Local History
4th Grade Florida History
Jewish Contributions to Miami
Essential Question:
How have the Jewish community made significant contributions to The City of Miami?
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Jewish Contributions to Miami
Florida literacy Standards Alignment:
LAFS.4.SL.1.2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually, quantitatively, and orally.
LAFS.4.SL.2.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate
facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
LAFS.4.RI.1.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.
LAFS.4.RI.1.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what
happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
NGSSS – Social Science Standards Alignment:
SS.4.A.6.2 Summarize contributions immigrant groups made to Florida (e.g. citrus, cigars, Japanese Gardens, sponge
industry and education)
SS.4.A.6.3 Describe the contributions of significant individuals to Florida.
Please note: The reading(s) associated with this lesson is for both teacher content knowledge and student content knowledge development. Teachers are
encouraged to use the readings in their entirety and/or select portions of the reading to best fit the needs and reading levels of their particular students. It
is highly suggested that teachers review the reading(s) thoroughly and adapt the reading(s) and plan instruction using appropriate instructional strategies in
order to maximize student understanding according to their particular students’ abilities.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Topic: Jewish Contributions to Miami
Essential Question
How have the Jewish community made significant contributions to The City of Miami?
Learning Goals
Students will learn about various contributions significant personalities in the Jewish community have made to Miami.
Overview
While reading about the contributions significant personalities in the Jewish community have made to Miami, students will
complete a two column note chart organizing the information.
Background information
The first Jewish migrants to Miami are believed to have been fleeing persecution from various countries in the world prior
to the 1800s. The first permanent Jewish settlers did not make it to the shores of Biscayne Bay until 1896. Despite years
of discrimination, Jews in Miami have developed thriving businesses as well as gained significant political power,
especially in areas such as Miami Beach.
Materials
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Reading Passage - A Short History of Greater Miami's Jewish Community
Graphic Organizer – Significant Accomplishment T-Chart
Activity Sequence
Introduction (3 minutes)
Talk to the students about how despite experiencing discrimination in Miami (i.e. not being allowed to live or purchase
property in certain areas) Jews have become very successful economically and politically. (1 minute)
Activity (12 minutes)
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
1. Read the article A Short History of Greater Miami's Jewish Community by Seth H. Bramson with the students. (7
minutes)
2. After reading the article complete the two column Graphic Organizer with the students (5 minutes)
Closure (2 minutes)
1. What did Isidor Cohen achieve as one of the first Jews to permanently live in Miami?
2. What were Jews able to achieve despite being discriminated against?
3. Why do you think Jews were able to accomplish so much despite being discriminated against?
Optional Extension
Have the students research the work of local Jewish leders and produce short poster-board projects based on it.
References for links
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/lia-miami-hx-1.htm
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
A Short History of Greater Miami's Jewish Community
by Seth H. Bramson
Source: http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/
Although it is well known that there were individuals of
Jewish heritage and origin living in Florida beginning
sometime in the 1700's, the first permanent Jewish settler
to arrive on the shores of Biscayne Bay did not do so until
February 6, 1896.
While there is some discussion as to who or whom was
actually "first" there is no conflict on, about or with the fact
that one Isidor Cohen was the first person of Semitic
lineage to remain in Miami on a permanent basis following
his tentative arrival.
It appears that one Jewish man did arrive before Isidor, but
his stay of barely a few months was a momentary
transience, and was obviously nothing even approaching
permanence. It is possible that Jacob Schneidman arrived
"right around" or at approximately the same time as Cohen
did, but Schneidman, married to Ida and with baby son
Murray, died of cancer in 1903 following which Ida returned
to New York.
photo: Ida Cohen, wife of Miami's first permanent
Jewish settler, Isidor Cohen, gazes proudly at the
Miami Jewish Home and Hospital's
Founder's Memorial. Mrs. Cohen founded the Home in
1940, the original facility opening in 1945.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
In 1904, Isidor, ostensibly on a buying trip, went to New York. When he returned, several months later,
Ida, now Mrs. Cohen, and Murray, adopted by Isidor and surname changed to Cohen, were in tow.
Many, if not most, of Miami's early merchants were Jewish, but Isidor, a signer of the City's charter,
founder of the various business associations that would become the Chamber of Commerce, and civic
activist, was pre-eminent, being among the founders of Miami's first synagogue, Temple B'nai Zion. That
temple, incidentally, was not named for Eretz Yisrael, but, rather, for the man who made the largest
contribution to enable the edifice, Morris Zion.
Eventually the various persuasions within the
religion would separate, the Orthodox forming Miami
Orthodox Congregation, the Conservative branch
forming Temple Beth David, and the Reform group
building Temple Israel. The latter two are still in
existence today although not at the locations of their
founding.
