jewish peoples to give tzedakah (charity) for the Jewish Cubans and for Israel.[2]Alan Gross traveled to Cuba to help the small Jewish community, but he was detained in Cuba from 2009 to 2014. Some Jewish Americans originally from Cuba are also fierce critics of the Cuban government, such as former Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Israel also continues to have an embargo against Cuba.
Adath Israel is the only nominally Orthodox synagogue remaining in Cuba.[2] There are two other synagogues in Havana, in addition to a few other Cuban cities. In December 2006, the Cuban Jewish community celebrated its 100th anniversary.[1]
Jewish Cubans in the United States
Because South Florida and New York City have large Jewish and Cuban populations, a significant number of people in these areas claim descent from American Jews and Cuban-Americans, usually Catholic gentiles. Americans of Jewish and Cuban descent (whether or not their ancestors were Cuban Jews specifically) sometimes refer to themselves as Jubans (or Jewbans or Jewbanos), a portmanteau of the words "Jew" and "Cuban".
In 1999, actor and playwright Frank Speiser debuted his one-man play Jewbano about growing up Jewish and Cuban in Brooklyn.[16]
Although primarily used in a positive sense, the term "Jewban" has sometimes been misinterpreted as an antisemitic political statement (i.e., advocating a "ban" on Jews). In 2003 the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles attempted to withdraw a "JEWBAN" vanity plate which had previously been issued to Tabares Gomer, a Jewish Cuban, arguing that the plate could be considered antisemitic. The department later relented and permitted Gomer to keep the license plate.[17]
In the 20th century, approximately 900000 Jews migrated, fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries throughout Africa and Asia. Primarily a consequence of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the mass movement mainly transpired from 1948 to the early 1970s, with one final exodus of Iranian Jews occurring shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979–1980. An estimated 650000 (72%) of these Jews resettled in Israel.
There have been Jewish communities in the United States since colonial times, with individuals living in various cities before the American Revolution. Early Jewish communities were primarily composed of Sephardi immigrants from Brazil, Amsterdam, or England.
The Georgian Jews are a community of Jews who migrated to Georgia during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. It is one of the oldest communities in the region. They are also widely distinguished from the Ashkenazi Jews in Georgia, who arrived following the Russian annexation of Georgia.
The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.
The history of the Jews in India dates back to antiquity. Judaism was one of the first foreign religions to arrive in the Indian subcontinent in recorded history. Desi Jews are a small religious minority who have lived in the region since ancient times. They were able to survive for centuries despite persecution and antisemitic inquisitions.
The First Aliyah, also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (aliyah) to Ottoman Palestine between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen, stimulated by pogroms and violence against the Jewish communities in those areas. An estimated 25,000 Jews immigrated. Many of the European Jewish immigrants during the late 19th-early 20th century period gave up after a few months and went back to their country of origin, often suffering from hunger and disease.
HIAS is a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. It was established on November 27, 1881, originally to help the large number of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States who had left Europe to escape antisemitic persecution and violence. In 1975, the State Department asked HIAS to aid in resettling 3,600 Vietnam refugees. Since that time, the organization continues to provide support for refugees of all nationalities, religions, and ethnic origins. The organization works with people whose lives and freedom are believed to be at risk due to war, persecution, or violence. HIAS has offices in the United States and across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Since its inception, HIAS has helped resettle more than 4.5million people.
The history of the Jews in Brazil begins during the settlement of Europeans in the new world. Although only baptized Christians were subject to the Inquisition, Jews started settling in Brazil when the Inquisition reached Portugal, in the 16th century. They arrived in Brazil during the period of Dutch rule, setting up in Recife the first synagogue in the Americas, the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, as early as 1636. Most of those Jews were Sephardic Jews who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands.
The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth century, following the Jewish expulsion from Spain. Sephardi Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina, in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies. In addition, many of the Portuguese traders in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata were Jewish. An organized Jewish community, however, did not develop until after Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816. By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina.
Fabio Grobart was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and politician who played an important role in the 1959 Cuban Revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista and led to Fidel Castro's rise to power.
Abraham and Eugenia: Stories From Jewish Cuba is a 1994 documentary directed by American Bonnie Burt.
The Jewish immigration to Puerto Rico began in the 15th century with the arrival of the anusim who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage. An open Jewish community did not flourish in the colony because Judaism was prohibited by the Spanish Inquisition. However, many migrated to mountainous parts of the island, far from the central power of San Juan, and continued to self-identify as Jews and practice Crypto-Judaism.
