History of the Jews in Cuba

Judaism in Cuba since the discovery of the Spaniards, there are already 1492.

Jews in the Spanish colony of Cuba

The first Sephardic Jews came already in 1492 by Christopher Columbus to Cuba. This includes, according to Columbus Luis de Torres ( shortly before embarkation baptized ) and most likely also Rodrigo de Jerez. Also, Rodrigo de Triana, the sailor who the famous " Land Ahoy! " ( " Tierra " ) called, was of Jewish descent.

After the conquest of Granada in 1492 and the completion of the reconquest of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs, the persecution of the Spanish Jews ( Sephardim ) found its climax. The Spanish Jews were only two possibilities:

• The emigration (mostly to Greece or in modern Turkey )
• The formal adoption of Christianity ( Converso ).

Since the Jews converted to Christianity their traditional names including through place names had to replace, today can be the basis of a Spanish name in Cuba, meeting if not secure, statement about the possible Jewish ancestry of families. So also the Cuban national hero and poet José Martí Jewish origin seems to have been.

Many of the converted under this compulsion led Jews but their religion secretly continued. The existing on Cuba Spanish Inquisition made ​​an open commitment to Judaism impossible, so that reliable information on the number of Jews in Cuba until the modern era are hardly possible. There is more information about the so-called " new Christians", although it remains unclear how many of them remained secretly loyal to the Jewish faith.

Since many Portuguese Jews emigrated to the West Indies and Cuba, the term Portuguese soon became a synonym for Jew.

In fact, a survival of the Sephardic Jews in the Spanish colonies was easier than in the mother country. The general corruption of the Spanish colonial administration and the church often made it possible to buy free from the threat of persecution. Even Ferdinand II accepted cash payments of Jews who wanted to settle in the West Indies, a provision which was then canceled by his grandson Charles V in 1518.

Until the 18th century refer to court documents of the Inquisition to the condemnation of Cuban Jews who professed their faith. Especially the Cuban city of Remedios seems to have had a strong population of Jewish origin.

It was not until the establishment of the Cuban Republic in 1902 as a secular state gave the Jews in Cuba the opportunity to fully practice their religion.

Jewish immigration in the 20th century

In the 20th century there were major migrations of people of Jewish descent to Cuba.

Immigration from Eastern Europe

In the 1920s there were strong immigration from Romania, Lithuania, Russia and Poland. This was due to the pressure prevailing in the countries of origin anti-Semitism and / or economic hardship. Many of the immigrant Jews wanted to stay in the U.S., but failed due to the prevailing immigration quotas. In the population, these Jews were often identify with their religion, but means regardless of their origin as Poland.

Jewish Immigration 1933-1945

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists in Germany, there was a wave of immigration from Germany, so lived 1933-1950 approximately 20,000 Jews in Cuba. Since 1933, the Cuban government had on the labor legislation preventing the immigration of foreigners. Despite the strict immigration restrictions of the Cuban government succeeded in about 11,000 Jewish refugees the Nazi era to survive in Cuba. A portion was expelled from the U.S., where they had traveled on a tourist visa. Others had traveled directly to Cuba, also to come in the hope of there to the United States. From Cuba they operated their immigration to the United States. They merely possessed a transit visa, which allowed them temporary stay in Cuba until departure. Through bribery or exploitation of loopholes succeeded many to get a secure status in Cuba.

The refugee ship St. Louis

A particularly tragic event is the rejection of more than 900 German Jews, on 27 May 1939, the MS St. Louis Coming from Hamburg, had the hope of being able to settle in Cuba. Counter bribery Jews had been issued in Germany tourist visas, which did not allow immigration to Cuba. The shipping company Hapag knew of the invalidity of the Visa and still led by the ride. Both the Cuban government under Federico Laredo Brú as well as U.S. government under Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to accept the refugees. Only 23 St. Louis passengers could stay in Cuba, the others were able for a random walk in various European ports (Belgium, Holland, England and France) disembark. The captain of the St. Louis, Gustav Schroeder, it is due to that the Jewish passengers did not have to return to Germany. After the occupation of neighboring European countries by German troops led to many of them but the way to the extermination camps. The Nazis used the random walk of St. Louis to demonstrate the alleged " global unpopularity of the Jews."

No anti-Semitism in Cuba

Despite the attempts of the fascist ABC Party and the insignificant Cuban Nazi Party ( Partido Nazi Cubano ), to stir up anti-Jewish sentiment in the conservative Catholic stock, no overt anti-Semitism developed in Cuba of the 20th century.

The emergence of Ashkenazi communities

In addition to existing since shortly after the Spanish conquest Sephardic communities arose with the western and eastern European immigration also Ashkenazi communities, which soon dominated the public Jewish life in Havana. Along with the North American Jews living in Havana, in 1953 an umbrella organization, the Patronato de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba was founded.

Cuban Jewry after the revolution of 1959

After the first social reforms of the Cuban Revolution left many members of the Cuban high society, including wealthy Jews Cuba and emigrated to the United States. The curbing of religious influences in the 1960s led, as in all religions in Cuba even to the death of the Jewish community life, so that often not even the necessary number of necessary for a worship Jews was reached.

For the recent renaissance of Jewish life in Cuba there are several reasons:

• Only with the economic crisis of 1993 discovered many Cubans of Jewish descent back their roots and closed, sometimes just to participate in the distribution of food, again the Jewish communities, which received support from Canada and the United States.
• Overall, an increase in religious activities in all religions can be attributed to Cuba since the mid-1990s to determine. Even the hitherto strictly atheistic oriented Cuban Communist Party sees in religious commitment since a party congress decision of October 1991 no longer an obstacle for membership.
• During the 1960s came the ethnic origin in many families in favor of an identification with the Cuban nation into oblivion, an increasing interest in their own can be seen "roots" in recent years.

As part of the restoration of Old Havana under the direction of the city historian Eusebio Leal also Jewish street scenes with shops and facilities are restored.

This led to a revitalization of communities. Today there are about 1,500 people in Cuba who are considering themselves Jewish. The vast majority of them live in Havana.