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Seeing this ideological opening, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee began sending religious materials and advisers to Cuba in an attempt to reinvigorate a fading community of less than 1,400 Jews. Burt journeys to Havana to interview local Jews in 1994, five years into the Special Period. She films excited activity over the local ...
The history of the Jews in Cuba goes back to the 1400s. 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 ...
Soon after Castro took power in 1959 up until the early 1990s, 94% of the Jewish population left Cuba. Before then, there had been 15,000 Jews in Havana alone. Shortly after the fall of the USSR, the communist party of Cuba announced a relaxation of some of their principles and the toleration of religion. But with the fall of the Soviet Union ...
By: Brooke Kavit John Kerry travels to Cuba on Friday, the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the island nation in decades. In honor of the historic occasion, AOL.com is examining the ...
In 2007 Centro Hebreo Sefaradi Synagogue was described as “…the only remaining institutional legacy of the Sephardic presence in Cuba.” [citation needed] As of 2010, the synagogue had eighty families constituting 320 members. The majority of congregants were 60 or older.
Jews arrived in Cuba shortly after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Subsequent waves of Portuguese Jews from Brazil and Dutch Jews arrived in Cuba from the 16th to 19th centuries. Ashkenazi Jews from Europe started arriving in Cuba, usually via the United States, following the Spanish-American War. The congregation was established in ...
During this time, Beth Shalom Temple in Havana was constructed and became the most prominent Latin American Jewish synagogue. There were 15,000 Jews in Cuba in 1959, but many Jewish businessmen and professionals left Cuba for the United States after the Cuban revolution, fearing class persecution under the Communists.
Most American Jews identify under the Reform branch of Judaism, considered more liberal, or report no religious affiliation at all, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey.