Architecture of the Temple Israel:
Our Architecture
Our historic main sanctuary, whose groundbreaking was in 1927, is the oldest synagogue in Florida. The architects, Robertson & Patterson, which were also the architects of the building on South Beach where the Wolfsonian Museum is housed. The original Temple Israel – a Moorish-Gothic confection of stained glass and tropical tile – is in the style popular in Miami in the 1920s. The sanctuary is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The sanctuary – named the Bertha Abess Sanctuary for the matriarch of the family that founded City National Bank - retains its historic ambience, although it has also undergone several changes over the years. Its central podium was replaced with two podia after the temple hired its first cantor in the fifties. A massive restoration (which included the establishment of a center aisle, where congregants now sometimes dance during "Lecha Dodi") took place in the nineties.
History of the Temple Israel:
Our History
For more than eighty years, Temple Israel has been a Jewish beacon in the central city of Miami. It has had a unique role in South Florida—maverick, intelligent, progressive.
Temple Israel served the needs of Jews throughout the twentieth century, and continues to do so in the twenty-first century.
The founding
Temple Israel was founded in 1922 when a group of less traditional Jews broke away from Temple Beth David in Miami. The temple’s first home was on what is now Biscayne Boulevard and N.E. 13th Street. The temple, with 41 members, was South Florida’s first reform synagogue.
Five years later, in 1927, the temple moved to its current location on N.E. 19th Street, a block and a half west of Biscayne Boulevard. The same year, Rabbi Jacob H. Kaplan joined the temple. Rabbi Kaplan remained with the temple, in various capacities, until his death in 1965.
Colman Zwitman became the temple’s rabbi in 1936. Rabbi Zwitman served in the military during World War II, and afterward continued to suffer from war-related injuries until his death in 1949. (An example of the continuity of Temple Israel: Rabbi Zwitman’s widow visited the temple as recently as 2002).
The first golden age
Joseph Narot became Temple Israel’s rabbi in 1950, and became one of the country’s great rabbis. Brilliant, learned, liberal, and outspoken, Rabbi Narot became the voice of Judaism in South Florida, boldly speaking out for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. Rabbi Narot was joined in 1952 by Temple Israel’s first cantor, the beloved Jacob Bornstein.
During Rabbi Narot’s tenure, Temple Israel grew to become one of America’s largest synagogues, with approximately 1,800 families. On the High Holy Days, services were held in the Miami Beach Convention Center.
The temple became a leader in social action, hosting the first area meetings of Christian and Jewish clergy, the first formal contact between white and African American clergy, and the earliest formal encounters of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking clergy. The congregation established the first local Head Start program. The temple was one of the founders of Faith in the City, a consortium of central city religious organizations. Temple leaders spoke out for gay rights, when few others were willing to do this.
As Temple Israel grew to greatness, so did many of its families. The temple was and continues to be the spiritual home to many of South Florida’s leading Jewish families.
The decline
But over the decades, Miami changed. At one time a number of Jews lived in neighborhoods near the temple, but that time ended many decades ago. As early as the 1950s, the leadership of Temple Israel considered moving to the suburbs, but rejected that alternative. This was a courageous decision. In a history of the synagogue, a historian wrote in 1972 that the decision to remain in the city "means significant contribution to the revitilization of the downtown area, but it runs contrary to the nationwide flight of people and religious institutions from metropolitan areas to the suburbs." Synagogue in the Central City: Temple Israel of Greater Miami, 1922-1972, at 160, by Charlton W. Tebeau (University of Miami Press, 1972).
As Jews moved to the suburbs, Temple Israel’s membership declined. Despite the efforts of distinguished clergy—including Rabbi Rex Perlmeter (currently Senior Rabbi of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation), Rabbi Chaim Stern (editor of the reform movement’s prayer books for the past 30 years), Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin (currently Senior Rabbi at The Temple in Atlanta), Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn (currently Senior Rabbi of Temple Har Shalom in Warren, New Jersey), and Cantor Rochelle Nelson (currently Cantor at Temple Beth Am in Miami)—membership fell to fewer than 400 families.
But through these difficult years, Temple Israel remained committed to the central city. In 1980 then-President Peter Bermont explained that "The inner city is the place we are. And we are what we are because of the inner city. We draw from so many constituencies. Our strength is that we have the ability to take from different areas. And, as downtown redevelops, we become the focal point of religious life."
The rebirth
In recent years, Jews have returned to the central city and surrounding neighborhoods. Apartment buildings and condominiums have been built nearby, the upper east side of Miami has been redeveloped, and a new Performing Arts Center will be only blocks away—located, aptly, on the site of Temple Israel’s home from 1922 to 1926.
Temple Israel has benefitted from the return to the central city. In 2002, Rabbi Mitch Chefitz became the temple’s spiritual leader, bringing a new, rich spirituality to the temple. In the new century, Temple Israel is regaining its position as one of South Florida’s—and the country’s—great synagogues.