Special to the JTA the Jews of South Florida

There are, of course, two separate Jewish communities in Miami Beach — the permanent population and the transient one. The latter can be further subdivided into two categories: the first, Jewish in name only; and the second, for whom Jewishness is an essential expression of their personality.

The kosher hotel strip along Collins Avenue which begins around 12th Street and which ends at 43rd Street with Waldman’s Hotel has as its raison d’etre, servicing the needs of observant Jews who maintain rigorous standards of kashruth.

Sam Waldman, the original owner of the hotel which bears his name, knows a great deal about the development of the Miami Beach area: his family has been involved for more than four decades in the hotel business.

BLAMES LOCAL PRESS FOR TOURISM DECLINE

He acknowledges that there has been a significant drop in tourism, both Jewish and general. Waldman sees the prestigious local daily newspaper, the Miami Herald, as one of the agents chiefly responsible for the decline. The paper, he indicates, has consistently highlighted violent crime in the Miami area and as a consequence has fed the image of a city in the grip of a crime wave.

Waldman compares the Herald’s posture with regard to crime reporting, to a self-destruction exercise in-as-much as the newspaper itself is bound to suffer from its “overkill.”

(It is interesting to note that in the week during which the conversation with Waldman took place, the Miami Herald featured, among its myriad crime reports, an item about two Jewish women being accosted by a purse snatcher in the foyer of Beth Israel Synagogue on 41st Street.)

Waldman is not sanguine about the prospects for an upsurge in the tourist business. He does not, for example, believe that legalized gambling will provide any solutions to the paucity of visitors. The example of Atlantic City, N.J. does not persuade him.

“In fact, studies of the effects of gambling there show that there are few benefits to the general population when gambling is legalized. Only a few benefit from the industry,” Waldman observed.

ATTRACTION FOR JEWISH TOURISTS

The observant Jews who come to Miami Beach do not, of course, need the inducement of blackjack to justify their presence on the Beach. They come from Boro Park in Brooklyn, Montreal, Toronto and other northern points to enjoy kosher cuisine, relax in a congenial atmosphere and worship in a manner to which they are accustomed.

Sabbath services at the Crown Hotel are redolent of Eastern Europe. The mehitzah (curtain separating men and women) is five feet high and the aliyot are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Yiddish and Hebrew are as common as English among the worshipers.

Religious tradition plays a pervasive role in the life of the kosher hotel habitues. Most of the institutions that cater to the Orthodox provide not only services on a regular basis but also Friday evening oneg Shabbats where lecturers and journalists and rabbis hold forth on Biblical, religious and political issues.

Since travel is prohibited on the Sabbath, walking is a major pastime for the religiously observant. On Friday evenings the trajectory between the Saxony Hotel and Waldman’s (a distance of about 3/4 of a mile) is covered by hundreds of people anxious to work off some of the calories absorbed during sumptuous dining.

Walking will become an even more pleasurable experience once the Miami Beach authorities complete the wooden promenade they are constructing on the beach between the Fontainebleau Hotel and 22nd St.

The promenade, when illuminated, will permit walkers to enjoy the ocean air–something denied to them by the inhospitable darkness of the beach area at night. There is one problem with regard to the new promenade: it is only about 10 feet wide and will therefore only accomodate a few people at a time. The second problem with the walkway is that it has been built too close to the street, thereby obstructing the view of the ocean from passersby on Collins Avenue.

POTPOURRI OF CULTURAL EVENTS

Miami Beach visitors will have much to do whether or not they choose to tread the wooden floor of the promenade. Jewish tourists in particular will find a potpourri of cultural and entertainment events which await their selection. In early 1984 the Fontainebleau, the Beach’s premier hotel, will be featuring some top Israeli talent. Anthony Newley and Rosemary Clooney are also slated for the Fontainebleau’s night clubs.

Perhaps the outstanding Jewish attraction in Miami Beach in 1984 will be “The Precious Legacy,” the well known collection of Judaica from Czechoslovakia assembled by the Nazis and deposited by them in Prague for a “future museum of the Jewish race.”

After years of negotiating with the Czechs, American museologists persuaded Prague to send the display abroad. Miami Beach will be featuring the various objets d’art at the Bass Museum which is off Collins Avenue near 22nd Street.

Viewing the artifacts from a civilization which has disappeared will undoubtedly be an instructive if somewhat melancholy experience.

Since the Beach area is supposed to provide divertissement, it might be a useful experience to try a new Israeli-style night club which the Saxony Hotel has just opened up. The club, situated on the “observatory” floor (16th), tries to convey an easy-going ambiance where drinks and some light entertainment are available. The Saxony still has to iron out a few wrinkles with regard to timing and format.