Cuba – Inside the largest synagogue in Cuba, President of Temple Beth Shalom, Adela Dworan says yes there are Jews in Cuba and the Jewish community here is thriving after many difficult years.
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“We had so difficult a time that even for the high holidays we didn’t have a minyan (a quorum of 10 or more adults) to start services even for the high holidays for Yom Kippur. But we never closed the synagogue. If we had seven men and three Torahs so it made a Cuban minyan,” said Dworan.
Jews have lived in Cuba for more than 100 years. But many left after the revolution in 1959 fearing among other things, that they would not be able raise their children Jewish. Over the years the intermarriage rate grew as high as 95 percent. The result: before the revolution there were approximately 15,000 Jews in Cuba. Today it’s closer to 1,500. But new laws in 1990 gave all Cubans greater freedom of religion and the remaining synagogues have worked hard to attract Jews back.
“We are struggling to maintain Judaism in Cuba, alive in Cuba, and we have succeeded,” said Dworan.
Another turning point was Fidel Castro’s visit to the synagogue in 1998 at Dworan’s request.
“We asked him maybe it’s possible for you to attend the Hanukkah party? So he said what’s Hanukkah? He didn’t know the meaning of Hanukkah. So it’s difficult to explain the meaning of Hanukkah in words in two seconds, so I decided to tell him that Hanukkah is a revolution of the Jews – he likes revolutions! So he said I will come and he did,” said Dworan. [NY1]
Well Yidden it seems that someone is purposely trying to dupe us again…
Here is an article on “AdelaDworin” and the Jewish community. (By the way, I am not denying that there are Yidden in Cuba, I just believe that if you really want to help them get them out!!! Don’t become a money source for a regime that is comparable to the Nazis in its barbarity!!!!
Here’s the quote:
I shared my worries with a fellow writer. He replied, “The article looks like an attempt to make the regime look like it’s moving in a less repressive direction.” It is known that many U.S. Protestant churches are part of the pro-Castro support network. The National Council of Churches (NCC) and Pastors for Peace are prime examples. But I still have to ask: Why are the Presbyterians in Cuba publishing this dispatch about Jews in Cuba? Adela Dworin is referred to in the dispatch as the “vice president of the Jewish community in Havana” and also is called an “unofficial historian.” She is quoted as saying, “We didn’t have a minyan [quorum for praying as a community], even for the high holidays. But we never closed the synagogue.” A source who made a video documentary on the synagogues of Havana in 1986 said that Adela Dworin is a Castro “government functionary posing as a Jewess.” The source adds, “Interesting that no one mentions [in this article] the bar that sells alcohol (to all and sundry from the street) in the Shevet Achim synagogue in old Havana.”
Think Yidden, Think!!!