The Jewish Community of Tampa, FL

Seders & Cigars – A History of Jews in Tampa.  

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, facing conscription and consequent persecution in Europe, Jewish immigrants came to Tampa, particularly West Tampa and Ybor City, on the western coast of Florida, USA, opened retail businesses to support the demand created by the rapidly expanding cigar industry. Family members and extended family members followed one another here in search of a better life. The 71-minute documentary explores a variety of themes including overcoming quotas on Jewish immigration, the challenge of maintaining extended family bonds in a competitive economic environment, cultural assimilation, the nexus of anti-Semitism and segregation, and the rise of women in politics in Tampa and beyond.  “Seders & Cigars” is the result of four years of interviews and editing by filmmaker Barbara Rosenthal.

For over three decades in the film and video industry, Barbara Rosenthal has actively sought out projects that educate, inspire, and broaden our understanding of important issues. Rosenthal has lent her talents in a variety of areas – as a producer, director, writer, editor, narrator, audio designer, and as a composer of film scores. Rosenthal’s most recent film, “Seders & Cigars – A History of Jews in Tampa” (2019) is a story of diversity and the pursuit of the American dream.

The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, courtesy of Barbara Rosenthal.

St. Petersburg

A city in Pinellas County, Florida, USA. 

Nine years after St. Petersburg became a town in 1892, Henry Schutz emigrated from Germany and opened up a dry goods store, becoming the first Jew in town. Soon, others dribbled in to St. Petersburg and Tarpon Springs.

By the time of the great Florida land boom in the 1920s, there were about 10 Jewish families. Most found the closest Jews across the bay in Tampa. By 1923, the first temple was formed in St. Petersburg.

Nineteen years later, the Army opened an airfield for pilot training and local Jews welcomed Jewish soldiers with public Shabbat dinners and Passover seders. There were also many Jewish doctors at the large Bay Pines Veterans Hospital. By the end of the war, there were about 1,500 Jews living in town.

While anti-Semitism was not unknown, Jews steadily became significant members of the community. Today, for example, the second-term mayor of St. Petersburg is Rick Kriseman. In 1998, The Florida Holocaust Museum moved to downtown St. Petersburg.

The surrounding Pinellas County and greater Tampa region has a large Jewish population, second in the state only to the West Palm Beach to Miami area on the Atlantic Coast.
Most permanent Jewish residents have resettled in the Tampa Bay region from the Northeast and the Midwest, and the Jewish population swells in the winter with thousands of part-time resident “snowbird” Jews from the United States and Canada who enjoy the climate and amenities.

St. Petersburg and Pinellas County have about 27,000 full-time resident Jews (2.85% of the population). Tampa and Hillsborough County across the bay are nearly 2% Jewish with about 23,500 in the population and another 8,400 Jews (1.8% of the population) live in Pasco County to the north of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. There are 34 synagogues and other Jewish religious institutions in the region.

Pinellas County is home to the Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, which dates to 1960, a Jewish day school, a Jewish center in Clearwater and the TOP Jewish Foundation. It has 11 Jewish congregations, including three Conservative, two Orthodox and one independent.
Pinellas also has at least three groceries who cater to those who keep kosher, a fairly large Jewish housing complex for the aged and a biweekly Jewish newspaper called The Jewish Press of Pinellas County.

The easiest way to get a sampling of Jewish life for observant Jews in St. Petersburg and vicinity is to consult the Chabad of St. Petersburg guide to Jewish life in the area found at chabadsp.com.

------------------------------

Jeffrey and Virginia Orenstein are travel writers from Sarasota, Florida.

Miami

Metropolitan area on the southern tip of Florida, USA.

