the jewish community of cuba: between continuity and extinction

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122 Margalit Bejaranomanufacture shoes, shirts, ties or underwear. Since clothing and leathergoods were mostly imported and very expensive,the cheap productsintroduced bythe Jews were in high demand, and the poor tailors andshoemakers were soon able to hire newerimmigrantsfor their sweatshops.23The institutional life of the Eastern European Jews beganwith a schism between the workers and the?"bourgeoisie"in 1925smallmerchants or owners of sweatshopswhose economic situation was notmuch better than that of their workers. The former created the KulturFarain (Cultural Society), while the latter founded the Centro Israelita de Cuba (Jewish Center of Cuba), both cateringto the social andspiritual needs of the Jewish immigrants.The Kultur Farain was considered the most active center of Jewishcultural and social life in the late 1920s. It had a large collection ofbooks and periodicals,a choir, a dramatic circle, and provided eveningclasses for its members. Its leaders had close links with the CubanCommunist Party, founded in 1925, and they joined the political struggle against the dictatorshipof Gerardo Machado (1925-1933), five ofthem paying with their lives and several others being expelledfromCuba.24Jewish presence in the early stages of Cuba's CommunistPartyaroused the interest of historians following the communist turn in FidelCastro's Revolution.Accordingto the minutes of the foundingsession ofthe Cuban CommunistParty three out of the ten founders were Jews;25one of them, Yunger Simchowitch, was destined to playa central role inthe historyof Cuban communism under the name of Fabio Grobart. Today,at the age of 85 and still an active member of the CentralCommittee of the Cuban Communist Party, Grobart denies his pastlinks with the Jewish community, but witnesses remember him as themost active propagandist among the Jewish workers.26While the Kultur Farain functioned as an active social center untilit was closed in 1931 by the Cuban government, the Centro Israelita became the leading institution of CubanJewryas a result of its relationswith Jewish welfareorganizationsin the U.S. Social aid from U.S.Jewry was essential to save the immigrants from misery and to servetheir immediate needs, but it was also intended to convince them to remain in Cuba and give up their American dream.Representatives of the American Jewish welfare institutions functioning in Cuba directed all their financial supportto the Centro Israelita, hopingto transform it into a comprehensive communalorganization that wouldprovideall the social services for the Jewish population. Thusthey accelerated the developmentof local institutionallife, but theyalso weakened the independence of the local leadershipand, in the long run, the Centro Israelita could not break free of its dependenceon U.S. Jewry.This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.230 on Sun, 2 Dec 2012 04:14:50 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Jewish Community of Cuba 123During more than 25 years, the Centro Israelita was recognized bythe Cuban authorities as the representative organ of the Jewish community, and thoughoften its leadershipwaschallenged by other organizations, none of them was able to replaceit. At the same time, theCentro Israelita was the central arena for politicalconflicts inside thecommunity; its mostimportant function, however, was the maintenanceof the largest Jewish day school.Besides the above-mentioned institutions, Eastern European Jewscreated a largenetwork of organizations covering every aspect of theirsocial life.27 Two that continued to have an impacton Jewish life afterthe revolution were Adath Israel and the Union Sionista.Ashkenaziimmigrantsto Cuba were not characterized bystrict observance of Jewish law. A small group of Orthodox Jews who assumedresponsibilityfor the religiousneeds of the whole community foundedAdath Israel in 1925, the mostimportant religious organizationofAshkenazi Jews. Due to an old disputebetween religious activists, agroup of Orthodox Jews headed by Rabbi Zvi Kaplanfounded a secondcongregation ? Knesseth Israel. Each maintained a synagogue in thesame building,on Jesus Maria Street, close to Havana's harbor. Bothprovided religious weddingsand circumcisions, and supervised kosherslaughtering.In addition, Adath Israel founded a Chevra Kadishathat took care of the religious aspects of burial, though the cemeteryremained the property of the American Jews.The Zionist Organizationof Cuba was founded in 1924. Beinga minority among Eastern European Jews, the organizationwashighly dependent upon the Chevet Ahimcongregation, and in its early stagesSephardic Jews were among its most active members. Its founders decided to avoid political divisionsby creatingone Zionist Union?theUnion Sionista de Cuba. This unitywas maintained in future years: theUnion Sionista served as the roof organizationof all the Zionist movements ? Hechalutz, Hashomer Hatzair, Maccabi and, in later years,Betar and Hanoar Hazioni.28Conflicts between the Zionists and the communists in Cuba reflectsimilar conflicts throughoutthe Jewish world. While the majority ofAshkenazi Jews belongedto the working class, the Kultur Farain enjoyed its heyday on the Jewish street. The influence of Cuban nationalism on the Cuban labor movement and the decrease in the number ofJewish workers considerablydiminished the number of Jewish advocates of communism, leaving a small, though militant, group. With thelegalizationof the Cuban Communist Party (1938), Jewish communistsbecame very active, and in spiteof bitter disputeswith the Zionistsduringthe Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, they regainedtheir popularityafter Hitler's invasion of Russia when their activities on behalf of theRed Armywere alignedwith Jewish interests.Zionism,however, wasslowly growing amongthe masses of CubanThis content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.230 on Sun, 2 Dec 2012 04:14:50 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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