CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Smuggling of Cuban migrants investigated

Some have accused Mexican officials of protecting a smuggling ring that brings Cubans to the shores and islands near Cancún.

By Jorge Dominguez, Associated Press. Posted on Fri, Apr. 14, 2006.

CANCUN, Mexico - Mexico has launched an investigation into what some officials say is a people-smuggling ring on the country's resortstudded Caribbean coast that specializes in helping Cubans flee the island.

As unusually wellprovisioned Cubans arrive on the shores and islands near Cancún, some accuse Mexican officials of protecting the trade, which for decades ran largely north from Cuba to Miami.

''There is now an investigation . . . based on a complaint filed in cases where there is a supposition of human trafficking,'' said an official of Mexico's National Immigration Institute who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

The official said ''there very probably could be'' smuggling of Cuban refugees.

Sixty-one Cubans were detained in Mexico in the first quarter of 2006. In 2005, 280 were detained.

But some allege that the smuggled Cubans might not be reflected in official figures because, Mexican officials may be protecting the lucrative smuggling operations -- a charge officials deny.

''Immigration Institute agents and officials control the smuggling of Cuban rafters through Cancún,'' said Laura Martínez Cárdenas, an inspector in the region for Mexico's National Human Rights Commission.

Martínez Cárdenas said officials participated in "a complex web of complicity with traffickers, in which they receive large sums of money for supplying traffickers with help, transportation and protection.''

Egdar Orozco, the head of the immigration office for the Caribbean coast, said his agents were doing their jobs well, and noted his office does not have the authority to investigate possible people smuggling.

It refers those cases to the Attorney General's Office, which is carrying out the current probe.

In past decades, Cubans would only occasionally drift ashore on Mexico's coast -- usually driven off-course by winds or currents.

''We are concerned and watching this, because it's becoming almost a constant thing,'' the head federal prosecutor in the region, Pedro Ramírez Violante, said of the arrival of Cuban rafters.

''There are things that stand out,'' Ramírez Violante told local media. "These appear to be boats that are adrift, but people who are left adrift arrive with dehydration, in bad physical shape. These people aren't arriving that way.''

He said that might imply the Cubans had help from smugglers paid to get them close to the coast. Setting them adrift off the Mexican coast would presumably be less dangerous for the traffickers.

Sales of U.S. food up 20%

By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Fri, Apr. 14, 2006.

ORLANDO - Cuba spent $172 million on U.S. food imports so far this year, a spike in sales over last year, the island's top agriculture import official said Thursday.

Cuba bought mostly wheat, corn, rice and chicken, despite a rule enacted last year by the Bush administration that requires Havana to pay cash for American products before the goods leave U.S. ports, instead of when they arrive in Cuban ports, said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Alimport, the island's food import company.

He spoke by teleconference from Havana at the ''Doing Business in Cuba'' conference in Orlando.

Cuba spent 20 percent more in the first two months of 2006 over the same period last year, experts said.

''That is huge,'' said Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, which organized the conference for Florida companies. "That's way up from last year. It doesn't mean it will continue that high, but it is substantial.''

The conference, attended by about 50 business representatives, sought to increase sales to Cuba. Although the United States has a trade embargo against Cuba, cash food sales have been legal since 2000.

Since then, Cuba has spent some $1.8 billion on American food products. Last year, Alvarez said, Cuba spent $540 million on U.S. food products, up from $474 million in 2004.

Experts caution that Cuba's import statistics are inflated, because they include costs for shipping and other factors. Other agencies show sales declined from 2004 to 2005, in part due to the U.S. change in payment requirements.

''Those changes have created uncertainty,'' Alvarez said, adding that sometimes perishable goods spoiled because of payment snafus. "Cuba was forced to divert hundreds of million of dollars to alternative markets.''

Bahamas on tightrope between U.S. and Cuba

Close to both the United States and Cuba, the Bahamas wants to be a good neighbor to both, but its policy on migrants has Cuban exiles crying foul.

By Jacqueline Charles. jcharles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Thu, Apr. 13, 2006.

NASSAU, Bahamas - The earthy smell of Cuban-grown tobacco wafts through the crowded downtown nightspot as cigar-smoking locals and Cuban officials exchange pleasantries -- and try to cut trade deals.

