FIRST IMMIGRANTS

18th anniversary of the Jewish Center of Cuba. Havana, Cuba 1943.

The origins of the Cuban Jewish community are linked to the War of Independence (1868) and the Spanish-American War (1898). Jews from Florida were among the active supporters of liberator Jose Marti and his people, and American Jews began to settle on the Island as veteran soldiers or as businessmen at the end of the 19^th century. In 1904, they founded the Union Hebrew Congregation with a Reform synagogue and in 1906 they acquired a cemetery.
During the years prior to World War I, immigrants began to arrive from Turkey and the Near East. 

Among them there were two groups who came from the town of Silivria (Silvri) near Istanbul and who settled in Camanguey, and a second group from Kirklisse (Kilklareli), near Adrianopolis (Edirne), who went to Santiago de Cuba. They were Sephardi Jews who spoke Ladino, a language that facilitated their contacts with the local Spanish speaking population. That was one of their reasons for deciding to immigrate to Cuba at the time when they could have entered the United States.