Some of my family members in Cuba during WWII

I mentioned in another article the fact that Belgian Jews exiled to Cuba during WWII. My relatives also stayed in Cuba. Many of the Jews who lived in Cuba during the War, were Belgian refugees. For more on this topic you may read Jews from Antwerp in Cuba.

Cuba and some of my relatives:
I found in the book “Jewish Community of  Cuba – The Golden Years 1906-1958” by Mr. Jay Levinson (ISBN 78-0977620708) a paragraph on page 133 with a reference to the copy of La Voz de Betar:

“Not all the Belgian Jews, however, confined all of their activity to their own closely-knit society. J. Dorf lectured to Betar on Jewish History; Ringler spoke to the meeting of Betar about geography of the Holy Land.”

I found in that copy of La Voz de Betar (Cuba) which appeared in September 1944 (this file is known at the Jabotinsky Institute archives as file 3/239 bet), some names of people belonging to the Dorf family (my great-grandmother Liebe Dorf was married to my great-grandfather Gerschon Lehrer):

• J.  Dorf: This most likely is Joseph Dorf (18 Aug 1909, Biskupice, Poland), son of Isaac Dorf and Sara Szeindle Fischelberg.
  (I found a J. Dorf who was on the board of the Antwerp “Zionisten-Revisionisten” organization (Zionists-Revisionists) which was established in 1926 (see “Geschiedenis van de Joden in Antwerpen in woord en beeld” by Ephraim Schmidt (ISBN 90-5341-242-6))
• M.  Dorf: Danny Lehrer does not think that this is a relative (i.e: Moizesz Dorf a brother of J. Dorf) as he was in  hiding in Jambes (Belgium) at that time.
• F. Grinblat: Danny Lehrer does not think that this is a relative. Sruel Grienblat   is the son in-law of Mina (Offen-Dorf) (married to Paula) and lives in NY,   but was in a concentration camp at that time.

The texts as found in the copy of   La Voz de Betar (Cuba) from September 1944:

Trabajos culturales
Como una organización juvenil hebrea nacional comprendemos que un joven hebreo el cual no posce conocimientos a muestro pasado no tiene capacidad para defender su Patria y su pueblo, poroso nosotros con gran esfuerzo nos dedicamos a enseriar a la juventud hebrea su historia, sus héroes, sus canciones y su pasado. Esos trabajos culturales son llevados a cabo en forma de lecciones cada miércoles y viernes. Estas charlas culturales que ya es como una tradición donde se reúnen muchos jóvenes los cuales estudian y discuten los problemas hebreos. En dicha labor nos ayudan varios amigos destacados intelectuales de nuestra Colonia como el Sr. E. Aranowsky, el cual da lecciones de Tanaj; el Sr. J.  Dorf  (revisionista de Bélgica) sobre la historia hebrea; el Ktzin Najmen Soloweichik sobre la ideología del Betar; el Sr. Ringler (revisionista de Bélgica) sobre la Geografía Palestinense y nuestro Mefaked D. Shinderman, sobre la Historia des Sionismo.

También organizamos charlas explicando el significado de nuestras tradicionales fiestas y problemas actúalas.

Translation:

As a National Jewish youth   organization we understand that a young Jew who has no knowledge of our past has no capacity to defend his State and his people, therefore we, with a lot of effort, dedicate ourselves to teach the youth their history, their heroes, their songs, and their past. These cultural events take the shape of lessons every Wednesday and Friday. These cultural talks which are already a sort of tradition where a lot of youngsters meet, who study and discuss the Jewish problems. In this endeavor we are helped by several renown intellectuals from our community such as Mr.  E. Aranowsky who gives lectures in Tanach, Mr  J.  Dorf  (a revisionist from Belgium) about our Jewish History, the  Ktzin Najmen Soloweichik about the ideology of Betar, Mr. Ringler (a revisionist from Belgium) about the geography of Palestine and our Mefaked D Shinderman, about the history of Zionism.

We also organize talks explaining the significance of our traditional holidays and current problems.

Copies of some pages from the issue of La Voz de Betar):