This is not a scene that Cuban Americans in South Florida would appreciate as an exercise in Caribbean solidarity, although that is how many Bahamians, and others around the world, see it.

For years, the Bahamas has walked a diplomatic tightrope between its indispensable economic relationship with the United States and a budding alliance with communist Cuba. The recent detention of two Cuban dentists at its notorious Carmichael Road detention center tripped up the relationship and stirred calls by Cuban exiles for a tourism boycott of the Bahamian destination.

For many exiles, it brought into question why the Bahamas -- which generates $1.7 billion in trade with the United States, most of it with Florida -- would cozy up to Fidel Castro.

The Cuban president has courted his mostly English-speaking Caribbean neighbors with doctors, teachers and free trade in rum, coffee and cement.

''Why shouldn't we trade with Cuba?'' said Arthur Foulkes, a founding member of the Bahamas' opposition Free National Movement political party.

DENTISTS INCIDENT

The saga involving the detained dentists strained relations with the United States and Cuba. The dentists had visas allowing them to enter the United States, but they were denied exit permits by Cuba. They then attempted to leave by boat -- only to wash up in the Bahamas.

Under a treaty, the Cuban government has 15 days after the Bahamas notifies Cuban officials about migrants to decide whether to demand their return. The dentists were detained for almost a year at Carmichael Road, drawing the attention of Cuban exiles in Miami. A South Florida Spanish-language TV reporter who went to investigate the matter was then allegedly beaten by a detention-center guard, further angering exiles, some of whom urged a boycott.

The dentists, Marialys Darias Mesa and David González, were freed last month after members of Congress, particularly South Florida's Cuban-American members and Rep. Connie Mack of Fort Myers, intervened. They now live with their families in Florida.

To refugee advocates, the dentists' ordeal was yet another example of how shabbily Cubans, Haitians and others are treated in the Bahamian island chain, where Cuban cigars and Havana Club rum are as ubiquitous as native spicy conch.

To Bahamians like Foulkes, and members of the governing Progressive Liberal Party, the matter was an unfortunate incident in a geopolitical drama that the tiny nation of 301,790 people has long tried to avoid.

Many here saw the exiles' calls for a boycott as a failed tactic to force the Bahamas to fall in step with U.S. policies toward Cuba.

'As a Bahamian, I deeply resented when people in Florida threatened the Bahamas with sanctions, threatened the Bahamas that they will have the American government remove the preclearance at the airport, threatened the Bahamas that 'we'll stop the cruise ships,' '' said Foulkes, who served as a nonresident ambassador to China and Cuba from 1999 to 2002. "That's counterproductive. That only makes you angry.''

NEAREST NEIGHBOR

With 50 miles separating Bimini from the South Florida coast and only eight miles separating Cay Lobos from Cuba's northern coast, the Bahamas is by far the closest neighbor to both countries. Bahamians argue that their country needs to have good relations with both.

About 20,000 Bahamians a year travel to Cuba for vacation and medical care, said Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell. Bahamian business people are looking for additional opportunities, as evidenced by a recent two-day Cuba trade conference at a Paradise Island hotel.

At the same time, the Bahamas does about $1.1 billion in two-way trade with Florida.

The Bahamas isn't the only small nation in the region with increasing ties to the United States' nemesis. Others have signed agreements with Cuba as well as with oil-rich Venezuela, where President Hugo Chávez has been blasting U.S. policy in the region.

According to reports by the Caribbean Community, an estimated 2,606 students from the region are studying in Cuba, and trade between Cuba and its Caribbean neighbors amounts to $26.5 million.

After a recent meeting in Nassau with Mitchell and Caribbean foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had not come to dictate diplomatic relations. But Rice made the U.S. position on Cuba trade and travel very clear.

Highlighting its warmer relations, Cuba last year upgraded its consul general to an ambassador, and the Bahamas -- which recently named a resident ambassador to Cuba -- plans to open an embassy in Havana in coming weeks. Also, about 300 Bahamians recently received free eye surgery, courtesy of the Cuban government.

Trade between Cuba and the Bahamas remains on a small scale, mostly isolated to a few niche products that account for $1.6 million in goods that Bahamians bring from Cuba. Many of those products can be found at Flamingo Cigar & Gourmet Cafe, an upscale cigar bar in the downtown tourist district.

