Inside Adath Israel, the sole Orthodox synagogue in Cuba, located in Old Havana where the group attended services. Photo courtesy of Margo Singer.
The Traveling Lens of Margo B Singer: Cuba Edition,” an exhibit of photos from a trip to Cuba in December 2025, will be on display from May 1–29 at the East Greenbush Community Library in East Greenbush. The exhibit will feature Singer’s photographs of her travels with her husband Izzy and other family members to Cuba.
The couple traveled on a week-long Jewish Heritage tour in Cuba with her brother Mark and wife Mona from Maryland, and her cousin Gordon and wife Kayla from Alaska, along with two others. It blended historical sites with Cuban art and culture along with visits to four Jewish communities. The group visited two synagogues in Havana, one in Santa Clara, and met with the leaders of the Cienfuegos Jewish community.
The tour group outside Congregation Beth Shalom (El Patronato), Havana’s largest synagogue. Above their heads is a banner calling for the release of the hostages. Photo courtesy of Margo Singer.
According to Margo Singer, tour members brought the Cuban Jews much needed medical supplies and other donations.
She added that while it was an usual trip to plan for, which included special vaccines and planning for “cash-only” traveling, they had many enlightening discussions with people there about contemporary life. One of their last nights there was New Years Eve, and it was spent in a jazz club in Old Havana. The tour returned home the night before things heated up in the area, when the U.S. conducted a large scale strike against Venezuela and travel in the area was curtailed.
The Singers are residents of Castleton, and members of Congregation Berith Sholom and the Nassau Synagogue. Izzy Singer is a regular contributor of the “Iz Visions” cartoons featured in The Jewish World.
