Jewish Museum of Florida
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The Jewish Museum of Florida is located in two restored historic buildings that were formerly synagogues, at 301 & 311 Washington Ave., in Miami Beach, Florida. The main Museum building, at 301 Washington Ave., was built in 1936, is on the National Register of Historic Places, has Art Deco features, a copper dome, a marble bimah and 80 stained glass windows. The adjacent building located at 311 Washington, which served as Miami Beach's first synagogue, was purchased by the Museum in 2005 and restored in 2007 as a Museum expansion.
The Museum’s core exhibit, MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida, includes more than 500 photos and artifacts that depict the Jewish experience in Florida since 1763. The Museum also has several temporary exhibits on display each year. The Museum mounts and hosts its own and traveling exhibitions; sponsors cultural and educational programs; houses a Collections & Research Center reflecting Florida Jewish history since 1763; and communicates Jewish history, values and issues to Jews and non-Jews alike in an informal manner.
Miami Beach's first synagogue, the original home of Congregation Beth Jacob, was designed by architect H. Frasser Rose and built in 1929 at 311 Washington Avenue. The site was chosen because at the time the synagogue was built, Jews were not permitted to live north of Fifth Street.
Its construction satisfied an urgent need of the small Jewish community of residents and winter visitors who had first settled on Miami Beach in 1913. It established that Jews were accepted and a permanent part of the resident population of the City.
Prior to this, Jews had been denied permission to construct a synagogue. They had to ferry across Biscayne Bay (and later the County Causeway, now the MacArthur Causeway, built in 1920) to attend religious services at B'nai Zion Congregation in Miami. When Orthodox Jews, who do not travel on the Sabbath and high holidays, joined the congregation, they and the winter visitors from Canada and Miami Beach residents held services in the Royal Apartments at 221 Collins Avenue. In 1924 Malvina Weiss Leibman organized and taught Sunday School classes in a vacant lot on the west side of Washington Avenue north of Third Street.
Beginning in 1926 and during construction of Beth Jacob, services were held on the roof of the David Court Apartments at 56 Washington Avenue, owned by the Granat family. The first rabbi was reportedly Rabbi David Yallow followed by Rabbis Hurowitz, Axelrod and David I. Rosenbloom. Rabbi Moses Mescheloff served the congregation from 1937 to 1954. In 1954, Rabbi Mescheloff came to Chicago, in time to celebrate Chanukah with his new congregation in West Rogers Park, Congregation K.I.N.S. (Knesset Israel Nusach Sfard). The congregation has a life contract with the Rabbi, whose status now is “Rabbi Emeritus”. Subsequent spiritual leaders were Rabbis Akiva Chill, Tibor Stern (1955-65), Shmaryahu T. Swirsky (1965-92) and Moshe Berenholz.
Almost every Jew who was a permanent resident of Miami Beach between 1927 and 1932 was a member and financial contributor to the synagogue. The initial role of the Synagogue as the religious and social center of the Jewish community soon developed into being the Jewish cultural center as well. A Hebrew school was established, scholars, rabbis and cantors were invited and a mikvah (ritual bath for women) was built in 1944 for $35,000 at 151 Michigan Avenue.
The original building was dedicated on February 17, 1929. The founding officers were Lazarus Abramowitz, President; Jekuthiel Kaplan, Vice President; Morris Abraham, Treasurer; Samuel Guttman, Secretary; and Joseph Tilzer and Harry Levitt, building committee members.
In 1936, the congregation outgrew its original facility and constructed a second larger adjacent building for the synagogue at 301 Washington Avenue. The original building was used as the religious school and social hall. Faced in stucco, the two-story building has a rectangular plan and a gable roof. The central entrance consists of three double doors of simple, vertical panels and large iron hinges of Spanish style.
The top of the building façade has a contemporary plaque reading "Beth Jacob Social Hall, 5689-1929." The façade is crowned by the tablets with the Ten Commandments. Inside, the main hall is two stories in height.
A two-story addition of concrete block was built to the east in 1946, containing offices, meeting rooms and classrooms.
Towards the end of the 20th century, Beth Jacob Congregation began to dwindle and moved all of its functions back to this original building. Many of its older members died. There were hardly enough members remaining to have a minyan (the ten men required for many parts of the religious services) and in 2005, the congregation went out of business. The Jewish Museum of Florida, which needed room to expand its facilities beyond the confines of the adjacent building it has occupied since 1995, purchased the original synagogue, ensuring that the building so rich in Jewish history will continue to be preserved and become a repository for the chronology of Florida's Jews.
The 311 structure is currently being renovated. Offices will be located upstairs in the former women's balcony on the west side. The area on the east side of the second floor, which was formerly the synagogue's classrooms, will become the Collections and Research area. The former sanctuary on the main level of the building will become a 2,400 square foot multi-purpose room that will house a second exhibit venue for the Museum and be used for public programs and special events.
