J(ew)bans!

I step over Jewish stars and lions engraved into stone walkway as I enter into one of the 3 Jewish synagogues in downtown Vedado, la Habana, Cuba. It is a lazy Monday afternoon, and an older scruffy man who freakishly resembles my grandfather is sitting in the doorway on a fold out chair resting his arms and chin on his black shiny cane. “Buenas tardes,” he says with a low grumble in his voice- clearly a Cuban accent with a hint of Yiddish flair. He has bright blue eyes and a very white scruffy beard. I shyly tell him that I am an “extranjera judia de los Estados Unidos”- a jewish foreighner from the US, coming to visit the temple and learn more about Cuban Jews. He starts speaking to me in Yiddish and I have NO idea what he says. He goes back to Spanish. Do you have Polish blood? He asks in Spanish, ironically our only common language (he doesn’t speak Hebrew). I affirm that I do have polish ancestry. His face lights up with a big toothy gaping smile and leads me to the main office. “I want you to meet La Presidenta!” he says. I assume that he is taking me to meet the president of the congregation. As we stroll through the Synagogue hallways, I am taken aback at how well taken care of the building looks. It is one of the more modern and renovated buildings I have visited in Habana. We walk into the office where a woman who also looks like she could be any one of my relatives greets me with a slight smile and takes off her pearl string glasses. We introduced ourselves and I begin to fire out some burning questions about “Jewbans” that have been brewing for the six weeks that I’ve been in Cuba….

There are 1500 Jews in total living in Cuba. Only 1,200 of them are living in la Habana. There are 3 main synagogues in Habana. Interestingly, 90% of the Jewish population that existed in Cuba left with the revolution of 1959. Upon asking why, la presidenta told me “for economic reasons” which I’ve come to learn means that they owned businesses and had their wealth taken away from them with the new political regime. 10% stayed, however and I didn’t get clear reasons why. My impressions were that they had already established a community and family ties with the land and didn’t want to uproot themselves if they didn’t have to. With the revolution, however, did come certain religious restrictions.

To my surprise, there are no security guards outside or inside of the temple. Not only did this surprise me because generally Jewish institutions have some sort of security system in response to anti-semitism or threats due to the Israeli political stigma, but also because many buildings such as cultural houses, banks, museums, embassies, have some sort of security guard outside the building.

Another observation I made was the incredible syncretism of Cuban and Jewish cultures. I was lucky enough to be at the temple when the synagogue youth were gathering to do a dance workshop. My eyes lit up when I saw traditional Israeli folk dancing mixed with Salsa en rueda!!!

Questions that I have that remain to be investigated (I am planning on going back to the Synagogue to follow up) :

-Were Jewbans involved in the revolution on either side?

-Why did some stay?

-What kind of businesses were the Jews involved in pre and post revolution?

-How did the castro regime treat the Jewish religion or all religions for that matter?

To be continued-