(CNN) -- Cuba is more than a thousand miles from my home in New York, but it's a place close to my heart. Steve Kastenbaum talks with Salomon Leyderman outside the Adath Israel synagogue in Havana, Cuba. I went to Cuba to report on a country that appears to be on the cusp of a new era. My focus was the future of U.S.-Cuban relations and the reforms under Cuban leader Raúl Castro. But a vague notion of exploring my family history in Cuba resulted in the most memorable story of the entire journey. More than 15,000 Jews were living in Cuba in the 1940s and '50s. Today, there are about 1,500.
@highlight
A CNN Radio correspondent explores his Jewish heritage in Cuba
@highlight
His grandparents left Cuba in the late 1940s
@highlight
An 86-year-old Jewish man remembered correspondent's family
Jewish life in Cuba has its roots in @placeholder, where my great-grandparents settled.