Raul Castro Celebrates Hanukkah with Cuban Jews

CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum reports Cuban President Raul Castro, wearing a yarmulke, was the surprise guest at a Sunday evening Hanukkah celebration in Havana's Beth Shalom synagogue. He watched a performance by a Jewish youth dance group, lit a candle in the Menorah and spoke briefly about the economic debate underway in the country.

Castro's attendance was a heavily symbolic act at a time when his government is holding a Jewish-American subcontractor on suspicion of spying.

Neither Castro nor those assembled at Havana's Shalom synagogue mentioned the name Alan Gross during the gathering, which was broadcast on the state-television newscast Sunday evening. But Gross's one-year detention without charge was the elephant in the room.

The U.S. government says Gross was in Cuba as part of a USAID program to distribute communications equipment to the island's 1,500-strong Jewish community, and both the State Department and Gross's wife, Judy, made fresh appeals this week for his release. The leaders of Havana's two main Jewish groups have denied having anything to do with him.

Castro was given the honor of lighting the first candle of the menorah. It was the first time in more than a decade that either Castro or his brother Fidel appeared with the Jewish community at a religious celebration like Hanukkah.

The brothers have gone out of their way to show their support for the Jewish people in recent months.

Fidel Castro took time out from his warnings about a looming nuclear war pitting the U.S and Israel against Iran to say that he disagreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denials of the Holocaust. He said: "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews" adding that Jews "were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world."

The comments won rare praise from Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Raul Castro, who took over the presidency from his brother in 2006, thanked his hosts for a "very enjoyable afternoon," and said he hoped to have more time on another occasion to come and talk about "the Hebrew community in Cuba and the fabulous history of the Hebrew people."

Castro noted that he will turn 80 in June, but said he was "in good health." He said he was pleased that his country had begun to hold discussions on the need for a major economic overhaul. Cuba has announced that it is laying off 500,000 state workers, while allowing for more private enterprise.

Gross, a native of Potomac, Maryland, was arrested Dec. 3, 2009. His family denies he was spying, saying he brought communications equipment for use by the local Jewish community, not dissidents. The U.S. government says his continued detention is a "major impediment" to improved ties between the two Cold War enemies.
Siegelbaum reports Castro said that while he will be 80 next June, the most important thing is that he feels "in good health."

He continued, "In the 'perfecionamiento'" - the Cuban term for improving - "that we have to do with our economy, the modifications that are necessary and that people are discussing for three months."

He encouraged people to be open with their opinions on government proposals to reorganize the economy, making tough decisions on implementing austerity measures and opening up opportunities for some private enterprise.

"As is natural, [the Jewish people who made up the congregation], as part of the Cuban people will also give your respective opinions of all types," he said.

"As we have already made clear," he continued, "It is essential that what each and everyone thinks be expressed, without embarrassment or any worry about doing so, to come up with or express differences that they consider opportune because that is what we think to defend, the constant expressing of differing ideas, which in my modest experience is what leads to the best solutions."