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.
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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. 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 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 Cuban-Hebrew 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.
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