History of the Jews in Cuba

Jewish Cubans, Cuban Jews, or Cubans of Jewish heritage, have lived in the nation of

In addition to the descendants of Cuban Jews living in the United States, there is also a significant population which claims descent from non-Cuban Jews and from Cuban gentiles.

Before the Cuban Revolution

Cuban Jewish history possibly begins in 1492 with the arrival of the second expedition of

In the aftermath of the revolution, nearly 95% of the Jewish population left Cuba for the United States, many settling in Miami. By September 1960, as many as 3,000 Jews had already departed Cuba and approximately 1,500 remained by 1997. Additionally, between the years 1948 and 1997, 661 Cuban Jews immigrated to Israel and in 1999 another 400 Cuban Jews departed for Israel as well.^[5]

Many Jews were initially sympathetic to the Cuban Revolution of 1959 under Fidel Castro, seeing the change in leadership as an opportunity to rid Cuba of the corruption that was associated with the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In the early stages of the revolution, it was not evident that Castro's plans were to ally Cuba with the communist bloc.^[6] As Castro's plans became clear, Jewish Cubans who had emigrated from Eastern and Central Europe became increasingly concerned with the impending revolution, as a result of their prior experience with religious intolerance associated with Leninist policies and Bolshevik Russia.^[7] During the earliest days of the revolution, the most paramount concern for the Jewish Cuban population was the nationalization of industry and agriculture and the laws which supported it. These measures include the first and second Agrarian Reform Laws, Law 851, and the First Urban Reform Law. The Agrarian Reform Laws of 1959 and 1963 caused strife amongst Jewish landowners and farmers, as the government began eradicating all landed estates and foreign-owned land, in addition to nationalizing all properties and buildings exceeding 67 hectares.^[8] Law 851 sparked the nationalization of business and industry within Cuba, beginning with foreign-owned businesses. It entailed the expropriation of Cuban property, not owned by leaders of a previous government, for the first time in Cuba's history. This ranged from large to medium sized businesses, including distilleries, factories, and department stores.^[6] Finally, the First Urban Reform Law stripped Jews of their property rental business by turning ownership to tenants and creating longterm rent-free leases. This law also made it illegal to privately rent or sublet properties.^[9]

Measures such as the second Urban reform law permitted the Cuban government to seize the property and assets of those who immigrated to the island.^[6] In a 2011 survey of Jews living in Cuba, one respondent described the experience of religious Jews during the socio-political environment of the post-Revolutionary period: "People were not persecuted because they practiced religion, but if you wanted to be a member of the Communist Party, or go to university, it was necessary not to be a believer. The same happened to Catholics and to those of other faiths."^[10] The language used to describe Jews included, “Judio” for children who were not baptized,^[11] “Turquista”, and "Polaco" or "Polaquito" which were synonymous with Jew, regardless of their country of origin.^[12] Lastly, during their emigration from Cuba to Israel, Jews were marked as "repatriado" (repatriated) on their passport rather than "gusanos" (worms) as an emigration distinction. This was meant to indicate that those Jews departing for Israel to be “repatriated to their home country”, though few Jews who immigrated to Cuba were actually Israeli.^[6]

In 1959, the government declared that the revolution would be a socialist movement and that Cuba would become an atheist state. This shunning of religion helped shaped the religious identity of Jews who remained in Cuba, as well as the exiles who immigrated to the United States, Israel, and other areas throughout North, South, and Central America.^[13] The Jewish Cuban identity was morphed by a variety of revolutionary influences, but particularly the bias against those who practiced faith. Those who remained in Cuba either shied away from participation in the revolution or chose to abandon their Jewish identity altogether in order to do the opposite.^[10] Up until 1992 when Cuba had adjusted its constitution to reflect that the country was no longer an atheist state but rather secular or "la apertura", Jews had largely discarded their uniquely Jewish practices and abandoned community gathering at places such as El Patrono community center and Chevet Ahim synagogue.^[7] For many Cuban Jews, eating Matzo, an unleavened bread eaten during the celebration of Passover, was the only practice they had maintained.^[10]

Three of the ten original members of the Cuban Communist Party were Jewish including Fabio Grobart, Manuel (Stolik) Novigrod, and Enrique Oltuski.^[11] Fabio Grobart, whose original name was Abraham Simchowitz, immigrated from Poland to Cuba at the age of 19 and brought along with him knowledge of the radical leftist movements from Eastern Europe. He joined the Cuban Communist Party in 1925 and was one of Castro's closest constituents as a member of the party's Central Committee. He represented the party in communist ideology, as he had the ability to translate the readings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from Russian and German to Spanish.^[14] Manuel (Stolik) Novigrod was born into a family of Jewish communists and fought directly alongside Castro against Bautista's forces in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.^[11] One year after his parents' immigration from Poland, Enrique Oltuski was born in Cuba in 1930. His collaboration with Ernesto "Che" Guevara while representing Las Villas as its leader of the 26th of July Movement enabled him to ascend to highest-ranking Jew in the revolutionary government. Following the revolution, Oltuski was relied on, acting as the vice minister of the fishing industry, as well as working with the Ministry of Culture in order to maintain a historical account of the revolution.^[15]

In February 2007