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Jewish Museum of Florida

The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU
JewishMuseumMiamiBeach.png
Jewish Museum of Florida is located in Miami
Jewish Museum of Florida
Location within Miami Beach
Established 1936
Location 301 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Coordinates 25°46′21″N 80°08′04″W / 25.77242°N 80.13455°W / 25.77242; -80.13455
Type Jewish Heritage Museum
Director Jo Ann Arnowitz
Website jewishmuseum.com

The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU 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, began as a traveling exhibit sponsored by the Judaic Studies program at the University of Miami, the Soref Jewish Community Center (Fort Lauderdale), and the Central Agency for Jewish Education, in association with the Florida Department of State and the Florida Endowment for the Humanities, and included an exhibit guidebook. It 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.

The Museum is located in 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 concentrated in the south end of the city, due to restrictions on where they could reside.

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 Shabbat 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.


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