After a 20 minute break to regroup we met up again in the lobby. Our first stop outside of the hotel was to a synagogue. This was a pleasant surprise for me because I did not see it on the official itinerary. Looks like this was instead of visiting a clothing designer.
In the bus ride Lian told us about the history of Cuba, starting with Columbus's "discovery" in 1492. Soon came pirates. Women in the tribes did not speak the language of the tribes because they were taken from other tribes. Cuba has a three century history of colonization/
In the early 19th century they received independence from Spain. This seemed to take a while. My notes say October 10, 1868 ... took 10 years...Haitian Revolution took place at the end of the 18th century. Insp. for Cuban independence.
1878-1895 there was a supposed truce
In 1895 Jose Marti had been living in the United States in asylum for ten years. He was a strategist who developed the war strategy to be used on February 24, 1895. He was murdered in May 1895.
"Remember the Maine" is the expression the Americans used to declare war on Spain: the Spanish-American-Cuban War, which was really the US Navy vs. the Spanish Armada on July 3, 1898 in the bay. The Americans won. Cuba became an American territory. The Americans gave it to the Cubans for four years (until 1902).
Here we pause as we enter the synagogue for an hour.
As you can infer from the name above the door, it is a Sephardic temple, which makes a lot of sense when you remember the Sephardic tradition came from Spain and the Middle East, and that Cuba was colonized by the Spanish. They also have an Ashkenazi temple. The Ashkenazi are traditionally from Germany and Eastern Europe.
Let's go back to the 15th century. In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decree all Jews must either convert to Christianity or leave Spain. Think about it, what would you do if forced into that decision? Many converted to Catholicism so they could stay. They were forced to eat pork in public to prove they were genuine in their conversion. A half a million people left to go to Portugal. Three years later the Portuguese told them they had to leave. Many others went to Turkey, which, though a Muslim community, was the most welcoming of their neighbors.
Our guide (whose name I forgot to note) told us Christopher Columbus was a Jew. This was news to many of us in the group, but after I got home (with the thanks of Google) I did a little research. There is some credence to his assertion.
In biblical times there were 12 Jewish tribes (the tribes of Abraham). Ten disappeared over the years. Columbus thinks they are in India so he gathers a group of converted Catholics. Luis de Torres (who spoke perfect Hebrew) came along as a translator. They never reached India. Instead they landed in America then in Cuba. No one spoke Hebrew here. Luis brought tobacco to Europe. The Jewish population does a good business in Cuba. Columbus returns with more Jews who converted to Christianity but kept their Jewish traditions.
The first Jews in Cuba were Sephardic.
Jump ahead 400 years to 1898 and the Spanish - Cuban - American War.
In 1904 the first Sephardic United Hebrew Reformed Synagogue was built. In 1906 they built the first Jewish cemetery in Havana.
This is when the Ashkenazi Jews started to arrive. More arrived during 1908-1920 because of the pogroms Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, and Russia. In 1912-1933 the Turkish-Balkan War brought more Jews. By 1913-1020 there were two streams of Jews in Havana (Sephardic and Ashkenazi). In 1933 Hitler took power and huge waves of Jews came to America. Some arrived in Cuba with plans to continue to the United States, but the 1921 quota laws prevented their entry, so they stayed. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the doors were opened to more Jews. Some went to the United States, but most of the Sephardic Jews stayed in Cuba. By this point they had families and businesses and didn't want to move.
In 1958, a year before the revolution, there were 25,000 Jews in Havana in five synagogues, plus three more in the interior of the country. There were also four Hebrew schools. In 1959 the Centro Sefaradi synagogue was built. They had 700 people in their synagogue.
Jews were afraid of communism. About 90% of the Jews left Cuba between 1959 and 1962. They moved to Israel, South America, and Miami (which he considers to be the "independent republic of Miami," not the United States).
Between 1959 and 1990 it was difficult to be a religious person in Cuba, no matter the religion. The first question on job interviews was "are you religious." However, the government never shut down the synagogue or the church. People were still afraid. He used to live next to the Orthodox synagogue in Old Havana (this is a Conservative congregation). Since COVID numbers have dropped again. He sometimes attends services there so they can have a minyan (minimum of 10 men). Seven men, two Torahs, and God became known as a Cuban minyan because it became too hard to get ten men.
In 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union religion became more acceptable. Pope John Paul II announced he was going to visit. Suddenly Catholic churches were full again, as were synagogues. People who were culturally Jewish suddenly started to want to know what it meant to be religiously Jewish.
In 1992 the JDC (the Jewish-Joint Distribution Community) started to help their synagogue. At that time they were without a rabbi. They were connected to a rabbi in Argentina who has since come to Havana more than 200 times.
In 1994 the great rabbi of Israel came. He was interviewed by Fidel Castro, who was prime minister at the time. He approved that Cuban Jews could be acknowledged by the law of reform. It was possible to go to Israel if one of your four grandparents were Jewish. Times were rough in Cuba, so many college-aged people went to Israel.
Congregations grew from 1995 until COVID. There were 300 students in the Ashkenazi Hebrew School, and they met every Sunday. After COVID, some died. Others hit economically hard times. Whole families left Cuba. Now the school has only 80 students and gather only once or twice a month.
The senior center had been thriving with 120 seniors in a day care center that met twenty times a month from 9 am to 4 pm. It was a daily party. They had teachers, doctors, massage therapists. With COVID they had to isolate. Some seniors died. Others left with their families. People were not allowed to leave their homes. The only exception was to deliver food and hygiene packages to their members once a month. Now they have 40 seniors gathering twice a month. He picks up the seniors to bring them here, but he doesn't have enough fule to do more.
The economic situation is serious. The worst since the revolution.
The official Cuban stance is that they are pro-Palestine.
On the other hand, he walks in town wearing his kippah, and they do not have an armed guard. Sometime people ask if they can buy his kippah, but no one gives him any difficulty. If he felt he needed a guard, the government would help to provide one.
The women's league sold challah covers for $25 as souvenirs. Whatever money we give them, goes to them. King Solomon made the first temple through donations. And so the tradition continues.
- They have three Torah scrolls: two were from Turkey and are over 100 years old, the third was a donation from an American synagogue in Massachusetts 15 years ago.
- Shabbat services used to meet on Fridays and Saturdays before COVID. Now they do a joint service with the Ashkenazi synagogue.
- They still meet for all of the holidays. Jewish life is complete and whole.
- Very few people keep kosher.
- They have not had a mohel in over 20 years. There is a local doctor who does circumcision. When there are a few babies, they bring in a rabbi from Argentina to do the pertinent prayers.
- There are many mixed marriages. Non-Jewish people must receive a one year course to learn the culture. They bring in three rabbis to see if they can convert. Then they do a collective wedding. The last one was seven or eight years ago. They had 14 collective weddings.
- The lights, seats, and woodwork are from the 1914 synagogue that no longer exists.
- In the hallway is a Holocaust exhibit (in Spanish and English) created by Stephen Spielberg in 2011.
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