Cuba\’s Supreme Court upheld a 15-year sentence for Alan Gross, the U.S. contractor held for what the Obama administration has said was his Jewish outreach.
Jimmy Carter is scheduled to visit Jewish leaders during a trip to Cuba, leading to speculation that the former U.S. president will ask the Cuban government to release jailed American contractor Alan Gross. Carter, who is well known for his activism on behalf of human rights, will spend three days in Cuba on a private visit to discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, according to reports. He is scheduled to meet with President Raul Castro and other Cuban officials.
Jewish leaders have called on the Cuban government to release Jewish U.S. government contractor Alan Gross, jailed for more than a year, for time served. Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Monday issued their humanitarian appeal to the Cuban government following the completion of Gross\’ two-day trial over the weekend. A verdict has not been released but is expected within the next few days.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has called on Cuba to release Jewish U.S. citizen Alan Gross from prison and reunite him with his family. Jackson, who has been to Cuba several times and met with former President Fidel Castro and current President Raul Castro, offered to go to Cuba to negotiate the release of American contractor Alan Gross, according to a statement issued Tuesday from his Rainbow PUSH coalition.
A U.S. government contractor that the State Department says was assisting Cuban Jews will go on trial in Cuba next month. Alan Gross was charged on Feb. 4 with \”Acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the State.\” The charge carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence; he could have faced the death penalty according to Cuban law.
Washington-area clergy joined an interfaith prayer service for the release of U.S. government contractor Alan Gross from a Cuban prison. Tuesday\’s service, organized by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, was held as U.S. State Department officials in Cuba to attend meetings on migration were set to press for Gross\’ freedom, the Washington Post reported. Cuban authorities detained Gross on Dec. 3, 2009 on his way out of the country, saying he was a spy. Gross\’ family and State Department officials say he was in the country on a U.S. Agency for International Development contract to help the country\’s Jewish community of about 1,500 to communicate with other Jewish communities through the Internet.
Alan Gross, a contractor that the U.S. State Department says was assisting Cuban Jews, marked a year in a Cuban jail. Cuban authorities detained Gross on Dec, 3 2009 on his way out of the country. Gross\’ family and State Department officials says he was in the country on a U.S. Agency for International Development contract to help the country\’s Jewish community, numbering about 1,500, to communicate with other Jewish communities through the Internet.
Sarah Ogilvie and Scott Miller set a difficult task for themselves. Writing their book was easy. So, too, was researching what happened on the voyage of the St. Louis, the Hamburg-American line ship that traveled from Germany to Cuba in May 1939, carrying 937 passengers who were escaping Nazi Germany. The authors\’ greater challenge was to uncover the fate of the passengers after the ship had been turned away from numerous ports. Their dogged pursuit of all leads yielded some surprising results.
Care for an authentic Cuban mojito at the L\’chaim bar? How about Israeli salad, matzah ball soup and cheese blintzes?
They\’re all now on the menu at the Hotel Raquel, Cuba\’s first boutique hotel catering specifically to adventurous Jewish tourists.
Tourist Cuba is a bit like a time-machine ride through a Cold War theme park. Vintage Detroit autos rumble past charming Havana hotels refurbished to their pre-revolutionary glory. Posters for featured movies at a film festival keep company with ones that blare slogans like, \”La Revolucion Siempre,\” or the revolution always.
Yet, when Roe Gruber and her daughter took a Havana apartment for a month last summer, the Tustin residents were able to escape the tourist cocoon. They learned new skills, like coping with Third World shortages by offering bribes for tomatoes and theater tickets.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.