Jewish Heritage
According to the Pew Research Center, Florida has one of the country’s largest Jewish populations outside of the Northeast.
The presence of Judaism in Florida dates back to the Spanish colonial period.
This guide from the State Library of Florida explores Florida’s Jewish heritage in politics, history and culture. Materials are generally available through interlibrary loan from the circulating collection of the State Library.
Links within the bibliographies take you to information in our State Library catalog or to more information on external sites.
Books
- Brodkin, Karen. How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.
- Brown, Canter. Jewish Pioneers of the Tampa Bay Frontier. Tampa, FL: Tampa Bay History Center, 1999.
- Burke, Walter E. Quartermaster: A Brief Account of the Life of Colonel Abraham Charles Myers, Quartermaster General, CSA. Fort Myers, FL: Southwest Florida Historical Society, 1976.
- Dinnerstein, Leonard, and Mary Dale Palsson, eds. Jews in the South. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
- Evans, Eli N. Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish Confederate. New York: Free Press, 1988.
- Florida Division of Historical Resources. Florida Jewish Heritage Trail. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of State, 2000.
- Greenbaum, Andrea, ed. Jews of South Florida. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press; Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2005.
- Kavanaugh, Celeste H. David Levy Yulee: A Man and His Vision. 2nd ed. Fernandina Beach, FL: Amelia Island Museum of History, 1995.
- Lavender, Abraham D. A Coat of Many Colors: Jewish Subcommunities in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977.
- Levenson, Claire B. Temple Israel of Tallahassee, Florida, 1937-1987. Tallahassee, FL: Peninsular Publishing, 1987.
- Levine, Robert M. Tropical Diaspora: The Jewish Experience in Cuba. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1993.
- Liebman, Malvina W. Jewish Frontiersmen: Historical Highlights of Early South Florida Jewish Communities. Miami Beach, FL: Jewish Historical Society of South Florida, 1980.
- Mohl, Raymond A., Matilda Graff, and Shirley M. Zoloth. South of the South: Jewish Activists and the Civil Rights Movement in Miami, 1945-1960. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004.
- Monaco, C. S. Moses Levy of Florida: Jewish Utopian and Antebellum Reformer. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
- Proctor, Samuel. Pioneer Jewish Settlement in Florida, 1765-1900. Miami, 1956.
- Remillard, Arthur. “Jewish Voices, Gentile Voices: ‘The Soul of America Is the Soul of the Bible.’” Southern Civil Religions: Imagining the Good Society in the Post-Reconstruction Era. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2011. 106–133.
- Rosen, Robert N. The Jewish Confederates. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.
- Yulee, David Levy. Florida Railroad: Letter from D.L. Yulee to Hon. John A. Henderson, April 30, 1886. Washington, DC: Beresford Press, 1886.
Articles
- Adams, Sean Patrick. “Patriotism Derailed: John Milton, David Yulee, and the Florida Railroad in 1863.” Florida Historical Quarterly 86.3 (2008): 406–416.
- Cox, Merlin G. “David Sholtz: New Deal Governor of Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly 43.2 (1964): 142–152.
- Dial, Donna. “Cartoons in Paradise: How the Fleischer Brothers Moved to Miami and Lost Their Studio.” Florida Historical Quarterly 78.3 (2000): 309–330.
- Fairbanks, George R. “Moses Elias Levy Yulee.” Florida Historical Quarterly 18.3 (1940): 165–167.
- Huhner, Leon. “Moses Elias Levy: An Early Florida Pioneer and the Father of Florida’s First Senator.” Florida Historical Quarterly 19.4 (1941): 319–345.
Digital collections
- State Archives of Florida. “Jewish Folk Songs.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- State Archives of Florida. “MOSAIC Collection.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- State Archives of Florida. “WPA Church Records.” Florida Memory. Florida Division of Library and Information Services.
- University of Florida Libraries. “Florida Jewish Newspaper Project.” University of Florida Digital Collections. University of Florida.
- University of Florida Libraries. “Judaica Digital Collections.” University of Florida Digital Collections. University of Florida.
- University of South Florida Libraries. “Holocaust Survivors Oral History Project.” University of South Florida Digital Collections. University of South Florida.
