Prof. Ruth Behar has written extensively about the Cuban Jewish experience. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Frye-Behar.

Prof. Ruth Behar has written extensively about the Cuban Jewish experience. Photo courtesy of Gabriel Frye-Behar.

This year’s Stroum Lecturer, the anthropologist Ruth Behar, was born in Havana, Cuba. Much of her ethnographic work has centered around the Cuban Jewish experience.

In today’s Washington Post, Prof. Behar reflected on the momentous decision, just announced by President Obama, to reestablish U.S. relations with Cuba. Behar says:

“The island was a refuge for my Jewish grandparents in the mid-1920s, at a time when the United States was imposing cruel quotas on European Jewish immigration. And I feel a bond, deep and mysterious, to this place, so small and yet so important to modern history.

When I awoke to the news of President Obama’s proposed U.S. policy changes, I immediately thought: Isn’t it amazing that this occurred on Dec. 17? It’s a day of great significance to Cubans, when thousands of them make an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Rincón to mark the feast day of San Lázaro.”

Read the rest of Prof. Behar’s poignant article at this link. And don’t miss Prof. Behar’s Stroum Lectures, hosted by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington on May 18 & 20, 2015! Check back with jewishstudies.washington.edu for updates about Prof. Behar’s upcoming spring visit to Seattle.

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