By MICHAEL A. APPLEMAN
I had thought that the crisis and collapse of Cuba’s economy could not get worse, but I was shockingly wrong. I am saddened and terrified for the Cuban people. I am grateful for the generous donors that came to the rescue of Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba, the Jewish community of Cuba.
Gasoline stations are closed. The Venezuelan subsidies have evaporated. During my previous mission, the queue for gas was two blocks deep and five days long. Now, there are no queues; gas is purchased on the black market at private homes.
The power grid is in shambles. Electrical blackouts plague the island for three straight days; neither refrigeration nor air conditioning is operational. Food is spoiled. Night sleep is disturbed. Mosquitos are rampant, dangerously laden with diseases.
Dengue fever and chikungunya virus (mosquito-borne diseases) infect half the population, with resultant long-term disabilities and the death of the elderly. Insect repellant is scarce. Fumigation is nonexistent. Overflowing garbage bins permeate the streets, with indigents rifling bins for morsels of food.
Hungry, starved, handicapped Cubans proliferate and dominate the streets. I gift pesos to these homeless, including a man with no legs, a polio victim, and a one-armed standing woman, who receives the donation with her only arm while holding her infant.
Tourism is in a free fall with hotels at 20 percent capacity. Robberies are on a steep, upward trajectory (I’ve been a victim). Criminals are lurking behind buildings.
Cuba’s economy has fallen off the cliff: Inflation is at 30 percent; currency devaluation pummels the Cuban peso (CUP); essential goods are available in U.S. dollars only at prices unreachable by the population’s peso.
What about the Jewish community? Is tikkum olam (repair of the world) available on this island? Are there Shabbat services, kiddush luncheons and teaching of prayer, Hebrew and Judaic history? The answer is yes.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the global welfare arm of the North American Jewish community; the Genesis Prize Foundation, which annually bequeaths a million dollars to persons committed to Jewish values; mission groups and private donors are performing tikkun olam in Cuba. These generous entities sustain Jewish prayer, Hebrew learning and Shabbat meals within the abyss of Cuba’s economic crisis and collapse.
In November 2025, I executed one of dozens of precarious humanitarian trips to the island. I had been detained for bringing in 50 pounds of medicine. They were seized and likely sold on the black market. I received a subpoena and was interrogated for hours by Cuban immigration. I was ultimately released. I had been refused exit from the country on a technicality — thrice detained but never deterred.
After clearing immigration and customs, and fortunately not having my bags searched (which can lead to unwanted seizures and confiscations), I was picked up by my driver, David. There was as stifling, toxic smell of gas in his car. Why? Gasoline purchased on the black market is stored precariously in gas bins in the trunk.
I then lathered myself with insect repellant to ward off the dangerous mosquitos. Elderly Cubans are dying from mosquito-borne diseases. My friends were sick. Alberto, a professor at the University of Cuba who protected me at an immigration interrogation, was ill. His wife, Ingrid, was feverish and bedridden. She could not get up to greet me. The elderly in Cuba are sick and dying for lack of insect repellant, fumigation and failure to clean garbage- infested streets.
To my dismay and surprise, this was a stunningly successful journey, enriching Comunidad de Hebrea. Before my trip, I contacted the Genesis Prize Foundation, which I previously connected with Hella Eskanazi, vice president of El Patronato, Beth Shalom Synagogue. I requested a donation of $500; the foundation generously gave $4,000. The money provided the Patronato with 10 additional Shabbat services, luncheons and transportation of congregants to services. We purchased 1,000 meals and transportation for Jews that somehow survive on $25 per month.
The ten volunteer teachers each received $100 from donors Steve Kalin and Randy Dahl. The recipient educators were nearly in tears. One hundred dollars is equivalent to three months’ wages.
My dentist, Dr. Grant Lewis, donated 50 tubes of toothpaste and brushes. My wife, Mickey, purchased boxes of matzo ball soup and mix. Rabbi Yossi Bendet, of Bloomington Chabad, donated 35 Jewish calendars, for the Cubans have no internet to determine dates of Jewish holidays. My friend Richard Zelagson donated cardiac supplements to congregants with heart problems. Beth Shalom was visited, during my visit, by a group of “flying doctors” and a group of Israelis, both groups donating humanitarian bags for the community. The Israelis, amid two years suffering from the hostage crisis and Gaza war, dug deep into their own pockets to give tzedaka.
People ask: Why do you execute this precarious humanitarian work? My answer is personal: I grew up as a poor Jew but rich in Judaism.
I grew up in abject poverty on Girard Avenue in north Minneapolis.My beloved father, Hyman, a brilliant chemical engineer, was institutionalized for 52 years with schizophrenia after I was born. My mother, Gertrude, of blessed memory, raised four children by herself. With chesed (kindness) from the Minneapolis Jewish community (the Federation), the impoverished Appleman children went to Mikro Kodesh Synagogue, Torah Academy, Talmud Torah, the JCC and Herzl Camp — all without paying a penny.
Temple Israel hired me, as a Bet Hamidrash graduate, at the age of 18 to instruct in the Hebrew and religious schools. That remuneration as well as fellowships supported my extensive education at the University of Minnesota, through earning a doctorate. Cuban Jews and Cuban teachers are my impoverished hermanos (brothers). The educators work voluntarily, receiving nothing. My thanks go to the JDC, the Genesis Prize and private donors. Am Yisrael chai!
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Michael Appleman, Ph.D., is a graduate of Torah Academy and Bet Hamidrash Talmud Torah. He is the CEO of Cubano Gallery in Minneapolis (CubanoGallery.com). He can be reached at appleman. michael [at] gmail.com.
(American Jewish World, January 2026)
