University of Miami Special Report: Cuba and the Caribbean

Cuba & The Caribbean Special Report

  • The Environment
    • A Museum of Marine Life
    • Exploring Energy Options for Cuba
    • Working Together to Build a Sustainable Future
    • Influencing Hurricane Intensity
    • Finding Keys to Coral Survival
    • A Pregnancy Exam for Jaws
    • Protecting Flora, Fauna, and Humans in the Caribbean Biological Corridor
    • Father of Dust
    • Science as Diplomacy
  • The People
    • A Conversation with Yoani Sánchez
    • – Conversando con Yoani Sánchez
    • A Unique Cultural Perspective
    • – Una Perspectiva Cultural Única
    • Unearthing the Mysteries of the Caribbean
    • El Mar y Él
    • Helping Hands in Haiti
    • Tracing Circuitous Lines of the Black LGBTQ Experience
    • Student Organizations Embrace Caribbean Culture
    • A Winning Team
    • Exploring Shipwrecks in the Caribbean
    • Language and the Negotiation of Identities
    • Cuban Lecturer Inspires Students through Stories of Resilience
    • Chinese Influences on Life and Religion in Cuba
    • A Chinese-Cuban Secret Society in Havana
  • Business & Economy
    • Restoring Cuba’s Historic Infrastructure
    • Serving the Underserved in Dominican Republic
    • A Bright Future for Caribbean Fish
    • A Close Look at Cuba’s Health Care System
    • Studying Caribbean Currency
    • Haiti After Hurricane Matthew
  • Health Care
    • Sharing Ideas Amid a Changing Culture
    • Cuba Water Hassles
    • Sharing Insights On Trauma Care
    • Delaying Motherhood for Childhood
    • There’s Something in the Waters of Puerto Rico’s Guánica Bay
    • Health Care in Haiti
    • Missions of Mercy
    • Transforming Nursing Education in Guyana
    • Creative Insight on Cuba’s Wastewater System
    • A ‘Living Laboratory’ for Studying Multiple Sclerosis
    • A Hemispheric Approach to Bioethics and Health Policy
    • Campeche and UM Join Hands to Improve Public Health
    • Comparative Studies Could Identify IBD ‘Triggers’
    • A Close Look at Cervical Cancer in Haitian Women
  • Politics & Policy
    • A Renewed, Tenuous Relationship
    • A Trusted Ally for Leftists
    • GTMO: Mayberry with a Caribbean Breeze
    • On the Frontlines of Immigration
    • Marrying Science and Policy in The Bahamas
  • Arts & Culture
    • A UM Architect’s Connection to Cuba
    • Digital Home for Cuban Theater
    • Football Flashback: ‘Canes vs. Cuba
    • An Interdisciplinary Hemispheric Collaboration
    • Exploring Architectural Wonders
    • Sanctuaries Reveal ‘Otherworldly’ Past
    • Unexpected Reception
    • Connections to the Past
    • Havana: The ‘Rome of the New World’
    • The Lowe Features Caribbean Art
    • A Musician Grows in Cuba
    • Afro-Cuban Religion: Surviving and Thriving Underground
    • The Musical Divide of Charismatic Worship in Haiti
    • Impresiones: Sights and Sounds from Travels in Cuba
    • The Fruits of Caribbean Literary Studies
    • Jazz Cubano!
  • Centers & Institutes
    • ICCAS: A Hub for Information on Cuba at the University of Miami
    • Abess Center: Saving Coral Reefs
    • CCS: Hemispheric Collaboration
    • – CCS: Colaboración Hemisférica
    • UMIA: Collaborative Scholarship in the Americas
    • CCS: Using Computational Mapping to Communicate Culture
    • CHC: A Collection of Historical Gems
    • – CHC: La “joya” de las Colecciones Cubanas
    • UMIA: A Hub for Caribbean Research
    • UM Hillel: Connecting to Jewish Cuba
    • UM Hillel: A Vibrant Patronato, the Cuban Jewish Community
    • UM Hillel: Student Perspectives from Cuba
    • ‘Cane Talks: Examining the Culture of Cuba

UM HILLEL: A Vibrant Patronato, the Cuban Jewish Community

UM HILLEL: A Vibrant Patronato, the Cuban Jewish Community
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The Patronato, or the Cuban Jewish Community, is at once a cultural gathering place and a tight-knight community for Cuban Jews on the island.

