NH Capri La Habana

The NH Capri La Habana is in Vedado in downtown Havana. The area is close to well-known nightclubs, La Rampa art and craft market and the famous Malecón – plus it’s a short taxi ride to some of the city’s top sights.
– Less than 10 minutes’ drive to Plaza de la Revolución
– Around 30 minutes’ walk to Capitolia Nacional
– Near the Malecón, with pastel-coloured houses lining the waterfront

Our refurbishment finished in May 2014, giving guests 220 sparkly new rooms to stay in. You can choose from Standard, Superior, Duplex and Suites – and they come with either city or sea views.

Duplex rooms are set on 2 floors with a separate sitting area and come with a whole host of extras
lots of connecting rooms available. 18th floor Suites have direct access to the swimming pool and close to the La Florentina Restaurant which serves an exclusive breakfast for those staying in the suites.

The hotel has a two restaurants as well as 3 bars – 2 of which come with a fantastic city view. And if you like the sight of Havana spreading out before you, you’ll love our rooftop swimming pool.
– Bars with live international and traditional music
– Large gym with sauna
– Choice of restaurants

Carniceria

Carniceria is the only kosher butcher shop in the city and is located in the Old Havana district on Acosta Street. The shop is privately owned by Abraham Berezniak and has been open for nearly 70 years. It provides kosher beef to the country’s Jewish community, but non-Jewish residents as well. A privately owned store is somewhat rare these days because after Castro’s 1959 Revolution, most private businesses were nationalized. Some of the locals believe that the government allowed the butcher shop to remain open to avoid claims of anti-Semitism. Eating meat in Cuba is not trivial. Cows are the property of the state, and Cubans go as far as to say it’s a far worse crime to be caught slaughtering a cow than a person. The shop is managed by Adath Israel, the city’s Orthodox synagogue, and the synagogue’s cantor is the only shohet in the city.

Beth Shalom Synagogue

Beth Shalom Synagogue, built in 1952, is a synagogue located in the Vedado neighbourhood of downtown Havana. In 1981, much of the original building was sold to the state, and was then turned into the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Center, including a theatre, a music venue, a gallery and a bar. Only part of the structure remains in Jewish hands today. Extensive repairs were undertaken in the 1990s. Beth Shalom is considered the headquarters of the Cuban Jewish Community. The building also houses a Jewish library.

Adath Israel

Adath Israel is the city’s Orthodox synagogue, sitting almost unnoticeableon a crowded, narrow street in the Old Havana district.

After WWI, there was only the Ashkenazi synagogue in Havana, the United Hebrew Congregation. Religiously, it was very liberal with a wealthy, English-speaking membership. This was not a comfortable place for the Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe to worship. In 1923, a Lithuanian immigrant, Ben Zion Sofer, started a minyan in his apartment at Calle Paola No. 17. By 1925, the minyan developed into Congregation Adath Israel, located on the second floor of Calle Jesús María 103. The shul was basic, but served the congregants. The majority of Ashkenazi immigrants were not strictly observant; therefore, Adath Israel was only nominally Orthodox. The prayer services were traditional.

Eventually it was decided to build the new synagogue in Vedado, the heart of the Jewish Quarter of Habana Vieja (old Havana). Architect, Oscar Baisman, and construction engineer, Jacinto Feh Leonard, constructed a modern sanctuary with seating for six hundred people, a chapel and a reception hall. The cornerstone for the $100,000 synagogue was laid in April of 1956 and it was completed on October 9, 1959. Monies were recently been granted to renovate the area, which included the synagogue. The Havana Restoration Commission worked with Jorge Herrera on plans regarding the synagogue restoration, which included full restoration of the sanctuary and an innovative frame for the roof to be used for celebrating Sukkot. Most of the money for the synagogue restoration was donated by wealthy businessmen from Panama and Venezuela. Currently, there are 400 members in the congregation. The congregation has a program to supply vitamins, some medications and toiletries to members who are in need and live nearby.

Adath Israel has remained intact through the years, its doors have never closed, carrying out the religious services of Shajarit, Minja and Arvit daily, maintaining alive the traditions of our Fathers.

Sephardic Center and Synagogue

In 2007 Centro Hebreo Sefaradi Synagogue was described as “the only remaining institutional legacy of the Sephardic presence in Cuba.” Construction originally began in 1957 and the synagogue was completed in 1960 with a 726-seat sanctuary. The main sanctuary was later rented out to the Afro-Cuban band Síntesis for their rehearsals while weekly religious services were held in a small room next door. As of 2010, the synagogue had eighty families constituting 320 members. The majority of congregants were 60 or older. Centro Hebro is affiliated with the Conservative Jewish movement in the United States. There is a small Holocaust memorial at the synagogue with quotations from José Martí.

Image Attribution:
Lebrsm, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Holocaust Museum

The first exhibit about the Holocaust displayed in Cuba opened December 18 at the Centro Sephardi in Havana. The exhibit, “We Remember – The Holocaust and the Creation of a Living Community,” shines a light on the Cuban Jewish experience of the Holocaust and raises awareness that a small Jewish community makes Cuba its home.

“The opening of this exhibit marks a very important moment for the Cuban Jewish community,” said Mayra Levy, president of the Sephardic Center. “We welcome this exhibit which focuses on the origins of the Cuban Jewish community and the impact of the Holocaust. We also welcome our fellow Cubans and visitors to our island learning more about our community today.”

