The Menora Of Cuba

World leaders, no matter how despotic they are, all celebrate Chanukah with the Jews. Raul Castro, the president of Cuba, went to the local Jewish synagogue in Havana and lit the candles on the 5th night of Chanukah.

The truth is that while we think of the Cuban government as being mean and anti-semitic (among other things), it is not necessarily true. They are a dictatorial regime, that is true. Yet that does not have to mean they are anti-semitic. They simply hate everyone, and are suspicious and controlling of them, equally. I actually have read over the years a number of articles that described the good relations Fidel Castro has had with the local Jewish community, and while they are poor and live a low socio-economic lifestyle, even for a poor country like Cuba, they do not feel particularly oppressed (at least not any more than anyone else).

Or maybe they just have to say that or they will be killed. Who knows?

Anyway, Raul Castro went to light the menora.
From WTOP:

Cuban President Raul Castro celebrated Hanukkah on Sunday with the island's tiny Jewish community, a heavily symbolic act at a time when his government is holding a Jewish-American subcontractor on suspicion of spying.


Neither Castro nor those assembled at Havana's Shalom synagogue mentioned the name Alan Gross during the gathering, which was broadcast on the state-television newscast Sunday evening. But Gross's one-year detention without charge was the elephant in the room.


The U.S. government says Gross was in Cuba as part of a USAID program to distribute communications equipment to the island's 1,500-strong Jewish community, and both the State Department and Gross's wife, Judy, made fresh appeals this week for his release. The leaders of Havana's two main Jewish groups have denied having anything to do with him.


Castro wore a suit and a yarmulke, the head covering which observant Jews wear as a symbol of their deference to God, and was given the honor of lighting the first candle of the menorah. It was the first time in memory that either Castro or his brother Fidel appeared with the Jewish community at a religious celebration like Hanukkah.


Raul Castro thanked his hosts for a "very enjoyable afternoon," and said he hoped to have more time on another occasion to come and talk about "the Hebrew community in Cuba and the fabulous history of the Hebrew people."