the jewish community in cuba before the revolution
TRANSCRIPT
The Jewish Community in CubaBefore the Revolution
Dr. Margalit BejaranoThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem
FIU, May 16, 2014
The life cycle of the Community
Emergence
Growth
• Prosperity
• Decline
Religious freedom
Immigration to Cuba and sugar prices
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
180,000
200,000
1902 1905 1913 1916 1919 1920 1921 1922 1924 1927
sugar prices2
No. of immigrants
The impact of the Quota Acts
Number of Jewish immigrants to the U.S.• From 1901 to 1914 1,346,050 (from Eastern
Europe)• In 1920/21 120,000• In 1921/22 53,524• In 1924/25 10,092
Immigrants from Countries of origin of Jews before and after the Quota Acts
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
10,000
Syria Turkey Poland Russia Romania Hungary Lithuania
1902-1920
1921-1930
Jewish Sectors• Americans (200-300 persons)• Including unorganized Jews
from Curaçao and from Europe• Founded the United Hebrew
Congregation (1906)•• Sephardim (4,000 in 1926)• Including Jews from Syria• Founded Shevet Ahim (1914)
• Ashkenazim (8,000 in 1930)• Founded Centro Israelita
(1924)
Jewish victims under Machado
Nose YalombIsaac HurwitchYacob BursteinBerl WaxmanBernhard Reinhartz
Selected OrganizationsAccording to sectors
Americans• United Hebrew
Congregation SisterhoodSephardim• Unión Israelita Shevet Ahim• Buena Voluntad• Bikur Holim• Teodoro Herzl School
Ashkenazim and Sephardim• Zionist Union
Ashkenazim• Centro Israelita de Cuba • Home for Young Women• Orphans and Old Age Home• School• Adath Israel (synagogue)• Kneset Israel (synagogue)• Anti Tuberculosis
Committee• Women's organization• Kultur Farein (left wing)
1933 Revolution
Anti-semitism among Spaniards• JTA Hitler’s Hand is Seen As Jews Are Berated by Cuba Terrorists
• July 1, 1934• Havana (Jun. 25)• The frequent revolutions, attempts at assassinations, street demonstrations and similar terrors which keep the
political life of Cuba in a state of tumult, give the Jewish colony of the island no rest. In some mysterious fashion the Jews are usually accused of complicity in most of the troublous incidents.
• For a while conditions were improving for the Jews of Cuba. They were finding work and engaging in trade to an extent greater than at any time during the past six or eight years.
• But suddenly this normalization of Jewish life was paralyzed and a series of openly anti-Semitic attacks of a systematically threatening nature have created a state of panic among the Jews.
• The newspaper, Popular, owned by Pepin Rivera (an anti-Semite who also owns the Catholic newspaper Diario de la Marina and Information, an evening paper), recently came out with a sensational article on the organization in Cuba of a secret society “to save the country from the Jewish danger.”
•
.
Nazi Antisemitism in Cuba
The Saint Louis
WW II Jewish refugees in Cuba
The impact of the Holocaust
C
Cuba, Israel and the Jews
The best years