Sacred Remains
Fifteen thousand Jews fled Cuba after The Revolution and left behind a community of only 600. Those remaining were thin residue of a once thriving community, who lost their Jewish identity as their traditions faded into secular Cuba.
Chevet Achim synagogue's sacred artifacts, tefillin, bibles, torahs, talits, prayerbooks, are ghosts inside an abandoned home. According to Jewish law they are forbidden to decay above ground, and must be buried and prayed upon in a symbolic grave. But instead of being put away to rest, these witnesses of the past wait silently for the next revolution of Jewish Cuba.
Photographs by Ronit Novak
