Driven from Europe before and during World War II, many Jewish people settled in Cuba only to see the suppression of religious practice continue after the nation’s 1959 Communist revolution.

The Dunwoody-based Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta has organized the latest in a series of humanitarian trips to Cuba.

Participants bring medical and school supplies to help all Cubans, and work to help the island’s Jewish community celebrate and reclaim their religious identity.

The trip is slated to begin July 19 and last for six days. Cost to participants is around $3,000 and includes airfare, hotel accommodations and most meals. Space is limited to 25 travelers, and was still available last week.

Mike Wise, executive director of the center, took the humanitarian trip five years ago with his wife, he said.

“I’ve traveled a lot and it was one of the most inspiring, emotional experiences I’ve had in my life,” Wise said.

“When my mother-in-law escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, she went to Cuba. The trip kind of was like retracing for my wife and I her family’s history. Her story was really similar to many of the Jews whose families remain in Cuba ’til this day,” he added.

Wise said religious restrictions eased in the early 1990s in Cuba.

“[Beforehand] they did have to practice secretly. Many families lost all sense of religion and are having to learn for the first time about their religious heritage,” he said.

“But for us, it’s also about learning and understanding the challenges people in Cuba have on a day-to-day basis in terms of survival,” he added.

The center has organized two or three trips a year beginning in 2002. It must reapply every year for a permit from the United States government to go to the travel-restricted country, Wise said.

There are approximately 1,500 members of the Cuban Jewish community, which is mostly centered in Havana but also spread through more remote regions, Wise said.

The community center’s group plans to visit with members of the community to tour Jewish cemeteries and synagogues, and celebrate the Sabbath, Wise said. They also plan to visit a medical clinic to deliver supplies.

“It’s not a tourist trip. We bring in medical supplies and school supplies. We don’t go to sit on the beach,” he said.

Nancy Shemaria, a participant in the center’s December 2009 trip, said it was “a very moving experience.”

“It’s important to support the Cuban Jews and, really, all Cubans. We are helped, too, though, by seeing how people are struggling to remain Jewish, it reaffirms our own faith,” she said.

Information: Shaindle Schmuckler at (678) 812-3983.