Cuba’s Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana

The second installment of the Cuban Heritage Collection 2019 Film Series with the University of Miami premiere of the documentary film Cuba's Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana. Followed by a conversation and Q&A with Judy Kreith, Co-director, and Ruth Behar, Victor Haim Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
This program is produced in collaboration with Dr. Haim Shaked, director of the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies.

About the Film
Cuba's Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana documents the story of Marion Kreith, who was 14 when she and her family fled Nazi-occupied Europe and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to safety in Cuba. Refugees who made it to Havana, including young Marion, found work to support themselves and their families in a newly transported trade: diamond polishing. Firsthand survivor accounts take us back to 1940s Havana—an era at once tumultuous, heartbreaking, and intoxicating—to reveal an immigration success story. 

About Judy Kreith
Judy Kreith is a professional dance educator and choreographer. She received her M.A. degree from Stanford University. Her mother, Marion Finkels Kreith, is the key inspiration for this film. Judy has extensively studied Cuban dance and while in Cuba, began research into the Jewish refugees’ diamond polishing industry that flourished in Havana during the Second World War, working on-site with Cuban historians.

About Ruth Behar
Ruth Behar was born in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in New York. She is now the Victor Haim Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Ruth has worked as an ethnographer in Spain, Mexico, and Cuba, and is known for her humanistic approach to understanding identity, immigration, and the search for home in our global era.