HAVANA, June 28 (Julio César Franco and María del Carmen Carro, UPECI) – Part of the history of the Jewish presence in Cuba is gradually fading away with the deterioration of the Jewish cemetery in Havana.

The cemetery is practically abandoned, said some workers there, because most surviving family members of those buried in it have left the country since 1959. In fact, the Jewish community in Cuba is, at present, minuscule.

In the cemetery, located in Guanabacoa, across the bay from the city of Havana proper, are buried hundreds of children who perished as a result of diseases contracted in Nazi concentration camps. Also buried there is the founder of Cuban cinema, Saúl Yelin. In his tombstone one can still read "for all that he was" and "for all that we owe him." His tomb is quite deteriorated.

Workers also said that foreigners sometimes visit the cemetery, placing stones, according to Jewish tradition, on the tombs.

Versión original en español

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