The history of the Jews in Honduras begins in the colonial period, during the proceedings of the Inquisition with the arrival of sephardic Jews to Honduran soil. As of April 2020, in Honduras there are 390 self identified Jews who have gained the Honduran residence. Honduran Jews are able to practice Judaism peacefully and are included in Honduran politics and culture. The Jewish community is primarily concentrated in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, where there are synagogues. Honduras was one of the first countries to recognize the State of Israel, in 1948, and the Jewish community in Honduras has benefited greatly from Israeli aid.
The history of the Jews in Ecuador dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Sephardic Jews began arriving from Spain and Portugal as a result of the Spanish Inquisition. Ecuadorian Jews are members of a small Jewish community in the territory of today's Ecuador, and they form one of the smallest Jewish communities in South America.
The History of the Jews in Colombia begins in the Spanish colonial period with the arrival of the first Jews during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Freedom Flights transported Cubans to Miami twice daily, five times per week from 1965 to 1973. Its budget was about $12 million and it brought an estimated 300,000 refugees, making it the "largest airborne refugee operation in American history." The Freedom Flights were an important and unusual chapter of cooperation in the history of Cuban-American foreign relations, which is otherwise characterized by mutual distrust. The program changed the ethnic makeup of Miami and fueled the growth of the Cuban-American enclave there.
The 1950–1951 Baghdad bombings were a series of bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad, Iraq, between April 1950 and June 1951.
Moroccan Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Moroccan Jewish communities who now reside within the state of Israel. The 2019 Israeli census counts 472,800 Jews born in Morocco or with a Moroccan-born father, although according to the World Federation of Moroccan Jewry, nearly one million Israeli Jews are Moroccan or of Moroccan descent, making them the second-largest community in the country.
The history of the Jews in Paraguay has been characterised by migration of Jewish people, mainly from European countries, to the South American nation, and has resulted in the Jewish Paraguayan community numbering 1,000 today.
The emigration of Cubans, from the 1959 Cuban Revolution to October of 1962, has been dubbed the Golden exile and the first emigration wave in the greater Cuban exile. The exodus was referred to as the "Golden exile" because of the mainly upper and middle class character of the emigrants. After the success of the revolution various Cubans who had allied themselves or worked with the overthrown Batista regime fled the country. Later as the Fidel Castro government began nationalizing industries many Cuban professionals would flee the island. This period of the Cuban exile is also referred to as the Historical exile, mainly by those who emigrated during this period.
↑ Levinson, Jay. 2006. Jewish Community of Cuba: The Golden Age, 1906-1958. (Nashville, Tenn: Westview Publishing Co.)
1 2 3 4 Kaplan, Dana. E. “Fleeing the Revolution: The Exodus of Cuban Jewry in the Early 1960s.” Cuban Studies 36 (2005): 129–56.
1 2 Weinreb, Amelia Rosenberg. 2017. “Jewish Cuba's Contact Zone: Transnational Encounters in Havana's Adath Israel Synagogue: Jewish Cuba's Contact Zone.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 22 (2): 254–75. doi:10.1111/jlca.12258.
↑ Juan Valdéz Paz, “The Cuban Agrarian Revolution: Achievements and Challenges,” Estudos Avançados, Vol. 25, No. 72 (2011), 75.
↑ Teddy Kapur and Alastair Smith. Housing Policy in Castro’s Cuba. (Boston: Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2002), 4.
↑ Bejarano, Margalit. 2014. The Jewish Community of Cuba: Memory and History. Edited by Haim Avni. Translated by Susan Astrin. Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press.
↑ Goldenziel, Jill I. “Sanctioning Faith: Religion, State, and U.s.-Cuban Relations.” The Journal of Law & Politics 25, no. 2 (2009): 184.
↑ Henderson, Kaitlyn D. "Black Activism in the Red Party: Black Politics and the Cuban Communist Party, 1925-1962." PhD diss., Tulane University, 2018.
↑ Behar, Ruth. An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 129-132
↑ "One-man Show Celebrates Creator's Cuban-Jewish Roots", The Palm Beach Post (November 22, 2002), p. 40.
↑ "State Lets Cuban Jew Keep 'Jewban' License Plate", The Orlando Sentinel (March 15, 2003), p. B5.
Further reading
Jay Levinson, Jewish Community of Cuba: The Golden Years, 1905–1958, Nashville, TN: Westview Publishing Company, 2005.
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