Lined with made-in-Cuba mahogany furnishings, it offers a variety of products, including $995 Cuban paintings, $5 Cristal and Buccanero beer, and $10 packages of Cubita coffee. It is a favorite stop for tourists, as well as locals and Cuban diplomats who recently kicked off a trade conference with an informal Friday night gathering featuring Sol Caribe, a band from Havana.

Owner Garth Bethel said the Cuban products, acquired during his monthly trips to Cuba, are by far his most popular items.

''I see unlimited potential to do so many things there,'' Bethel said, sitting upstairs in the Havana Club VIP lounge.

Yet some Cubans -- the population in the Bahamas numbers about 300 -- who come to Bethel's weekend parties to sip mojitos admit privately that they are torn. They see the trade benefits for the Bahamas, but not for the millions of Cubans who live in a state-run economy.

COMPARISON MADE

Bahamian business leaders point to Americans' own trade dealings and ask: Is doing business with Cuba any less reprehensible than doing business with communist China?

''It's the same for the Bahamas as it is for the United States. It's difficult to really criticize,'' said Philip Simon, executive director of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce.

Doing business with Cuba isn't easy, and many Bahamian business people are reluctant to advertise their Cuba dealings.

''Doing business there is so difficult, from banking, payments, shipping, to the language barrier,'' said Tennyson Wells, an independent member of the Bahamian Parliament who has been at the forefront of trading with Cuba.

''If [the Cubans] were to change their system of doing business to bring it in line with what the Chinese are doing, then I believe Cuba would have tremendous potential,'' said Wells, a lawyer and developer. "Unless the Cubans make it easier to buy and sell, I don't think much will happen.''

Patriot Act bars Cuban rebels from asylum

Supporters of an old anti-Castro rebellion are having difficulties getting asylum in the United States because the Patriot Act labels them terrorists.

By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Apr. 12, 2006.

WASHINGTON - Four decades ago, thousands of Cubans took to the Escambray mountains in a CIA-backed guerrilla war against Fidel Castro. Today, U.S. law brands them as terrorists.

In a twist of fate, 320 Cubans on the island with links to that armed revolt are now having problems winning U.S. political asylum because the Patriot Act bars asylum for terrorists and people who help them.

The Department of Homeland Security says the holdups affect 160 asylum applications involving 320 individuals who joined or helped the anti-Castro guerrillas, as well as some of the close relatives of the asylum seekers.

Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said lawyers from Homeland Security and the departments of State and Justice are trying to resolve the legal tangle of who's a terrorist and whether civilians who provide willing or unwilling support to terrorists should be denied asylum.

''We're trying to develop a policy that could be used across the board for any types of cases . . . to develop a process that will allow us to exercise discretion,'' Strassberger said. "Until that time, we're not denying cases, but we're not approving cases either.''

The Escambray guerrillas and many other anti-Castro movements were supported by the CIA in the early 1960s with food, weapons and even explosives meant for sabotage. All the groups were wiped out by the late 1960s by Castro troops in what the government called a "struggle against bandits.''

Cuban exile groups are stung by the plight of the asylum seekers.

''This really hurts because these are the people that have been forgotten by history and the world,'' said Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez of the Miami-based Democracy Movement. Most of the guerrillas got no CIA help, he said.

''They fought with dignity . . . and practically naked, starved and with their bare hands, they resisted the dictatorship that is today the despair of the Cuban people,'' he added.

Citing privacy concerns, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services won't identify the Cuban asylum applicants and would say only that all the applications were made after the Patriot Act was passed in October 2001. It's not clear why the asylum seekers did not apply before the act was approved.

The Patriot Act defines terrorism as ''any activity which is unlawful under the laws of the place where it is committed.'' The definition, Strassberger said, also includes any use of explosives, firearms or other weapons "with the intent to endanger individuals or cause substantial damage to property.''

Strassberger said that ''in broad terms'' there are no exceptions for people who were ''forced to provide a meal or an animal'' to rebel groups but that government lawyers are working on drafting a waiver to benefit those who supported terrorists because they had no other choice.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a New York-based organization that helps victims of political violence, has described the Patriot Act's impact on some migrants as "Kafkaesque.''

