THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, December 16, 1977. 13
Cuban Jews Can't See U.S. Until Ties Normalized
HAVANA—"I was the
king of maternity wear
here," the rotund, 70-year-
old Isidoro Stettner told Ann
Crittenden of The New York
Times in Havana.
"I was girdles, all kinds
of dresses, $70, even $100
evening dresses. I repre-
sented Lee Beachwear in
Latin America. I remember
New York—Toots Shor, the
St. Moritz—that was the
_ best breakfast in town. I
sed to fly into Idlewild and
go straight there. Maybe if
we have relations again I'll
get my old job back."
Stettner, one of the few
remaining Jews in Cuba,
has not been to the United
States since the early 1960's,
when most of the island's
10,000 to 12,000 Jews were
leaving Cuba for good.
Prosperous merchants,
businessmen, diamond deal-
ers, the emigres constituted
a major segment of the Cu-
ban middle class, before the
1959 revolution began to na-
STAYING AT THE
SAXONY IS hilAMI.
.....,
.:
tionalize privately owned
commerce and industry.
Today only about 1,500
practicing Jews remain,
more than two-thirds of
them in Havana.
Recently, on the first
night of Hanuka, a group
accompaning two Demo-
cratic Congressmen, Fred-
erick W. Richmond of
Brooklyn, and Richard No-
lan of Minnesota, visited the
largest synagogue in , Ha-
vana, the Patronato, an im-
posing marble structure
built during the mid 1940's
at the height of the commu-
nity's prosperity.
The synagogue today is in
disrepair, its tattered cur-
tains and ruined ceiling tes-
tifying to the shrinking of
the congregation, now fewer
than 200 people.
The last rabbi has left,
and one vast wing of meet-
ing rooms is now rented to
the Ministry of Culture, for
use as an experimental the-
ater.
The one kosher restaurant
in Havana, situated in the
Patronato, closed last year
because of "labor troubles,"
and the daily Hebrew clas-
ses for children are now
down to once a week, the
ri
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Doc. 18 -Jan. 11
Paskow's
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lessons given by a non-Jew-
ish teacher from Spain.
The Congressmen, wear-
ing yarmulkes, helped light
the first candle of the Festi-
val of Lights and shared a
meal of herring and matza,
boiled eggs, bread and
Spam, served with Cuban
Coca-Cola and sweet, golden
Jerusalem wine.
"It's like being in Wash-
ington Heights or the lower
East Side," said one Con-
gressional aide, surrounded
by people from Eastern Eu-
rope. All of them seemed to
have relatives in the United
States.
The members of the con-
gregation insisted that there
is no anti-Semitism and no
discrimination in revolution-
ary Cuba. The state has a
policy of religious freedom
and places no restriction on
religious services.
Moises Valdas, the presi-
dent of the governing body
for the six congregations in
the city, who lives on the
top floor of an apartment
house he used to own, said
that the government even
permits Jews to take days
off from work for Jewish
holidays.
The government also per-
mits the synagogues to re-
ceive shipments of matza
and other ceremonial food
and wine from the Canadian
Jewish Congress, the main
link with the international
Jewish community.
The size of the Cuban
Jewish community is known
by means of the annual
"matza count." As Jews
come to Havana's Council
Hebrew University Publishes
Facsimile of Old Bible
CHICAGO—A facsimile
edition of the Aleppo Codex,
the oldest and most impor-
tant complete manuscript of
the Hebrew. Bible, has
recently been published by
the University's Bible Proj-
ect. The first copy was pre-
sented to President Eph-
raim Katzir in a special
ceremony at the con-
vocation, according to the
Israel Consulate General.
The Codex, edited by
Prof. Moshe Goshen-Gotts-
tein, professor of Semitic
linguistics and biblical phi-
lology, represents the fruit
of almost two decades of
research and planning by
the Bible Project staff.
Published by the univer-
sity's Magnes Press, cour-
tesy of the Trustees of the
Aleppo Codex, the color fac-
simile is the same size as
the original and in some
respects superior to it, since
a special photographic
method has largely elimi-
nated its disfigurements.
