An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba

By Ruth Behar

Book Overview

Yiddish-speaking Jews thought Cuba was supposed to be a mere layover on the journey to the United States when they arrived in the island country in the 1920s. They even called it "Hotel Cuba." But then the years passed, and the many Jews who came there from Turkey, Poland, and war-torn Europe stayed in Cuba. The beloved island ceased to be a hotel, and Cuba eventually became "home." But after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the majority of the Jews opposed his communist regime and left in a mass exodus. Though they remade their lives in the United States, they mourned the loss of the Jewish community they had built on the island. As a child of five, Ruth Behar was caught up in the Jewish exodus from Cuba. Growing up in the United States, she wondered about the Jews who stayed behind. Who were they and why had they stayed? What traces were left of the Jewish presence, of the cemeteries, synagogues, and Torahs? Who was taking care of this legacy? What Jewish memories had managed to survive the years of revolutionary atheism? An Island Called Home is the story of Behar's journey back to the island to find answers to these questions. Unlike the exotic image projected by the American media, Behar uncovers a side of Cuban Jews that is poignant and personal. Her moving vignettes of the individuals she meets are coupled with the sensitive photographs of Havana-based photographer Humberto Mayol, who traveled with her. Together, Behar's poetic and compassionate prose and Mayol's shadowy and riveting photographs create an unforgettable portrait of a community that many have seen though few have understood. This book is the first to show both the vitality and the heartbreak that lie behind the project of keeping alive the flame of Jewish memory in Cuba. Reader Guide (http: //rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/pages/behar_reader_guide.aspx)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813545005
• ISBN13: 9780813545004
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.9" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Poignant

A hegira worth reading which will break your heart while at the same time give you a history of a people who have either gone into exile a second time or chose to remain in an island where most members of their family have abandoned. Excellent chronicle of Ruth Behar's return to the island that she left as a child. Thank you for allowing us who thirst for a visit to the island where we were born and only have a distant recollection of what we left behind.

An Island Called Home, Returning to Jewish Cuba

Dr. Ruth Behar has written an insightful book about the Jews of Cuba and personal memories of the island passed down to her from family members who left Cuba after Fidel Castro's revolution. Although Dr. Behar was only a child when she left Cuba with her family and had no personal memories of the events that happend during her childhood, her many trips to Cuba as an anthropologist have allowed her to recreate that period of history and update it to the current time. Her emotional interviews with Jews still living in Cuba have allowed her to document how Jewish lives and the practice of Judaism have evolved through three time periods; 1)Prior to the revolution, 2) During Cuba's officially atheistic period, 1959-1992, and 3) During its secular period, 1992 to the present. Dr. Behar also discribes the influence of American Jewish tourists and organizations which provide both humanitarian aid and funds for the reconstruction and operation of synagogues and cemeteries in various Jewish communities throughout Cuba.

great book with wonderful photography

a great book with wonderful photography. it's written by an academic, but is widely accessible. would make a wonderful addition to any library.

Lyrical and merging memoir and ethnography

This is a touching and lyrical account that mixes memoir with ethnography in ways that enrich both. A pleasure to read. Those who want to see how an anthropologist can also reveal something of herself as she reveals others would do well to read this book