EARLY HISTORY

Directors of the Society for Help to Jewish Tuberculosis and Mental Patients. Havana, Cuba, December 1932.

There were Jewish converts among the first European settlers on the island in 1492. Groups of Jews fleeing from Brazil during the Portuguese Reconquest (17^th century) settled in Cuba despite Inquisitional persecutions and promoted a flourishing trade with the  West Indies. In the 18^th century, Jewish merchants extended this trade to Hamburg, Amsterdam and New York. Several of them were severely persecuted during the 17^th and 18^th centuries by the Inquisition.

The contemporary Jewish community, however, does not represent a line of continuity with the Jews of the 18^th century. Its formation began after Independence from Spain was achieved (1898).