The permanent Jewish population of Miami is difficult to ascertain, largely because of seasonal variations. The official figure is 100,000 but when one takes into account people who live there for only part of the year, the number is probably closer to 200,000 masking it one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States which also attracts thousands of visitors. Miami has become a national center for Jewish organizational activity. When the railroad was extended to the area in 1896 just 25 Jews were living in Miami. At that time a Jewish congregation was organized only for High Holiday services. By 1912 the number of residents reached 75, a B'nai Zion and a regular congregation had been founded. This congregation was reorganized and named Beth David in 1917 and is now referred to as The Pioneer Synagogue. Five years later it established the area's first permanent Hebrew School. At first the congregation included Orthodox, Conservative and Reform members and both Orthodox and Reform services were conducted. However, the Reform group broke away in 1922 and established Temple Israel. They built what is still considered to be one of the most beautiful synagogue buildings in the area. Beth Abraham, a small Orthodox congregation, also began to hold services about 1925 and Beth Jacob, also an Orthodox synagogue, the first synagogue in Miami Beach, received its charter in 1927. These four synagogues served Greater Miami until the next great increase in Jewish population just before and after World War II. A Zionist Society was formed after the end of World War I, a United Jewish Aid Association was founded in 1920, a B'nai B'rith Lodge in 1922, a chapter of the ~National Council of Jewish Women in 1921. These were followed in 1926 by Hadassah and the Workmen's Circle. The tremendous influx of new settlers attracted by the Miami land boom in the 1920s swelled the general population from 69,000 to 110,000 while the number of Jews rose from 2,000 in 1925 to 3,500 in 1930.

The United Jewish Aid Association, which assisted indigent invalids who had come to Miami for health reasons, changed its name in 1927 to the Jewish Welfare Bureau of Miami, and then later top the Jewish Social Services Bureau, and finally to the Jewish Family Service. The increase in local poor as a result of the 1926 collapse of the Miami real estate boom, plus the problems of helping the sick and needy visitors during the 1930s, resulted in the establishment in 1938 of the Greater Miami Federation of Jewish Welfare Funds. The first president was Stanley C. Myers. By 1940 the Jewish population of Greater Miami was 7,500. The Miami Jewish Beach, established in 1940 and later known as Temple Emanuel engaged Irving Lehrman as its rabbi. In 1970 over 1,200 families were members of the congregation. Congregation Beth Shalom began during World War II as a soldiers' congregation in Miami Beach and had a membership of over 1,000 families by 1968. It is a Liberal congregation led in 1970 by Rabbi Leon Kronish. During the 1950s and 1960s younger families were moving to North Miami Beach and Southwest Miami each containing about 30,000 Jewish residents. There were also centers of Jewish population in the city of Miami and the surrounding areas. The growth and mobility of the Jewish community was reflected in the number of synagogues in the new areas of settlement. There were seven synagogues in North Miami Beach of which the largest is Beth Torah with 665 families; the Reform synagogue Beth Am in the South West area of Miami boasted the largest religion school in Greater Miami with 1,200 students and Beth David with a membership of over 750 families which has established an auxiliary school building in the suburbs. There were 46 officially recognized congregations. Jewish community life centers around the synagogue rather than in the various voluntary organizations. The Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Miami was established in 1944. It was supported almost entirely by the local Federation and the number of affiliated and assisted schools rose from 4 in 1944, to 10 in 1950 and 42 in 1967 while the school population rose from 1,140 to 11,703. An Orthodox day school, the Hebrew Academy of Miami Beach, was founded in 1947 and had 506 students by 1968. A day school under Conservative auspices, the Solomon Shechter School of Temple Emanuel, was organized in 1961, the YMHA, first organized in 1913 and reactivated in 1933, was soon joined by YWHA on the Beach. In 1951 the branches were amalgamated. In 1970 the combined membership was over 6,000. Miami's first extra-synagogue Jewish women's organization was the National Council of Jewish Women, which sent assistance to Jews stranded in Cuba, organized the first Jewish Sunday School at Beth David, participated in the organization of the Jewish Welfare Bureau and helped furnish the synagogue. The council assisted in the resettlement of European refugees in cooperation, first with the Jewish Welfare Bureau and later with the local immigration authorities. During the 1960s it was concerned with refugees from Cuba of whom 2,500-3,000 were Jewish. The Miami Beach Zionist District was formed in 1941, the Miami branch of the American Zionist Emergency Council formed in 1945 sponsored community wide meetings to further the Zionist cause. In 1968 Hadassah had a membership of 8,500, there were seven Mizrachi groups and nine Pioneer Women chapters.

