If you were to believe my grandmother, practically everybody is Jewish. As with many bubbes — although we didn’t call her bubbe — she swept almost everyone she wanted into “the tribe.” Sometimes, as with Cary Grant, to my childhood amazement, she even turned out to be right.
But she never mentioned Fidel Castro. He was a pariah after all. (This grandmother was no lefty.) It wasn’t until years later I heard the rumors that the Comandante himself was a landsman. He was from one of those Spanish marrano families, so the legend went, that converted from Judaism into Catholicism during the Inquisition.
I never believed it — or, more precisely, I seriously doubted it. Until now.
My eyes were opened when I read Jeffrey Goldberg’s fascinating report about his recent journey to Havana to meet Fidel. Castro had invited Goldberg to Cuba after reading a piece he wrote in the Atlantic about the Iran-Israel conflict. At their meeting in Havana, the aging dictator made the usual criticisms of Israel, but then quite emphatically informed the journalist of his distaste for Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s rampant anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. He went on to talk about the unique heritage of the Jews and how Ahmadinejad was wrong not to respect it and that Israel deserved to exist.
Castro… attacking another Third World despot and recognizing Israel? Strange business indeed.
There could be only one conclusion. Fidel is Jewish after all.
Not that this is anything to be proud of. Its just interesting. (And, yes, I know this evidence is still highly circumstantial, but trust me. You’ve heard of gay-dar? This is Jew-dar.) Maybe the old bird is feeling a little guilty. Who knows? Lately, he even admitted he mistreated homosexuals and that socialism wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be as economic system. What’s next? Barack Obama abjures unions? We’ll see. This is going to be an interesting year, Jewish or otherwise.
To my gentile and Jewish friends, happy new year.
This whole post had me rolling, Roger! Your sense of humor was a refreshing bit of comedy gold.
My “Whitedar” goes up every time I see a dude or dudette in Khaki pants and a polo shirt!
My “Obesedar” goes off the charts whenever I visit “Walmart people.
My insulindar goes off the charts whenever I see a dude who looks like Willy Wonka.
Delia, I think Roger was a bit serious.
I have also long heard that Castro was from a “converso” family.
Whether or not Castro was Jewish, Cuba had, for a country of its size, a fairly sizeable Jewish population in the pre-Communist days. I can’t believe Castro did not have some contact with them starting with his college days — and certainly when he played minor league ball in the US.
Big deal. Castro has to get back in the line behind the Danes (Land of Dan), the Incans and Mormons, and assorted Christian Identity people. And me, a wannabe.
Happy New Year, Roger. I read the article (the first part) by JG and came away with some mixed emotions. Cuba has been a brutal (and from what I read, quite racist) society the past four decades. Not to put too heavy a stereotype on this bizarre twist, but, that doesn’t sound very Jewish to me.
An old man facing his own mortality for several years, may be hedging his bets a bit, or, perhaps his disbeliefs are having an argument with his what if’s. JG intimated as such, when he made reference to the Hitchen’s moment.
We may never know. If Fidel is now worried about his soul, it must be clashing with his worry about his image and legacy. In any event, Ahmadinejad won’t be swayed, of course.
But, maybe…just maybe…all those apologists for leftist hatred and antipathy for Israel, might be given pause. One of their great heroes has left the anti-Jew reservation. He is even heading away from the anti-Israel reservation. He may not be one of the “tribe”, but, by present appearances, he doesn’t want to commune with the leftist haters any longer either.
Notify the BBC. Notify the JournoListas. Bashing Israel and hating the Jews as a bloodsport…apparently is out of season.
Strange New Year coming, Roger. Have a happy, healthy and prosperous one.
Maybe Castro is seeing more in the Iranian, Venezuelan connection, than the CIA is capable of analysing, and is getting worried enough to get Goldberg to pass on the message?
Islam is already hard at work converting Brazilians in the favelas of Rio, apart from the metropolitan areas they are developing in southern Brazil on the Paraguay border.
Soon Cuba might become like a new Israel, a thorn in the side of Islam.
Not so strange. The son of one of my closest friends has started a program to re-establish synagogues and bring rabbis to Cuba, so Castro’s statements are rather interesting in that light.
