JEWS LEAVE CUBA FOR `MIRACLE' IN THE DESERT.

Byline: Si Frumkin

Khartoum, Sudan's capital, is about 500 miles from the Ethiopian border. It is a very long and desolate 500 miles - mostly desert, here and there a few hills, and once in a while a little greenery.

In the 1970s, thousands of Ethiopian Jews took this route, walking for weeks with their families, carrying a few meager belongings, to a refugee camp not far from Khartoum, where they waited for clandestine transportation to Israel.

The exodus was very secret - Ethiopia did not permit the Jews to leave and Sudan did not want it known that it gave shelter to Jewish immigrants on the way to the ``Zionist entity.''

Palms were greased, arrangements made, negotiations conducted as, for the first time in history, blacks were taken out of Africa to freedom, not slavery.

And then the bubble burst. A Washington, D.C., Jewish paper had learned of the operation and published the story. Overnight, the refugee camps were closed, several Sudanese involved in the operation were executed and there were grave concerns that the lives of the Jews were in danger.

The U.S. Jewish community pressured Washington for help while in some communities less conventional plans were considered. In Los Angeles, Phil Blazer, a prominent Jewish activist, had even made arrangements for hospital space to house Ethiopian Jews who would be brought to Los Angeles in planes he was chartering.

I was to be part of the effort to take the Jews out of Sudan and even had a number of gold coins hidden for emergencies in the heels of my shoes.

Eventually, however, there was a happy ending.

George Bush, then director of the CIA under President Ford, agreed to use the agency to fly the Jews in American planes to a neutral location, and the Israelis then transported them to Israel.

Eventually, when the communist regime in Ethiopia was overthrown, the new government allowed direct emigration and the exodus continued until practically the entire Ethiopian Jewish community had been transferred.

What brings this to mind is a similar story that has come to light just a few weeks ago. It deals with the Jewish exodus from Castro's Cuba. It has been a closely guarded secret since 1994 when, through Canadian intermediaries, Castro signed an agreement with Israel, a country with which Cuba has no diplomatic relations, granting exit permits to Cuban Jews.

There were several conditions: absolute secrecy in both Cuba and Israel, forfeiture of all their possessions to the Castro government except for 48 pounds of personal belongings, and the final destination was to be Israel.

On Oct. 10, after the Sunday Telegraph in London ran a story about the clandestine immigration program, Israeli censors lifted the restrictions on the Cuban operation.

In spite of this, the Jewish Agency, which organized the exodus, still refuses to comment or even acknowledge the existence of any Cubans in Israel.

The Cubans themselves, however, have been more forthcoming. In interviews with Western and Israeli media they pointed out that since they had arrived stripped of all they had - ``down to the drinking glasses,'' said one - they were entitled to the same generous absorption benefits that are given to Ethiopians and to Russians.

Avraham Burg, the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset said, ``They're complaining. Well, that means that they have become real Israelis.''

It appears likely that the Cubans will get the help they ask for, but some of the immigrants are embarrassed that the first perception the Israelis had of the immigrants was one of frustrated complainers. Many consider themselves to be ``die-hard Zionist Jews'' who speak Hebrew and have no desire to leave Israel.

``We have a well-established family in New York, in New Jersey,'' one said. ``We don't want to join them. We want them to join us here.''

Since 1995 about 400 Cuban Jews arrived in Israel, by way of Paris. If Castro doesn't freeze the program, now that it has been exposed, 200 more will arrive in a few months. During the last four years, 10 immigrants have chosen to return to Cuba.

There are about 1,300 Jews left in Cuba. Some live in small towns where nearly everyone is Jewish. Jewish weddings and Passover are usually celebrated inside homes.

Many synagogues have been taken over by the government and converted to museums and community centers without mentioning the buildings' history. The immigrants insist that there is no overt anti-Semitism in Cuba.

One immigrant couple complained that the information about Israel that reached Cuba was inadequate. They had requested brochures in a letter to the Israeli Tourism Ministry. The materials gave an altogether wrong impression of the country.

``I thought that Israel was purely religious,'' said the husband. ``Also that it was very poor. Then we got here and saw that it was a tremendous economic superpower.''

He added, ``It was a miracle. In the desert, they grow here mangos sweeter than tropical Cuba's.''