Sephardic Jews in Cuba - From all their Habitations

Source: a. Census of the Republic of Cuba, 1919 (Havana 1922), P. 183

(b.) "Cuban Immigration 1904-1923, Classified by Nationality," National Archives (NA) 837.55-64.

Cuban statistics, however, cannot be taken as a sufficient basis for the study of Jewish immigration. A considerable number of the immigrants classified as Turks, or as immigrants from Turkey in Asia, were probably born in Lebanon or in Syria. For the low number of Turks among the Arab immigrants see: Euridice Charon, "El asentamiento de emigrantes arabes en Monte (La Habana, Cuba), 1890-1930," AWRAQXIII (1992): 52.

A comparison between official statistics and information obtained retrospectively from Jewish informants shows that several females were not registered by the Department of Immigration as immigrants from Turkey. Table 3 shows that, according to official data, almost 90% of the immigrants from Turkey in the 1920s were males, and 85% declared that they were laborers. The lowest figure for female immigrants was recorded in the year 1920: 570 male immigrants and only two females. The survey among Cuban Sephardic Jews residing in Miami shows, however, that out of the 35 persons who entered Cuba in 1920-13 were males and 22 females.

Table 3

Sex and Occupation of Immigrants from Turkey to Cuba

Year   Male     Female    Students   Merchants  Laborers      No
                         & Artisans                       Occupation

1918     10        3                     7          3
1920    570        2         1           9        559          3
1921    104       55                     4         45         40
1923    683      120         1           1         90        607
1924  1,136       12         1          10      1,133          4
1925    323       81        43         281         80
1927     28       29         3           1         11         18
1928     36       37         6                     16         16
         89.5%    10.5%      0.5%        0.2%       7.4%      85%

Year


1918
1920
1921
1923  104
1924
1925
1927   24
1928
      6.9%

Source: Republica de Cuba, Secretaria de Haciendra, Seccion de
estadisticas, Inmigracion y movimiento de pasajeros, 1918-1930.

(21.) Interview with Alegra Fins, Miami 1987, ICJ.

A more reliable source on the difference between males and females among the Jewish immigrants from Turkey are the lists of the Jewish cemeteries in Havana, according to which the proportion between men and women among the adults born in Turkey was around 60% to 40% see Table 4). Between 1912 and 1942 Sephardic Jews were buried in the Jewish cemetery owned by the United Hebrew Congregation (founded by American Jews); in 1942 the Sephardic Community Uinon Israelita Chevet Ahim bought its own cemetery. Both cemeteries are located in Guanabacoa.

The lists of the cemetery of the United Hebrew Congregation are kept in the Archives of Adath Israel, Havana, and those of Chevet Ahim in the Casade ia Comunidad Hebrea (Patronato). I wish to thank Abraham Berezniak, Maritza Corrales, Gabriel Weinstein, and Alberto Ashkenazi for their assistance in obtaining the lists.