UM HILLEL: A Vibrant Patronato, the Cuban Jewish Community

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.

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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