Passover Greetings Continue a 74-year tradition! Wish your family and friends and the entire Jewish community a Happy Passover! For information, call 248.351.5107 Please clip and send the coupon below with remittance. Greetings arriving after the deadline will run in the following edition. For private party advertising only. Businesses are not eligible. Happy Passover! Ad Deadline: April 1, 2016 Your greeting here! Published: April 14, 2016 125 1 $ Wishing you a happy Passover! Happy Passover! Your greeting here! Your greeting here! $150 2 $175 3 Name____________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ (PLEASE PRINT NAME TO APPEAR IN GREETING) Address__________________________________________________ City/State/Zip____________________________________________ Phone ___________________________________________________ Email____________________________________________________ Personal Check Enclosed___________________________________ Visa/MC/AmEx________________Exp. Date___________________ Amount___________________________________________________ Signature_________________________________________________ Please Circle Ad Desired: # 1 - $ r# 2 - $ r# 3 - $ 175 Please fill out this form completely and send with your check or charge card information to: JN Passover Greetings 2016 29200 Northwestern Hwy. Suite 110 Southfield, MI 48034 or fax to: 248.304.0049 38 March 31 • 2016 world » continued from page 37 choking progress. But in the shad- ows of U.S. President Barack Obama renewing diplomatic ties and seeking to alter the contours of relations with Cuba after a 55-year Cold War, includ- ing seeking a congressional lifting of the trade embargo, Dworin observed: “We hope that someday, things will improve and there will be more incen- tive for younger Jews to stay.” Notably, Americans, including the thousands of Jews who fled Cuba in the wake of the revolution, now can send Cuban relatives and friends up to $2,000 quarterly, four times the previ- ous limit. BUILDING A COMMUNITY Spanish and Portuguese Jews sailed to Cuba with Christopher Columbus in 1492. Those who stayed were forced to convert to Catholicism while secretly continuing to practice Judaism. More Jews, mostly businessmen, came to Cuba from the U.S. in 1906. Later, Sephardic Jews from Turkey and Syria arrived. In the 1920s, waves of poor Jews from Eastern Europe eyeing the U.S. ended up in Cuba because they couldn’t secure an American visa. The peddlers and shmata dealers among them became solidifying forces of the early Cuban Jewish community. The tough economic times post- revolution, including the confiscation of private businesses and the closing of private schools (including a Jewish high school), saw most of the Jews, including the rabbis and many lay leaders, emigrate. Soon, it was hard to attract a minyan. With the Soviet Union breakup in the 1990s, American rabbis stepped up and have helped revive Cuban Jewish life, including recruitment of lay lead- ers. Canadian Jewry provides Passover foods. Other significant support comes from the Mexican Jewish commu- nity and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Both Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul, now Cuba’s president, have attended Chanukah parties in Havana. The Cuban government provides monthly rations of kosher meat through a single kosher butcher. By directly supporting such overseas agencies as the JDC, Jewish Agency for Israel and World ORT via its Annual Campaign, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit is able to assist Jews in more than 80 countries — including Cuba. In 2013, Federation also furnished soccer equipment to the Cuban delegation entered in the Maccabiah, an international Jewish sporting event held for the first time in Jerusalem. A spinoff of visitor generosity in Cuba has been growth in Sunday learning at Beth Shalom. More than 100 students, youth and adults alike, study Hebrew, history and tradition. Kids from non-Jewish mothers but Jewish fathers are welcome in hopes they grow up Jewish. Latin American rabbis regularly visit to teach, promote holidays, perform weddings and over- see conversions. “We lost two generations,” Dworin said, “but now we have a new genera- tion that is very proud to be Jewish. And they know a lot about Judaism.” That includes becoming a bar or bat mitzvah and, thanks to donor funding, taking part in the March of the Living and Taglit-Birthright Israel. A HELPING HAND The Cuban Jewish community relies on givers touched by its devotion to sustaining a Jewish presence 90 miles from the Florida coast. Cash is always needed to cover such ongoing costs as synagogue repairs, kosher meat and Shabbat meals. Support also comes from among the thousands of Cuban Jews, including professionals and physicians, who have relocated to Miami. In Cuba, national healthcare is free, but medical supplies to treat hyperten- sion and diabetes as well as antibiotics are in short supply. Pain relievers are plentiful at Beth Shalom’s free com- munal pharmacy thanks to what North American tour groups have shlepped in their luggage. In closing, Dworin urged our travel group “not to forget there is a very small community of Jews struggling to keep Judaism alive in Cuba.” “We as Jews,’’ she proudly said, “are privileged because we have you — North American Jews. We’re waiting for you — for your support, for your kindness, for your love.” * Assist Cuban Jews Send donations with someone you know who is about to visit Cuba. Donate through JDC Global Headquarters at (646) 871-3250. Or send a check payable to JDC to: Debra Romm, director, Resource Development Systems & Operations, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 711 Third Ave., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017. Specify your gift is for the “Cuba Jewish community.” *