JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
U.S. relations with Cuba are at their best in almost two decades, but President Barack Obama seems unwilling or unable to confront a well-organized anti-Cuba lobby and push for further progress. Obama suggested change was coming at a Miami fundraiser in November, saying “we have to be creative, and we have to be thoughtful, and…
A seven-member U.S. congressional delegation met on Tuesday with Cuban President Raul Castro, official media reported, to improve relations that have been strained since U.S. government contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned there in 2009. Members of the group, which arrived on Monday, also met with Gross, said a delegation member who asked not to be…
A seven-member delegation of U.S. lawmakers arrived in Cuba on Monday in the latest effort to move forward political relations that have been at a standstill since U.S. government contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned there in 2009. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who saw Gross and met with Cuban President Raul Castro and other high-ranking officials…
Jailed American contract worker Alan Gross got a little fresh reading material from a recent visitor to his Cuban prison cell — and dished out some Jewish wisdom in return. Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba specialist at the National Security Archives, brought Gross a recent copy of the Sunday New York Times and John Grisham’s new…
The campaign to free Alan Gross, a Jewish contract worker jailed in Cuba for almost three years, has dramatically ramped up since President Obama’s reelection. But experts warn that the latest salvos in the battle to free Gross, led by his wife, Judy, and a prominent human rights lawyer, are scattershot and potentially counterproductive. “There…
A U.S. contractor jailed in Cuba after being convicted of crimes against the state sued the U.S. government and the company that hired him for $60 million on Friday, blaming them for his imprisonment and not warning him about the risks he faced in the communist-run island. Alan Gross, 63, has been jailed in Cuba…
The photos of Alan Gross before and during his imprisonment in Cuba are striking: The ruddy-faced man with bulging cheeks now looks thin and sallow. His wife, Judy Gross, says that he has lost 100 pounds in the last two years, and it shows. For humanitarian reasons alone, the ailing 62-year-old Jew ought to be…
The wife of Alan Gross, a State Department subcontractor jailed in Cuba, has launched a new strategy to win his release: ratcheting up the pressure on the United States government as well as on the Cuban regime. After fighting for months to persuade the organized Jewish community to rally behind a humanitarian campaign to free…
