Alan Gross Celebrates Hanukkah in Prison

By Forward Staff December 29, 2011

Members of the Cuban Jewish community celebrated Hanukkah this week with Alan Gross, a Jewish American serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba.

“He looks stronger. He has gained a few pounds and is doing a lot of exercise,” Adela Dworin, who presides over Cuba’s Jewish community, told Reuters.

During the two-hour Hanukkah visit, Gross and his visitors ate latkes and chocolate gelt, and lit a menorah, according to reports.

Gross, 62, has been jailed since December 2009, when he was arrested for attempting to bring satellite phones and internet-enabled devices to Jewish residents of the Communist island nation.

Cuban President Raul Castro last week announced that 2,900 political prisoners, but not Gross, would be freed.

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