Miami, Florida

By Aaron Dalton

Take a walk some Friday evening on Ocean Drive, the main drag of Miami Beach. Up around 40th Street, you won’t see many joggers, bicyclists or sun-worshippers in bikinis. (They’re all on the other side of the towering condominiums and resorts enjoying the beautiful beaches and boardwalks.) But you will see Orthodox Jews dressed modestly despite the heat, walking to and from services with their families.

These pedestrians are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Miami’s thriving and varied Jewish scene that features dozens of synagogues, scores of kosher restaurants and even a handful of mikvaot.

Jewish settlement in Miami Beach was once limited to the area south of 5th Street. Although anti-discrimination laws erased such limits long ago, the historical roots of the community can still be seen in the location of the Jewish Museum of Florida (www.jewishmuseum.com), which sits at the corner of 3rd Street and Washington Avenue housed in a former 1936 Art Deco style synagogue. Just this year, the museum expanded into a neighboring building that was the first synagogue on Miami Beach when it opened in 1929.

Formed in 1995 to provide a permanent home to the traveling exhibit, MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida, the museum tells a heartwarming story of Jewish success and life in the Sunshine State. From 1763 when the first Jew settled in Pensacola, the community has grown to hundreds of thousands strong with Jews reaching the top of their professions in sports, business, the arts and politics. Indeed, Florida’s first Senator, David Levy Yulee, was a Jew.

Browse the exhibits at your own speed or take advantage of the volunteer docents on hand to give tours of the collection. It’s best to call in advance (305-672-5044) before scheduling your visit to get the latest news on temporary exhibits and docent availability.

Focused as it is on a celelbration of Jewish life in Florida, the museum makes little mention of the Holocaust. That role is filled by Miami Beach’s dedicated Holocaust Memorial (http://www.holocaustmmb.org) at 1933 Meridian Avenue built from Jerusalem stone and black granite.

The centerpiece of the memorial consists of a gigantic bronze arm tattooed with a number from Auschwitz reaching toward the sky. To the arm cling many smaller figures – men, women and children – caught up in the conflagration, hanging on to each other, swept up and simultaneously falling. The memorial also encompasses a Memorial Wall listing with dignity names of Shoah victims.

Where the Holocaust Memorial mourns death, another more recent Miami Jewish institution celebrates life. In 2005, Naomi Wilzig opened the doors of the World Erotic Art Museum (WEAM, www.weam.com, 866-969-WEAM) at 1205 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach.

How does a 72-year old Jewish grandmother who grew up in an Orthodox household where discussions of sexuality were verboten come to run a 12,000 square foot museum billed modestly as the ‘greatest erotic art collection in the world’? A lifelong antique collector, Wilzig started searching for erotic artwork more than 15 years ago when her eldest son asked her to find him a conversation piece for his bachelor apartment. She soon became hooked.

With a collection that runs the gambit from tame to risqué, WEAM is off-limits to anyone younger than 18-years old. Among the more than 3000 pieces of art on display, visitors will find depictions of biblical stories (Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark) as well as pieces by Israeli artists such as Haim Gross and Uri Lifshitz. There is even one painting attributed to Chagall.

As for those who question the proprietary of such art, Wilzig counters that erotic art has been created throughout the ages. “It depicts mankind in all its sexual, lovemaking activities. Without these activities there would be no more human activity!” she says. “I don’t consider this art as dirty or underground. I think people would be better off if they concerned themselves more with the beauty of the body and lovemaking instead of violence.”

When to Go:

Most folks wait until the weather gets nippy before zipping south for a little sun-and-fun, but visiting Miami in the summer has its advantages – thinner crowds on the beach, less traffic, shorter waits for restaurants and lower rates on hotel rooms.

Food-lovers have another reason to visit the city in late summer or early fall to experience Miami Spice (www.ILoveMiamiSpice.com), when more than 70 of the town’s top restaurants serve three-course meals for the price of an single entrée on a normal night.

Among these 70 restaurants, make sure to stop by Chef Cindy Hutson’s award-winning restaurant Ortanique on the Mile, located in Miami’s tony Coral Gables neighborhood. Try the incredible West Indian Game Hen marinated in jerked spices her award-winning Ortanique on the Mile restaurant. (Note that Hutson changes her Miami Miami Spice menu every two weeks, but the Game Hen will be on the first menu in August.)

Where to Stay & Eat:

If you’ve ever wanted to spend the night in an art gallery, look no further than the Four Seasons Miami (http://www.fourseasons.com/miami, 305-358-3535). This gleaming high-rise downtown is stuffed with an amazing collecting of original artwork, including several sculptures by famed Colombian artist Fernando Botero. True to its name, the in-house restaurant Acqua (Italian for ‘water’) offers a selection of no fewer than eleven bottled waters. The Milk Fed Veal Loli Pop Chop entrée is good enough to be considered a work of art in itself.

Prefer a beachfront hotel? The Palms on Miami Beach (http://www.thepalmshotel.com, 800-550-0505) offers easy access to the restaurants and nightlife of South Beach while still being far enough removed from the hubbub to let you get a good night’s sleep and wake up to a quiet stretch of white sand beach along the blue ocean. Just ten blocks north of the hotel is an Orthodox enclave with some Kosher shops and Judaica stores scattered along 41st Street.

More Resources:

For general information on visiting Miami, go to www.MiamiandBeaches.com.

Thinking about visiting Miami this fall? Visit the 27th Annual Jewish Book Festival taking place at the Alper JCC (www.alperjcc.org) from October 16 to November 8. Speakers at the event will include Ambassador Dennis Ross, historian and novelist Michael Bar Zohar, and comedian Judy Gold.

Freelance writer Aaron Dalton (www.imaginationwins.com) lives in New York City and frequently covers travel for numerous publications, including the Jewish Exponent, in which this article was originally published.