Sheik Avreik Festival

The Sheik Avreik Festival is an annual grassroots celebration of local culture, community, creativity, and the arts. Residents of Kiryat Tivon enjoy over 280 performances in and around Tivon. The Sheik Avreik Festival includes multiple activities hosted by Kfar Tikva and is greatly enjoyed by residents of all ages.

Tahanat Ruach

Tahanat Ruach is a cultural center in Kiryat Tivon that hosts several cultural events throughout the year. Established in April 2018, the center was inspired by the desire to integrate into the community’s diverse cultural collaborations. Through culture, art, coffee, and delicious food our goal is to create a bridge unifying the community of Tivon and the surrounding people who choose to take part in this cultural space.

Everyone is included in the productions and events that occur in the operation of our ever-evolving cafe, in the bustling sound, the lighting, and in the field of marketing and advertising of the space. Ultimately, this is part of our search for lively and fulfilling human encounters and interactions. A search that we are only at the beginning of, but one that already seems to give a kind of homely, warm, and inviting atmosphere to the surrounding environemnt.

Currently operating on the site is a fifth line LIVE that hosts local art and well-known artists who are loved and appreciated. Our cafe is open Monday to Friday from 8:00-14:00. We are also working hard on opening brunches and breakfasts on Fridays in conjunction with two sanities from Pardes Hanna-Karkur and also on a local fourth line for a nonchalant and non-binding local atmosphere. The place can also be rented out for the benefit of other cultural activities.

Greater Chicago Jewish Festival

Celebrating over 40 years of Jewish culture! We call it the Heart and Soul of Jewish Chicago because, on this one special day, you can find everything that is Jewish in Chicago. We create our own “town square” filled with the sights, sounds, and tastes of a dynamic and creative community.

The Greater Chicago Jewish Festival is produced by the Jewish Production Organization for Cultural Events and Theater (P.O.C.E.T.), a non-profit corporation. The Jewish P.O.C.E.T. was organized in 1980 to create a production group for the Festival and Jewish theater. The Steering Committee is comprised of professionals in the fields of art, music, theater, dance, radio, television, communications, community relations, education, engineering, finance, law, and technology. Most importantly, the Steering Committee was created from the beginning to represent the spectrum of the Jewish community—all denominations, all ages, and families from all parts of Chicagoland are welcome.

This is the largest Jewish cultural event in Chicago and the largest ongoing Jewish festival in America brings together the best of the community’s professional and amateur singers, dancers, and artists. It demonstrates to Jewish children and the larger community that the Jewish community does not just gather in times of crisis.
Educates the Jewish community about its multifaceted culture.

The festival reaches out to the general community to show the breadth and depth of the Jewish community. It provides an avenue for Jewish artists and performers to develop and present their work while encouraging them to work on Jewish themes within their fields, and encourages tolerance by bringing the entire Jewish community together to celebrate our culture, identity, and diversity.

The Festival has two artistic goals:
It is designed to provide a platform for local performers and fine artists. We seek out musicians and artists, especially those we meet in the general community, and ask them to consider working within Judaica. Ceramists are also encouraged to consider using ritual objects, such as candlesticks and spice boxes, and musicians were invited to take part in original Jewish song competitions.

Secondly, the Festival is designed and advertised to attract people from the greater Chicagoland community. We seek to share Jewish culture to show our neighbors that the Jewish community does not just come together in times of crisis. This is also an important message for our children. We come together as a strong community to speak out, but also to celebrate Jewish life with food, dance, music, art, and exchanging ideas.

Over the years, we’ve been lucky to have many famous folks perform on the Festival stages: Theodore Bikel, Rabbi Joe Black, David Broza, Debbie Friedman, Peter Himmelman, Maya Johanna, Lisa Loeb, Shuli Nathan, Maccabeats, Steven Page of Bare Naked Ladies, Peter Yarrow, and more.

🌍 Celebrating One Year of the Jewish Silk Road Portal

World Jewish Travel was thrilled at #IMTM 2024 to present a copy of the WJT Jewish Silk Road Pressbook to the CEO of the Azerbaijan National Tourism Board Florian Sengstschmid and Jamilya Talibzade its Israeli representative Azerbaijan Tourism Board (ATB).

The Pressbook celebrates the one year anniversary of the Jewish Silk Road Portal launch, an amazing example of using Jewish travel as a means of cultural diplomacy, whilst highlighting the significant Jewish contribution to the ancient trade route. Kudos to our participating partners from the Kiriaty Foundation (Turkey), National Board of Tourism of #Georgia, National Board of Tourism of #Uzbekistan, and Israeli Embassy of #India. 

See the overwhelming reaction from the press, by downloading our free pressbook. Special thanks to Moshe Gilad of the @haaretzcom for highlighting this forgotten but important story in the Galeria section of the newspaper and available to download on WJT.

👉Link to WJT Jewsih Silk Rad Pressbook and more is in our bio

...

39 2
Step into the soul-stirring Pesach traditions of Jerusalem virtually. Experience the resonating echoes of Birkat Kohanim🌿

 Link is in our bio

#VirtualTravel #JerusalemVibes #SpiritualJourney #JewishTravel #Isarel  #BirkatKohanim #JewishJerusalem

...

18 0
Discover the enigmatic “Donkey Stable” in Jerusalem's underground. Unveil the city's secrets from home. 🌌

Find link in our bio

#JerusalemUnderground #CitySecrets #ExploreHistory #JewishTravel #Israel #Travel #WesternWall

...

19 2