Trip to Jewish Cuba with The CAJM-November-December 2004 By Nancy Katz

 

Dreams of Cuba
    
When I grew up in Boston in the 50's, I dreamed of going to Havana-to walk on the Malecon and dance at the Tropicana. I don't know where the dream came from since I'm Ashkenazi with snow in my genes, but the dream remained deep within me.

About seven years ago my sister gave me a fascinating article about a group from Philadelphia that traveled to Cuba to visit the Jewish community. Now, my dream was re-awakened. Jews in Cuba.  Synagogues in Cuba.  Jews in need.

I felt compelled to visit this small community of 1,400 Jews whose origins I soon learned go back over 500 years to the first visit of Columbus. Yet, every year it seemed I had another reason--usually work related--to not go on the trip.

Fortunately, June Safran and The CAJM came into my life through an Internet search a couple of years ago.  I wrote to June occasionally and kept an e-mail from her in my inbox. Every time I opened my mailbox, there was a potential trip to Cuba staring me in the face.

Timing is everything. At the end of August 2004 after caring for my beloved fiancé for more than a year as he died of cancer, I wrote to June about trips in 2005. She wrote back and said, “How would you like to go to a Bar Mitzvah in Santiago de Cuba over Thanksgiving?” I knew that I would finally achieve my dream of going to Cuba, and without hesitation I wrote back “Yes!”


Preparation for the Mission

From that moment on, I was on the mission.  I spent the next three months reading and studying about Cuba and Jewish-Cuban history as well as learning Spanish.  A fundraising campaign among my friends, family and my local community of Teaneck, NJ allowed me to buy books-written in Spanish or Hebrew- as well as to collect other needed items: prescription eyeglasses, children's clothes, over-the-counter medicines, toothbrushes and more.

I was driven, committed and engaged in collecting as much as possible for the communities I was about to meet. One month into my mission, I had already fallen in love with the Jewish communities of Cuba. Just by virtue of being Jewish and in need, I felt a connection that was hard to describe to my friends and family who admired what I was doing but didn't fully understand my passion. At the end of the two weeks in Cuba, I totally understood this passion.



My Reflections

There is a book or many books that can be written about Cuba and its Jewish communities. My experiences and impressions from our 16 days on this amazingly beautiful island could fill the pages of one of those books.  Therefore, I've chosen just a few highlights from the trip to share on the web site. Please know that I am just touching the surface, both in terms of people, sites we visited, music we listened to, food we ate, history we learned and the range of emotions we all experienced. We reached out and were touched. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Santiago de Cuba

If you like warm, caring, people committed to a Jewish way of life, then definitely come to Santiago.  From the moment we were met at the airport with hugs and kisses by a delegation of synagogue members headed by President Eugenia Farin to the time we said our good-byes five days later with tears and e-mail addresses in hand, we became a part of this 80 year-old community, aptly named Hatikva -hope.

Our CAJM group was the first group to visit the community in 2004, and there was a full agenda planned beginning with a Thanksgiving morning tefillin ceremony and morning services as part of the Bar Mitzvah celebration for Ruben Dorado Sotolongo, a sweet, conscientious young man. Putting on tefillin is the first mitzvah assumed by a Jewish male upon his Bar Mitzvah*.

 
With the thumping beat and strains of a traditional son and singing birds floating through the windows as background music, 13 year-old Ruben, his older brother and father (who also lay tefillin for the first time) read from the Torah.


*A quick explanation of tefillin: words from the Torah are inscribed on a scroll and placed directly between one's eyes and on one's arm. Tefillin are wrapped around the arm seven times, and the straps on the head are adjusted so they fit snugly. Tefillin are worn every morning except for the Sabbath and certain holidays.

Traditional Friday night services and dinner were held with a study session. On Shabbat morning we celebrated Ruben's Bar Mitzvah as more members from the local community and as far away as Havana joined the simcha. Ruben proudly carried the beautiful Sephardic Torah case that holds the Sefer Torah brought from Turkey by the first Jews to start the congregation in Santiago; his friend David was right behind him singing the prayers with joy.  We threw candy and yelled Mazel Tov-- for a moment we could have been back in our own hometowns.

Before the luncheon, there was a well-prepared Torah study followed by June's presentation of gifts to the community and to the Bar Mitzvah boy along with a certificate to Ruben from Congregation Netivot Shalom, the sister synagogue in Berkeley, California.

With the sweet smell of guava in the air, we had Shabbat afternoon tea at the home of the Jacob Behars, longtime community leaders, and enjoyed the musical talent of their grandson as he played trumpet and piano.

