J. (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Marc Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University and is author, most recently, of “Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s.” He wrote this opinion piece for the J., a Jewish newspaper in San Francisco.
“Navigating what’s Jewish, what’s Cuban, what’s communist and what’s been imported from the perspectives of American Jewish tour groups proves vexing,” Dollinger wrote. “This might be the trip’s greatest teaching. Cuban Jews hold it all, presenting us with a community that confounds our long-held assumptions about their country and their religious practice.
“Perhaps those of us in the Bay Area and beyond can hold together our own Jewish complexities. And by taking a trip somewhere else, perhaps we can pause, reflect and hold all our identities together, as well.”