Tourism, the city's largest industry, was also the most important activity amongst Jews. The second largest activity amongst Jews involved building and real estate and then savings and loan associations which served them, third were services and retail trade of which about 40% were Jewish owned. Miami Beach, the focus of tourism, began as a restricted resort but by 1970 it was estimated to be about 80-85% Jewish. Most of the hotels on the Beach were owned and managed by Jews although an increasing number were controlled by outside syndicates. A considerable amount of Jewish capital was invested in the hotel industry from the1930s and continued through the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s building concentrated on high-rise rental buildings and condominiums rather than on hotels.

Since 1930 when Baron de Hirsch Meyer was elected to the city council of Miami Beach, there have been a series of Jewish mayors and councilmen although most municipal employees. Jews became more and more involved in municipal politics. Abe Aronowitz was mayor of the City of Miami in 1953. Mount Sinai Hospital, established in 1945, moved to a new 10 million dollar building in 1960. In 1959 the Cedars of Lebanon hospital was founded by a group of 75 Jewish physicians. The Jewish Home for the Aged was organized in 1944.

Miami has become the most popular Jewish retirement home in America; branches of many national Jewish organizations have been formed in Miami since the late 1930s, including the Jewish War Veterans (1937), the American Jewish Congress (1939), the Anti-Defamation League (1941) and the American Jewish Committee (1952). The Yiddish element of Jewish life in Miami still predominates in South Beach and there is also a Yiddish school and a radio program in Yiddish. There has never been a Yiddish newspaper in the community, the English language Jewish Unity was published from 1926 to 1935 when it was purchased by the Jewish Floridan which was founded in 1927 by J. Louis Shochet. In 1969 the Jewish Floridan was owned and edited by Fred Shochet, son of the founder. It has a circulation of 18,000 copies each week. The Greater Miami Jewish community has developed as the result of migration from urban centers in the northeast and Midwest of the USA and this also resulted in the formation of “Landsmannschaften” organized by former residents oif Chicago, Detroit, ST Louis, Newark and other cities. Miami is known as The “Campaign Capital of American Jewry”and this role has given the maturing local community added responsibilities and significance

Since 2004, following decades of decline, the city of Miami experienced a 9% growth in the Jewish population. Having increased to approximately 123,000, Miami became the eleventh largest Jewish community in the United States. The Jews of Greater Miami primarily reside in three areas of the Miami-Dade County – North Dade, South Dade, and The Beaches.

As of 2014, approximately 54% of Jewish households reside in North Dade, an area known for having the highest percentage of foreign-born Jewish adults (41%) in the Miami-Dade County. Nearly 31% of Jewish households live in South Dade, 44% of which have been living in Miami for more than twenty years. About 15% of Jewish households reside on The Beaches. This section of Miami has more Orthodox Jewish households than any other in the city and has long since been a destination for Jewish retirees and vacationers. According to a 2013 census, the Jewish community of Miami comprises 3% of the city’s total population.

Miami, Florida is home to a number of organizations which provide support to Miami’s several Jewish communities. Among them is the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Jewish Community Services of South Florida, the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), the Hebrew Educators Alliance, the Association for Jewish Special Education, the South Dade Jewish Leadership Council, and the Hebrew Free Loan Association of South Florida. Collectively, these groups offer a range of programs and services for both families and individuals. They include educational programs, medical assistance and general community outreach.

Holding regular Jewish services throughout the Greater Miami area are more than 70 different congregations. While more than half of these synagogues are Orthodox, non-Orthodox members of Judaism’s various movements have several synagogues of their own including Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist. As of 2013, there were approximately 44 Orthodox synagogues, including Haredi and Hasidic; there were also 15 Conservative, 8 Reform, 2 Reconstructionist and 2 or more which were unaffiliated with any particular movement.

