1632-9 Synagogues TUE JUN 02 1992 ED: FINAL
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 11A LENGTH: 18 .41" MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: BETH JACOB Congregation
cOURCE: HOWARD KLEINBERG Special to the Herald
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A RESTORED BETH JACOB IDEAL FOR MOSAIC MUSEUM
AMAY 20 Herald story about renovation of the YMCA' s Jose Marti branch,
at 450 SW 16th Ave. , referred to the branch' s almost 30-year life serving the
Cuban community. But it didn't mention that prior to 1963 the building served
the Jewish community as the Young Men' s Hebrew Association.
In my teen years, the Miami YMHA was a hub of social activity, from
Tuesday night dances to youth group meetings, cultural and craft classes, and
basketball.
Other than South Miami Beach, the neighborhood around the YMHA most
likely carried the strongest Jewish presence in all of South Florida. Today
that presence is extinct. The YMHA not only became a YMCA, but three Orthodox
synagogues that once prospered in the neighborhood no longer exist.
This is a natural evolution brought about by Miami' s changing
demographics. Yet it is unfortunate that this and future generations will be
unaware of the culture that thrived there in the ' 40s and ' 50s.
What was the Shaarel Zeddeck Orthodox congregation at 1535 SW Third St.
now is a Hispanic Jehovah' s Witness hall. Congregation Beth Kodesh, previously
the Hebrew School and Congregation, merged with Temple Beth David decades ago;
its sanctuary at 1101 SW 12th Ave. became the Iglesia Bautista, a Baptist
arch. Congregation Beth El at 1567 SW Fifth St. disappeared altogether. Soon
will be a Florida Power & Light substation, its 20-foot high walls already
in place in a Mediterranean design in keeping with the neighborhood' s planned
Latin Quarter architectural distinctiveness.
Times change, so do neighborhoods. The previously heavily Jewish
neighborhood south of Fifth Street in Miami Beach also has undergone amazing
demographic change. Few Jews live there any more; the district is more
Hispanic and Haitian than anything else. Once again, testament to the Jewish
presence is threatened. But in South Beach, there is hope that it can be
saved.
Mosaic, a 1,500-member statewide organization devoted to the story of
Jewish life in Florida, is seeking a home for a museum. Its eyes are focused
on Miami Beach' s first synagogue, Congregation Beth Jacob. Chartered in 1927,
an Orthodox synagogue was built at 311 Washington Ave. , and then a larger one
was built in 1936 next door at 301 Washington Ave. With the exodus of Jews
from South Beach over the past two decades, Beth Jacob' s membership has
declined to fewer than 100, mostly elderly. Few funds are available, so the
6,500-square-foot Moorish, copper-domed 1936 sanctuary has fallen into serious
disrepair. Its roof leaks, termites infest the cracked altar, the walls need
replastering, the air conditioning doesn't work -- and the building has been
plagued by vandals. Consequently, its doors have been closed for four years.
Congregants worship at the social hall -- the original synagogue -- next door.
Through public grants and private contributions, Mosaic hopes to raise funds
to restore, preserve, and reopen the larger building as an ethnic museum. It ' s
already on the National Register of Historic Places. The social hall would
,main a place of Orthodox worship, so it ' s not eligible for public funding.
As part of its grant application to the state' s Bureau of Historic
Preservation, Mosaic points out that from 1936 through the 1950s, Jews made up
66 percent of Miami Beach' s population -- as much as 90 per cent in winter --
and that Beth Jacob was a center of their cultural life.
In October 1990, Mosaic unveiled a 2, 000-square-foot modular exhibit
of the Jewish experience in Florida at Miami ' s Historical Museum of Southern
Florida. Dr. Henry Green of the University of Miami is Mosaic ' s executive
director, Helene Herskowitz of Miami its president this year, and Marcia
Zerivitz of Altamonte Springs its state coordinator and initiating force. The
iibit, depicting Florida' s Jewish presence since 1763, has toured the state
—rice leaving Miami. It just concluded at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach,
and it opens on June 12 at the University of Tampa.
If the drive to open a museum at Beth Jacob is successful, that exhibit
plus others of the 6, 000 items collected by Mosaic will be housed there. It
also will be the site for educational programs that, in Mosaic ' s words, "will
strengthen the preservation and interpretation of one ethnic heritage in a
multiculturally diverse neighborhood, county, and state. "
Unlike its southwest Miami counterpart, this South Beach neighborhood
has not yet lost all trace of its Jewish experience. While I hope that Beth
Jacob will be able to sustain itself as a practicing congregation with help
from renting its larger building to Mosaic, the establishment of a museum
would be a viable, patronized symbol.
COPPER-DOMED CONGREGATION BETH JACOB AT 301 WASHINGTON AVE.
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