According to the old tradition of an avid traveler, upon arrival in some new city for me, the first thing I do is go to the local synagogue. I decided to do the same after landing in Miami. What was my surprise when it turned out that there were already 250 synagogues in this resort town!
As I later saw, they were built in completely different architectural styles: from ancient to modern. Jews from all over the world came to Miami, and each community seeks to build its own house of worship. But among the variety of synagogues stands out one - Emanu-El (Emanu-El). This gigantic structure with a five-story building in the Byzantine-Moorish style is one of the ten largest synagogues in the world. Up to one and a half thousand people can pray in it. The interior of the synagogue with a huge blue dome and beautiful stained glass windows is also striking in its splendor.
In 2010, a dove of peace bronze sculpture was installed in front of the synagogue, and the entire square in front of the synagogue was laid out with a Jerusalem stone brought from Israel.
Among the honored guests of the synagogue were American presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and even the Dalai Lama.
This largest Miami synagogue was built in 1947 by order of the Orthodox Jewish community, which had grown over the years of World War II. Two old synagogues could no longer accommodate all the believers and were given over to the "Jewish Museum of Florida."
From the exhibits of the museum you can find out about the past and present of the Jewish community of Miami. For example, that the houses of worship reserved for the museum were founded in 1936. The very first synagogue in the city of Bnei Zion was built in 1912, when the number of Miami Jews reached 75. The first time Jews stayed in Miami was far from cloudless. The founders of Miami did not feel much sympathy for this ancient people. They established a peculiar sedentary line for those Jews who wanted to live in a new resort town. They were forbidden to settle beyond Fifth Street on Miami Beach Island. Then it was not a very comfortable wetland. It was on this territory that the Miami ghetto actually developed. The first synagogues in the city were built there.
Restrictive standards also apply to those Jews who came here on vacation. It was not uncommon to see signs at the entrance to local hotels that read: “No dogs and Jews allowed” or “Always good view, never a jew” (“Always a good view, Jews never”). Now such tablets are only in the museum, and public anti-Semitism has long been archived.
In the 1930s, Jewish entrepreneurs opened the first hotels in Miami Beach, which helped turn Miami into one of the most prosperous tourist destinations in the United States. Economic development has attracted many Jews from other American states to Miami. As a result, the Jewish population living in Greater Miami increased from 25 people in 1896 to nearly 550,000 in 2016. This tropical resort has become the third largest Jewish city in the United States (after New York and Los Angeles). Perhaps the most famous Jew who settled in Miami can be considered the Nobel Prize in Literature (for 1978) Isaac Singer. One of the streets of Miami was named after him, and a memorial plaque was installed on the house where he spent the last years of his life.
A clear confirmation of the eradication of official anti-Semitism was the election of Jews to representative bodies of power. In 1930, Baron Meyer de Hirsch was elected to the Miami City Council. Since then, Jews began to play a significant role in the municipal life of the city. For example, Abram Aronovich was the mayor of Miami in 1953.
Hitler's rise to power in Germany and the departure of the Jews, while it was still possible, brought to Florida many film figures who fled from Nazism. As a result, Florida became, for some time, the second American cinema center after Hollywood.
In memory of those 6 million Jews who could not escape at the hands of the Nazis, the inhabitants of Miami built a grandiose monument. It is unlikely that there will be at least one more monument to the victims of the Holocaust around the world that would produce such a strong emotional impact on the audience.
Far from residential areas, on the edge of a palm grove, I saw a giant 14-meter-long bronze arm stretching straight out of the ground, facing people. On its inner side, the tattoo is the identification number of the prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp. From afar, it seems that this is the hand of a drowning man, because it is located in the middle of the water, on an island, in the center of a large perfectly round pond. On a hand, aspiring to salvation, people climb.
All the figures around you are made in full size and you are among them. The nightmare feeling of physical involvement in the tragedy of extermination of an entire people does not leave.
A striking emotional and visual contrast is created by the fact that this gigantic, bronzed cry for help stands at the center of tropical splendor and a riot of colors. The sculptural hell is adjacent and paradoxically combined with the coconut-banana paradise surrounding it. Slender palm trees and the eternal Miami summer emphasize the emotional glow emanating from the memorial. Such a resort environment symbolizes the everyday calm and even indifference that prevailed around the death camps during the Holocaust.
The memorial, as it were, is a silent reproach to those Americans who, in 1939, condemned hundreds of Jewish refugees to certain death. They sailed on a St. Louis cruise ship from Nazi Germany to the shores of Florida in search of salvation, but did not receive shelter, and the ship was forced to take the opposite course. They were then not allowed into this paradise, and now they rise above it an eternal reminder of themselves ...
The descendants of those who survived the Holocaust fire gave a second wind to the life of the local Jewish community. It has grown and strengthened with the influx of a new “Aliya”. Miami has created exceptionally comfortable conditions for the modern Jewish community; there are kosher departments in every (!) Large network “department store”. Moreover, on Passover and Hanukkah, the kosher assortment is noticeably increasing. If you want to buy a postcard for the Jewish religious holiday, send an invitation to your relatives to a bar or bat mitzvah of your child, or invite friends to the upcoming chuppah, then in the same shops you will find a large selection of printing products for the upcoming festivities.
And this is not to mention the many individual kosher supermarkets. One of these stores I particularly remember for its promising name "Kosher land" ("Kosher land"). The range justified the name. In addition, in Miami you can easily find kosher cafes and restaurants. Not to mention the many Miami synagogues.
You can send your children to a Jewish kindergarten, and when the boys grow up - to the local yeshiva.
The main religious holidays and memorable days for Jews (Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah) are celebrated here as red days of the calendar, and children do not go to school at this time. Almost like in Israel!
For one of the Jewish holidays, I was invited by the head of the Russian-speaking Jewish community of Miami, Rabbi Alexander Kaller. A lot of guests gathered at the table. Introducing me to the meeting, the Rebbe gave me the floor for a toast. I said that I managed to visit many countries of the world. I also lived in Jerusalem. I saw Northern (or European) Jerusalem, as Vilnius was called before. But what I saw in Miami (with many of its synagogues, with a stunning memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, with a magnificent Jewish museum, with exceptionally comfortable conditions for a traditional Jewish lifestyle) is rightfully worthy of the title of American Jerusalem. “So let's drink,” I said, “to the beautiful city of Miami and the continued prosperity of its Jewish community!” We moved our glasses. "Lehaim!"

Edward Glezin