Ruth Behar is an author and cultural anthropologist who all her life has navigated the social, cultural and political space between Cuba and the United States. She was born in Havana and grew up in New York. She earned her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Princeton University and is now Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Her honors include a MacArthur “Genius” Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, and many others.
Ruth is known for her humanistic approach to understanding identity, immigration, and the search for home in our global era, which she has explored in essays, poetry, fiction and film.
Ruth’s books include “An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba” and “Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in between Journeys.” She is co-editor of “Women Writing Culture,” editor of the anthology “Bridges to Cuba/Puentes a Cuba,” and co-editor of “The Portable Island: Cubans at Home in the World.” Her personal documentary, “Adio Kerida/Goodbye Dear Love: A Cuban Sephardic Journey,” distributed by Women Make Movies, has been shown in festivals around the world.
She spoke at the JCCSF through the Arts and Ideas Program in 2012.
World View April 14, 2015
This February I went to Havana to see what I could learn about how the island’s Jewish community is responding to the news of restored political relations between the U.S. and Cuba. But a few days into my trip, I started to feel ill. My lips suddenly... Read more