1. Jews have been a significant part of the development of our State since 1763, which is the first year that Jews were allowed to live (as Jews) in Florida. Since Florida was owned by Spain from 1513, it was for Catholics only. The first Jews settled in Pensacola in 1763 after the Treaty of Paris was signed that turned Florida over from Spain to Great Britain.

2. Today, 16% of the American Jewish community lives in Florida. Our State hosts the nation's third largest Jewish community (after NY and CA) at 850,000. South Florida has the second largest concentration of Jews in the
world, after Israel, at 15%.

3. A Jew, David Levy Yulee, is known as the architect of Florida Statehood . As a territorial delegate in 1841, he went to the U.S. Congress to argue for statehood. In 1845 when Florida became the 27th state, Florida' first Senator to serve in Washington was David Levy Yulee. Yulee was the first Jew to serve in the U.S. Congress; he also brought the first cross-state railroad into Florida. Levy County and the town of Yulee in Nassau County were named to honor him.

4. David Levy Yulee's father, Moses Levy, had come into Florida in 1819 and purchased 92,000 acres in north central Florida to start a Jewish colony in Micanopy; he was a founder of that city. Twenty-three years before statehood, in 1822, Levy established Pilgrimage Plantation that attracted Jews fleeing persecution in Europe and he brought sugar cane and fruit trees. The Plantation was burned down at the onset of the Second Seminole War in 1835. An Orthodox Jew, Moses Levy was among the earliest and largest developers in Florida, published a plan to abolish slavery and was a proponent of free education in Florida as a charter member of the Florida Education Society.

5. More than 100 Jewish families have been identified who have lived in Florida over 100 years. The Dzialynski family came to Jacksonville by 1850; is still there--still Jewish. There were six Jewish congregations in Florida before the turn of the 20th century. Today there are more than 300 congregations who are involved with improving the quality of life for all people in the State.


6. Jews have served in Florida in all the wars. Fort Myers is named for Col. Abraham Myers, a Jewish West Point graduate who was the quartermaster for the fort in the Indian wars during the mid-1800's. Jacksonville's Admiral Ellis Zacharias, Chief of Naval Intelligence during WWII, helped break the Japanese code in 1941 that resulted in the U.S. victory in the Pacific.

7. The contributions made by Jews to the development of Florida are in every sector. A Jew was a founder of the Florida Cattlemen's Association (Saul Snyder of St. Augustine); Jews have been prominent in the citrus, tomato and tobacco industries. An Orlando Jew and a graduate of the University of Florida in 1948 received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1968 for breaking the genetic code (Marshall Warren Nirenberg). More than 250 Jews have served as Judges in Florida. Jews have been active in the development and construction industries, in banking and insurance, the arts, education, military and science, space industry, the professions, and much more.

8. Many Jews have served in Florida politics: Richard Stone who served as Florida's Secretary of State then U.S. Senator; more than 100 mayors, more than 50 state legislators, and one governor, David Sholtz. In 1990, Florida Senator Gwen Margolis became the nation's first woman State Senate president.

9. For nearly 250 years, Jews have lived in Florida and maintained traditions of their heritage. Jews represent one immigrant group in our multiculturally diverse state. The Jewish Museum of Florida, opened in 1995 in a restored historic Art Deco synagogue on South Beach, collects, preserves and interprets the Jewish experience in Florida. Thousands of students, as well as adults who are both residents and tourists, visit their exhibits and learn how diverse individuals who are more alike than different - come together to preserve our cultural heritage a quality of life for all Floridians. Through our grants programs, Florida's Department of State has been supportive of both the original MOSAIC traveling exhibit (1990-1994) and the creation of and ongoing programs of the Jewish Museum of Florida.

10. A fine example of the education provided for the citizens and tourists of Florida is The Art of Hatred: Images of Intolerance in Florida Culture exhibit that was produced by the Jewish Museum of Florida in 2001 (helped by a supporting grant from the State) and is traveling the state for the next three years, now showing at the Museum of Florida History here in Tallahassee through June 1, 2003. Through the use of 185 items of degenerate art, this provocative, disturbing exhibit depicts the history of discrimination and illustrations in Florida that were created to hurt minorities. See this exhibit and you will better understand that the attitudes from medieval times still raise their ugly heads with the potential for equally ugly consequences, as we saw on 9/11. This important exhibit has the goal of helping people distinguish between fact and illusion in imagery and making all people think.