On a mission to Cuba
Published in The Australian Jewish News
July 25, 2017
Cigars and salsa music. Cadillacs and Castro.
Think of Cuba, and one would be forgiven if the thought of a thriving Jewish epicentre does not immediately spring to mind – and yet it was there.
The Cuban Jewish community has fought their way back from the brink of extinction, and recently a group of 10 Jewish Australians travelled to Cuba with The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (The Joint) to learn about what was once the most vibrant of Diaspora communities. In the face of revolution, communism, the isolation of embargo, and a mass exit of Jews, Cuban Jewry has proven to be a resilient and spirited people who continue to stand strong.
The Cuban Jewish landscape is historically diverse. Following the Spanish Inquisition, Ladino-speaking Jews fled to Cuba, planting the roots for a strong Sephardic community. A subsequent large influx of Jewish immigrants resulted from the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1922; and later, Ashkenazi Jews emerging from the debris and destruction of post-Holocaust Europe set sail for the Caribbean Island.