He’s the only Jewish person from Cuba that I’ve ever heard of
Same here. I
Jewish Cubans, Cuban Jews, or Cubans of Jewish heritage, have lived in the nation of Cuba for centuries. Some Cubans trace Jewish ancestry to Marranos (forced converts to Christianity) who came as colonists, though few of these practice Judaism today. The majority of Cuban Jews are descended from European Jews who immigrated in the early 20th century. More than 24,000 Jews lived in Cuba in 1924, and still more immigrated to the country in the 1930s. Following the 1959 communist revolution, 94% of the country's Jews emigrated, most of them to the United States.[1] In 2007 an estimated 1,500 known Jewish Cubans remained in the country, overwhelmingly located in Havana.[2] Several hundred have since emigrated to Israel.
Because South Florida has large Jewish and Cuban populations, a significant number of people in the area claim descent from American Jews and Cuban-American gentiles. Americans of Jewish and Cuban descent (whether or not their ancestors were Cuban Jews specifically) sometimes refer to themselves as Jubans (or Jewbans or Jewbanos), a portmanteau of the words "Jew" and "Cuban".
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