1956 Chevy at Havana synagogue

The exhibit, “A Journey to Jewish Cuba,” is a visual account of Ruth Behar’s journey back to Cuba to learn about the Jewish world that she and her family and thousands of Jews left behind after the revolution in 1959. Today’s Jewish Cuba is quite different from the Jewish Cuba of the 1950s. The community includes revolutionaries, born-again Jews, Afro-Cuban Jews, tango aficionados, and numerous fervent converts. Most are Jews by choice. They have converted because they are Jewish on their paternal rather than maternal side, or because they have married a person of Jewish descent. Like all Cubans on the island, they have scarce resources, but they have taken on the responsibility of guarding the Jewish legacy.