Tagged Cuba

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is responding to the devastating 7.1 earthquake in Central Mexico, immediately supporting the search, rescue, and emergency aid efforts of CADENA, its Mexican Jewish humanitarian partner, in hard-hit Mexico City. This work, as well as the tracking of Hurricane Maria’s impending impact in… Read more »

(The Nosher via JTA) — Cooking enough for an army has been a long-established tradition of Jewish mothers across the globe, but mine takes it to a new level. I can’t think of a meal prepared by my mother where there wasn’t enough food for each diner to have… Read more »

Old Havana, seen here, has the only place to go for the kashrut-observant Cuban to pick up a piece of meat. (Shutterstock)

(JEWNIVERSE/JTA) — For the kashrut-observant Cuban, there’s only one place to go for a piece of meat. Situated on Acosta Street in Old Havana is Cuba’s sole kosher butcher shop. For nearly 70 years, the privately run business has provided kosher beef to the country’s Jews, and only to… Read more »

Alan and Judy Gross at the Western Wall in the spring of 2005. (Courtesy of the Gross family)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – For the Jews of Cuba, it was the ultimate Internet connection. The high-tech equipment that U.S. contractor Alan Gross brought with him to Cuba in 2009 to help connect local Jews to the Internet reportedly included a SIM card that makes it almost impossible to track… Read more »

I am hoping you have heard about the plight of my friend Alan Gross. Alan is from the Washington, D.C. area and his situation has received a lot of coverage in the news. Alan went to Cuba to bring laptop computers and cell phones to the Jewish community on… Read more »

Alan and Judy Gross at the Western Wall in the spring of 2005. (Courtesy of the Gross family)

DENVER (JTA) — Alan Gross is a Jewish-American contractor who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba for “crimes against the state.” Gross, now 62 and in ill health, was arrested in 2009 as he was leaving Cuba. His family and U.S. State Department officials say that Gross… Read more »