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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813541891
• ISBN13: 9780813541891
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 2.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.3" x 10.3"

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