14ymedio, Nelson Garcia/Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 4 December 4, 2023 — On the tombs of the two Jewish cemeteries of Guanabacoa there are no flowers, but rather stones. It is an ancient custom that has survived throughout the centuries and that represents the solidity of Jewish traditions in the world. The cemetery, several synagogues, a hostel, a kosher butcher’s shop and not a few family homes retain the imprint of the Jews in Havana, the capital of a country whose government is hostile to their cultural and religious homeland: Israel.
The 14ymedio tour of the Jewish map of Havana, where the majority of the one thousand Jews who have stayed on the Island are concentrated, in addition to small groups in Santa Clara and Cienfuegos, begins in its only kosher butchery, at number 708A Cuba Street.
The term “kosher” defines the food that, according to Jewish law, which has been practiced for several millennia, a Jew can eat. Pork and its derivatives are prohibited, for example, while beef, chicken and eggs are allowed. About 95% of the 15,000 members of Cuba’s Jewish community have left the country since 1959, almost all for the United States and Israel.
The difficulties in respecting that tradition are obvious in a country that is undersupplied, especially with meat. “The butcher shop opens once a month, without a fixed date, when the product arrives,” a worker from the Sephardic Center of Havana tells this newspaper. The meat is regulated, according to the number of Jews registered at the establishment. To consume it, it is necessary for a rabbi – the spiritual leader of the community – to certify that the meat meets the parameters of purity required by law.
The same source, in a community that is always suspicious of strangers, answers 14ymedio’s questions. In Cuba, he admits, the Jewish community has not had frontal attacks or felt watched, but the regime’s support for the Palestinians, and the terms it uses about Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, which triggered an armed conflict on October 7, are not welcome.
At the entrance of the Center and also in the Bet Shalom synagogue, a large poster has been installed with the photos of the more than 240 hostages kidnapped in Gaza: “Free them. Help us bring them home!”
“There have been many posts against Jews on social networks, which have bothered us, and although none of them refer directly to the Cuban Jewish community, it is known that the Government has a lot to do with those publications. We are disappointed and worried,” he says.
If someone wants to buy meat at the kosher est