About 2,000 Colombians who were forced to make payoffs to leftist guerrillas have been denied asylum so far because of the act, according to the IRC, as has a Liberian woman who was forced to house rebels after they killed her father and raped her.

But the Cuban case is especially difficult, the IRC pointed out, because the asylum applicants will find it hard to convince asylum officers they were coerced into backing the anti-Castro guerrillas.

Abigail Price, the national immigration director for the IRC, said most of the rebels themselves are already dead and the 320 are probably friends or families who provided assistance to the fighters.

''They supported an anti-Castro movement,'' she said. "The exception of duress isn't going to work for them.''

Asylum applicants are routinely asked in their interviews with U.S. government officials if they were involved in an armed movement or provided material support to one.

Strassberger said the majority of the Cuban cases had a ''basic fact pattern:'' Individuals provided support that varied from food, shelter, medicine to arms, "sometimes willingly, sometimes under duress.''

''That's a distinction that's going to be made, to see who is going to qualify,'' he noted.

But Price said the Citizenship and Immigration Services -- which is headed by Emilio Gonzalez, a Cuban American -- isn't being "given the flexibility to look at the totality of the circumstances in dealing with the cases.''

Officials recognize the Cubans' issue is a thorny one involving delicate national security concerns and a lengthy history of U.S.-backed attacks on the Castro government.

''We can't run the risk of developing a process that would allow potential terrorists to get through the system,'' Strassberger said. "That's the challenge of the law, the way it's written into immigration laws is very broad in its interpretation of terrorist activities.''

Hurricanes forge a Cuban connection

Eddy Rodriguez and Yonder Alonso, two of UM's best hitters, fled Cuba as children and have since bonded as baseball brothers.

By Susan Miller Degnan, sdegnan@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Thu, Apr. 13, 2006.

When Eddy Rodriguez and Yonder Alonso were little guys growing up in Cuba -- Eddy the son of a farmer in the province of Las Villas and Yonder the son of a well-known baseball coach in Havana -- they had no idea the other existed.

They had no idea their lives would intertwine, brought together by baseball, first at Coral Gables High and then at the University of Miami.

''We both left Cuba for a better world, so we both appreciate our great friendship and the opportunities we were given,'' said Rodriguez, 20, UM's junior catcher and top hitter with a .354 average and .625 slugging percentage. "We always joke how I came here on an old wooden boat when I was 7 and he came on an airplane when he was 7. But it's not really funny. Those were huge events in our lives.''

Alonso is a freshman first baseman whose father, Luis, was head coach of the minor-league affiliate of Industriales, often called the New York Yankees of Cuba. He has at least twice as many RBI (46) as any other Hurricane and leads all Atlantic Coast Conference freshmen. He is hitting .331, with a team-high 43 hits and six home runs.

''The last guy who did that for us as a freshman with any consistency was Pat Burrell,'' said UM coach Jim Morris, whose Hurricanes (24-12, 9-6 ACC) travel to Tallahassee on Friday to play fourth-ranked Florida State (31-4, 12-3) in a three-game series. "You normally don't have freshmen batting third or fourth. Yonder is a clutch hitter, and Eddy is more of a defensive guy.

"They basically had to start here from scratch with their families, so there's a strong bond. We have a lot of Cuban-Americans on this team. It's an ideal place for them to play.''

COMING TO AMERICA

Rodriguez's saga began on August 29, 1993, when he and mother Ylya, father Edilio, older sister Yanisbet and cousin Carlos packed into a small wooden fishing boat off the Cuban coast, said Ylya. They had hidden containers of fuel over several months. The kids thought they were going to a great place to fish, but realized by the next day, when they hit a storm, their father had lied to protect them.

''I was scared,'' Rodriguez said, "and hardly understood how close we were to dying. The waves were huge swells, 20 feet high, and the water was navy blue.

'I cried that I wanted to go back home to be with my grandparents. That's when my dad told me, 'We're not going back. We're going to the United States.' ''

Ylya, who works at Publix, cried when she relived the story in Spanish, saying they got lost for five days, the last three only with sugar water. "When we hit the storm, I thought I was going to lose my children. I had a little statue of Regla, the virgin of the ocean, and prayed. Suddenly there was a space for us to go through. You wouldn't believe it, but ask Eddy.''

