Cuba trip opens minds, hearts

The equation is always, “Money equals happiness,” or at least happier.

Jordan Gantz had accepted that math since childhood. Now a senior from Wilmette, Ill. majoring in psychology, Gantz took a week out of his winter break with five of his fellow students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to visit the tiny Jewish community of Camaguey, Cuba. The experience turned that psychological computation completely around for him.

“My whole life I’ve associated a lack of wealth with unhappiness. I really didn’t expect the Cubans to be so pleased with their lives. I was taken by the simplicity of life there, and how, for the most part, everyone I met there seemed as happy or happier than many of the people in our culture,” Gantz says.

Only about 80 strong, the Jewish population in Camaguey opened homes and hearts to the students, with the object of getting to know each other better, working side by side and seeing what they could all learn from the experience.

Gantz, for example, is especially interested in the intersection of psychology and culture. He says his Cuban odyssey provided insight he couldn’t have gotten any other way.

“Seeing the huge psychological differences that culture brings about in the Cubans and us has shown me first-hand how important culture is in determining who you are. Being able to immerse myself in this community has given me great knowledge to work with and base my future studies on,” he says. Indeed, his experiences in Camaguey will be the basis of independent study credit toward his psychology degree.

The students, all recruited for the trip by the Hillel Student Center for Jewish Life, used the university’s new educational visa to travel to Cuba with the intention of spending a week restoring a synagogue and cemetery in town, as well as getting acquainted with the community. Expenses were paid by a special fund established by a UW alumnus.

Trip coordinator Robert Skloot, director of the UW–Madison Weinstein-Mosse Center for Jewish Studies, has visited Camaguey, one of Madison’s sister cities, twice previously. Skloot had a good idea of the conditions that the group would encounter there.

“The students could see the challenges that faced us in repairing the synagogue and cemetery in the time we had — it took us two days just to locate some paint, for example. We brought along brushes and rollers from home,” he says. The group also brought one suitcase full of their own things, and a second with clothes for the Cubans. “We left the suitcases with them,” Skloot says. “We also brought toys, and purchased food items and other necessities for them in Camaguey. We brought medicine, things common here — Tylenol, antibiotics, medicine for Parkinson’s disease — that you simply cannot get there.”

Perhaps the greatest assistance that the students provided was the intangible but very real friendship and shared religion. In their cargo bay, for example, were 30 Spanish-Hebrew prayer books, especially important, Skloot says, “because the Jewish community there is so fragile and isolated from others. We wanted to provide materials for a stronger connection to their Jewish faith,” he says. “The best way to make progress toward peace is people-to-people. The trip was educational and humanitarian, but it was deeply personal as well.”

The students lived with Jewish families in Camaguey. Their primary contact was Orestes Larios Zaak, whose acquaintance Skloot had made on an earlier trip. Larios says the items that the students brought were certainly useful, but the real value of the experience was in working together for a common good.

“I think this trip was an old dream of Robert’s, that we could finally see each other face to face,” Larios says. “Our first contact was participating in ShabBat (the Jewish Sabbath) together. The students and people in the community also did some rebuilding and painting different areas of the synagogue. In turn, we were able to introduce musicians, painters and artisans of Camaguey.”

Working together on projects enhanced the sense of their shared Jewishness, according to Sara Frailich, a junior majoring in women’s studies and Jewish studies.

“After being barely able to communicate in Spanish, praying the same words in Hebrew together at Friday services was an event full of emotion for me,” she says. “The importance of those moments praying together in unison as Jews brought home the mission of this trip: Our common ancestry and Judaism was stronger than language, and stronger than the American embargo against Cuba.” In addition to the journal that all the students kept on the trip, Frailich is working on a video intended for academic credit.

The university’s educational travel license, granted almost exactly a year ago by the U.S. Treasury Department, promotes just such access to Cuba so that Wisconsin students, faculty and staff can learn about the country and its citizens first-hand. Skloot envisions an eventual exchange program between students, faculty and staff from UW–Madison and the University of Camaguey.

Meanwhile, both the travelers to and residents of Camaguey intend to pursue their new friendships.

“I made a very special friend in Camaguey,” says Frailich. “The woman I stayed with, Graziella, was like a sister to me from the moment we met. We’re planning to meet in Israel if she’s able to immigrate.”

“The Cuban families have a new friend in me,” says Jordan Gantz. “I tried to make it really clear that our group was not there on a charity mission. While we were able to bring some financial and physical help, they helped us out immensely by allowing us to see what was behind government propaganda, both from the Cuban government and ours,” he says.

For Orestes Larios Zaak, the experience undercuts politics. “I think our relationships will grow step by step,” he predicts. “This trip was a first pass, but I’m convinced that we all think differently about each other now. We know we are two groups of people with the same heart.”

For more information about this trip, contact the UW–Madison Mosse-Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, (608) 265-4763, alightf@facstaff.wisc.edu.