Cuba's Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana

The overlooked story of Jewish refugees who evaded Nazi capture by finding safe harbor in tropical Havana, is vividly brought to life in CUBA’S FORGOTTEN JEWELS. At the height of WWII, some six thousand people fled Europe, and crossed the Atlantic to seek asylum in faraway Cuba. An assumed temporary shelter became an enduring home, as the immigrants assimilated and introduced an entirely new industry to the island: diamond polishing. The trade flourished for years, a means of economic survival for both Cuba and its newest residents. Revealing the fusion of Jewish-Cuban cultures and customs, the filmmaker’s mother, Marion Kreith, and other refugees share their accounts of trauma and escape set against an exotic and unfamiliar paradise.

Cuba's Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana will screen with Iom RomÌ