Local History
11th Grade Florida History
Miami: The Establishment of a Jewish Community
Essential Question
What are some of the major contributions made by the Jewish community to the city of Miami?
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Miami: The Establishment of a Jewish Community
Florida literacy Standards Alignment:
LAFS.1112.RH.3.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g.,
visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
NGSSS -Social Science Standards Alignment:
SS.912.A.1.3: Utilize timelines to identify the time sequence of historical data.
SS.912.A.1.4: Analyze how images, symbols, objects, cartoons, graphs, charts, maps, and artwork may be used to
interpret the significance of time periods and events from the past.
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: Miami: The Establishment of a Jewish Community
Essential Question
What are some of the major contributions made by the Jewish community to the city of Miami?
Learning Goals
With the events of the migration of Jews to Miami, students will understand how and why Jews migrated to Miami and the
contributions made by the Jewish community.
Overview
Students will learn through the events of the Jewish migration, how and why they played a pivotal role in Miami, especially
the Miami Beach area during the 1920’s.
Background information
The history of the Jews in South Florida dates back to the early 19th century. Many South Florida Jews are Ashkenazi
(descendants of Russian, Polish, and Eastern European ancestry), and many are also Cuban, Brazilian, Latin American
(Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Peru), Russian, French, Moroccan, Syrian, Bukharian, and Israeli. There is a
significant Sephardic and Mizrachi population as well.Presently, there are approximately 514,000 Jews living in Southeast
Florida.
Materials
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Pen/Pencil
Paper
Holocaust Memorial Photo
“A Brief History of the Jewish Community of Greater Miami” article
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Activity Sequence
Introduction
1. Students will analyze the photo of the Holocaust Monument.
2. Ask students why do they think this monument was constructed? How does this monument serve as a reminder of
the events that took place during the Holocaust?
3. Introduce how the Jewish community of Miami has made many contributions to the city during the 1920’s.
Activity



Students will read “A Brief History of the Jewish Community of Greater Miami”
Students will create a timeline showing the progression of the Jewish community in Miami
Students will use the information from that timeline to write a summary explaining how the Miami Jewish
community has flourished over the years and the major contributions they have made.
Closure

Based on what we have read and learned, how has the Miami Jewish community contributed to the development of
the city of Miami?
Optional Extension
Students can research some of the major contributions made by Jews in Miami.
References for links, if applicable
Miami’s Jewish History- http://jewishmiami.org/about/federation/miami_jewish_history/#
Holocaust Memorial photo- http://www.weblogbahamas.com/blog_bahamas/2008/08/a-visit-to-the.html
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Reading:
Holocaust Memorial, Miami Beach: Photo Analysis
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
http://jewishmiami.org/about/federation/miami_jewish_history/ 1/4
A Brief History of the Jewish Community of
Greater Miami
By Marcia Jo Zerivitz
Founding Executive Director & Chief Curator, Jewish Museum of Florida,
Miami Beach
Florida, the first of the American territories to be discovered and settled, did not allow Jews to
settle until 1763, and was among the last to develop a substantial Jewish population. Contrary
to myth, Miami was among Florida’s latest communities to develop a Jewish population, which
has been transformed in little more than a century from a settlement of frontiersmen to the core
of the nation’s third largest Jewish community.
In the 1890s, Jews came from other places in the United States (either New York or Key West)
and were mostly immigrants from Russia and Romania. By 1896, Jews owned 12 of the 16
businesses in the pioneer town, Miami. They had religious services that year; then there was a
fire and yellow fever epidemic. By 1903, the Jewish population declined to Isidor Cohen.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
The Beginning of Many Things
Miami remained a hostile environment, but a fledgling tourist industry sustained optimism. In
1904, Cohen married Ida Schneidman; they had a daughter in 1906 and the first bris was
celebrated in 1907. In 1913, there was a Jewish wedding and the first Jews settled on Miami
Beach (south of Fifth Street, where Jews were allowed to live). That same year, the death of a
Jewish tourist forced the small Jewish community of 35 to create the first congregation (that
became Beth David) and a cemetery. By 1915, there were 55 Jews in Miami, and other
organizations were formed to meet the needs of the community.
