Jews Enjoy Religious Freedoms Under Castro

May 8, 2005

Source: Yahoo! News

Wire Service: AFP

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050508/wl_afp/cubajews_050508221227

On May 8, 2005 Agence France-Presse reported, "At the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana, the Cuban flag flies next to that of Israel, even though the two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1973. A bust of Jose Marti, a hero of Cuban independence, stands near the candles lit for Sabbath prayers. Even Fidel Castro went to one of the Cuban capital's three synagogues in 1999 in a sign of the emerging religious freedom in Castro's communist state. The Jewish community of about 15,000 fell to about 1,000 after Castro's 1959 revolution declared this Caribbean island an atheist state. Now there are more than 900 people from 403 families in Havana and a few dozen more in the provinces."