David Rothblatt, owner of Southern Grocery, in his delivery truck. 1930 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
Leon Haliczer’s jewelry store. 1924. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
Remembering St. Pete’s Founding Jewish Community By Tina Stewart Brakebill In 1763, England took control of the Florida territory and ended the ban on non-Roman Catholic settlement. In the following decades, Florida’s Jewish population expanded, albeit very slowly. By 1820, only about 30 to 40 Jewish people lived in Florida. In 1845, when Florida achieved statehood, there were fewer than 100 Jewish people out of a population of 66,500. By 1928, however, that number had jumped to 10,000 as Jewish peoples found ways in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to establish tight-knit communities within predominantly Christian regions.
Establishing Early Foundations in Tampa Bay In 1842, the Seminole peoples relocated to a reservation in southwest Florida at the conclusion of the Second Seminole War. That same year, the U.S. government began to offer land incentives to bring in white settlement. Tampa’s first Jewish settlers arrived during this transitional period. They were followed by a steady stream of new arrivals, and by the 1890s, these
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early families had grown into a thriving community made up of mostly merchants and restaurateurs. St. Petersburg was a different story. Its isolated and limited population (300 people in the 1890s) offered little incentive for Tampa merchants to relocate. Not until after 1900, when St. Petersburg could boast 1,500 residents, did the town have its first documented Jewish settler: Henry Schutz.
St Pete’s First Jewish Family Born in Germany, Schutz immigrated to the United States in approximately 1883. After honing his business skills in Savannah, Ga., he moved to St. Pete in 1901, where he opened a dry-goods store on Central Avenue. By all accounts, he was well-liked and successful, even as antisemitism affected other Florida Jewish communities. For example, in 1910, when Schutz returned to town as a married man, the St. Petersburg Times ran a lengthy article describing the ceremony and the bride’s “light blue taffeta gown.” The paper also noted, “When Mr. Henry Schutz, one of our popular merchants, left this town a few weeks ago on a trip north, none of our citizens suspected that he was intending to marry while away. He returned home Monday night accompanied by his bride of a few days, formerly Miss Emma Fleischman of Baltimore. Mrs. Schutz, who is a strikingly handsome brunette, came from Germany just eighteen months ago.” Even during the height of pronounced World War I-era anti-German sentiment, Schutz’s store remained popular, no doubt helped by his public displays of patriotism. “Henry Schutz gave his window to the Liberty Loan cause,” the Times noted. “A miniature Statue of Liberty, together with a collection of posters and flags, drew particular attention to this patriotic appeal.” Still popular, Schutz sold his Central Avenue dry-goods store to the Woolworth company in 1929 with a plan for a new venture. He died before he could launch it, but in 1930 his widow joined her niece as proprietors of Schutz, Inc. offering “Clothes of Character for Women.”
