Birthright brings first group of Jews
from Cuba
By David Halperin
Eight young members of the 1,300-strong
Cuban Jewish community toured Israel for three weeks.
After praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Friday night,
Maria Luisa, 21, one of the members of the first Cuban Jewish
group to visit Israel since Fidel Castro came to power, was
overcome with emotion.
"In our synagogue, when we pray
and sing L'cha Dodi we are looking to Jerusalem, and now I'm
here," she said. "It's just amazing to be here."
William Miller, 27, one of the leaders of
Cuba's Jewish youth movement, Maccabi Cuba, said many of the
members of the group were tearful as their flight landed in
Tel Aviv. "It was a big dream to come to Israel,"
he said, "It is something special to make this dream
a reality."
The group came here earlier this month on
Birthright Israel, an organization partly funded by the Israeli
government, which brings Jewish young adults, from around
the world, to Israel on free trips as their "birthright."
They return to Cuba tomorrow.
At Birthright Israel's "Mega Event"
in Jerusalem last week, several members of the Cuban delegation
said they were again brought to tears to see the Cuban flag
waving next to the flags of the other 20 countries touring
Israel this summer.
"For me to see the Cuban flag in Jerusalem
was something incredible," said Miller. "There were
3,000 people there [at the Mega Event], and the Cuban flag
was waving because of us 10 Cubans."
Before the Castro led revolution in 1959, there were 15,000
Jews living in Cuba, 75 percent of them in the capital city
of Havana. Today, the community consists of just 1,300 Jews,
both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Cuba severed diplomatic ties
with Israel following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In the early
1990s Cuba accepted religious practice, after previously prohibiting
any public expressions of religion. There are currently five
synagogues in Cuba, three of them in Havana.
According to Miller, until the 1990s it was
"socially unacceptable" to publicly practice any
religion. Because Jewish practices were thus restricted to
the privacy of one's home, many traditions were lost. Miller
said, he once could have had a Jewish neighbor and not known
it.
"We spent nearly 40 years without Jewish
life in Cuba," Miller said. "Now we are starting
to rebuild the Jewish community, and this trip is helping
to do that." Miller's father has emigrated to Canada,
but his grandfather has stayed in Cuba and is the current
president of the Jewish Community there.
Maria Luisa, president of Maccabi Cuba, describes
Cuba's Jewish community as "reborn." There are no
rabbis in Cuba, she notes, and Shabbat services are conducted
by members of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
The group's eight participants, aged 18 to
26, are all members of Maccabi Cuba, a youth movement with
150 members aged 13 to 30, which conducts many traditional
and cultural Jewish activities, including helping to organize
Shabbat services and organizing an Israeli dancing club.
"The young people are the strength of
the Jewish community in Cuba," explains Luisa, a journalism
student who also works as a religious schoolteacher.
Annette Eli, 22, a participant in Maccabi
Cuba's 15-member Israeli dancing club, says the club learns
many of its dances by watching Israeli videotapes. She says
that despite Jews being a small minority in Cuba, they have
not experienced any anti-Semitism. "We don't have anti-Semitism
in Cuba. Cubans don't know about Judaism." She describes
the group's visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tisha
b'Av as the "most spiritual part" of the trip, and
a visit to Jerusalem's Holocaust Memorial Museum Yad Va'shem
as, "very emotional."
The United Israel Appeal of Canada, an umbrella
organization for Canada's many Jewish federations, is largely
funding the trip. Thirty Canadians and ten Israelis accompanied
the Cubans for the majority of the trip. Birthright Israel
and the Canada Israel Experience, a division of the UIA of
Canada, designed the trip activities.
"We want [the Cubans] to build bridges
with our young people and create relationships while they
travel in Israel together," explains Lorne Klenensberg,
Director of Israel Programs for the Canada Israel Experience,
adding that he hopes to expand the program and bring more
Cubans in the future. According to Klenensberg, the U.S. embargo
of Cuba has led to closer ties between the Cuban and Canadian
Jewish communities.
Miller explains that when Cubans seek to immigrate
to Israel they must contact the Canadian embassy in order
to fill out the proper forms from the Jewish Agency. He describes
the Canadian embassy as representing "Israel's immigration
interests" in Cuba, adding that the Cuban community receives
items such as kosher for Passover products from Canadian Jewish
organizations.
Last week, while staying at Kibbutz Mashabei
Sadeh, the group performed traditional Cuban songs and dances
for the Canadian participants.
"Their form of Judaism and culture gives
us a perspective on how they live both as Cubans and Jews,"
said Kirill Zaretsky, 26, from Toronto. "Given their
political situation and the difficulty to practice Judaism,
they still maintain a strong Jewish community."
Members of the Cuban delegation denied reports
published last week that the group had come to Israel "after
a year of tough negotiations," and that the Cuban government
had demanded that two leaders of Cuba's Jewish community accompany
the group, "to ensure that all
returned."
Miller, who was responsible for organizing
the group's departure from Cuba, said that he needed to describe
the group's intentions to the Cuban government to receive
permission to leave the country. He said government officials
"were interested in the program," and described
the Cuban government as "understanding."
"They understood our reasons for wanting
to come to Israel," said Miller. "We have to thank
the government."
Miller said he originally contacted Birthright
Israel officials in February about a possible visit, and,
after notifying the Cuban government of their intentions in
April, the group "had everything ready in less than two
months." Miller denied that he and David Tacher, president
of the Jewish Community of Cuba in Santa Clara, came to Israel
with the group to ensure that they all return home. He said
the Cuban Jewish community decided to bring Tacher on the
trip in order "to have a proper delegation." Only
one Cuban participant is under the age of 18, Miller explained
that under Cuban law minors must be accompanied by a parent
or guardian when travelling abroad.
Despite meeting with a group of Cuban immigrants
in Israel at the beginning of their trip, members of the Cuban
delegation emphasized that the trip was not meant to promote
immigration to Israel. "Our mission is to have an experience
here in Israel and to share that experience with others in
Cuba," said Miller. "Right now it is more important
to rebuild the Jewish community in Cuba than to make aliyah."
According to Gidi Mark, international
director of marketing for Birthright Israel, the Cuban delegation
represents the first touring group from a country that does
not have relations with Israel. He expressed confidence that
this "will not be the last group from Cuba". He
added that groups from Venezuela, Bulgaria, Romania, Switzerland
and the Czech Republic have also come to Israel for the first
time this summer.
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