Jewish education is available for people of all ages. For young students are more than 30 private Jewish schools, ranging from the preschool to High School level. Many of them are affiliated with a religious organization such as the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements. At the university level is the Talmudic University, the Yeshiva Godolah Rabbinical College and the Jewish Women’s University. There are also a number of Jewish learning centers, some with a focus on religious studies and others not. These include the Center for Continuing Judaic Studies, the Beth Menachem Torah Center, The Ways of Israel, the Central Agency for Jewish Education (CAJE) and the Sephardic Learning Center.

Like all major cities with a sizeable Jewish population, Miami is home to a variety of Jewish cultural centers. Catering to children, young adults and families are several community centers in the Greater Miami area, including the Dave and Mary Alper Jewish Community Center, the Galbut Family Miami Beach JCC, and the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center. There are also many social associations for both students and families. Hillel for example is located on the campus at Miami University. There is also a chapter of B’nai B’rith and a Chabad House in Miami Beach. In 2014, the Moishe House, an international organization for young adults, established its newest location in Miami Aventura. In North Miami is the Jewish Sports Foundation which was established in 2010. Miami, Florida has two Holocaust memorials; the Jewish Museum of Florida which is located at the Florida-Israel Institute and The Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach.

Permanent Jewish settlement in Miami, Florida did not begin until 1896 with the arrival of Isidor Cohen. By the mid-to-late thirties, Greater Miami had become a magnet for Jewish people coming from the Northeast and Midwest. As Jews were excluded from most hotels and clubs, Jewish families, including the Richter, Levinson, Stone and others opened their own hotels at which Miami became the number one vacation destination for American Jews. By the 1940s, Miami was the region’s major center of Jewish life. In decades following the city’s initial settlement, Miami experienced various waves of immigration. One such wave was from the island of Cuba. After the revolution, the Jews of Cuba began migrating to Southern Florida, many of them arriving to Miami Beach. Between 1960 and 1963, more than 9,000 out of the 12,000 Jews that had been in Cuba left the island. In 1961, Ashkenazi Cuban expatriates founded the Circulo Cubano Hebreo (Cuban Hebrew Congregation) at the Beth Shmuel Synagogue. Eight years later, the Sephardic expatriate community established the Cuban Sephardi Hebrew Congregation. In addition to its vibrant Cuban Jewish community, Miami is known for its large population of Russian Jews. Mainly concentrated in Sunny Isles, the Northeastern area of Miami-Dade County, the city is known as “Little Moscow”. Miami is also home to the country’s third largest population of Israeli Jews. As of 2010, there were approximately 30,000-50,000 Israeli Jews living in the Greater Miami area.

Throughout Miami are numerous neighborhoods and districts with sizeable Jewish populations. Notable communities include Aventura, Sunny Isles, the “Little Moscow” of Miami, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Hallandale and of course North Miami Beach. Within these neighborhoods are many Jewish landmarks which memorialize Miami’s historic Jewish community. Established by the Miami Design Preservation League is the Jewish Miami Beach Tour. This tour gives sightseers a look at the past 100 years of Miami Beach and its many historic Jewish institutions. There is also a Jewish Food Walking Tour which offers tourists a taste of Jewish Miami and their famous restaurants. However the city’s most important landmarks include the Holocaust Memorial of Miami Beach and the Jewish Museum of Florida. Other historic sites include the city’s oldest synagogues. Temple Emanu-El, a synagogue known for its Byzantine and Moorish architectural design, is the oldest Conservative synagogue on Miami Beach. Temple Beth Sholom is the largest and oldest Reform synagogue, also located on Miami Beach.

Since developing into a thriving community, the Jews of Miami have established many of what have long been considered the city’s best healthcare and medical centers. Serving the Greater Miami area is Mount Sinai Medical Center, L’chaim Jewish Hospice Program, Jewish Home Care Services of Miami-Dade and the Miami Jewish Health Systems. Most of the city’s Jewish health care programs were founded and are funded by Jewish philanthropists. Mount Sinai Medical Center was founded by a group of Jewish philanthropists in 1949 and continues to raise funds through its own foundation to maintain the highest quality of care. Under the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, organizations such as the UJA Campaign and the Lion of Judah Women’s Philanthropy raise millions of dollars to support programs not only in Miami but in Israel and more than 60 other countries. One of Miami’s most notable philanthropists is Leonard Abess, who after selling his company, City National Bank of Florida, divided his bonus of $60 million among his staff as well as 72 former employees. Abess and his family are well known for their philanthropy and are prominent members of the Jewish community. In 2007, the Abess family received the highest award of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce for their contribution to the environment.

