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In the 1970s, 80% of the population of Miami Beach was Jewish. We spoke with Marcia Jo Zerivitz, the Founding Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU and author. She welcomed us into her home and chatted at length about the Jewish History in Miami, Miami Beach and Florida. She told us when she started looking into the Jewish history in Florida, it wasn’t being documented and recorded, so she set out to change that. Her collections and stories reached beyond her books and found a home at what is now known as the Jewish History Museum of Florida-FIU. The Museum is in the former building of the Congregation Beth Jacob which was the first synagogue for Miami Beach.
We had the opportunity to visit the museum and spoke to the current Director, Susan Gladstone Pasternack. She walked us around the museum and through the exhibits. One of the newest is an interactive digital display designed to replicate the physical exhibit Zerivitz created years ago called, “MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida Project”.
You can even do a virtual tour of it here
We asked them to give us a list of Jewish Landmarks in Miami Beach. The list was extensive, but both recommended the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach at 1933-1945 Meridian Ave.
For more Jewish history and Miami Beach, watch the video below:
For more on the Jewish History Museum of Florida-FIU, visit their website: https://jmof.fiu.edu