Maybe there were Marranos [Jewish converts-forced converts- to Christianity] in Fidel’s family tree. Fidel’s father was from Galicia, in the far northwest corner of Spain, farthest removed from Muslim influence and control. Off hand I would associate Jews in Spain with the Muslim rule, so it would seem to me not likely that a Gallego/Galician would have Jewish ancestry. If Fidel’s father were from Andalucia in the south of Spain, more likely. BTW, I knew a Spaniard whose family had secretly practiced Judaism for the over 400 years that Judaism was prohibited in Spain. Once Judaism was permitted, his family discarded all pretense of having converted.
I have been in Galicia on a couple of occasions, Gringo, for the International Association of Crime Writers Convention in Gijon. This is back in the eighties, but I vaguely remember seeing Jewish remnants. They are everywhere in Spain. The percentage of people with Jewish blood is probably huge – and yet there media blindly attack Israel almost more than any (go figure).
And, JJ Sefton, Pajamas Media would welcome an article about the attempt to bring Jewish culture/religion back to Cuba. Fascinating. I have been in Havana some time back (1979) when I met a number of Jews still living there (mostly film people, not surprisingly).
Roger, thanks for the informed view. While I have met many Gallegos or descendants of Gallegos in Latin America and TX- most Spanish immigrants in the 19th and 20th century to Argentina and Cuba came from Galicia- I have never been to Spain, let alone Galicia.
“Castro” is one of the “converso” surnames in Galicia and Portugal. This is well known. But really, Roger, must one claim him? I’ve got by very well all these years with fingers firmly in my ears and singing “Lalalalalala” whenever I think of Castro.
And you are correct — I suspect if anyone “tested” for Jewish blood, most of Galicia and Portugal is at least some mix. There are reasons for this. (Although some of the Iberian “Jews” were forcibly converted Carthaginians after the Punic unpleasantness. At least, to believe some authors. So, Gringo, the history goes before Moorish rule, to Roman rule and before that to Greek colonization. It’s under-studied, frankly) How on Earth this squares with their press and populace and their sentiments on Israel, I can’t tell you. Except that historically there was also a high demonization of Judaism and Jews. It’s built into the language even. In Portuguese slang “Judiarias” is torture. (Though not absolutely sure if this means ‘as practiced by Jews’ — as is normally interpreted — or ‘as were practiced on Jews’. I suspect originally it meant the later, because of the use of the verb Judiar, in older documents.)
I was lucky, my family couldn’t be more pro-Israel without moving there. (And I suspect mom would have made us if dad had let her.)
Happy New Year! May it be one of life and light.
I remember reading this. From the NYT 2008: Gene Test Shows Spain’s Jewish and Muslim Mix.
I like that the article pointed out that intolerance was not a monopoly of Christians. Expulsion and conversion was simply a continuation and/or adaptation of policies that the Muslims brought to Spain.
Well, if Fidel, as he gets set to meet his maker, is really having a change of heart, let him re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
You’re thinking too small, Mike. How about going for BIG changes, like the free elections that he promised would take place shortly after he and his cronies seized power in 1959? Those are WAY overdue! And once a democratic government is in power, all the rest will likely flow from there. Surely there would be a major change in diplomatic outlook, including re-establishing relations with Israel, as a result of getting democracy.
Hey, maybe Castro’s first name is really Fivel.
1492, when Jews were expelled from Spain, was 518 years ago. Converso ancestry by now is probably equally divided among all the citizens of Spain.
What is really amazing about Castro’s statement that Israel has the right to exist is that Castro is denying the central principle that holds the Marxist-Islamic Alliance together. Iran’s two very best friends are Venezuela and North Korea–the world’s most rigidly Marxist countries. Chavez and Kim Jong-Il must be horrified now that Castro has abandoned them.
Under Che Guevara, Cuba’s first forced-labor camp was established. Homoeseuals were sent to such camps for re-education, as were AIDS victims and counter-revolutionaries. Cuba had already stopped imprisoning homosexuals before Castro’s recent statement. But totalitarian countries always persecute gays. Castro has made a major change in that he has separated Cuba from his Communist brethren on this issue.
Interestingly, one sometimes sees gay-rights activists wearing Che T-shirts. Perhaps now they will learn what Cuba used to do to homsexuals. Or maybe they won’t care, since the only issue that matters to them is anti-Zionism–for some reason nobody will ever understand.
