by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

December 11, 2008

After three days in Havana, 19 men on a mission from United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ returned with a plea to give more support to Cuba’s Jewish community.

“It is easy for us to be Jews here,” said Peter Langerman, a Short Hills resident who cochaired the mission. “In Cuba they are not living in extreme poverty, but they have very difficult lives. They have no excess income, and they have to struggle to make their lives work economically. With all that, they have to be active in practicing their religion.”

There are an estimated 1,500 Jews in Cuba.

According to Phil Friedman of Livingston, the Cuban Jews “have a hard time trying to survive in the current environment, but their Yiddishkeit is being revived. I was very impressed.”

Between their arrival on Dec. 4 and their return home on Dec. 7, the visitors crammed many Jewish-related stops into their itinerary, beginning with a cemetery and ending with a Sunday school.

“We saw the kids learning how to read the Torah,” said Friedman. “We attended an Israeli dance show. We went to a kindergarten where they sang Hebrew songs. There was a lot of excitement in terms of community-building, and that was exciting to see. The Cubans are looking not just for financial support but moral support.”

The delegation came equipped with a vital gift — some $50,000 worth of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines.

“They have good doctors, but the doctors have nothing to work with,” Friedman said.

The medicines were donated to the Patronato, Havana’s largest synagogue, where they were to be dispensed to Jews and non-Jews.

Mission cochair Peter Feinberg of Short Hills helped arrange the shipment, assisted by local doctors and pharmacists.

All the mission members “contributed way beyond what the Cubans had ever seen in terms of medication, and people who didn’t go on the trip also contributed,” Feinberg said.

Spotting a more spiritual need, Friedman made a different sort of donation.

“I discovered they had six Torahs at the Patronato, but none of them are kosher. I had commissioned a Torah in Israel and I had intended to donate it to a synagogue in New Jersey. But when I heard this, I decided to give it to Cuba.”

He anticipates it will take most of a year for an Israeli sofer to complete the hand-inscribed scroll. Friedman said he hopes to return to Cuba with his family and present it to the Conservative congregation in time for the 2009 High Holy Days.

The group also visited the Sephardic Hebrew Center and Adath Israel, Havana’s traditional Orthodox synagogue.

“Everywhere we went, the people were very excited to see us. They appreciate the support of American Jews,” said Friedman.

“The Jewish community is permitted to be openly Jewish, and if you ask them, they say there is no anti-Semitism,” Langerman said. “Like everyone else, they face an economic struggle, but it ripples into trying to have a congregation and maintain a building as well as practice a religion.”

To all the visitors, living conditions for the Jews are emblematic of Cuban society at large.

“The Jews don’t really have any different problems from other Cubans. They are all situated in a difficult set of economic circumstances,” Langerman observed.

While the Cubans they met were reluctant to talk politics, Langerman said, he learned much from the group’s 39-year-old guide.

“He knew everything about American life — sports, politics, social mores, whatever. His basic message was he loves his country. He wants his kids to grow up there and love their country, but it is time to move on, to get to the next stage of life.

“He told us, ‘We want change, but I don’t want to live in the land of KFC.’ There is a negative view of parts of our society,” said Langerman. “They don’t want to import McDonald’s.”

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