Cuba’s Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana

A Film by Judy Kreith and Robin Truesdale

NY Premiere Screening, post-screening Q&A featuring the filmmakers and a special performance of Cuban music from the film by The Pablo Moya Trio.

Cuba’s Forgotten Jewels was born of the tales Marion Kreith told her daughter, co-director Judy Kreith. Marion escaped war-torn Europe as a young girl with her family, evading Nazi capture and crossing the Atlantic to a tropical paradise. In this film, her story mingles with the personal accounts of other refugees who recall their escape to Havana and the challenges they faced in the exotic and unfamiliar land. With a stunning musical score of Jewish melodies and the pulsating music of Havana, the film merges the realities of two vastly different yet intermingled cultures, bringing this colorful and uplifting piece of history to light.

AJHS is home to collections from the Joint Distribution Committee and the National Refugee Services—both involved in various negotiations with the Cuban government to help rescue Jews fleeing Germany in the late 1930s. AJHS is also home to the papers of the volunteer organization Machal, whose founder, Si Spiegelman, fled Nazi Europe and spent time in Cuba before arriving in the US in the 1940s. This program is inspired by these and other related collections housed at AJHS.

Presented in partnership with the American Jewish Historical Society.

Tickets: $10 general ● $7 students/AJHS and LBI members/seniors ● $12 at the door