HISTORICAL
RELIGIOUS MISSION TO CUBA
December 2005
Stanley Cohen,
International Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish
Relief Project led a religious mission from December 7-15 2005. There
were 25 people on the mission from all over the US and 2 from Israel.
This was Cohen’s 27th trip to Cuba since the Relief Project
was founded in 1995.
This mission
is one of the most important religious missions to date. Two Torahs
were donated to the Jewish communities of Camaguey and Santa Clara
which is hoping to open a new synagogue. One torah was donated by
Adat Shalom in Pittsburgh, Pa. and presented by Jeffrey Herzog, Executive
Director of Rodef Shalom Congregation, Pittsburgh, PA to David Levy,
the President of the Camaguey Synagogue. The other torah was donated
by Steven Yoselevich of Union, NJ in honor of his family and presented
to David Tacher, President of the Santa Clara Jewish community to
be used by the four nearby provinces of Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Cabrion
and Sancti Spiritus. There was a special ceremony with a houpah and
many prayers. Most of the Cuban attendees had never been close to
or touched a Torah before. The ceremony was extremely emotional because
it had been many years since a Torah had been presented to the Cuban
Jewish community
In addition to
presenting the two Torahs the group brought over 400 pounds of humanitarian
supplies including Judaica, medical supplies and monetary donations
to all the synagogues
Mr. and Mrs.
Green flew from Natanya, Israel to be part of our mission. Mrs. Green
was born in Cuba and left in 1938 with her mother who was a naturalized
American citizen. Her father who was living in Cuba because he was
not able to get a visa to enter the United States died shortly thereafter.
After 68 years she and her husband traveled with us to Cuba and found
her father’s grave site listed in the book at Adat Israel Synagogue
where her father was a member. The entire group visited the Ashkenazi
cemetery and had a memorial service for her father.
Another highlight
of the mission was the retreat which was sponsored by B’nai
B’rith Cuban Jewish Relief Project under the auspices of Isaac
Rousso, President of B’nai B’rith Maimonides Cuba. 150
people traveled on three buses from Havana to Pinar del Ria province
for the retreat. Each family was given a menorah and candles for Chanukah
and additional Judaica. B’nai B’rith Cuban Jewish Relief
Project’s goal is to make sure that each Jewish Cuban family
has the necessary religious items to celebrate all of the Jewish holidays.
B’nai B’rith
Cuban Jewish Relief Project was founded by Stanley Cohen, International
Chairman in 1995 to help the Jewish community of Cuba. The B’nai
B’rith Maimonides Cuba chapter has 85 members and is involved
with the Tzedaka Project which helps supplement the income of 65 retired
persons and the Emergency Fund which helps members of the Jewish community
who have suffered extreme damage to their homes.
For further information
please visit our website at jewishcuba.org/bnaibrith or contact us
toll free at 877.222.9590