Prisoner release from Cuba hailed as a Hanukkah miracle

c. 2014 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Alan Gross, the Jewish international aid worker held for five years in Cuba on charges of spying, was freed Wednesday (December 17)—what some are calling a Hanukkah miracle on the first day of the holiday that celebrates religious freedom.

Gross, 65, of Maryland, has always said that he only went to Cuba to bring communications equipment to the small Jewish community left in Havana. However, the Castro government said he was part of a spy network attempting to set up a secret network for Cuban Jews. Gross was serving a 15-year sentence.