Let him make a deathbed confession. The sooner the better.
It could be that Castro is getting old enough now that he does not feel the need to pretend anymore. It happens with age.
From the “for what it’s worth” dept.:
During WWII, Franco made no secret that he would shelter Jews who could make it to Spain. His co-fascist in Germany was very unhappy with him. (So, to patch things over, Franco sent tungsten to Germany for materiel, and let the Luftwaffe bomb Gernika to shreds.)
Also, there’s Yiddish film history of hoping to escape to Argentina. I saw a film clip about 15 years ago, of an early “talkie” in which the momma asked, “Where will we go?”, and the poppa naming Argentina as a possible destination. If anyone can name the movie and the character, I’d be grateful.
In any case, the history of modern Hispanic culture being friendly (at times) to persecuted Jews is well-established.
On the subject of secret Jews: On 9/19 the Pope will be visiting England to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman preparatory to elevating him to sainthood.
Newman’s father was an Eighteenth Century English banker emigrated from Holland and, almost certainly, he or the future Cardinal’s grandfather were Jewish refugees looted and driven from Spain by the Catholic Inquisition. (Protestant Holland, eager for the Jews’ mercantile and maritime skills, welcomed the refugees at home and in her imperial possessions.) Newman’s mother was a also a refugee in Anglican England, a Protestant Huguenot originally from France.
For English and Irish Catholics, the conversion of a brilliant and distinguished Anglican cleric (Newmann Sr. was a declared atheist; his son was took Anglican Baptism joyfully at college and rose in the Church) was cause for great celebration. It confirmed the “old” faith. The Anglicans were less pleased.
The ironies here abound. The son of two refugees driven from their homes by the Catholic Church and welcomed to live peacefully and prosper in Protestant England turns away from the Anglican Church and converts to Roman Catholicism.
In addition to his notable accomplishments, Newman is remembered for his differences with Pope Pius IX especially on the issue of Papal infallibility. Pius IX is for remembered the towering arrogance which led ultimately to the loss forever of the Papal Estates and the military power of Popes.
And there lies fertile ground for historical conjecture. Happened this way:
A maid in an Italian Jewish household secretly baptised the family’s six year old boy. Word got out to the Papal Police and the boy was removed from his parents’ home to be raised Catholic. Pius IX not only denied the entreaties of the boy’s mother and supported the kidnap, he paraded before photographers and journalists with the boy. Eyewitness accounts of the Pope’s play with the boy including hiding the boy under his cassock strongly suggested sexual impropriety.
The affair disgusted civilized people around the world. Told of the negative response, Pius IX haughtily and publicly dismissed public opinion regarding Papal Authority. Napoleon III withdrew his protection and not long thereafter, the Papal Estates were lost and secular Italy was unified.
Did the kidnap and forced religious and sexual conversion of Edgardo Mortara especially resonate in the breast of a probably homosexual Catholic cleric of Jewish and Huguenot descent? Did it influence his opinion of Pius IX, Papal Authority and Infallibility? The truth is buried with John Henry Newman’s remains which, frustrating the Catholic Church’s hunger for relics, have returned to dust.
Did anyone ever see the movie ‘Voyage of the Damned’? I read the book of the same title years ago because one of my best friend’s grandparents were on the St. Louis which carried refugees from Germany and tried to disembark in Cuba, before hopefully continuing to the U.S. My friend’s grandparent’s had sent their children to the U.S. earlier and finally landed in Britain so they could learn English in order to immigrate to the U.S. Others chose to leave to other ports which didn’t end so well.
It was an interesting part of history when you delve in how FDR wanted a third election and the country was anti-immigration because of people being out of work.
Aren’t there intimations, at least by some, that Torquemada himself was Jewish? Anyone have a read on the authenticity of those intimations, or is that urban legend territory?
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It’s his mother that was Jewish, which is the parent that counts.
Met some of the small community very recently. They have a synagogue and a kosher butcher shop. If you go there, you can stay at a recently renovated Hotel Rachael. They have a kosher restauerant. All the rooms have Jewish surnames and check out the private dining room on the roof! Wonder if someone sweeps it if you know what I mean. The place is elegant to the max. And the Chassids fly Moyals for circumcisions.
My feeling is that many would leave if allowed. Just a thought.