Judaism in Cuba

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Sephardic Synagogue in Havana - Foundation plaque: 1954–1960

Judaism in Cuba has existed since it was discovered by the Spanish in 1492 .

Jews in the Spanish colony of Cuba

The first Sephardic Jews came to Cuba with Christopher Columbus as early as 1492 . According to Columbus, this includes Luis de Torres (baptized shortly before embarkation) and, with great probability, Rodrigo de Jerez . Even Rodrigo de Triana , the sailor ( "Tierra!") Called the famous "Land ho!", Was of Jewish descent.

After the conquest of Granada in 1492 and the completion of the reconquest of Spain by the Catholic kings , the persecution of the Spanish Jews (Sephardim) reached its temporary climax. The Spanish Jews had only two options:

  • emigration (mostly to Greece or today's Turkey)
  • the formal adoption of Christianity ( converso ).

Since the Jews who converted to Christianity got their traditional names through place names and the like. a. had to replace, on the basis of Spanish names in Cuba it is now possible to make an, if not certain, statement about the possible Jewish descent of families. The Cuban national hero and poet José Martí also seems to have been of Jewish origin.

Many of the Jews who converted under this compulsion, however, secretly continued their religion . The Spanish Inquisition , which also existed in Cuba, made an open commitment to Judaism impossible, so that reliable information about the number of Jews in Cuba up to modern times is hardly possible. There is more information about the so-called “new Christians”, although it remains open how many of them secretly remained true to the Jewish faith.

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

In fact, it was easier for the Sephardic Jews to survive in the Spanish colonies than in the motherland. The general corruption of the Spanish colonial administration and also of the church often made it possible to buy oneself free from the threat of persecution. Even Ferdinand II accepted cash payments from Jews who wanted to settle in the Antilles, a regulation that was then canceled by his grandson Charles V in 1518.

Until the 18th century, Inquisition case files refer to the condemnation of Cuban Jews who professed their beliefs. The Cuban city of Remedios in particular seems to have had a large proportion of the population of Jewish origin.

It was not until the Cuban Republic was founded as a secular state in 1902 that the Jews in Cuba were given the opportunity to practice their religion without restrictions.

Jewish immigration in the 20th century

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

Immigration from Eastern Europe

In the 1920s there was heavy immigration from Romania , Lithuania , Russia and Poland . The cause was the hostility to Jews and / or economic hardship in the countries of origin . Many of the immigrant Jews actually wanted to go to the USA , but failed because of the immigration quotas there . In the population, these Jews were rarely identified with their religion, but instead referred to as Poles regardless of their origin .

Jewish immigration 1933–1945

Gravestone - Jewish cemetery in Havana

After the National Socialists came to power in Germany , there was a wave of immigration from Germany, so that between 1933 and 1950 about 20,000 Jews lived in Cuba. Since 1933 the Cuban government had prevented the immigration of foreigners through labor legislation. Despite the strict immigration restrictions imposed by the Cuban government, around 11,000 Jewish refugees managed to survive the Nazi era in Cuba. Some had been expelled from the United States , where they had traveled on a tourist visa . Others had traveled directly to Cuba, also hoping to get to the United States from there. They immigrated to the USA from Cuba. They only had a transit visa that allowed them to stay in Cuba temporarily until they left. By bribery or exploiting loopholes in the law, many managed to get a secure status in Cuba.

The St. Louis refugee ship

A particularly tragic event is the rejection of over 900 German Jews who, on May 27, 1939, came from Hamburg with the St. Louis and hoped to finally be able to travel to the USA via Cuba .
In exchange for bribery, Jews in Germany were issued tourist visas, which, however, did not allow immigration to Cuba due to a change in the Cuban visa regulations that had been made shortly before . The shipping company HAPAG knew that the visa was invalid and carried out the voyage anyway. Both the Cuban government under Federico Laredo Brú and the US government under Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to accept the refugees. Only 29 passengers of the St. Louis were allowed to stay in Cuba, the rest were able to disembark after an odyssey in Antwerp and find refuge in Belgium , the Netherlands , Great Britain and France . It is thanks to the captain of the St. Louis , Gustav Schröder , that the Jewish passengers did not have to return to Germany. After the occupation of neighboring European states by German troops, many of them still went to the extermination camps . The wandering St. Louis served the Nazis to demonstrate the alleged "worldwide unpopularity of the Jews".

No hostility towards Jews in Cuba

Despite attempts by the fascist ABC Party and the insignificant Cuban Nazi Party ( Partido Nazi Cubano ) to stir up anti-Jewish resentment in the conservative Catholic camp, no manifest hostility towards Jews developed in Cuba in the 20th century.

The emergence of Ashkenazi communities

In addition to the already existing since shortly after the Spanish conquest Sephardic communities during the Western and Eastern European immigration and Ashkenazi communities, which soon dominated the public Jewish life in Havana. Together with the North American Jews who lived in Havana, an umbrella organization - the Patronato de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba  - was founded in 1953 .

Cuban Judaism after the 1959 Revolution

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

There are several reasons for the recent renaissance of Jewish life in Cuba:

  • It was not until the economic crisis of 1993 that many Cubans of Jewish origin rediscovered their roots and rejoined the Jewish communities, which received support from Canada and the USA, sometimes just to participate in the distribution of food.
  • Overall, there has been an increase in religious activities in all religions in Cuba since the mid-1990s. Even the Communist Party of Cuba , which had been strictly atheist up to that point , no longer sees religious beliefs as an obstacle to membership since a party congress resolution in October 1991.
  • While ethnic origin has been forgotten in many families in favor of identifying with the Cuban nation since the 1960s, there has been an increasing interest in one's own "roots" in recent years.

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

This led to a revitalization of the communities. Today there are about 1200 people in Cuba who consider themselves to be Judaism. The majority of them live in Havana . There is the seat of the joint representation of the Jewish communities, the "Coordination Commission of the Jewish Religious Communities of Cuba", which is also responsible for the international contacts of the community.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the opening of Ballinstadt: Emigration from Hamburg 1939 - "Los barcos de la Esperanza" ( Memento from October 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ La historia del buque Saint Louis: La perspectiva cubana ( Memento of October 31, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish)
  3. ↑ ushmm.org (English)
  4. ↑ Cuba, ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Overview on the website of the World Jewish Congress , accessed on June 10, 2014 (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.worldjewishcongress.org