Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cuba
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Cuba: its small Jewish community, the break with the Israeli state in 1973, a former Mossad officer's citrus business, and its intervention in the ICJ genocide case
Cuba has a Jewish community of about 500.[1] It severed diplomatic relations with "Israel" in 1973,[1] and "Israel" has regularly voted with the United States against UN resolutions calling for an end to the US embargo on Cuba.[2] In January 2025 Cuba filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa's genocide case against "Israel" at the International Court of Justice.[3]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says a permanent community was established in 1898, after the Spanish–American War, and grew with Sephardi and Eastern European immigration in the early 20th century. From 1922 the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) supported immigrants, and "since 1929, the Zionists maintained the Zionist Union of Cuba". More than 10,000 Jews arrived between 1933 and 1944, though Cuba turned away the refugee ship St. Louis in 1939. Almost all Jews left after the 1959 revolution. The WJC says that in the early 1990s Fidel Castro secretly allowed more than 400 Jews to emigrate to "Israel" in what was codenamed "Operation Cigar".[1]
Organisations
- Patronato de la Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba: the WJC's Cuban affiliate, based at the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana and affiliated with the Conservative movement. The WJC says the JDC has helped renovate it and has run programmes there since the early 1990s, and that the Patronato has a youth choir and an Israeli dance group. A delegation of the Cuban Jewish community took part in the Maccabiah Games in 2013.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? The WJC says there is "an impetus to foster and nourish a sense of Jewish identity and connection to Israel in the Jewish youth in Cuba", through the Patronato's activities and B'nai B'rith. No current affiliation with Zionist federations is documented.[1]
- Adath Israel: the only Orthodox synagogue remaining in Cuba.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? No information.
How far is it Zionist? Historically Zionist organisations existed (the Zionist Union of Cuba from 1929); today the WJC describes a focus on fostering a "connection to Israel" among young people, with support from the JDC and B'nai B'rith.
- In December 2009 Cuba arrested Alan Gross, a US Agency for International Development contractor who had brought communications equipment, including internet access, to Jewish community groups. He was sentenced to 15 years for "acts against the integrity of the state" and released in December 2014 in a prisoner swap.[4]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Cuba.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- The Israeli historian Margalit Bejarano told The Times of Israel that "Israel was one of the first states to recognize the revolutionary government" in 1959. The paper says that after the 1967 war Havana began collaborating with the Palestine Liberation Organization "to train guerrillas".[5] The WJC says Cuba "allowed Palestinian terrorist camps to operate on the island", severed relations in 1973 and later voted for the UN resolution that stated "Zionism equals racism".[1]
- The Times of Israel says a visit by the Israeli culture minister, Miri Regev, was the first by an Israeli cabinet minister since 1973, and that an Israeli trade delegation of 14 people organised by the Israel-Latin America Chamber of Commerce visited Havana on 5–7 December 2017. It reported that secret talks led by the Israeli foreign ministry's Modi Ephraim, with Canada as intermediary, had "fizzled" after Donald Trump's election in 2016.[5] The WJC says the Israeli culture minister and the head of the foreign ministry's Latin America division visited in 2016, and that there is no Israeli embassy or consulate in Cuba.[1]
- Cuba is not listed in the Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 table of diplomatic relations.[6]
Companies
- The Times of Israel describes the former Mossad officer Rafi Eitan, who masterminded the capture of Adolf Eichmann and was the handler of Jonathan Pollard, as "one of Fidel's friends". His company, Grupo BM, turned a 40,000-hectare citrus orchard at Jagüey Grande, Matanzas, into an export business that generated $680 million in exports over 20 years, and a joint venture it controlled built Havana's Miramar Trade Center in the mid-1990s. By 2018 BM was no longer in citrus, but sold tractors, fertiliser and irrigation technology to Cuban state bodies, with a turnover of $25 million.[5]
- In November 1997 the US State Department sanctioned officers of BM under the Helms-Burton Act for using property confiscated from Americans. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the Israeli embassy said "Israel supports the American policy toward Cuba".[7]
Arms
SIPRI records no Israeli arms transfers to Cuba.[8]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Cuba separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $0.0 million from Cuba (2024: $0.0 million) and exported goods worth $1.2 million to it (2024: $2.8 million).[9]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics includes Cuba in a combined group with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Puerto Rico, and does not list it separately.[10]
Political interference
UN voting
- "Israel" voted against the annual General Assembly resolution calling for an end to the US embargo in 2024, when only it and the United States opposed it, and again in October 2025, when the resolution passed by 165 votes to 7.[2] The Times of Israel says "Israel" abstained for the first time in October 2016, alongside the United States, before returning to a no vote.[5]
- Cuba voted for the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution in September 2025.[11]
- On 22 June 2024 the Cuban foreign ministry announced that Cuba would intervene in South Africa's case "para poner fin al genocidio que se comete contra el pueblo palestino" ("to put an end to the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people").[12] It filed its declaration under Article 63 of the Court's Statute on 10 January 2025.[3]
Jeffrey Epstein
- On 2 September 2009 Epstein wrote to John Brockman of the Edge Foundation: "my new idea is to do a giant conference in Havana,, great facilities beaches, only science, i beleive the gov't would sponsor, i need to check with state dept". Brockman replied that it was Epstein's "old idea".[13]
- In October 2015 Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem told Epstein he would fly to Cuba for two days on 27 October, between trips to Santo Domingo and Managua.[14]
- In January and February 2017 Daniel Siad wrote to Epstein from Havana that he was setting up meetings "regarding to model agency here and the Havana fashion week", that he had met "some government officials", and that Mariela Castro was "very supportive a bout the fashion projects in Havana". He added: "I'd like to find some very special faces". Epstein replied "happy to help" to the first message.[15][16]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Dominican Republic
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Venezuela
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Nicaragua
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 World Jewish Congress, Community in Cuba worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 United Nations, General Assembly Overwhelmingly Adopts Resolution Calling on United States to End Cuba Embargo UN Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, GA/12723, 29 October 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 International Court of Justice, Cuba files a declaration of intervention in the proceedings under Article 63 of the Statute press release no. 2025/2, 13 January 2025.
- ↑ Profile: Alan Gross BBC News, 17 December 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Larry Luxner, Israeli trade delegation to Cuba may augur a diplomatic thaw The Times of Israel, 9 January 2018.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ Israeli citrus company cited for violating Helms-Burton Act Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 20 November 1997.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy) (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba, Comunicado del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de la República de Cuba cubaminrex.cu, 22 June 2024 (Cuban government-side).
- ↑ Email from John Brockman to Jeffrey Epstein, 2 September 2009, EFTA00769799, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Sultan Bin Sulayem to Jeffrey Epstein, 12 October 2015, EFTA00714352, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email thread between Daniel Siad and Jeffrey Epstein, 24 January 2017, EFTA00666613, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Daniel Siad to Jeffrey Epstein, "Hello Jeffrey", 5 February 2017, EFTA01055365, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.