Cuba
CUBA - THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Comision Coordinadora de las Sociedades
Religiosas Hebreas de Cuba,
Calle I Esq.13,
Vedado-Ciudad de la Habana
10400,
Tel. 53 7 328 953,
Fax 53 7 333 778
"Since the Soviet Union stopped funding Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba in the late 1980s, Castro has slowly loosened the economic and social control of his people and allowed those interested in religion to resume their practices. Approximately 2,000 Jews remain in Cuba, most of whom are of Spanish descent. Most are poor, generally unable to afford prayer books and other Jewish articles, and elderly, as the Communist government has prohibited Jewish practices for nearly thirty years. Jews in Havana and Santiago have recently reopened their synagogues and have held public celebrations and Jewish study sessions in order to interest younger Cubans in the religion, openly affirming their Judaism for the first time in decades."
Source: http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/dispersed.htm [January 2002]
Websites:
Partial listing of burials throughout Cuba: http://jewishcuba.org/famties/burials.html and
http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/dkazez/fam/search/Cuba-Burials.html [October 2002]
The Cuba-America Jewish Mission: http://cajm.org [October 2000]
http://www.jewishcuba.org [October 2000]
http://jewishcuba.org/siteindex1.html [October 2000]
http://www.haruth.com/JewsCuba.html [October 2000]
Select the Cuba link at http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/comm_north.html : " The Casa de la Communidad Hebrea de Cuba is the Jewish communal organization. Four synagogues, two Sephardi and two Ashkenazi, still function. The Santiago de Cuba synagogue was rededicated in 1995 to serve the city's 80 Jews." [August 2003]
http://jewishcuba.org/famties [February 2001]
Books
- Behar, Ruth. The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart . __:__,___.
- Behar, Ruth. Bridges to Cuba/Puentes a Cuba . __:__,___.
- Bejarano, Margalit. La Comunidad Hebrea De Cuba, La Memoria Y La Historia . Jerusalem, Israel: Instituto Abraham Harman de Judaismo Contemporaneo Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalen, 1996.
- Bettinger-Lopez, Caroline. Cuban-Jewish Journeys, Searching for Identity, Home, and History in Miami . Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2000.
- Bettinger-Lopez, Caroline. Cuban-Jewish Journeys: Searching for Identity, Home, and History in Miami . ISBN: 1-57233-098-8. Univ of Tennessee Press, 2000. Index: http://jewishcuba.org/famties/index.html Source: Daniel Kazez
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[January 2001]
- Heisler-Samuels, Betty. The Last Minyan in Havana, A Story of Paradise, Hope and Betrayal . Aventura, FL: Chutzpah Publishing, 2000.
- Margolis, Paul. "Tropical Remnants: The Architectural Legacy of Cuba's Jews". Jewish Heritage Report , Vol. I, Nos. 3-4/Winter 1997-98.
- Levine, Robert M.. Tropical Diaspora, The Jewish Experience in Cuba . Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1993.
Cuba Cuban Cemetery Data at the Cuban Genealogy Center http://www.cubagenweb.org/cemeteries/ [November 2005]