Jews in Cuba:
A Rich Cultural History

11,000,000

Country population

~750

Jewish population

1938

JDC entry date

Jews are said to have first arrived in Cuba in 1492, aboard Christopher Columbus’s ship. And today, JDC is proud to support this dynamic and growing community.

Cuba is so much more than vintage cars and world-famous music. It’s also proudly Jewish, with a vibrant community that’s been making a comeback since the early 1990s. Today, JDC is proud to partner with this island community to help cultivate its bright Jewish future.

Cuba has been home to Jewish life for centuries. Legend has it that Jews first reached Cuba in 1492, aboard Christopher Columbus’s ship, but the first official community was established by American immigrants in 1906. From 1938-1944, JDC provided over 12,000 Jewish refugees with vocational training, business loans, job placement assistance, and co-founded Pinca Paso Seco, an agricultural retraining farm.

The Cuban Revolution in 1959 would later rock the very foundation of Cuba’s Jewish community, when 94 percent of the country’s 15,000 Jews emigrated to Israel. But since 1992, when the government lifted its ban on religious practice, Jewish life has begun to thrive once more. Across the island, Cuban Jews have dedicated themselves to reconnecting with their heritage and forging a Jewish future. With the help of JDC — invited by the community to help bolster Jewish life — Cuba’s Jews have embraced a Jewishness all their own.

For more than three decades, JDC has sponsored a wide range of community-building initiatives, including the renovation of Havana’s flagship Patronato synagogue, a centerpiece of Jewish Cuban life. From Jewish programming to cultural initiatives, JDC is helping Jewish Cuba flourish. 

Aiding the Most Vulnerable Cuban Jews

JDC provides both practical and spiritual support to Cuba’s Jewish community. We support in-person connections between isolated and elderly Jews living at a distance from each other, and we sponsor Kesher, which provides support to adults with disabilities and operates a pharmacy at the Patronato synagogue.

Years into the pandemic, we continue to provide hybrid support to the country’s most vulnerable Jews. From the very start, we created virtual opportunities for Sunday school, elderly programs, and weekly Shabbat dinners. Considering food shortages and rationing systems, this weekly meal was critical for the well-being of at-risk and elderly citizens. Today, this support is ongoing, with JDC providing food packages to more than 120 vulnerable families.

Cultivating a Cuban Jewish Future

By supporting a variety of programs that promote Jewish life, JDC helps the Cuban Jewish community forge its own future — one that is authentic, relevant, and exciting. This includes periodic in-person visits from a rabbi from Chile who, throughout the year, maintains constant virtual contact with the community, the Rikudim dance program –– an Israeli folk dance class — a Sunday school, communal celebrations for all Jewish holidays, and weekly Shabbat gatherings, where we help serve meals to hundreds of Jews. Both the Sunday school and Shabbat celebrations are hybrid, taking place in person once a month.