Circulating throughout Miami is a variety of Jewish periodicals. These include newspapers such as the Florida Jewish Journal, the Miami Jewish Tribune, the Jewish Journal, and Yediot Aharonot, a Hebrew language paper from Israel. The Greater Miami Jewish Federation publishes its own online newspaper known as The Community Post. There are also two well known Jewish lifestyle magazines, Jewish Way and Jewish Scene Magazine. Broadcasted every Sunday is Florida’s own Shalom South Florida, a Jewish radio station with programs that feature Israeli and Hasidic music, as well as news and Jewish related topics.

United States of America (USA)

A country in North America

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 5,700,000 out of 325,000,000 (1.7%). United States is the home of the second largest Jewish population in the world. 

Community life is organized in more than 2,000 organizations and 700 federations. Each of the main religious denominators – Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist – has its own national association of synagogues and rabbis. 

American cities (greater area) with largest Jewish populations in 2018:

New York City, NY: 2,000,000
Los Angeles, CA: 662,000
Miami, FL: 555,000
Philadelphia, PA: 275,000
Chicago, IL: 294,000
Boston, MA: 250,000
San Francisco, CA: 304,000
Washington, DC & Baltimore, MY: 217,000

States with largest proportion of Jewish population in 2018 (Percentage of Total Population):

New York: 8.9
New Jersey: 5.8
Florida: 3.3
District of Columbia: 4.3
Massachusetts: 4.1
Maryland: 4
Connecticut: 3.3
California: 3.2
Pennsylvania: 2.3
Illinois: 2.3

Naples

A city on the Gulf of Mexico in Collier County in southwest Florida, United States.

21st Century

According to a demographic study conducted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples in 2017 in association with Brandeis University, the Greater Naples Jewish community is estimated to consist of 5,250 households with 8,800 individuals of which 4,500 households with 7,750 individuals live in Collier County. The others live in adjacent counties but are involved with at least one Jewish organization within the Naples area. The majority of the Jewish community members are reasonably affluent retirees, drawn to the area by the climate, and nearly two-thirds are over the age of 60. About two-fifths of the households are seasonal residents with an additional home elsewhere, although of these, two-thirds consider Naples as their primary residence.

There are only 400 Jewish households that include children, of which approximately 300 are raising their children as Jews.

The Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center of Southwest Florida was established in Naples in 2001. It is unique in that it began as a Naples middle school classroom exhibit created by students and teachers called “Out of the Ashes.” It now houses over 1,000 World War II and Holocaust artefacts.

Jewish places of worship include the Chabad Jewish Center of Naples, the Conservative egalitarian Beth Tikvah, and two Reform  congregations, Temple Shalom of Naples and Naples Jewish Congregation. The Jewish Federation of Greater Naples is active, supporting a variety of programs,  and is in the process of constructing a building that will also serve as a cultural center.

 

History

The city of Naples was founded in 1886. As late as the early 1950s Jews were not welcome.

In 1962, the Jewish Community Center of Collier County was established by a few Jewish families along with salesmen of a large area real estate development. Services, meetings, and social events were held in various venues. It received its first Torah in 1965, donated by a visitor and his family out of gratitude for the community organizing a minyan for him so he could say kaddish.

The Jewish Community Center of Collier was chartered by the Secretary of State of Florida in 1966.  In 1975 a building was dedicated, at which time the membership consisted of 57 families. In 1972 a Religious School was established with eight students.  In 1980 the name was changed to Temple Shalom, and in 1993 it officially joined the Reform Movement. A new building was dedicated in 1991, at which time the membership had reached 330. Today it has over 700 member families, 150 Religious School Students and 170 preschool students.

The Naples Jewish Congregation, a Reform synagogue opened in 1998.  It describes its mission as meeting the spiritual needs of mature adults.

