Step by Step: Women Lead Havana’s Jewish Renaissance
![“Our rikudim [Israeli folk Dance] groups are the pride and joy of the community,” says Marlen, Director of the island-wide, JDC-supported rikudim program and President of the Association of Jewish Women in Cuba.](/assets/images/fsi-250x165/step-by-step-women-lead-1.jpg)
When Marlen Fernandez Barroto was born 40 years ago to a peasant family in Havana, Cuba it was anything but predictable that she would become a central figure in the island’s Jewish community of 1,500 members. Growing up during Fidel Castro’s era, religion was nowhere to be found in Marlen’s home, though she says, “My mother always told me that I was curious about religion from a young age.”