This past the week Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba. Most of us never know what goes on behind closed doors, but by all public accounts, his visit was a profound disappointment to the Jewish community.

Before the Pope's visit, the Jewish community petitioned him to raise as a humanitarian concern the plight of Alan Gross. Alan Gross is an active member of the Maryland Jewish community who was prosecuted in Cuba in 2011 after being accused of crimes against the Cuban government for bringing computer equipment to the Cuban Jewish community and helping them connect to the internet.