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Friday, June 28, 1985

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

wenty-five years ago there
were 15,000 Jews living in
Cuba. Today there are less
than 1,000. It won't be too
long before there are none.
During a recent visit, I attended
the four remaining synagogues on the
island — one of which sustains itself
by renting part of its facilities for use
as a beer hall — and I spoke with some
of the elderly Jews who still practice
their faith. It is clear that a once-proud
and flourishing Jewish community is
dying, not the result of direct anti-
Semitism but rather through attri-
tion.
For centuries prior to the modern
era Jews were forbidden to live in
Cuba. They were banished from Spain
and its possessions in 1492, the same
year that the Spanish monarchs, Fer-
dinand and Isabella, acquired
hegemony over Cuba through the
explorations of Christopher Colum-
bus. The Inquisition in Spain and its
colonies held sway from 1492 till 1832.
It was not until 1881, though, that
Jews were officially permitted to settle
in Cuba. There were, of course, many
"New Christians," or Marranos, in-
volved in Cuban history — Jews or
descendants of Jews who were coerced
into converting to Catholicism. Some
were responsible for financing Colum-

T

Dr. Rosenberg is on the surgical staff at Hutzel
Hospital.

bus' expedition. Others were members
of his crew.
Luis de Torres, for example, was
Columbus' official interpreter. He had
been baptized just prior to the expedi-
tion. Another Marrano, Hernando de
Castro, played a decisive role in the
history of Cuba when he introduced
the cultivation of sugar cane to the
island. Other former Jews, i.e., "New
Christians," were involved in the set-
tlement and development of Cuba. But
they do not qualify as representing the
origins of the Jewish community in
Cuba for they brought no discernible
Jewish traditions with them. Nor is
there any line of continuity between
them and the contemporary Jewish
community. The small number of
Jewish merchants who managed to
survive briefly in Cuba during the
17th and 18th Centuries also have no
connection with the current Jews of
Cuba.
The present Jewish community
had its beginnings when Sephardic •
Jews came to live in Cuba some time
before the turn of the century. Sol-
omon ben Daniel Susy is an elderly
Sephardic Jew who is currently the bal
tefila (leader of services) at Temple
Shevet Achim in Havana. It is the old-
est synagogue in Cuba, founded in
1914 by a group of Sephardim who
came to Cuba around 1890. Solomon
ben Daniel Susy told me that the first
Jews who came to Cuba did so "clan-
destinely." Their familiarity with the

THE
VANISHING
JEWS
OF CUBA

A dwindling Latin Jewish
community is dying
through attrition.

BY DR. J.C. ROSENBERG

Special to The Jewish News

The front of Temple Union Hebrea
Chevet-Achim, Cuba's oldest synagogue,
located in Old Havana.

The proceeds from this beer hall inside
Temple Union Hebrea Chevet-Achim
support the synagogue.

