An Island Called Home

by Behar, Ruth; Mayol, Humberto

• ISBN13: 9780813545004
• ISBN10: 0813545005
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-30
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

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 as the years passed, the many Jews who came there from war-torn Europe remained, and the beloved island ceased to be a hotel and eventually became home.” Then Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The majority of the Jews soon broke with his communist regime and left in a mass exodus. Though they remade their lives in the United States, they mourned the loss of the Jewish community they had built.As a child of five, Ruth Behar was caught up in the Jewish exodus from Cuba. Growing up in the United States, she wondered about those who remained.An Island Called Homeis the story of Behar’s return to learn about the people who are keeping Judaism alive in Cuba today. Unlike the exotic image projected by the American media, Behar uncovers a side of Cuban Jews that is poignant and personal. Her poetic and passionate vignettes of those she meets are coupled with the sensitive photographs of Havana-based photographer Humberto Mayol, whose shadowy and riveting images create an unforgettable portrait of a community that many have seen though few have understood.In the words of Sandra Cisneros, author of Caramelo,Ruth Behar’sAn Island Called Homeis a kaddish, an offering, dedicated to the exiles and to the children of the exiles and forthose wandering still, searching for their homes. May they ‘not be given up for lost.’”

Table of Contents

Map of Cuba (showing places visited)

Running Away from Home to Run toward Home

Looking for Henry

A Kaddish for the Jews Who Rest in Jewish Cemeteries in Cuba and for Raquel's Mother Who Does Not

A Tour of Havana's Synagogues

The Kosher Butcher Shop

The Shirt That Holds Sadness

Los Prinstein

In the Realm of Lost Things

How to Pack Your Suitcase

Enrique Bender's Blue-Green Eyes Remind Me of My Grandfather

The Dancing Turk

Monday Morning in Luyanó

Danayda Levy's School Report

May Day with a Jewish Communist

The Whispering Writer

The Three Things José Martí Said All Real Men Must Do

Einstein in Havana

Salomón the Schnorrer

Mr. Fisher's Twice-Yearly Gifts

Becoming Ruth Berezniak

After Everyone Has Left

The Ketubah That Became a Passport

When I See You Again There Will Be No Pain or Forgetting

Traces

Simboulita's Parakeet

Seven Jewish Weddings in Camagüey

Che Waits for a New Frame

Pearls Left in Cienfuegos

The Moses of Santa Clara

A Conversation Next to El Mamey

Villa Elisa

The Covenant of Abraham

Salvador's Three Wives

A Beautiful Pineapple

The Last Jew of Palma Soriano

The Mizrahi Clan in Guantánamo

Departures

My Room on Bitterness Street

How This Book Came to Be a Photojourney

Chronology

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

List of Photographs

About the Author and Photographer

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