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Judaism in Cuba

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions

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Definition

Judaism requires a practicing Jew to believe and live out as many of the 613 commandments as possible from the Hebrew Scriptures (also referred to as the Old Testament in Christianity) seen as the source of the Ten Commandments. The world’s core, or practicing Jewish population, has been estimated at 14.41 million of which about 500 live in Cuba or less than 0.01% of the 11,100,000 Cuban population. The number of those practicing Judaism in Cuba has varied since 1492 with the arrival of Christopher Columbus up until today (Dashefsky and Sheskin 2017).

Introduction

Judaism is a monolithic religion with Israel as its spiritual homeland. The Jewish Diaspora is exile from Israel following subsequent conquests over centuries by Persia, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. The initial exile and diaspora were in Europe and Asia. Subsequent migration followed the patterns of war, trade, and exploration of their host countries. This was how Jewish arrived in Cuba. The first Cuban Jews or...

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References

  • Avni H (2015) The Jewish community of Cuba: memory and history. The Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem

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  • Bejarano M (2002) Sephardic Jews in Cuba. Judaism 51:96–108

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  • Dashefsky A, Sheskin IM (eds) (2017) The American Jewish year book. Springer, Dordrecht

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  • Greenberg B (2018) The Jews of Cuba. http://www.jewishcuba.org/contents.html. Accessed 21 Apr 2018

  • London C (2009) Far from Zion: in search of a global Jewish community. William Morrow, New York

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  • Sapir B (1948) The Jewish community of Cuba. J.T.S.P. University Press, New York

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Glen Segell

Authors
  1. Glen Segell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Glen Segell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology/Anthropology, Oakland Univ Sociology/Anthropology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Henri Gooren

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Segell, G. (2018). Judaism in Cuba. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_274-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_274-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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