Sarasota

A city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States.

21st CENTURY

In 2001, the Jewish population of Sarasota was made up of approximately 12,200 full-time residents, with an additional 3,300 seasonal residents.

By 2019, according to a demographic study conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, the number of Jewish individuals had increased by 86%, double the regional population growth rate. There were 17,100 Jewish households that included 25,400 Jewish adults and 3,400 Jewish children.  The community had become younger with the median age going down from 69 to 64 and the number of children more than doubling.  Of the children, 25% attended Jewish preschool, and 10% of those K-8 were enrolled in some type of Jewish educational program.

The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee lists 13 congregations in its directory, ranging from Humanistic Judaism to Chabad.  There is a small Jewish day school, the Hershorin-Schiff Community School, that describes itself as inclusive, progressive, and pluralistic, welcoming all faiths.

HISTORY

Sarasota was founded in 1855. The first event of Jewish interest connected with the city was in 1865, when the Jewish Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State for the Confederacy, hid there for several weeks after the defeat of the South in the Civil War.  He subsequently fled to England where he became a successful barrister.

The city grew slowly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The first Jews in the area settled in Arcadia, 40 miles inland. Simon Rosin, a peddler arrived there is 1905 and opened a dry goods store.

Phillip H. Levy is the first Jew known to have made a home in Sarasota.  He opened a retail clothing business in 1913 and became active in civic life. When 20 Jews joined to establish a Jewish Community Center in 1925, Levy became the first president.

 In 1927 the community began building a synagogue on land donated by the city. John Ringling, the circus entrepreneur who had just moved the winter headquarters of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus to Sarasota, although a non-Jew, made the single largest donation to the building fund.  The new synagogue took the name Temple Beth Sholom and opened in time for Rosh Hashanah services in 1928. In the early 1930’s, Joseph Idelson, a founding member of the congregation, obtained land as a gift from the city for a Jewish cemetery.

In the 1940’s Temple Beth Shalom attempted to accommodate Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform members.  In the 1950’s however, the different groups began to split.  An Orthodox minyan was founded in a private home.  A liberal faction left and established a Reform congregation, Temple Emanu-el in 1956.  It received a charter from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1957 and erected a building in 1961.

Some local Jews found employment with the Ringling Circus as clowns and acrobats.  Jack Earle (born Jacob Rheuben Erlich) spent time in Sarasota performing as a giant.  He was 8 feet, six inches tall (259 centimeters), and also played on the Sarasota Junior College basketball team during the 1932-1933 season.

Most of the Jewish settlers became merchants or started businesses, although some engaged in real estate and agriculture. By 1930, downtown Sarasota had a cleaners, bakery, grocery, furniture store, tailor shop, men’s store, ladies’ store, and two department stores owned and operated by Jews.

The community grew after World War II when Jews, attracted by the climate, moved to the area to work, or retire, either as full-time or part-time winter residents.  Some Jewish veterans who had been stationed nearby during the War also settled in the city. Jewish land developers played a role in the growth of the region.

Jews became active in the civic and cultural life of Saratoga and contributed to many non-Jewish institutions and programs. David Cohen, who served as Saratoga’s first Jewish mayor from 1964 to 1966, was greatly involved in the development of the Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestra.

Jewish community and human services were gradually established. In 1959 the Sarasota Jewish Community Council was organized.  In 1980, it changed its name to the Saratoga Jewish Federation, and in 1982 became the Saratoga-Manatee Jewish Federation. The area’s first Jewish newspaper, the Chronicle, began publishing in 1971. The Jewish Family Service was established in 1984.

Between 1975 and 1987 the Jewish population doubled from 4,200 to 8,400, and continued to grow through the 1990s.

Gainesville 

A city in Alachua County in the north central part of Florida, United States.

21st CENTURY

Since 2000, the Gainesville Jewish community has been served by the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, a part of the Jewish Federations of North America network.

The community is home to three Jewish places of worship: the Conservative B’nai Israel Congregation, the Reform Temple Shir Shalom, and the Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Center. B’nai Israel operates a Community Day School.

