The
B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish Relief Project:
Ten Years of Helping the Jewish Community of Cuba
In
1959 there were 15,000 Jews in Cuba. Only 1500 remained
by the time I first visited the Jewish community in 1995, and
I wondered then if this small community would survive.
It was a
few years after the Soviets left taking six billion dollars out
of the Cuban economy. Fidel Castro had said after they left that
Religion and Communism could co-exist. He named that time “The
Special Period”, which translates loosely to “Cubans
Will Have To Do Without”.
By 1995 many
Cubans were returning to religion, and Jews were beginning to
live Jewish lives again.
The three
synagogues in Havana were in disrepair, and then as now there
were no Rabbis to lead or teach. In a program that continues to
this day, the Joint Distribution Committee provided religious
teachers from Argentina (usually a young couple) for periods of
approximately 2 years, to assist the community with Jewish ritual
and tradition. These teachers based at the main synagogue in Havana,
Beth Shalom, made periodic trips to the synagogues in Camaguay
and Santiago de Cuba.
People in
the outlying cities of Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, and other smaller
communities gathered in private homes to conduct services and
Jewish study on their own, and tried to reach out to Jews who
over the years had become distant from the Community. The Soviet
years and intermarriage had taken a toll on the Jewish population
itself.
The
Patronato being rebuilt |
The
Mission of our B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish Relief Project
was clear.
We wanted to help the Cuban Jewish population survive and grow
strong. In the first couple of years our goal was to understand
the difficulties facing the community. How could the needs of
the community be met when little to no money was available, and
the average salary of Cubans was $25.00 per month? Obviously there
was no hope of raising money from within the Jewish community.
Since then
the synagogues in Havana have been restored and many of the Jewish
families have returned to “La Communidad”, the community.
Many non-Jews who married Jews have converted and become involved
in the synagogue activities.
The Patronato
(Jewish Community Center) has a small pharmacy but with very few
medicines. We met with Dr. Jose Miller, President, Adela Dworin,
Vice-President, and Dr. Rosa Behar, Head of the Pharmacy and leaders
of synagogues and communities outside of Havana, brainstorming
ways of revitalizing Cuban Jewish life.
Remarkable
changes have occurred since then.
The needed
influx of dollars to bring the community back to life was accomplished
through missions of the new B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish
Relief Project and the help of other friends of the community.
By 1999 Beth
Shalom, the main synagogue in Havana, had been repaired. The Sephardic
Synagogue was returned to the Jewish Community after the departure
of the Soviets, and its interior has been updated. Repairs to
the Orthodox synagogue Adat Israel were completed in 2004. With
the help of Jewish organizations worldwide we brought medicines,
Judaica and prayer books. We made it a special project to see
that every Jew in Cuba receive a Mogen David or a Mezzuzah. We
provided money for luncheons held on Shabbat that brought the
community together and assured everyone of at least one good meal
for the week.
Many Jewish
families have returned to “La Communidad”, the Community,
and a number of non-Jews who married Jews have converted and become
involved in synagogue activities.
One
of our Project’s biggest accomplishments was the reorganization
of the B’nai B’rith Cuba’s Maimonides Lodge.
The Lodge had become almost completely inactive. With our help
and under the new Lodge President Isaac Rousso a membership drive
was started. The Maimonides Lodge has grown from a few die-hard
members and no activity to our current eighty active members.
They are the largest international Jewish organization in Cuba.
We started
the Tzedakah Project in 2001 with twenty elderly and handicapped
beneficiaries. Retired persons receive pensions of ten dollars
per month, along with a small food allowance. The Tzedakah Project
provides each retiree with an additional ten dollars per month.
We now have seventy people receiving assistance through this program,
and hope to add more. This program has been very effective and
is administered by B’nai B’rith Cuba, further activating
the Maimonides Lodge.
Isaac
Rousso speaks to a visiting B'nai B'rith group |
We
have also established a fund to respond to emergencies in the
Community. The Emergency Fund has provided needed repairs
to damaged homes, and made accessible necessary items that may
be otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain. The B'nai B'rith
Cuba administers this.
We are happy
to report that as of this date there are 86 children enrolled
in religious school in Havana. B’nai B’rith is helping
to make sure that all of their needs are met by providing textbooks,
notebooks and pens, along with some new computer software for
teaching Hebrew. On our last mission we brought 116 pairs of children’s
shoes.
In
2000 we shipped a container of new medical textbooks valued at
$500,000 to the Medical School of the University of Havana.
Due to the embargo the shipment could not be made directly to
Cuba, so our donated textbooks traveled from Pittsburgh, to Baltimore,
to Antwerp, Belgium and at last to Havana. This serpentine route
turned out to be the most cost-effective available at the time.
The November
and December 2004 missions brought in over 1500 pounds of needed
supplies to aid the Cuban Jewish Community. Since 1995 we have
carried in over 8million dollars worth of medicines, Judaica and
other supplies.
We also assist
with specific needs in the community as they arise. For example,
Alexandra Goldstein, now eleven years old, suffers from a progressive
eye disorder. By the age of five, Alexandra’s glasses were
impossibly heavy for her. We were able to have special plastic
lenses made for her, and have continued to do so as her prescription
has changed over the years.
B’nai
B’rith Cuba Maimonides Lodge has
become the most important Jewish organization in Cuba. Our
funding of their activities has encouraged the Lodge to be active
in all facets of community life. A monthly B’nai B’rith
community newspaper, Fragmentos, is now being published in Spanish
out of the new B’nai B’rith office located on the
5th floor of the Sephardic Synagogue in Havana. The English language
version of the paper will soon be available to friends of the
community through the B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish Relief
Project.
Our missions
are truly special not only for the direct aid they provide to
the community, but also for the personal connections which are
made between the Cuban people and the visitors from the U.S. Our
missions allow for a great deal of interaction.
In December
2004 we had a third anniversary party for the Tzedakah Project,
and 150 members of the community, many of them young people, joined
mission participants to celebrate with live music, dancing, refreshments
and a huge birthday cake. Mission participants and community members
“bus-hopped” to meet and talk on a visit to the Botanical
Gardens outside of Havana, where we held a B’nai B’rith
meeting.
I believe
that what we have accomplished in Cuba can be taken to other countries
with small Jewish populations to help them with their survival.
The one thing that is most important is to provide Jewish education
to not only the children, but the adults also. We have worked
to make the community as self-sufficient as possible with the
limitations that have been placed upon them.
With the
help of generous donors and concerned friends, we intend to continue
to help our Cuban Jewish friends as long as our help is needed.
B’nai
B’rith relief missions are committed to the idea that all
Jews are responsible for one another, and that “to save
one person is to save the world”.
We usually
take 4 missions per year with about 25 persons per mission. Please
call or email us for further information.
Stanley
Cohen
International Chairman
B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish Relief Project
1831 Murray Avenue, Suite 204
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
(412) 521-2390
Email: bbrelief@earthlink.net
www.jewishcuba.org/bnaibrith