Once numbering 15,000, the Jewish community of Cuba experienced a drastic decline after the revolution in 1959, and now consists of fewer than 1,000 over the whole island, with the largest communities in Havana and Guantanamo.

Dr. Daniel Fainstein, Dean of the Universidad Hebraica in Mexico, opened the program by providing the larger context of Latin American Jewish communities. He later led the Fellows in a second session in which they were invited to share the key elements they believed necessary for an attractive, sustainable, and meaningful life in Latin America. Fellows also learned about the variety of internal and external factors that can contribute to a community’s positive growth and forward momentum.

Rabbi Michel Schlesinger of Congregation Israelita Paulista in Brazil, led a text-study session addressing the issue of Jewish pluralism and the validity of majority and minority opinions in the Talmud. He encouraged the Fellows to consider how the inclusion of multiple voices, even those in dissonance with others, was of vital importance to the larger community.

One of the most significant parts of the program was the Fellow-led panel of local initiatives, moderated by alumna Delfina Korn from Argentina, which demonstrated Jewish communal responses to cultural, political, social-service and educational needs.

Dr. Alberto Milkewitz, an alumnus of previous international and regional Fellowships, presented Brazil’s Unibes Cultural project, a 100-year-old healthcare organization which recently began extending cultural events in theatre, music, and the arts to larger Brazilian society.

Ariel Blufstein, another alumnus from Argentina, spoke about his work at DAIA, the political umbrella of Argentinian Jewry; with 150 affiliated Jewish institutions that fight against discrimination and Holocaust denial. Since 2005, DAIA has developed a series of 18 commemorations in different diplomatic embassies in Argentina.

Tania Charabati, program officer at CADENA in Mexico, described her organization’s role in disaster relief and education, and finally, Paola Salem, from Argentina, detailed her creation of Turismo Judaico, and the importance of helping Jewish travelers maintain and strengthen their Jewish identities while visiting other communities in Latin America.

The conversation that ensued demonstrated the great need for regional collaboration and cooperation. All the post-Fellowship evaluations paid wonderful tribute to this session in particular, as well as to the Fellowship in general and demonstrated the powerful, productive and unique role the Memorial Foundation continues to play in fostering Jewish identity and Jewish community.