Dating back to about 900
C.E., the Codex was written
in Tiberias by the great
master of textual tradition,
Aharon Ben-Asher. It was
considered by Maimonides
as having established the
definitive tradition of writ-
ing the Torah. No manu-
script of equal status has
ever been penned.
The Codex was carried off
from Jerusalem to Cairo at
the end of the 11th Century,
probably following the sack-
ing of the Holy City by the
Seljuks. Later; it appeared
in Aleppo, Syria, where it
was regarded as the Jewish
community's most sacred
treasure. Even scholars
were not allowed to study it
or photograph it.
In 1948, following violence
that erupted after the
United Nations decision to
partition Palestine, the
sacred manuscript was
removed from the syna-
gogue and set afire.
Although news of its com-
plete destruction was
announced, only about a
quarter of it was actually
destroyed. The rest, about
600 pages, was brought to
safety in Israel where it
now forms part of the Ben-
Zvi Institute collection.
Accepting the facsimile,
President Katzir said that it
would be an invaluable
research source for biblical
scholars the world over.
of Hebrew Congregations to
collect their matza, a cen-
sus is taken.
Nevertheless, the cultural
atmosphere in socialist
Cuba is discouraging to reli-
gious worship of any sort—
not even Christmas is recog-
nized as a holiday.
More and more of the
younger Jews now inter-
marry and give up the prac-
tice of Judaism, several
hundred, by one estimate, in
the last three years alone.
And although no one
would discuss the subject,
the members of the congre-
gation are obviously wor-
ried about the implications
of the Cuban break with
Israel after the 1973 war and
Cuba's close ties with the
more radical Arab nations.
Even if they wanted to
leave, they cannot because
all Cuban citizens are pro-
hibited from emigrating.
In 1959 some younger
Jews participated in the
overthrow of the Batista re-
gime. When asked about the
Jews in Cuba, several Cu-
ban officials expressed re-
sped for what one called
the "Jewish history of par-
ticipation in the struggle for
justice."
But most of the commu-
PLO Terrorist
Will Go Free?
NEW YORK—The 23-
year-old Palestinian woman
terrorist wounded by West
German commandoes in Oc-
tober, when three of her
comrades were killed
aboard a hi-jacked Luf-
thansa jet in Somalia, is
unlikely to be extradited.
Newsweek magazine says
the West Germans have not
been eager to obtain cus-
tody, and the Somalis are
more likely to release her to
the PLO when she is well
enough to travel. The So-
malis, Newsweek says, do
not wish to harm their
chances for Arab support in -
their war against Ethiopia.
Rabbi Appointed
at Catholic School
WASHINGTON — For the
first time in the 188-year
history of Catholic univer-
sities in the U.S., a rabbi
has been appointed to a full-
time faculty position.
Rabbi Harold S. White,
who first came to Washing-
' ton's Georgetown Univer-
sity in 1968 under the aus-
pices of the Bnai Brith
Hillel Foundation, has been
named Jewish chaplain.
Rabbi White serves as re-
ligious leader for the univer-
sity's Jewish community,
which numbers over 1,000
from a student body of
11,000. He will also teach in
the Theology Department.
Soul of Judaism
Religion is the ever-
lasting dialogue between hu-
manity and God.
—Franz Werfel
SILVER JUBILEE!
nity saw no economic future
in a socialist Cuba and left
in the early 1960's, leaving
behind the poor and a few
intellectuals and profes-
sionals.
One of these is Dr. Jo-
seph—Jose, he added—Mill-
er, whose parents came to
Cuba from Lithuania and
Byelorussia and whose
brother and sister are in the
United States.
A doctor of facial surgery,
he remained, he said, be-
cause he had "no problems
with the laws of the revolu-
tion." He added that he
could write to his relatives
and talk with them by
phone..
But he has no prospect of
visiting them until ties with
the United States are nor-
malized. "I'm waiting," Dr.
Miller said, in English, as a
circle of people around him
nodded.
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