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Cuban Jews Worry

The Elian Gonzales case has south Florida's
Jewish community concerned about perceptions.

the community now with 1,200 people.
Many have come to America, with
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
most settling in south Florida.
And through "Operation Cigar," a
New York
once-secret project of the Jewish
n November, when a Cuban boy
Agency for Israel, some 700 Cuban
named Elian Gonzalez had been
fished out of the sea, Moises Asis Jews have landed in Israel since 1995.
Another 50 or 60 are expected by the
relied on his lawyerly instincts.
end of July.
To the Cuban Jewish attorney, who
Most Cuban Jews are descended
immigrated to Miami in 1993, the
from Ashkenazim who fled
case was a cut-and-dry legal
the pogroms of Eastern
issue: The boy must be
Europe around the turn of
reunited with his father.
the 19th century. About 40
But once Fidel Castro
percent are of Sephardi
sank his teeth into the
Turkish descent.
affair and turned Elian into
Some 2,500 Cuban
a rallying cry for his flailing
Jewish families, totaling
Communist regime, Asis
7,000 to 8,000 members,
soon had a change of heart.
have settled in Miami since
"It would be different if
the Cuban revolution,
Elian were from any other
according to Rachel Lapidot
country," said Asis, 47, who
of the Greater Miami Jewish
founded the Tikkun Olam
Federation.
Hebrew School in Havana.
In south Florida overall,
"But I see all of Castro's Elian Gon males
the figure may be as high
propaganda, and how he's
as 10,000, says University of Miami
using it to distract the public from its
geographer Ira Sheskin.
economic problems. Elian will not be
"The Jews of Cuba had everything
returned to his father, to a normal life.
to live for; they had money and busi-
He will be sent to Castro and used as
nesses," said Kleiman. "But they left it
a propaganda toy."
all behind and came here with noth-
To justify his belief that parents'
ing. We know what the reality is in
rights do not always trump all other
Cuba."
factors, Asis draws a provocative paral-
To American Jews, the situation is
lel: "If a boy fleeing the Holocaust lost
far
less clear. U.S. observers concede
his mother along the way, but the
the
difficulty of comprehending life
father were still alive in Nazi-occupied
in
a
Communist system: the restric-
Austria, would you send the boy back
tions on every sort of freedom, the
to his father?"
daily intrusion of the Communist
Castro is no Hitler, of course. But
Party into the private lives or the
Asis and fellow Cuban Jews in south
constant fear of police, whose sole
Florida generally share. the anger and
purpose is to serve the regime, not
frustration of the wider Cuban exile
the public.
community. •
Even Miami Jews who live and
They are deeply troubled by the
work
among Cuban exiles are divided
U.S. government's determination to
about how to resolve Elian's case.
send Elian home, and by an American
"I'm a parent, so I can imagine
public that seems to generally support
what the father is feeling," said Linda
that decision.
Brockman, a reporter for the Jewish
"The Cubans and the Cuban Jews
Herald, a weekly supplement of the
are praying for a miracle here," said
Miami Herald.
Ines Matalon Kleiman, 66, the office
"I'm not knowledgeable about life in
manager for Torat Moshe Sephardic
Cuba.
The more I learn about it, the
Congregation of Florida. "We want
more
difficult
it is for me to form an
the child saved."
opinion," she said, adding that "what's
Cuban Jewry once numbered 15,000,
best for the child is the most important
but waves of emigration followed
thing. Nothing else matters." ❑
Castro's rise to power in 1959, leaving

MICHAEL J. JORDAN

I

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4/14
2000

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