Explore Florida’s Jewish history

Marina Berkovich, JHSSWF President

Looking for some nearby Jewish history to explore this summer?

Visit some of the Florida Jewish heritage trail communities where Jewish experience has left an imprint of achievements and successes.

Jews were suddenly free to settle legally on the peninsula, after 250 years of prohibitions, when England acquired Florida in 1763, but their lives were still limited by lack of employment and settlement opportunities. Then, in 1821, Florida became an American territory. Jews, who looked for tolerance of religious diversity or were actively persecuted elsewhere, began the exodus to Florida.

What were the earliest towns in which Jews made their homes? We list only a few of them to give you a flavor of that early Florida Jewish pioneering experience, which was, comparatively speaking, not all that long ago.

Pensacola, Escambia County

Beth-El, 800 North Palafox Street, is the oldest dedicated Jewish temple in Florida, founded in 1876. It is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism. Its current building was built in 1931.

Also in Pensacola, is the former Miss Gerty Goldschmidt’s Boarding House, at 230 North Barcelona Street. That was the Jewish eatery of the 1930s. They served the Jewish-style southern cooking to all customers, Jewish or not.

And, while there, visit the North Hill Preservation District. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and sports elegant late 19th- and early 20th-century houses. Many prominent Jews resided there in that epoch.

Port St. Joe, a city in Gulf County

In its Constitution Convention State Museum, 200 Allen Memorial Way, is a large outdoor monument that lists the delegates to the 1838-1841 constitutional convention. Among them is one of the best-known Florida Jewish settlers (Yulee) Levy, Florida’s first U.S. senator and the builder of the first cross-state railroad.

Another person of importance was a seventh-generation Charleston-born American Jew, Raphael Jacob Moses, who moved to the now defunct city of St. Joseph in 1838 as secretary of the Lake Wimico & St. Joseph Canal & Railroad Company. The museum has a replica of its engine.

Apalachicola, Franklin County

Moses was a delegate to the 1847 Democratic convention and practiced law in the city of Apalachicola, Franklin County. It is a small city of about 2,500. There, Henry Brash built The Porches, a beautiful yellow pine house at 67 Avenue D in 1865. The actual porches were added in 1890. Brash was a confederate soldier, a sponge fisherman and merchant. Together, with his wife, Henrietta, they raised 11 children in that house, kept kosher and had their Passover seders on the beach.

Quincy, in Gadsden County

The town of Quincy, until the 1970s, was the home of Jewish tobacco growers. Max Wedeles House is located at 318 East King Street and Weinberg Tobacco Company is at 113 South Duval Street, in the Swisher Building, which was built in 1939.

Jewish cemeteries

The Jewish Cemeteries of Florida tell a partial tail of the early Jewish presence in the state. In the beginning, many Jews were transported for burial outside of Florida, to already established Jewish cemeteries. Then, Jewish cemeteries were established in Jacksonville, 1857; Key West, 1865; Pensacola, 1869; Ocala, 1873; Tampa, 1894; St. Augustine, 1911; Miami, 1913; and Temple Beth El Garden of Memories in Fort Myers, 1950s.

Help preserve Jewish history

We need your support. Join The Jewish Historical Society of SWFL. Family membership is $54; individual membership is $36; student membership is $18; and corporate sponsorship is $300.

Join us online or mail a check to The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, 8805 Tamiami Trail North, Suite # 255, Naples, FL 34108.

We can be reached at 833-547-7935 (833-JHS-SWFL), www.jhsswf.org or office@jhsswf.org. The Virtual Museum of SWFL Jewish History is located online at http://jewishhistorysouthwest florida.org/.

The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida is a section 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.