On our last night in Santiago, we danced under the stars as the Bar Mitzvah celebration continued at the lovely home of proud grandmother Lourdes Levy Ross.

What impressed, touched and inspired me the most during our stay in Santiago is this community's commitment to a Jewish way of life that has literally blossomed over the past ten plus years. The pre-Shabbat luncheon study session was as seriously prepared as the young dancers were for their Israeli dance performance. When one man learns to lay tefillin, he teaches the next one. Santiago is creating its own traditions as it carries on the ancient ones.


Holocaust Memorial and Cemetery in Santa Clara



David Tacher, the dynamic leader of the Santa Clara community, Or Jadash, inspired our group with the story of the rebirth of the Santa Clara cemetery.  Imagine that just a few years ago this sacred spot was a local hangout and baseball field-years of neglect left the walls deteriorated and the marble gravestones in disrepair. With support from the government, the gate and walls have been rebuilt and the process of identifying and creating new records for the graves continues.



The impressive memorial sculpture, designed by a non-Jewish Cuban artist with input on the design from members of the community, depicts the train tracks that led the transports to the concentration camps. As we stood in front of the memorial, members of the community read verse and I had the honor of reading a poem by Anne Frank in English. There were tears shed among the crowd, but there was also that sense of hope that kept following me that Jewish life in Cuba will continue to grow and thrive.


Fish and Hanukah candles        



One of my strong childhood memories at family events is the critical importance of taking pictures of the table with the full spread of food. Oy! How beautiful! Take the lox tray. Now the bagels,,, The cake, the cake!!!

When we visited the home of Sarah Bertha Levy in Caibarièn, one of the first things our group did was to oooh and aah at the beautiful spread. Giant fish caught just that morning had been grilled outdoors. Trays of guava and beautiful vegetables surrounded the fish along with papas. And the sheet cake with its message of welcome in Hebrew was touching to behold (and delicious, too!) Everyone whipped out their cameras and took pictures of people and food from all angles.  Must be a genetic thing.

I had the pleasure that evening of chatting with a young woman who was leaving in just a couple of weeks to make aliyah to Israel. She knew no Hebrew so I taught her, using a paper napkin, some basic survival vocabulary like shalom, todah, mah nishmah, sh'mi, etc. (hello, good-bye, peace, thanks, how are you, my name is). I don't remember her name but I know she was thrilled to have some words to speak in her new land.  I admire her for her bravery.

There was a presentation of gifts to the community and I gave a lovely box of Hanukkah candles made in Israel that I bought in my town of Teaneck. I explained in my advancing Spanish that I came from a town with 25 synagogues, but the spirit I felt in Cuba with just a small number of synagogues was equally as strong. Sarah responded by telling us that the community had no candles for Hanukkah until now.  “I pray”, she said, “ that the light of these candles as they shine in Cuba next week will bring peace and light to people around the world.”  Not a dry eye in the house.
                                                 



Connections

So, how do you communicate with newfound friends from travels abroad? You write, you call, e-mail and make plans for visits in the future. I found out very quickly upon my return to the US that the communication with my new friends and family is not so simple.

Sometimes the servers don't work; e-mails get lost in cyberspace; letters take weeks to get there. But when people want to communicate they find the way.  I have been touched to receive letters and messages forwarded to me on behalf of my friends by Americans who recently visited Cuba.

And many of the e-mails do go through; my lovely friend in Havana keeps me up to date with all the Havana community happenings and I send her photos of my granddaughter, my birthday party and share the daily events in my life.

Will I return to Cuba? Absolutamente. Without a doubt.



Note from the author:


As I write this diary of my experiences in Cuba with the Jewish community in late fall 2004, I come back to the phrase that stayed with me during my entire visit-Am Yisroel Chai-the people of Israel lives. Yes, the people of Israel lives in Cuba-this committed and life-filled community is testimony to the ability of Jews throughout history to survive, no matter what obstacles they face.

The Cuban Jewish community shouted out “Am Yisroel Chai” in 1947 when they erected the first memorial in the Western Hemisphere to the victims of the Holocaust. 

In memory of the victims of the Holocaust and in honor of the thriving Cuban Jewish community and my lovely and loving new friends, I plan to go to either the Yad Vashem or Shoah Foundation web site every day for at least six minutes so that I too will never forget
.

Am Yisroel Chai!!

Nancy Katz, Teaneck, NJ

January 2005

 


TheCAJM  News  Projects  How to Help  Travels to Cuba  Contact Us