DAN HOTELS OF ISRAEL
A

SUPER

EXPERIENCE

High Holy Days
On The High Seas

GABRIEL LEVENSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Starting at

per person

in double room
including breakfast

DAN PANORAMA, TEL AVIV — DAN PANORAMA, HAIFA
DAN PEARL, JERUSALEM* — DAN CAESAREA

Any combination of Dan Hotels for a minimum of seven nights.

*Opening Winter 1995

Rates valid as of March 1, 1995
(varies by season)

„„.

PLUS

Starting at

M

arking the steady in-
crease in the number of
Jewish passengers, a
number of cruise lines
are engaging rabbis for both the
High Holy Days and for Passover,
as well as providing prayer books,
kosher sacramental wines and
even Sifrfei Torah.
Worship at sea will be ob-
served most particularly this year
in the Caribbean, by far the most
popular cruise area — 50 percent
of all cruises are to those tropical
waters.
The islands of the Caribbean
are also rich in Jewish history.
There were Jewish communities
on the Caribbean islands even be-
fore Jews settled on the mainland
of North America — in Jamaica
as early as 1509, when Diego
Columbus, the son of Christo-

lives of smokers ever since.
No records exist de Tones' off-
spring, but other Jews did follow
him to Cuba. One Hernando
Alonso, presumably a convert to
Christianity, was arrested by the
Inquisition in 1528 as a "Judaiz-
er." His crime: while baptizing
one of his children, he sang a
hymn which included the words,
"Israel; in Egypt."
By the end of the 18th centu-
ry, a small community of Jewish
settlers in Cuba, who had devel-
oped a thriving trade with the
other islands of the Caribbean,
was destroyed by the Inquisition.
The present-day community in
Havana has existed only since
1898 when Cuba won indepen-
dence from Spain. Since the as-
cendancy of Fidel Castro in 1959,
Cuban Jewry has been virtual-

per person
in double room
including breakfast

KING DAVID, JERUSALEM — DAN TEL AVIV — DAN CARMEL, HAIFA
DAN ACCAD IA, HERZLIYA — DAN EILAT*

Any combination of Dan Hotels for a minimum of seven nights.

*Opening Winter 1995

Rates valid as of March 1, 1995
(varies by season)

asp

For information and reservations,
please call your travel agent or

Israel Hotel Representatives
(212) 752-6120 or outside New York
State Toll Free: 800-223-7773/4
or FAX: (212) 759-7495

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Next time you feed
your face.. .

By Popular Pet/mat/0 ei

The Cover-Up is now carrying

BOYS SUITS & SPORT COATS

Mike Foon

for Bar Mitzvahs and Other Occasions

ORCHARD MALL

0

think about your heart.

(810) 855-4585

4

74

Orchard Lake Road, North of Maple

American Heart Association

WERE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE

The Royal Cruise Line's Odyssey sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in
San Francisco.

pher, founded the colony of New
Seville as a sanctuary for Mar-
ranos (secret Jews) fleeing the In-
quisition.
Even earlier, in 1492, a Span-
ish Jew, Luis de Torres, official
interpreter on Columbus' maid-
en voyage to the New World,
waded ashore on the coast of
Cuba. There, de Torres observed
the natives puffing on the weed
we now know as tobacco and was
so enamored of it, of the Indian
maidens and of the island itself
that he remained in Cuba (as it
was subsequently named) after
Columbus returned to Spain.
Their Royal Majesties, Ferdi-
nand and Isabelle, appointed de
Ton-es Emperor of Cuba. In that
capacity, he spent the remainder
of his days, partaking of the in-
digenous fruits and inhaling the
aromatic fumes of hand-rolled
cigars—presumably free of the
additives that would shorten the

ly cut off from mainstream. Com-
munications have improved
dramatically in recent years, but
Havana, the Cuban capital and
principal port, is still not a desti-
nation for most cruise ships.
Other Caribbean ports-of-call,
at which passengers can make
shore visits to active Jewish corn-
munities, include San Juan
(Puerto Rico), Conservative and
Reform; Willemstad (Curacao),
Orthodox and Reform; Oranjes-
tad (Aruba), Orthodox;
Bridgetown (Barbados), Reform;
and Charlotte Amalie (St.
Thomas), Reform.
There are Jewish museums in
both Willemstad and
Bridgetown; and visitors to the
historic synagogue in Charlotte
Amalie (the floor of the sanctu-
ary carpeted with sand) can join
with local worshippers in cele-
bration of the congregation's
150th birthday. El