On visit to Cuba, local mission finds hope, lost opportunities
Federation delegation finds Jews ‘thriving’ amidst state of decay
+ enlarge image
Mission cochair Michael Weinstock holds the Torah scroll at a bar mitzva at the Conservative Ashkenazi synagogue in Havana.
Photos courtesy Lori Klinghoffer
+ more images
Advertisements
December 26, 2012
By all accounts, Cuba’s economy is in a shambles. Its infrastructure is crumbling, its cities are dilapidated, and its people live in poverty.
“You don’t appreciate being a Jew living in America until you get back from a place like Cuba. It’s not just the lifestyle and the resources here, it’s the personal freedom, the ability to say and do what we want,” said Lori Klinghoffer of Short Hills, who just returned from a mission to the island nation sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ.
The group of 26 spent five days in the Havana area, visiting with the capital’s Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities and meeting with a variety of experts.
Michael Weinstock of Short Hills, who cochaired the mission with his wife, Tina, said that despite its proximity to the United States, Cuba feels very far removed.
“You have the feeling you are in a totalitarian country. People constantly assume someone is listening to every conversation. The odds are that nothing will happen, but you don’t want to be another Alan Gross,” he said. Weinstock was referring to a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development who is serving a 15-year prison sentence following his 2009 arrest for “subversive” activities. USAID asserts that Gross was helping the local Jewish community gain Internet access.
The Jewish community in Cuba numbers about 1,500 people. Federation groups from around the country generally bring aid, food, and pharmaceuticals, which are scarce despite free health care in Cuba.
Sharing Friday night services and dinner at the Sephardi community synagogue provided perhaps the most poignant and instructive moment of the trip for Weinstock. While dinner included a “not-so-appealing square piece of fried something,” the Cuban attendees clearly felt otherwise. He said he was asked by more than one local, “‘Are you finished or can I finish that for you?’”
“They did not have enough food — so what was so unappetizing to us was a treat for them,” Weinstock said.
He said he was also moved by a visit to the community Sunday school, where the kids were raising money and goods for Cuban victims of Hurricane Sandy. “They are unbelievably poor, but they followed the Jewish tradition of charity to help people worse off than them,” Weinstock said.
Sharing simha
The trip marked Klinghoffer’s second visit to Cuba; her first was in 2010.
“More so than almost anywhere else, it’s the obvious level of what could have been and what was lost that is so sad,” she said. “The place is literally crumbling. The country is in disrepair. It was magnificent in the 1950s and almost nothing has been restored or kept up.”
Still, visiting with the Jews of Cuba buoyed her spirits.
“It’s a small but vibrant Jewish community with an amazing leadership that keeps on trucking,” she said, with help from Jewish federations and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Klinghoffer said she enjoyed attending a bar mitzva at El Patronato Bet-Shalom, Havana’s Conservative Ashkenazi synagogue, on a Thursday morning. The Torah scroll that was used had been donated by a MetroWest family, Phil and Rose Friedman of Livingston.
“To be part of that in a country where religion was not formally allowed until a few years ago — to see the joy in their faces and watch people dance and dance with them and share in their simha — it was something,” Klinghoffer said.
Although there has been much written about the liberalization of the country and the emerging entrepreneurial opportunities, Klinghoffer was not so impressed. “We did not see huge changes,” she said.
Max Kleinman, executive vice president of the federation, was on his first visit to Cuba in 15 years, and, he said, “The infrastructure is even worse today than it was the last time; it’s had 15 years more of neglect.” And while he called Cuba “a very depressing place,” he added, “It’s always great to see Jewish communities thriving.”
The group had meetings with Cuban dignitaries, including a former Supreme Court justice, a former ambassador to Iraq, and an economist.
John Caufield, the chief of mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, “gave us the scoop, the real story on Cuba in contrast to the propaganda the other folks gave us,” said Kleinman.
Kleinman said he hoped Jewish groups and the government officials will increase pressure to release Gross. Earlier this month, Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced a resolution urging the Cuban government to look into Gross’s medical problems.
“They will hold him until the cost of keeping him is higher than the cost of letting him go — then they will release him,” Kleinman said.
Comments
Jerry Schneir
December 26, 2012
Your comments do NOT reflect what we found there in January 2012. While I cannot know what is going on right now, I find it hard to believe that things have deteriorated so much so fast. I have talked to others who have traveled there much more recently and none of them found the conditions such as you describe. It almost sounds as if you had some sort of agenda for your article.
Jerry Schneir
Santa Monica, CA
Bruce Rosen
December 27, 2012
I just returned home this week and I agree with the previous poster. While the infrastructure is crumbling and the people are struggling under the two currency system, the people remain warm and vibrant, the old city of Havana is being restored slowly and beautifully, and many small businesses are emerging. More commerce with the US will do more to undermine this regime than the ridiculous embargo. If these poeple had access to capital the place would be a boom town and conditions would surely improve. I didn’t feel at all like I was in a totalitarian state . The propaganda was very light - pictures and billboards nally fidel and a slogan or two plus depictions of the five Cubans in US prisons for spying on the US Cuban immigrant community (at least that is their position), and it’s there position that Alan Gross brought in a sophisticated satellite phone in addition to the routers. I can’t tell you what really happened, only that Cuban people spoke very frankly about their situations to me and were very appreciate for our presence. I spoke to many about their sense of privacy, and many said that the spy on every block system is far less intrusive than it used to be. I too visited and droped OTC meds at the Sephardic Jewish center, clearly one of the best-maintained buildings in the city. The countryside was really picturesque in many places like Vinales and Trinidad. Worth a visit to gain your own perspective.
luis segui
December 28, 2012
USA embargo was meant to drive Cubans crazy and overthrow Fidel. USA/Cuba Embargo=Terrorism American Style. Jewish people that support the draconian Israel policies against Palestinians have alot of Kharma to pay back!
Robert
December 29, 2012
I agree with Jerry that this is a very biased view of Cuba. I have been there many times and as recently as this year. The buildings in places are crumbling but thanks to European countries are pouring money in to renovate buildings. Many buildings alone the Malecon have been gutted and are being rebuilt and in a shortwhile Cuba will have on of the most beautiful shoreline and skyline in the world. The Cubans are wonderful and although they have little no one is starving, their are no homeless and the people dress well. Their are not spies everywhere and people have always talked quite openly about their hopes and dreams and their views of the government. The author went with a small group and it sounds like she stuck with the Cuban Jewish community which hardly gives her a right to slander a whole country that she has seen so little of. I have gone to Cuba once legally, but it was such a hassle all the other times I have gone illegally through a third country. It sounds like the author is simply upset that Cuba dared to arrest a Jewish American spy. I view the author as an “ugly Jewish American”
Randi
February 01, 2013
Please tell me how I can find out about upcoming trips.