Letters from Cuba

 

An emotional midgrade novel written by anthropologist Ruth Behar, Letters from Cuba shares less known stories about how European Jews ended up in the Carribean island to save their lives from the Nazi-occupied Europe. Inspired by her own family story Behar created a reliable story which appeals to young adults interested in history and in different cultures and traditions. 

Esther, 12 years old, embarked on an adventurous journey from her village in Poland, joining her father in Cuba where he was working hard to save money for bringing his family out of Europe. During her journey and upon arrival, she wrote letters in her native Yiddish to her sister Malka, sharing the details of her new life and their efforts to reunite with their loved ones. 

Through Esther´s pure eyes, it is not only a new world opening, but also the word she just left comes up clearer, especially taking into account the everyday persecution and discrimination Jews were the victims thereof. ´Cubans have been so friendly to me that I almost forgot about how some people hate Jews´. There is an antisemitic villain but the Anti-Nazi Society of Agramonte, her non-Jewish friends created to prevent the island from following into Germany´s path is working hard to counter his actions.

Esther, a brave bearer of a name associated in Jewish history with stubborn defense of Jews against the oppressors who want them dead, is a genuine voice who although fully aware of her heritage, she is happy to share her traditions she is proud of with her non-Jewish neighbours while learning on the go about other cultures. 

Besides teaching young readers about a particular tragic episode of Jewish history, Letters from Cuba offers a curious perspective on world which should continue far beyond one´s teenage years.

For me, it was a first complex encounter with the world of Askenazi Jews refugiated in Cuba. It have shape and made sense of a realm I knew only from cold historical accounts. The image of Yiddish speaking stores and schools in Havana or of the Jewish peddlers selling their products all over the country is unique and rarely present in novels.

Although Jewish presence in Cuba started at the end of the 15th century, during the 1930s the number increased also due to the prohibitive immigration policies in the US. Many ships with Jews who escaped the Nazi regime were turned off from the shores of the ´goldene Medina´ and thus Jews spread all over the Latin America and the Carribean. After the 1959 communist revolution, many of them left, mostly for US and Israel, with around 1,500 known Jews still living on the island. I would be happy one day to have the chance to visit those synagogues and walk the streets of Havana looking for Jewish traces.

Rating: 4 stars