Raul Castro Celebrates Chanukah With Cuban Jews

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cuban-president-raul-castroThe Associated Press reports:  Cuban President Raul Castro celebrated Hanukkah on Sunday with the island’s tiny Jewish community, a heavily symbolic act at a time when his government is holding a Jewish-American subcontractor on suspicion of spying.

Neither Castro nor those assembled at Havana’s Shalom synagogue mentioned the name Alan Gross during the gathering, which was broadcast on the state-television newscast Sunday evening. But Gross’s one-year detention without charge was the elephant in the room.

The U.S. government says Gross was in Cuba as part of a USAID program to distribute communications equipment to the island’s 1,500-strong Jewish community, and both the State Department and Gross’s wife, Judy, made fresh appeals this week for his release. The leaders of Havana’s two main Jewish groups have denied having anything to do with him.

Castro wore a suit and a yarmulke, the head covering which observant Jews wear as a symbol of their deference to God, and was given the honor of lighting the first candle of the menorah. It was the first time in memory that either Castro or his brother Fidel appeared with the Jewish community at a religious celebration like Hanukkah.

Raul Castro thanked his hosts for a “very enjoyable afternoon,” and said he hoped to have more time on another occasion to come and talk about “the Hebrew community in Cuba and the fabulous history of the Hebrew people.”

Castro noted that he will turn 80 in June, but said he was “in good health.” He said he was pleased that his country had begun to hold discussions on the need for a major economic overhaul. Cuba has announced that it is laying off 500,000 state workers, while allowing for more private enterprise.

Gross, a native of Potomac, Maryland, was arrested Dec. 3, 2009. His family denies he was spying, saying he brought communications equipment for use by the local Jewish community, not dissidents. The U.S. government says his continued detention is a “major impediment” to improved ties between the two Cold War enemies.

{AP/Matzav.com}


5 COMMENTS

  1. there are no jews in cuba !
    there is just a kehilla of people who have been converted by the rabinut .
    the cubans convert to judaism in order to be able to leave the country and not because they love the Torah kedosha.there are some old people who say that they are jewish, but not many. almost all all descendants of mixed marriages with goyot.
    there have been some cuban who converted and did afterwards aliyah.
    almost all of them are living now in the US carring on with their lifes of cuban ,haser eating goyim.
    someone should stop these conversions !

  2. #1, Your view sounds plausible. But one can also research the topic of Jews in Cuba and see there were times “authentic” Jews emigrated to Cuba. One can also research the possibility of Castro being a Jew. While there are arguments to both sides of the coin, it is difficult to prove either side as being definitively correct.

  3. #1: Whatever the case may be, there are people in Cuba who are genuinely devoted to Judaism and it is nice to see the government recognizing them.

  4. I am sorry to disappoint you guys but I am a Jew born and raised in Cuba out of a Jewish mother that recently moved to Israel to serve in the army so I would rather have you check the facts and then talk some more sense

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