ORGANIZATIONS
July/August 2022
21
Federation Star
www.hadassah.org / 518.330.1559
COLLIER/LEE CHAPTER OF HADASSAH
Helping to heal the world Joyce Toub Collier/Lee Hadassah President
S
havuot, the festival celebrating the giving of the Torah, began the evening of June 4, and we continue to extract wisdom from the laws given to us at Mount Sinai more than 3,000 years ago. During Shavuot, we read The Book of Ruth, upholding values that resettle refugees fleeing their homeland. Hadassah members helped resettle Afghan refugees who fled their homeland last summer and
continue to do so. Hadassah is also welcoming and healing Ukrainian refugees as their plight continues. We learn we can make a difference in a world that seems increasingly unsafe for democracy. Ukrainians are not only fighting for their lives, their freedom and their nation, but they are also defending democracy. Hadassah has been part of a global campaign to help in this effort. I am pleased to tell you that Hadassah’s emergency Ukraine-related fund is now complete. Over $1.1 million has been raised and these funds will soon exceed the needs dedicated to these efforts. We, therefore, again focus our resources on meeting the needs of Hadassah Medical Organization, Youth Aliyah, Young
Judea and the 360° of Healing Campaign. Every contribution to Hadassah is meaningful. And when you designate your gift to Hadassah for the greatest need, your money goes to that cause, whether it is HMO, Youth Aliyah, Young Judea or our domestic programs on advocacy. When you designate a specific gift, you are supporting high-priority projects, facilities and equipment that create state-of-the-art environments, where our medical personnel can perform their duties, offering optimal medical care and healing. When you give to Youth Aliyah, you support at-risk youth in Israel who receive shelter, food, counseling and education. Young Judea provides summer camps and
Israeli programs for Jewish youth from across the U.S. and around the world. Hadassah’s advocacy program educates and informs us. Hadassah safeguards women’s health, empowering women with the knowledge to make the best health decisions for ourselves and our families. Hadassah’s new policy statement on reaffirming support for reproductive choice declares, “We all deserve agency over our own bodies and the autonomy to make reproductive health decisions based on medical guidance, our own values and what we feel is best for our health, our families and our future.” We are lucky to be in a position to help heal the world. Every little bit helps!
www.jhsswf.org / 239.566.1771
JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SWFL
Explore Florida’s Jewish history Marina Berkovich JHSSWF President
L
ooking for some nearby Jewish history to explore this summer? Visit some of the Florida Jewish heritage trail communities where Jewish experience has left an imprint of achievements and successes. Jews were suddenly free to settle legally on the peninsula, after 250 years of prohibitions, when England acquired Florida in 1763, but their lives were still limited by lack of employment and settlement opportunities. Then, in 1821, Florida became an American territory. Jews, who looked for tolerance of religious diversity or were actively persecuted elsewhere, began the exodus to Florida. What were the earliest towns in which Jews made their homes? We list only a few of them to give you a flavor of that early Florida Jewish pioneering experience, which was, comparatively speaking, not all that long ago.
Pensacola, Escambia County
Beth-El, 800 North Palafox Street, is the oldest dedicated Jewish temple in Florida, founded in 1876. It is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism. Its current building was built in 1931. Also in Pensacola, is the former Miss Gerty Goldschmidt’s Boarding House, at 230 North Barcelona Street. That was the Jewish eatery of the 1930s. They served the Jewish-style southern cooking to all customers, Jewish or not. And, while there, visit the North Hill Preservation District. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and sports elegant late 19th- and early 20th-century houses. Many prominent Jews resided there in that epoch.
Port St. Joe, a city in Gulf County
In its Constitution Convention State
Museum, 200 Allen Memorial Way, is a large outdoor monument that lists the delegates to the 1838-1841 constitutional convention. Among them is one of the best-known Florida Jewish settlers (Yulee) Levy, Florida’s first U.S. senator and the builder of the first cross-state railroad. Another person of importance was a seventh-generation Charleston-born American Jew, Raphael Jacob Moses, who moved to the now defunct city of St. Joseph in 1838 as secretary of the Lake Wimico & St. Joseph Canal & Railroad Company. The museum has a replica of its engine.
Apalachicola, Franklin County
Moses was a delegate to the 1847 Democratic convention and practiced law in the city of Apalachicola, Franklin County. It is a small city of about 2,500. There, Henry Brash built The Porches, a beautiful yellow pine house at 67 Avenue D in 1865. The actual porches were added in 1890. Brash was a confederate soldier, a sponge fisherman and merchant. Together, with his wife, Henrietta, they raised 11 children in that house, kept kosher and had their Passover seders on the beach.
Quincy, in Gadsden County
The town of Quincy, until the 1970s, was the home of Jewish tobacco growers. Max Wedeles House is located at 318 East King Street and Weinberg Tobacco Company is at 113 South Duval Street, in the Swisher Building, which was built in 1939.
Jewish cemeteries
The Jewish Cemeteries of Florida tell a partial tail of the early Jewish presence in the state. In the beginning, many Jews were transported for burial outside of Florida, to already established Jewish cemeteries. Then, Jewish cemeteries were established in Jacksonville, 1857; Key West, 1865; Pensacola, 1869; Ocala, 1873; Tampa, 1894; St. Augustine, 1911; Miami, 1913; and Temple Beth El Garden of Memories in Fort Myers, 1950s.
Help preserve Jewish history
We need your support. Join The Jewish
Historical Society of SWFL. Family membership is $54; individual membership is $36; student membership is $18; and corporate sponsorship is $300. Join us online or mail a check to The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, 8805 Tamiami Trail North, Suite # 255, Naples, FL 34108. We can be reached at 833-547-7935 (833-JHS-SWFL), www.jhsswf.org or
office@jhsswf.org. The Virtual Museum of SWFL Jewish History is located online at http://jewishhistorysouthwest florida.org/. The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida is a section 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
PLE ASE BE OU R GU EST AT SERVIC ES FOR
High Holy Days NAPLES JEWISH CONGREGA CONGREGATION GATTION GA Warm, Reform, Affordable, Adult
COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS
available to anyone who has not joined us before
Previous attendees may purchase tickets for $100 per person
Please contact Charles Flum at 239-316-8611
Rabbi Howard Herman
Cantorial Soloist Jane Galler
EREV ROSH HASHANAH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 ROSH HASHANAH MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 KOL NIDRE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4 YOM KIPPUR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 All attendees must be vaccinated
7pm 10am 7pm 10am
Founded in 1998, NJC is a mature congregation offering opportunities for observance, study and fellowship in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Our inspirational and throught-provoking High Holy Days services, led by Rabbi Howard Herman, are infused with beautiful music from Cantorial Soloist Jane Galler, Music Director Alla Gorelick and our choir. Please join us to experience the NJC difference!
NAPLES JEWISH CONGREGATION A WELCOMING PLACE FOR YOU TO BELONG
6340 Napa Woods Way, Naples
(at Unitarian Universalist Congregation)
naplesjewishcongregation.org
239-431-3858
