Chapter 2: Jewban Exiles from the Revolution

This chapter begins with the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista and resulted in Fidel Castro taking power in Cuba. It provides a brief review of the revolution, its immediate effects, and its reception by Cubans. It then focuses specifically on how Cuba’s Jews responded, which for most was to flee the country. In the chapter I share the “leaving” stories of some of the exiles I interviewed. Additionally, I tell of their early experiences in their new home country, the United States.

Prior to 1959, Cuba was largely a country that received people from other countries, not a sender of them. This is with a few exceptions. By the 1820s sizeable groups of Cubans had migrated to New York City, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, most of whom were professionals or merchants. More emigrated to the US during the Ten Years War (1868–1878), the Little War (1879–1880), and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). Approximately 55,700 Cubans migrated to the US between 1868 and 1898, many skilled workers but others seeking political refuge amidst the wars with Spain. Skilled cigar workers landed in Key West and Tampa, Florida, New York City, and New Orleans. New York was the hub for much of the Cuban immigrants, with the air service between New York City and Havana one of the busiest routes in North America (Perez, 2018). Cuba and the US had, as was described in Chapter 1, a relationship that was financial and political. Not everyone was satisfied with the US-Cuba relationship, however. One of those people who were dissatisfied was Fidel Castro. Since the 1959 revolution, the Cuban exodus can be divided into five main stages: the “Historical Exiles” (1959–62); the Freedom Flights (1965–73); the Mariel boatlift (1980); the balsero (rafter) crisis (1994); and the post-Soviet exodus (1995–2017). 2021–2024 is seeing a new wave.