As more Jewish people came to the area, Miami
Beach became a highly desirable location and in
1921 the Nemo, the first Jewish-owned hotel,
opened on the island city. Then, for several years
prior to the 1929 opening of Miami Beach's first
Jewish house of worship, Temple Beth Jacob on
Washington Avenue, services were held at the
Granat family owned David Court Hotel, at 56
Washington Avenue.
photo: Isidor Cohen was the father of Greater
Miami's Jewish community. Stepping off the
boat at the Lemon City dock on February 6, 1896,
he was the first permanent Jewish settler to
arrive on the shores of Biscayne Bay.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
His and his family's history is nothing short of illustrious: He was a signer of the city's charter, one of the
founders of what would become the Chamber of Commerce and a retail merchant and investor. His wife,
Ida, founded the original Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged and his daughter, Claire Cohen
Weintraub was not only a civic activist but was in the University of Miami's first graduating class and founded
the Miami Museum of Science.
Miami would boast of the first Kosher dining establishment, the Palatial Restaurant, which opened just
west of Biscayne Boulevard in the early 1920's, remaining in business until 1945. The area was a magnet
for Jewish people coming from the northeast and Midwest, and by 1939 Miami Beach held a majority of the
Jewish residents of greater Miami, becoming the nucleus of Jewish life in the region.
Although Jews were excluded from no few hotels and clubs through the onerous notices of "restricted
clientele," Jewish families, including the Stone, Mufson, Richter, Levinson and others opened hotels at which
their co-religionists were warmly welcomed and Miami Beach became the vacation heartland of American
Jewry. Spending summer vacations in the Catskills and winters in Miami, innumerable Jewish families,
particularly following World War II training in Miami Beach, came to the land of eternal sunshine.
With the large number of Jewish people, Jewish owned private schools, particularly the Hebrew Academy
on Miami Beach, became essential to promoting and promulgating Jewish education. In one instance, a
public high school--Miami Beach High--became, in effect, a public parochial school, with estimates of Jewish
student population at the school being over ninety percent. For a number of years, from the late 1940's until
the very early 1970's, Miami Beach High School was, with the singular exception of Bronx High School of
Science, the number one rated academic public high school in America.
The saga and legacy of Miami's Jewish community is legendary and among the monuments to Judaism
and humanity are such facilities as Miami Jewish Home and Hospital at Douglas Gardens (founded by Ida
Cohen); the Hebrew Homes for the Aged; Miami Museum of Science (founded by Ida and Isidor's daughter,
Claire Cohen Weintraub); the original National Children's Cardiac Hospital (founded in large part by Dr. Louis
Lemberg); Normandy Isle and the lower third of the Town of Surfside, built by Rose and Henri Levy; large
parts of the City of Aventura; Bay Harbor Islands, built primarily by Shepard Broad, and Mt. Sinai Hospital on
Miami Beach.
The oldest (and, unquestionably, the single best) existing restaurant in Florida--the fabled Joe's Stone
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Crab Restaurant
--has been owned by the same Jewish family, the Weiss/Sawitz/Bass family, since it's opening in 1918.
Jewish families have owned such fabled eateries as the Famous, the Embers, Joe's Broadway, Harfenist,
the Governor, Ambassador, Concord and Hoffman's Cafeterias and the beloved New York style delis,
including Wolfie's, Junior's, Pumpernik's and the Rascal House. Unhappily for foodies, all are gone
except Joe's Stone Crab, which remains a dynasty and a magnet for great food.
Attracting such stellar names in architecture as Henry Hohauser, Igor Polevitzky, Morris Lapidus, Robert
Swedroe and Barry Sugerman, Miami's buildings have, in many cases, become classic in America. Jewish
owned businesses, from tires, automobiles, neon signs, plumbing, clothing manufacturing and aviation to
construction, education and clothing stores have always been in the forefront of Miami's commercial history.
Beginning in 1960, with Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba, a large number of displaced Cuban Jews
("Jubans") made their way to the Miami area, and founded several temples including Miami Beach's CubanHebrew Synagogue. In a number of cases, Cubans have returned to their Jewish roots, their families having
fled Spain in the Inquisition and have revitalized several temples locally in the process.
Even with the Cuban influx, however, the Jewish population of greater Miami has been in decline since
the late 1980's, many people moving to Broward and Palm Beach Counties, south Palm Beach County now
having the fastest growing Jewish population in America.
Although the population has declined, the Miami-Dade County Jewish population still remains somewhere
close to 150,000 people and many areas of the county remain centers of and central to Jewish life in south
Florida.
Seth H. Bramson is greater Miami's leading and foremost historian. He is Adjunct Professor of History at
Barry University and Florida International University and is the author of eighteen books (including L'Chaim!
The History of the Jewish Community of Greater Miami) and more than seventy articles on south Florida
local and Florida transportation history.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Graphic Organizers:
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES