— The massive increase in the Jewish population of Florida is creating a major population center essentially comparable to the other major centers in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast.
Current estimates indicate that the ever-increasing southern Florida area now includes a Jewish population of at least 500,000. This means that southern Florida is already approximately equal to the Jewish population of Los Angeles, and is apparently growing at a much faster pace.
On a recent visit, this writer observed directly the boom in condominium developments throughout southern Florida which include tremendous numbers of Jews of every age bracket, although of course, those in the retirement category, including both the affluent and those with limited means, continue to be a significant part. Fort Lauderdale, for example, has a Jewish population of about 75,000 and is, therefore, already comparable in size to the Jewish communities of Detroit or Cleveland.
ROLE OF CUBAN JEWS
Two recent events in different parts of Florida reflect some unique aspects of the changes taking place. Last month, the Comite Hebreo Cubano (The Cuban Hebrew Committee of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation) sponsored its annual banquet under the auspices of the Cuban Hebrew Congregation, Cuban Sephardic Hebrew Congregation, B’nai B’rith Miami Chapter, Interamerican Chapter of Hadassah, and the Cuban branch of the Farband — a consortium which could almost certainly not be duplicated in Federation drives anywhere else in the country.
Commenting on this event, Myron Brodie, executive vice president of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said that the Cuban Jewish community in Miami has been supportive of Federation for the past several years.
An article last month in the Miami News quotes Reba Friedman, former director of Temple Menorah, as saying that in the early 1960s, Cuban Jews arrived “broke and disoriented with no place to go. They were taken in. We have since been rewarded. They are now one-third of the congregation. “Another local leader, Nance Liebman, president of Miami Beach Senior High School PTA told the Miami News that the Cuban Jews have increased property values tremendously.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS STATE-WIDE
Perhaps more surprising than these developments in southern Florida, are changes on a similar, if somewhat smaller scale, all over the state. Recently, in north central Florida, the Gainesville Sun devoted the entire first page of its weekend religious section to the dedication of a library of Judaica at the University of Florida honoring a Jacksonville, Florida family who gave the university $400,000 to support the collection. Real Estate developers Eric and Samuel Price gave the endowment in honor of their mother, Rae, and their late father, Isser.
“Giving money to the library fits into our goals in life and reflects our Jewish beliefs, which encourage charity and learning,” said Jack Price, a 1951 graduate of the University of Florida College of Architecture. Samuel Price, a 1950 University of Florida graduate, said endowing the library “goes back to roots. The library reflects our heritage and our culture.”
In addition to the gift of the Price family, the National Endowment for the Humanities gave a grant of $101,000 to help set up the library, which is already open for use, although it is said that it will take at least 10 more years to complete the cataloging.
According to Dr. Barry Mesch, a University of Florida religion professor who heads and helped found the university’s seven-year old Center for Jewish Studies, the new library put together with state, federal and private funds, is the largest in the southeast, and second largest in the nation among state-supported universities. Six faculty members teach courses to 625 students in Hebrew, Jewish literature, philosophy and history.
The library now includes a 40,000-volume collection gathered by Rabbi Leonard Mishkin of Chicago, who is the former head of the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago and professor at the Theological College in Skokie, III. Mishkin informed this reporter that there are over 3700 Jewish students at the University. Many Jewish faculty are holding major posts as deans of the departments and in various policy-making positions.
ANTI-JEWISH, ANTI-ISRAEL ELEMENTS PRESENT
On the other hand, Mishkin explained that, like compuses in other areas of the country, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel elements are present on the campus. The week before the library dedication, there was a Palestine Liberation Organization rally sponsored by Arab students whose effects were largely counter-balanced by actions of non-Jewish members of the student body.
A less obvious, but more significant, factor in the transfer of the Mishkin Library from Chicago to the University of Florida in Gainesville, is that along with a continuing outflow of the Jewish population from older communities of the Northeast and Midwest, Jewish learning and culture are following the path to the Sun Belt.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