Supporting the 1,200 Jews currently living in Cuba, the Patronato Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba, or the Patronato, as the Cuban Jewish Community is called, is a cultural and community center for multi-generational families to celebrate Jewish traditions big and small—from the weekly Havdalah ceremony to the annual Purim festival and Passover.

Cuba served as a way point for Jews fleeing persecution over hundreds of years.

But, some quite liked the country’s warm weather and people and decided to start life anew on the island known as the pearl of the Caribbean. Used to adapting to different political contexts, moving on and away from the next up-and-coming despot, many in the Cuban Jewish Community fled yet again for the United States in 1959. Dictators and militarized revolutionaries hadn’t halted the joie de vivre of the Jewish community in the past, and Castro’s regime wasn’t going to be the one to do it for Cuban Jews.

“For some, Cuba may be a country filled with nostalgia and old cars, but to our students Cuba is a complicated country with a complex yet rich history,” explains Rabbi Lyle Rothman, a mentor and role model for University of Miami Hillel students, including the 14 students he took to Cuba in 2017 for an Alternative Spring Break trip.

About the Photo

Teens from the Patronato, or the Cuban Jewish Community, often perform choreographed dances during the congregation’s community gatherings. Here, costumed young members of the Patronato dance during the 2017 Purim Carnival at the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo

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The Patronato, stemming from the Centro Macabeo (United Hebrew Congregation)—established in 1906 by a dozen North American Jewish immigrants, and the precursor to Miami Beach’s Cuban Hebrew Congregation at the Temple Beth Shmuel—joined together the smaller independent Jewish groups spread across the island in 1951, and the center now serves as a formalized community resource for the 0.01 percent of the Cuban population that currently practices Judaism.

(Story continues after photo gallery)

The Beth Shalom synagogue is located in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana and is a congregation for the roughly 1,200 Jews that live in Cuba. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
The entrance to the Patronato de la Casa de la Communidad Hebrea de Cuba, or the Patronato, sits a few steps below the main entrance to the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
The Patronato, a vibrant cultural and community center and place of worship for Cuban Jews, has a community pharmacy for congregants, a practice space for choreographing dances, offers Sunday school classes and has a library. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
The Patronato boasts a library of more than 15,000 books in 21 languages. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
Members of the Patronato, or the Cuban Jewish Community, celebrate Purim in the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana by reading prayers and passages, dancing, enjoying candies, dressing in costumes, and re-enacting the story of Queen Esther and Mortdecai, as shown here. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
Members of the Patronato gather to dance and pray, arm-in-arm, during the weekly Havdalah ceremony, which ends the Sabbath and signifies the separation of work and rest. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
Patronato members gather in the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana, Cuba, for a lively celebration of Purim—a celebration of resilience and fortitude—in March 2017. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
Patronato congregation members leave the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana after enjoying a colorful celebration of the 2017 Purim Carnival. The Beth Shalom is one of three synagogues in Havana and one of six in Cuba. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo
William Miller, former vice president of the Patronato and grandson of the congregation’s founder, Jose Miller, an Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant from Poland, currently runs the tour and cultural exchange arm of the organization. Here, he is visiting and paying respects at his grandfather’s grave in the Ashkenazi cemetery in Havana, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Cuba, built for Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia in 1906. Photo credit: Jessica M. Castillo

Even in Cuba, long a communist and atheist state, the Jewish community is resilient and their bonds deep-rooted. For many, Judaism is more than a religion—it is a heritage that eclipses sociopolitical thought and national borders.

“The Patronato is excited to welcome Jewish groups from North America wanting to learn more about the culture and sense of belonging that has uniquely evolved in Cuba,” says William Miller, former vice president of the Patronato who currently runs the tour and cultural exchange arm of the congregation.

Bringing Jewish groups from outside Cuba to visit the island is important, Miller notes, for relating resources to the small Patronato. Through cultural exchange tours to Cuba, Miller and the Patronato hope to highlight to other Jewish groups the connectedness of the Cuban Jewish Community and how, despite being small, it is vibrant and united.

- JESSICA M. CASTILLO / UM News

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