Despite the general abnormality of conditions here and the division of opinion among various Jewish groups, Cuban Jewry has set about bringing order into its community life and crystallizing its stand on the boycott of German goods.
Ten years ago, with the aid of the New York division of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the Jewish Center of Havana was founded. Since that time a number of institutions have been established. Most of them were not in accord with the Center, with the result that communal work suffered.
However, the recent economic and political difficulties have tended to unify local Jewry and its efforts to protest what little it has succeeded in building up so far. With this in view the Jewish Center is attempting to unite within its ranks a number of Jewish institutions, including the Jewish Women’s League, the League for Tubereulous and Mentally Diseased, the Jewish Folkshul, the Juridical Committee and several philanthropic societies.
The new membership of the Center is young, educated, progressive. Abraham Schnaider, its newly-elected president is, for example, a one-time medical student and son of a prominent family of Tulchin, Russia. He came to Cuba in 1928.
Schnaider is also president of the League for the Tubercular and Mentally Diseased, which is providing care for forty-two tubercular and eight mentally diseased patients. Provision is also being made to care for some fifty sick Jewish children and their families.
The league income is derived from its 500 members and proceeds from entertainments which its dramatic section arranges.
ITS LOAN FUND
The Jewish Center has established a loan fund and supports the only Jewish library in Cuba and a Yiddish school where 326 children study. Forty per cent of them are children of families which are unable to meet tuition costs. The Center was also influential in establishing the Juridical Committee, which has actively protected the interests of Jewish residents during the various political upheavals.
In order to combat effectively German trade here, the Czechoslovakian Chamber of Commerce of Cuba has been organized by Mayer Liszovics, who hopes to strengthen trade relations between Cuba and Czechoslovakia and thus minimize the market for German goods. The first shipments of Czechoslovakian goods are expected shortly.
A second step in the anti-German campaign was the banquet arranged for representatives of the Cuban press by the Intersocial Committee, which includes representatives of every Jewish group here. More than twenty Cuban publications responded to the invitation, as did the president of the Cuban Journalists’ League and the Press Department of the Ministry of Interior.
Dr. Angula, president of the Journalists’ League, speaking in the name of the Cuban press and people, expressed friendship towards the Jews and decried anti-Semitism. The Intersocial Committee expects the press to aid in the anti-German boycott, basing its hopes on a promise by Dr. Ramon Seidin, editor of “El Pais.” David Bliss, president of the committee, believes that conditions for the successful conduct of the boycott are very favorable.
While the boycott front is a united one, there is considerable difference of opinion here as to the advisability of conducting a campaign for the relief of German victims of Hitlerism.
Inquiry by your correspondent elicited a number of statements by Jewish leaders here. Some of them believe with Abraham Schnaider that all effort should be concentrated upon the boycott, since little could be expected of a drive for funds. Mr. Schnaider thinks the abnormal political situation existing in Cuba today would prove a serious detriment to any such drive.
An opposing viewpoint was expressed by Mr. Liszovics, president of the Adath Israel and the Czechoslovakian Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Liszovics believes that the Cuban Jews are in duty bound to conduct a fund campaign and to make it a 100 per cent success. If the Jewish organizations of America will authorize him to do so, Mr. Liszovics said, he would undertake to launch a relief drive.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