An American ship en route to Chile found the Rodriguezes and delivered them to a Puerto Rican Coast Guard boat on its way to Miami.

''I thank God every day,'' Ylya said. "We had food in Cuba, but no freedom.''

ALONSO'S JOURNEY

Alonso's family got permission to leave from the Cuban government, but kept it a secret until they left on Feb. 6, 1995. Luis Alonso and his wife, Damaris, received their degrees at the University of Havana, he in sports management and she in accounting administration. Her father came to Miami in 1980 as part of the Mariel boat lift, started a company and saved enough money to help his daughter's family emigrate from Cuba.

Yonder Alonso has a 3.2 grade-point average, loves English and is majoring in criminal justice. He turned down a contract by the Twins after being drafted last June in the 15th round.

''The money wasn't there,'' he said. "I felt very young. I knew the opportunity for me to get older, bigger and stronger was at UM.''

Today, Damaris works as an accountant by day and cleans offices at night with Luis, who also works in a paint factory.

''It was very hard for my dad to leave, but he did it for us,'' said Alonso, 19, who has a 16-year-old sister, Yainee, and returned to Cuba in 2000 when their grandmother died. "It was rough, because everyone was poor. I gave them everything I brought except the clothes I wore. You can only imagine. That's why I appreciate everything I get.''

At the airport to bid farewell to the Alonsos in 1995 was Orlando ''El Duque'' Hernandez, a close family friend and one of Luis' former players who eventually defected to the States and now pitches for the Diamondbacks.

Among Luis' other former players: former Marlins pitcher Miguel Tejera, in March reassigned to a Giants minor-league camp; and outfielder Alex Sanchez, who signed a minor-league contract with the Reds in March.

''I was a bit sad to leave Cuba,'' said Luis, who gave his wife a baseball and bat when he found out she was pregnant with Yonder -- ''I would have preferred flowers or chocolates,'' she mused.

''But I'm very happy it happened,'' Luis said. "I left behind a family, but it gave an opportunity for my kids to lead a better life.''

The mothers of Rodriguez and Alonso have since become close friends.

''We feel so grateful our sons are in America and found each other,'' Ylya said.

Cuban Jews' rituals aim to preserve a unique heritage

Members of Temple Moses, Miami's only Cuban Sephardic congregation, are passing their unique Passover traditions on to the next generation.

By Alexandra Alter, aalter@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Apr. 12, 2006.

Back in Havana, they prayed in a cramped sanctuary above a downtown warehouse where grocers sold rice and onions. They sang songs from the old country in Ladino -- a blend of Spanish and Hebrew -- and chanted ancient prayers superimposed onto Turkish melodies.

On Passover, they fried leeks with cheese and matzo meal, a traditional Turkish Sephardic dish, and told the story of the Israelites' flight from slavery in Egypt 3,300 years ago.

The story reminded them of their ancestors' exodus more than five centuries ago, when they fled from Spain to Turkey to escape the Inquisition in 1492. Later, they were uprooted again, leaving Turkey for Cuba to escape the ruins of World War I.

Today, when members of Temple Moses, a Miami Beach Sephardic congregation made up mostly of Cuban Jews of Turkish ancestry, celebrate the start of Passover, they also will be nurturing hopes of keeping their traditions alive.

With no new members coming from Cuba, the 25-year-old synagogue on Normandy Isle has shrunk from close to 700 families in the 1980s to around 400 today. The younger generation has assimilated, moved away, and, in some cases, joined other Sephardic synagogues.

The old guard can still be found Saturday mornings in the cavernous sanctuary on Normandy Drive -- the women sitting to the left, wearing traditional white lace head coverings, the men to the right, wearing white yarmulkes and prayer shawls. For four hours, they chant in Ladino and pray in the old style.

''We keep the traditions of our ancestors. We pray the same way they did,'' said Solomon Garazi, 80, whose parents fled Turkey for Cuba in the 1920s and left Havana for Miami after Castro came to power. "We have a responsibility to get the younger generations involved. That's the way it's been done for 500 years.''

As members of Temple Moses join Jews around the world in marking the start of Passover tonight, many will celebrate with rituals their ancestors guarded through generations of exile. Sephardic Jews, descendants of Jews who lived in Spain until the Inquisition in 1492, have Passover rituals that are distinct from the Ashkenazim -- Jews of European ancestry -- said Zion Zohar, who heads the program for Sephardic studies at Florida International University.

