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The history of the Jews in Cuba goes back to the 1400s. Jewish Cubans, Cuban Jews, or Cubans of Jewish heritage, have lived in the nation of Cuba for centuries. Some Cubans trace Jewish ancestry to Marranos (forced converts to Christianity) who came as colonists, though few of these practice Judaism today. The majority of Cuban Jews are ...
Dr. Jose Miller (1925, Yaguajay, Cuba - February 27, 2006, Havana) was the leader of the Jewish community of Cuba for 25 years, from 1981 when the community was tiny and endangered, through the 1990s during which they returned to vigorous growth and reemerged on the world stage. He held the dual positions of head of the Coordinating Commission ...
Additionally, members of other religious minorities in Cuba are found more likely to be victims of religious persecution. Most of Cuba's Jewish population exists due to those individuals fleeing persecution from other countries, but the community drastically decreased in size after the rise of Castro, [51] and the remaining community still ...
He started visiting Cuba regularly since 1992, operating from his base in Guadalajara, Mexico, and oversaw a revival of the Jewish culture there, serving as an informal spiritual head of the Jewish community in Cuba. [5] [6] [7] Szteinhendler's visits to Cuba were sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. [7] [8]
There were 15,000 Jews in Cuba in 1959, but many Jewish businessmen and professionals left Cuba for the United States after the Cuban revolution, fearing class persecution under the Communists. In the early 1990s, Operation Cigar was launched, and in the period of five years, more than 400 Cuban Jews secretly immigrated to Israel.
During this time, communist party membership requirements regarding religious belief were gradually relaxed. Seeing this ideological opening, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee began sending religious materials and advisers to Cuba in an attempt to reinvigorate a fading community of less than 1,400 Jews.
Completed in 1953, Temple Beth Shalom is the main synagogue serving Havana's Jewish community of 1,500 people. The congregation was founded in 1904 and it has been an epicenter of Jewish life in Cuba. The synagogue welcomes thousands of visitors each year for both Shabbat and tours of Jewish Cuba. [2]
In Western Europe, especially in monarchies, where no equal rights were granted for the Jewish population, radical Maskilim defined the new role of religion as an education of just citizens — like Moses Mendelssohn in his book Jerusalem or On Religious Power and Judaism which was a response to the Prussian reformer Christian Wilhelm von Dohm.