Millenium in Cuba


December 19, 1999 to January 3, 2000.

A group of 20 adults and  two boys (12 and 13)  traveled to Cuba in January, Our goal was to share Jewish knowledge and develop lasting connections with members of the Jewish communities of Santiago de Cuba,, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Havana.

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We planned and executed a fantastic trip to visit different Jewish communities across the island of Cuba then finished the year in Havana. Participants had an opportunity to meet the warm friendly inhabitants, see the natural beauties of their land, and the monuments to their history as we traveled from Jewish community to Jewish community between Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

We met with leaders of six Jewish communities as well as the presidents of Hadassah, Women's group sponsored by ICJW, and B'nai Brith.  We attended a B'nai B'rith meeting where the president of the Golden Pacific Region (a member of our trip) brought greetings and reviewed some of the projects of  B'nai B'rith. Then Dr. Robert Safran, an urologist and member of the Oakland Lodge (California) talked about prostate cancer prevention and cure. Isaac Gelen, president and Dr. Jose Miller, past president, informed us of the history of the Maimonides Lodge in Havana. Among other special features was a tour of the old city in the company of a Cuban Jewish historian born and raised in Habana Vieja before WWII

We visited the thriving Sunday school in Havana with over 40 children participating and a full adult program. We brought in the New Year with Friday night services, and dinner at the Grand Synagogue, Beth Shalom, in Havana.

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Highlight of the trip was the three days in Santiago de Cuba to celebrate the bar mitzvah of Alejandro Aloma.  We participated in services, study sessions, and traditional celebration throughout the weekend.  But eleven of us also learned about another aspect of Jewish life as Cubans by attending a baseball game with ten members of the Jewish community

- June SafranCAJM executive director


December 23, 1999

It has been three years since my first visit to Cuba.  In 1996, by myself and
later that year with my whole family, we experienced a deep and lasting connection to the Jews of Cuba.  The connection has now spread to Israel as we have visited the Cubans there during the past few years.  Now that we have had a chance to return and meet members of communities that we had not met before, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos, our feelings about the Cuban Jews are stronger than ever.

To see a community like Cienfuegos, realizing that many of them may have never been to a service in a synagogue as we know it is astounding.  To them, the internal bickering that complicates American Jewry - Orthodox, Conservative, Reform etc, could be absurd.   Here, they struggle to observe the basics of our father with few books or materials to help them.  Yet their warmth and hospitality towards our group is sincere and welcoming.

The driving force for returning to Cuba is to attend Alejandro Aloma's Bar Mitzvah.   So these first five days have been a prelude to reuniting with the incredible folks in Santiago.  We are joyously waiting to help them celebrate this occasion and to bring them a connection to the outside world.... 

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As far as the non-Jewish aspects of the trip, it is fascinating to visit the historic sites of the revolution.  Since these events have happened during my lifetime, I try to remember what I was aware of at the time.  There have been many changes here in Cuba since 1996 - more food in the stores, more products on the shelves.   The new phones and phone cards, new hotels, new cars are all signs that change is occurring rapidly  The signs are everywhere that things are changing.  I'm grateful that we have had a chance to visit Cuba before it changes.

- Hope Alper


Day 1

Arrival at Jose Martin Airport.  Security confiscates two bags of turkey jerky in our canyon bag - the other from bags in our suitcases is ignored. Our guide, Julio Cesar, who we know from out last trip three years ago, meets us.  Warm, wonderful smile - he remembers us and notices how much Adam has grown.

Arrival at Parque Central hotel.  Beautiful Place.  High cigar prices. Dinner by the water.  Hear- but don't see the canon ceremony.

Day 2

Walk through Havana - things seem better.  More food on the shelves; lots of construction/renovation going on!

Meet with Adath Yisrael - small but enthusiastic service.  Felt very welcomed.

Long wait with boys due to mix up.  Finally make it to Habana Vieja and flea market.   Again, greater variety and better quality  merchandise, all for tourists.   We notice presence of grey uniformed guards.  We guess they're there to protect the tourists.