Advertising, combined with abundant land, new roads, the automobile and commercial aviation,
created a tourist and real estate boom in the 1920s. A population of 100 Jewish families
exploded to 3,500 Jews. Jews founded Temple Israel and were among those who chartered the
University of Miami, which today has a Center for Contemporary Jewish Studies and Hillel.
During that decade, the city suffered a boom and bust, two hurricanes, the failure of five banks,
and finally the stock market crash. Headlines screamed, “Miami is Wiped Out.”
But the headlines were wrong. By the mid-1930s, Miami began a gradual recovery. New
residents arrived by air, train and steamship, and the Jewish population grew to about 4,500.
Satellite communities emerged. The hotel, banking and construction industries escalated with
greater participation by Jews, who also helped start Miami-Dade College and Florida
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
International University, with a Judaic Studies Program. The 1930s also marked the dismantling
on Miami Beach of restrictive barriers to Jewish ownership of real estate, as large numbers of
Jews purchased properties from debt-ridden owners only too happy to sell them. While
discrimination had by no means vanished, conditions were improving.
But it was not until 1949 that a law was passed by Florida’s Legislature that ended
discrimination in real estate and hotels. The Miami Beach Art Deco buildings of the 1930s and
1940s – many designed, built and operated by Jews – are architectural treasures known
throughout the world. In the 1980s, Barbara Baer Capitman, a Jew, launched the campaign that
established the Art Deco District.
Helping the Vulnerable
The perilous situation of European Jews evoked a response in Miami’s small but active Jewish
community, which founded the Greater Miami Jewish Federation in 1938. The Jewish Home for
the Aged (now Miami Jewish Health Systems) began in 1940. By the mid-1940s, there were
about 30,000 Jews and about 50 percent of them lived on Miami Beach.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, local leaders, seeking to expand business and
visibility, convinced the government that Miami was the ideal location for training military
personnel. Funding and soldiers poured into the area, particularly Miami Beach. Many of these
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
soldiers were Jews, who returned after the war, when South Florida’s image as a year­round
resort reemerged. But, Jewish doctors could not get staff privileges at any area hospitals. In
response, Jewish leaders formed Mount Sinai Hospital on Miami Beach.
Economic Boom
The tourist industry was revitalized with the widespread use of air conditioning, mosquito
control, development of the airport, and Israeli businessman Ted Arison’s expansion of the
cruise ship business. The post-war economic boom brought additional tourists and settlers to
Miami. Many were Jews, attracted by the new jobs created from tourism. In 1950, there were
55,000 Jews.
For the next five years, approximately 650 Jews arrived each month. A new house was built
every seven minutes – and many of the builders were Jews. In 1952, Abe Aronovitz became
the first (and to date, the only) Jewish mayor of Miami (although Miami Beach has had 15
Jewish mayors). Following the communist takeover of Cuba in 1959, about 10,000 Cuban Jews
immediately fled the country, finding refuge in Miami and its environs; their business acumen
helped revitalize the city.
In the post-war period until the mid-1960s, most jobs were related to the tourist and building
industries or real estate. Most Jews were involved in the services and retail trades, but many
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
were moving into medical and legal professions. In 1963, the first two Jews from South Florida
were elected to the state legislature and Florida had its second Jew in Congress. (The first was
David Levy Yulee, who brought Florida into statehood in 1845; the second, William Lehman.) In
this period, Jews began to move to North Miami and North Miami Beach. Cuban Jews started
their own congregations.
In the 1970s, about 80 percent of the population on Miami Beach was Jewish. By 1980, the
Greater Miami Jewish population reached its all-time peak of 230,000, with a full array of
Jewish organizations. Miami became the new Ellis Island for people fleeing troubled countries.
The influx of Caribbean immigrants, as well as the growing Spanish-speaking Cuban
population, alienated some people and many Jews moved north to Broward and Palm Beach
counties. By 1985, the Jewish population had declined to 209,000. Many of the older Jews, who
had lived on Miami Beach, had died. But the Jewish community has been reinvigorated by the
arrival of Jews from Latin America, Russia and Israel. Jews on Miami Beach have been deeply
involved politically and in developing the tourist industry.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES