Source: Photograph (2010) by WTL© on site in Havana.
Comment: This is the Gran Sinagoga Bet Shalom in the nice Vedado neighborhood in Havana. It was built in 1957; it continues to have a small but fairly thriving congregation; and it depends for the most part on humanitarian donations like the ones that the group of students from Washington University in St. Louis brought to it in 2010. Its official name is Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba, and it is known principally as El Patronato. About 1,500 Jews are living in Cuba in the early 21st century, with about 1,100 in Havana. There is one kosher butcher shop in Cuba (see: => Havana #24c), and it is in La Habana Vieja (Old Havana). There is no rabbi in Cuba, but one comes occasionally. This fact makes holding a Jewish congregation together—and this one remains vibrant—quite difficult. Note: there is a Conservative congregation also in Havana, Adath Israel, two other small Havana congregations, and a few other Jewish congregations, some as large as one family, in other cities in Cuba. For example, in Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, (Cuban) Guantánamo, Campichuela, and Sancti Spiritus.
Before 1959, there were about 15,000 Jews in five synagogues in Cuba. This means that about 90% of the Jews who once lived in Cuba fled when Castro came to power. It is to be noted that although Israel is the only country with which Cuba does not have diplomatic relations (the US and Cuba have "interest sections" in Havana and D.C.), it appears that there is little anti-Semitism. Those Cuban Jews who want to leave can only leave Cuba directly for Israel, however. When the professor-photographer visited El Patronato there was no evidence whatsoever of a police presence near the synagogue or of vandalism of any sort.
Here is the basic information about El Patronato:
Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba, El Patronato, Calle I, #259, Esquina 13, Vedado, Ciudad de la Habana 10400 , Cuba,
Phone: (537) 832-8953, Fax: (537) 33 3778, E-mail: beth_shalom@enet.cu or, patronato_ort@enet.cu
Additional images: See: => Havana #24a and => Havana #24b.
Humanities question: How do this photo and the information above affect your thoughts about Cuba?