Visit to the Patronato and Sephardic Center.  Communities seem to be doing better (extensive renovations of buildings, etc. )  Patronato where the vitality is being drained via aliyah of younger members to Israel.  Good feeling to be leaving needed supplies as we go from place to place.  Adam is giving his Bar Mitzvah money to each community.

Day 3

Visit with Cienfuegos Jewish  community in a private home.    Rebecca is energetic leader.  Children look like kids in U.S.-Baggy shorts, Adidas sneakers.  They put on a cute skit.  Adam and David joined in a dance, "The Statues".

Hotel in Trinidad - no hot water.  Toilets don't flush but all is okay as TV has a college basketball doubleheader.  Next day a nice but short snorkel trip with the boys.

Day 4

Santa Clara community - a study in contrasts as the tourists with their cameras visit the Jewish cemetery in the middle of a very poor district on the outskirts of town.  A very nice moment as the leader of the community leads us in the Kaddish and thanks us for our presence.  Dinner with the community preceded by a Shehekiyanu and songs.  

- Mark Liss


Dear June and Bob, Thank you for sharing such an important part of your life with me.  I am very grateful.  I learned a lot about myself, about the mystery of Jewish identity and about Cuba.  I also feel I made some good friends.

- Mike Freedland



Reflecciones/Reflections

High points so far - standing in the very run down cemetery (Jewish) of Santa Clara with David, the President of the community who we had just met saying Kaddish together over a recent grave.  The sun is setting; the long rays of sunshine looking like a religious painting.  Somehow, we are immediately family, praying to one of our own!  As the prayer continues our links to our shared heritage, to this man we just met, to this deceased person, to each other becomes clearer and clearer.  David thanks us for making a minyan and making it possible to say Kaddish.  I am moved to tears.

Another moment.

We are touring an elementary school in Santa Clara seeing well behaved, adorable Cuban school kids wearing uniforms with red (of course) scarves around their necks.  We go to a 6th grade classroom where students are asked to explain to us, the visitors, about their school.  A girl stands up and says that she and others are concerned about young Elian's [Gonzales] safe return to Cuba.  He is being held in the U.S. since his mother died trying to bring Elian on a raft to the U.S.  The school age girls say she's concerned that he should be returned to his father in Cuba. Is it a prepared speech?  Has she just repeated whats been in all the papers and on T.V. lately?  Whatever it is, several of our group members respond to her directly - no governments are involved - it's person to person.  All her classmates sit in rapt attention to our replies.  They hear directly from us how we see the situation.  

Then we talk about more mundane school matters.  They study English, and we each get to go to a child to say hello. Shake hands and smile and try a simple conversation in English.  We are no longer just Americans holding Elian hostage.   They are no longer Cuban school children on our tour.  It is a moment of contact, real contact.

These unexpected moments are deeply moving, truly fulfilling.

- unsigned


Thomas Mann wrote that you can not go back home again. I returned thirty five years and a whole life later. I joined June Safran and her Cuba-America Jewish Mission back in January of 99 and my experience was so overwhelming that I decided to return for the Millenium trip she was organizing for this past December. The Cuba that I knew of  as a young teen does not exist. My beautiful Havana is in decay, the people are wanting, the opression is deeply imbedded and yet, why is it that everybody who travels there gets charmed? I have been to many countries in this world but I have never seen visitors being as involved and moved about their experiences during these trips. The support that the Cuba Jewish Mission renders to the Cuban Jews is  inmeasurable. Thanks to it, a nearly moribund community is coming back to life and although we bring a lot of material things to people who need them, they also return the favor in full with their commitment to revitalizing their community and their renewed spirit and hopes for a better future for the next generation. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to see and experience my Country and its people once again and I thank June and the Mission for the effort and commitment shown  to a community forgotten for nearly 40 years.

- Rafael Cohen

 


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