Moroccan Sephardic Jews, for example, march around the table to symbolize the Jews' march out of Egypt and wave plates over one another's heads while reciting an Aramaic blessing, Zohar said.

FLAVORS

Nelly Egozi, 75, who is regarded by members of Temple Moses as a master of Turkish Sephardic cuisine, will cook buñuelos -- fried pastries made of matzo flour, eggs, cheese and drizzled honey traditionally eaten at the start of the meal to savor the sweetness of freedom.

For haroset, a traditional Passover dish that symbolizes the mortar used by the Jewish slaves, she'll use dates, walnuts, raisins, apples and red wine.

''It says in the Hagaddah, we should celebrate as if we were getting out of Egypt,'' said Garazi, referring to the traditional Passover text.

Garazi acknowledged some differences between the Israelites' exodus and the flight of his ancestors: ''We didn't divide the sea in two to come from Cuba to here, and when we were expelled from Spain we left in ships,'' he said.

South Florida's first Turkish-Cuban Sephardic synagogue started with just 10 members in 1968, when a group of newly settled Cuban exiles decided to form a synagogue in South Beach. For years, they met to worship in a cramped space they called ''The Cave'' at the back of a grocery store on Washington Avenue.

Their home now is an imposing, two-story beige structure that takes up a full block.

Inaugurated during the high holidays in 1980, the temple then served as a communal hub, giving the exile community a sense of place.

''When Cuban Jews first came to Miami, they needed to stick together, they had no choice,'' said Ricky Behar, 33, who comes from a family of longtime Temple Moses members and recently joined the synagogue board to help lead revival efforts. "Now that everyone is integrated into the community, there's no longer that need. We need to redefine ourselves.''

Redefining has a price: the synagogue may have to compromise its unique cultural identity to broaden its appeal.

To attract new congregants the synagogue board plans to reach out to newly arrived Sephardic Jews from Latin America, Europe and North Africa, said Didier Choukroun, Temple Moses' new president. Choukroun, who is of Algerian and Italian Sephardic ancestry, became the temple's first non-Cuban president last January.

''We're trying to be true to our roots and true to the Torah, but we're trying to be very open to Jews who are not very observant,'' Choukroun said. "What is more important is the Sephardic culture.''

COMPETITION

The growth of Miami's Sephardic population may have contributed to decline in the synagogue's membership. While Temple Moses still stands as Miami's only Cuban Sephardic congregation, other Sephardic synagogues have sprouted up in recent years.

As recently as 1994, Miami had just three Sephardic congregations; today there are seven throughout Miami-Dade County, according to a 2004 Jewish population survey. Sephardic Jews have doubled their ranks in the last decade, growing from 6 percent to 13 percent of Miami's roughly 100,000 Jewish adults. In Broward, there are now around 10 Sephardic congregations, said FIU's Zohar.

''More people came from South America and Morocco and they founded other [Sephardic] synagogues,'' Garazi said. "We didn't grow because no more Sephardic Jews came from Cuba.''

Synagogue members are determined to see the temple flourish again.

NEW DIRECTION

Six months ago, they hired a charismatic new rabbi, Iosef Benchimol, an Argentine who worked as a rabbi in Colombia for the last 11 years. He's already attracting some Colombians, Venezuelans, Argentines and Mexicans, members say.

Benchimol also plans to revive the synagogue's youth programs, Hebrew classes, and Torah study to draw younger members, he said. And he aims to recover some of the synagogue's lost membership. Of six new families that have joined the synagogue since January, three have historic ties to Temple Moses.

Jack Ojalvo, 38, a textile exporter who lives in Fort Lauderdale, formally joined Temple Moses at the end of last year, just as his father, Jose Ojalvo, was ending his tenure as temple president.

Now he hopes to bring back some of the other young members of the community who grew up in the synagogue and later moved north.

''I decided to become a member to make things correct,'' said Ojalvo, whose grandfather left Turkey and became a rabbi in Cuba. "I became involved in a youth movement trying to call back our community.''

He's passing traditions on to his own daughters, ages 6 and 9. ''When we're at home singing any kind of religious song, they've basically learned it with a Sephardic chant,'' he said.

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