This Week
First Detroit mission to Cuba
finds the spirit ofJudaism.
Jewish population dwindles,
but faith is thriving in Cuba.
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer
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Adath Israel is
Havana's Orthodox
synagogue.
11/26
1999
18
motions overtook Emery Klein when the rickety bus
pulled up to the Sephardic synagogue in Havana.
"The bus windows were open and we could hear the
congregation singing Avenu Shalom," he said. "When they
came out singing to greet us, there wasn't a dry eye on the bus."
Klein and his wife, Diane, of West Bloomfield, as well as 33
other participants, were in the midst of the Jewish Federation of
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Metropolitan Detroit's first mission to Cuba.
During four days in early November, the group learned that a
once-thriving population of between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews
has dwindled to about 1,800. When Fidel Castro came to power
in 1959, most of the Jewish population fled to the United States.
When Cuba officially became atheist in 1962, the Jewish com-
munity suffered from assimilation. Since 1992, when Castro
allowed the freedom to practice religion, the American Jewish
joint Distribution Committee has been providing, assistance to
the needy Jewish population.
The JDC also has quietly arranged for 400 Cuban Jews to make
aliya since 1995, but many have chosen not to move to Israel.
, From providing music, art, Shabbat dinner and transportation,
the JDC's help was witnessed firsthand by members of the Detroit
mission.
"Without the JDC, there would be nothing," said Diane Klein.
"It's amazing to see a Jewish world so isolated and so poor only 90
),
miles away.
Some Jews have to travel 300 to 350 miles to get to a Shabbat
service at one of the three centers in Havana.
The chapels are small and rundown, but the JDC is rehabbing
them, and also providing a simple Shabbat dinner for about 350
Jews a week. There is no rabbi in Cuba, but the JDC sends one
in for special ceremonies a few times a year. Young people, who
were taught Hebrew by the JDC, conduct services.
"Culture thrives. The spirit of Judaism is better than here [back