Elza Habif explains how she founded Habif Jewelry at her store in Downtown Miami on March 10, 2009. The “Lucky Eye” is the basis of her business. Photo by Joshua Newman

“From Turkey With Love” is the slogan that reads off of the business card for Habif Jewelry Company.  The phrase refers to both the origin of “lucky eye” jewelry sold in the store and the heritage of its Jewish shop owners, Elza and Alberto Habif.

Elza, 76, emigrated from Turkey in 1952 to marry Alberto, another Turkish Jew already living in Cuba.  Eleven years later the couple fled from Castro’s regime to pursue the American dream in Miami - a journey that began with nothing and would eventually lead to the ownership of a successful jewelry business.

Today Elza Habif sits behind a desk in Suite 45 of Miami Metro Mall, covered in bundled passports, an assortment of “lucky eye” pamphlets and scattered photos.  A large portrait photograph of Alberto, now deceased, looks over her right shoulder.  After 56 years of marriage, Habif recalls with nostalgia the American life they built together.

“When we came here, we really left a lot in Cuba,” Habif said.  “We went from having everything to nothing.”

The Habifs came to the United States from Cuba in 1963 bringing with them only the clothes they wore to travel that day.  All of their possessions had to be given away or left behind.

Naile Kreiezmar, 70, came to the United States from Cuba just three years before her sister Elza.  The day Kreiezmar arrived in Florida, she spent the five dollars she made selling a few cigars on the bus ride from Key West to Miami.  She did not eat that day.

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“We were very much afraid that we weren’t going to make it,” said Kreiezmar.

Had it not been for the generosity of an aunt, Naile and her husband might not have had a place to sleep either.

“We were strapped for cash,” said Kreiezmar.  “My husband and I lived in a tiny apartment with my mother and 14-year-old nephew for six or seven months.  My mom slept on the sofa.”

Cramped living conditions and depleted bank accounts were a far cry from the life Kreiezmar and her sister had lived in Cuba.

“We actually had servants in Cuba,” Kreiezmar said.  “I used to have maids in my house.”

For this reason Kreiezmar believes that of all her Cuban-Jewish friends, the women had the hardest time adjusting to the drop in socio-economic class from one country to another.

“I did not even know how to cook or boil water,” said Kreiezmar.  “We had to teach each other.”

Like her sister, Habif had been well established in Havana through the ownership of a chain of tourist shops in six major hotels. The Habifs also owned a perfume factory.

“Life in Cuba was beautiful and successful and everything. It was very easy-going, and everything was magnificent,” Habif said.

But that was before Castro came into power, she said.

According to Ruth Behar, a Cuban Jew and visiting professor at the University of Miami, Castro did not treat the Jews differently than any other Cubans. When he came into power, he took everyone’s possessions without discrimination.

The Habifs’ perfume factory was seized by the government and turned into an old age home.

In her final year living in Cuba, Habif lived in the same apartment building as Fidel Castro.

“I used to see him every day with his men with the big guns in the elevators,” she said.  “That’s why we left Cuba.”

The idea that people still live under a communist regime is disturbing to Habif.
“You can’t have any independence,” she said.  “How can you live under such oppression?”

When Habif first arrived in Florida, she and her husband were able to conquer the emotional struggle of living “check-to-check” by being positive and optimistic.

“We didn’t have luxury,” Habif said.  “But we had everything we needed.”
She took up her first job in a factory, working for $60 per week while living with her family in Miami Beach.

She said they were initially never able to save money and spent everything they made.

“It was difficult to live, but we were very happy to be here.  It could have been worse in Cuba,” Habif said.  “The feeling of living in America overtook the feeling of hard times.”