WASHINGTON (JTA) — Alan Gross contacted me a couple of months ago over Facebook Messenger. There was something he thought I should know. I was pleasantly surprised. I’d only exchanged pleasantries with Gross in the several times I’d seen him since his release from a Cuban prison in December 2014, ending five years of imprisonment…
When you don’t have to work and don’t have to be anywhere, the most difficult decision faced on a day-to-day basis is how to occupy your time. Some volunteer. Some see their grandkids, walk the dog and play golf. Others have hobbies, exercise or do good deeds. Since you don’t have to be anywhere at…
You may have heard that the Yiddish-Cuban opera “Hatuey: Memory of Fire,” made its way to Havana in early March. Despite issues with a finicky old sound system, the premiere was a huge success and the opera has received extensive coverage in the Cuban press. It may seem like a miracle that this opera, based…
Israel’s national baseball team upset Cuba 4-1 in the World Baseball Classic, continuing its unlikely run in the tournament. After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning Sunday, Israel took control of the game, driving in four consecutive runs and holding the heavily favored Cuban team to just five hits. The game was the first…
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A new opera based on an 86-year-old Yiddish poem about a Taino indigenous chief who resisted the Spanish invaders will have its premiere in Havana next month. “Hatuey: Memory of Fire,” will first be performed in Havana on March 3, reported the New York Times. Composed by Frank London of the Klezmatics, the…
(JTA) — Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz, who opened the doors of his Miami Beach synagogue to waves of Cuban exiles beginning in the early 1960s, died Thursday at his home in Miami Beach. He was 97. Abramowitz, longtime leader of Temple Menorah, ministered to hundreds of young Jews who arrived in the United States as part…
What did Fidel Castro stand for when it comes to Israel and the Jews? That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. With the Cuban’s leader’s death November 25, at age 90, his long and controversial career is sure to be reviewed minutely on every issue in the days leading up to his funeral, December 4….
Encased in a glass box on one of the main plazas in old Havana is a small and ordinary fishing boat called “El Granma.” Sixty years ago a young group of socialist militants led by Fidel Castro crossed the Gulf of Mexico on it, igniting a revolution that would affect the region for decades to…
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