The University of Florida, situated in Gainesville, is the public university in the US with the largest population of Jewish students. According to B’nai Brith Hillel’s College Guide there are 6,500 Jewish undergraduate students comprising 19% of the undergraduate population. The University houses the Isser and Rae Library of Judaica, which contains over 85,000 volumes and is the largest collection of Judaica in the southeast US. The Center for Jewish Studies at the University has organized an annual Gainesville Jewish Film Festival since 2010.

HISTORY

The first Jews to settle in Gainesville were Moses Endel (1829-1892) and his wife Matilda, who arrived in the city between 1865 and 1866.  Moses was an immigrant from Russia and had served in the Confederate army in Virginia during the Civil War. Matilda was a native of Scotland. They brought with them a Torah scroll which they had acquired in Richmond, Virginia. They opened a clothing store on the courthouse square.  Moses became active in the city and a member of the Masonic Lodge, rising to the rank of Grand Master of Florida’s Grand Lodge of Masons.

By 1871 there were about 24 Jews living in Gainesville, 12 of whom were members of the Pinkhusson family. After the death of twenty-year old Abraham Pinkhusson in 1872, the community purchased an acre of land around his grave at the corner of East University Avenue and Waldo Road and founded the Gainesville Jewish Cemetery.

The Pinkhussons left Gainesville in the 1880’s but several new Jewish families came. Most were merchants operating their own stores. Some closed their establishments on Shabbat, such as Meyer Mazos. Others shut their doors only on the Jewish Holidays because of financial hardship since Saturday was the market day for the surrounding farming communities.

The local economy declined in the first quarter of the 1900’s. Cotton and citrus crops were destroyed by the boll weevil and freezing weather, and the phosphate industry was negatively affected by the end of World War I. The financial crisis of 1929 and the Great Depression also had a severe impact on the local Jewish merchants. A number turned to running boarding houses and serving meals to students at the University of Florida whose Gainesville campus had opened in 1906.

According to the 1919-1920 edition of the American Jewish Yearbook, Gainesville had a Jewish population of 61 out of a total population of approximately 10,000.

At first the Jewish community held services in private homes and rented halls, but in 1921 Congregation B’nai Israel was incorporated, and its building dedicated in 1924 at the corner of SW 2nd Terrace and SW 2nd Place. At the very beginning there was a dispute concerning the order in the listing of the new congregation’s trustees, and Abraham and Villa Buns who managed the cemetery split to form what was called the Buns Shul, made up mostly of students from the University of Florida who ate kosher meals at their home. The factions reunited in 1946.

The Jewish community varied in level of religious observance. There were some families who kept kosher homes, although this was difficult given that the nearest kosher butcher was in Jacksonville, 75 miles away, and meat was shipped on a Greyhound bus with unreliable refrigeration.  In its early years B’nai Israel relied on University of Florida students to help maintain a minyan. The congregation organized a Sisterhood, the Daughters of Israel, and in 1933 established a religious school.

In 1937, a branch of Hillel was formed by B’nai Brith at the University of Florida. When rabbis began coming to Gainesville during World War II to serve the students at the University of Florida Hillel, the community arranged through B’nai Brith that they also officiate at the B’nai Israel synagogue, which became a member of the Conservative/ Masorti Movement.

In the 1950’s B’nai Israel grew in numbers sufficiently to warrant new premises. In 1959 the members began a fund-raising campaign and purchased land on Northwest 16th Avenue. A building to house their religious school was completed in 1962 and in 1980 ground was broken for a new sanctuary and social hall.

By 1960 Gainesville’s Jewish population had grown to 210, and by 1973-1974 it had increased to 700. The growth of the University and its Medical School drew more Jews to the area.

The Gainesville Jewish Appeal was founded in 1971 to raise money for Israel and world Jewry.

In 1973 the Center for Jewish Studies was established at the University of Florida.

In 1984 a Reform congregation, Temple Shir Shalom was established with 24 founding families. Its membership grew within the next few years to 43 families, and it bought property for a building on 8th Avenue.

In 1997 there were 1,600 Jews living in Gainesville.