Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - The Villages and Leesburg, FL
Based on the available sources, we believe that this is a complete and accurate overview of Jewish history in Leesburg and the Villages. However, we would appreciate input from the community on this history, and we have not yet secured images to accompany the entry. Please contact Dr. Josh Parshall (jparshall@isjl.org) if you have photographs for or comments on this essay.
Overview
The Villages is a major retirement development located primarily in Sumter County, with sections in Marion and Lake Counties. Although the rapid growth of the Villages since the 1980s has reshaped Jewish life in that part of Central Florida, the area’s Jewish community began decades earlier and was long centered at Beth Sholom Congregation in Leesburg. In the 21st century, the emergence of Temple Shalom of Central Florida—a Reform congregation in the Villages—as the largest area synagogue reflects the important role that retirement communities continue to play in the history of Jewish Florida.
Early Jewish Residents
For several decades, Leesburg served as the Jewish hub of the Lake and Sumter Counties. A few Jews likely lived in the area in the early 20th century, making their livings either as shopkeepers or citrus grove owners. The Kessler family, who arrived in Leesburg before 1930 and owned a dry goods store, were among a handful of Jewish households in Leesburg in the early 1940s. In south Lake County, the Bornsteins owned citrus groves and lived in Clermont beginning in the 1930s. At the time, local Jews traveled to Orlando, Tampa, or other cities for religious services.
Following the United States’ entry into World War II, the Army constructed Leesburg Army Airfield just outside town. The new airfield, built in 1942, served primarily as a training facility for the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics in nearby Orlando. The arrival of military personnel nearly doubled Leesburg’s population during the war and spurred the beginnings of organized Jewish life in the area.
By fall 1942, there were enough Jews in and around Leesburg to form a traditional minyan (group of ten men). Jewish service members and their families received permission to use the auditorium of Leesburg City Hall to hold religious services, which saved local Jews a three-hour trip to Orlando. Servicemen Bob Adler and Kalman Mintz led the first Leesburg services, and the group continued to meet for regular and holiday services until summer 1944. In the last year of the war and in the following years, there was no longer a large enough Jewish population to support local services, and area Jews once again traveled to Orlando for holidays and religious school.
Following the United States’ entry into World War II, the Army constructed Leesburg Army Airfield just outside town. The new airfield, built in 1942, served primarily as a training facility for the Army Air Force School of Applied Tactics in nearby Orlando. The arrival of military personnel nearly doubled Leesburg’s population during the war and spurred the beginnings of organized Jewish life in the area.
By fall 1942, there were enough Jews in and around Leesburg to form a traditional minyan (group of ten men). Jewish service members and their families received permission to use the auditorium of Leesburg City Hall to hold religious services, which saved local Jews a three-hour trip to Orlando. Servicemen Bob Adler and Kalman Mintz led the first Leesburg services, and the group continued to meet for regular and holiday services until summer 1944. In the last year of the war and in the following years, there was no longer a large enough Jewish population to support local services, and area Jews once again traveled to Orlando for holidays and religious school.
Beth Sholom Congregation of Lake County
The Jewish population of Leesburg and surrounding towns had grown again by the early 1950s, with eight Jewish households in Leesburg, two in Tavares, and one each in Eustis and Fruitland Park. The Leesburg contingent were concentrated in retail and ran seven stores on or near Main Street. The community began to hold Friday night services and holiday events in members’ homes, then in rented spaces. In 1953 they started planning for the construction of a synagogue and bought land at 13th and Center Streets. They broke ground for the small house of worship in August 1954. Construction proceeded rapidly, and the building was open in time for High Holiday Services that fall. The new synagogue housed the congregation’s seven-student religious school that year as well. Leesburg area Jews received their first Torah scroll from Sadie Kahn of Sebring; Sadie’s son Marvin later married a local woman, Elsa Kessler, the daughter of Lillie and Walter Kessler.
The new congregation named itself Congregation Beth Sholom of Lake County. Members followed a range of observances, and personally identified with the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements. Those who followed traditional dietary laws (or simply needed matzoh for Passover) often traveled to Jacksonville or Orlando to purchase necessary supplies. Congregational worship was traditional, if not strictly Orthodox, with kohanim (specifically Walter and Max Kessler) receiving aliyot before other members.
The small congregation did not have the resources to hire a rabbi, but they did have knowledgeable lay leaders to conduct services. Most notable was Getzel Mularsky, who served as “acting rabbi” for more than fifty years. Mularsky was born in Lithuania in 1926 and received a traditional upbringing, including Yeshivah training. He survived more than two years in the Dachau concentration camp and was the only member of his immediate family to live through the Holocaust. After moving to Baltimore to live with extended family in 1947, he resumed rabbinical studies, although he did not complete his training. In 1949 he married Betty Kramer, and the couple moved with her uncle, Max Idelson, to Leesburg. Idelson purchased a small men’s store for Mularsky to run. Before long, Getzel Mularsky began conducting services for the local Jewish community. He led shabbat and holiday services and officiated bar mitzvahs and funerals for the congregation until his death in 2004.
Leesburg Jewish families, including the Idelsons, Kesslers, and Liebermans, occupied a visible place in downtown as the owners of popular retail stores. They were active in fraternal and civic organizations such as the Elks and Odd Fellows, and community histories report that Jews generally enjoyed cordial relationships with the non-Jewish white and African American communities.
Although Leesburg and the surrounding towns provided comfortable lives for area Jews, the population never became large. The congregation grew somewhat in the 1960s and 1970s with the arrival of retirees, but membership never climbed much higher than 100 individuals. Jewish retail businesses, like other downtown shops, either moved or closed during the late 20th century, and subsequent generations of Leesburg Jews tended to go into other professions. Getzel’s—the Mularsky family’s store—was the last Jewish-owned holdout, closing in 2019.
The new congregation named itself Congregation Beth Sholom of Lake County. Members followed a range of observances, and personally identified with the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements. Those who followed traditional dietary laws (or simply needed matzoh for Passover) often traveled to Jacksonville or Orlando to purchase necessary supplies. Congregational worship was traditional, if not strictly Orthodox, with kohanim (specifically Walter and Max Kessler) receiving aliyot before other members.
The small congregation did not have the resources to hire a rabbi, but they did have knowledgeable lay leaders to conduct services. Most notable was Getzel Mularsky, who served as “acting rabbi” for more than fifty years. Mularsky was born in Lithuania in 1926 and received a traditional upbringing, including Yeshivah training. He survived more than two years in the Dachau concentration camp and was the only member of his immediate family to live through the Holocaust. After moving to Baltimore to live with extended family in 1947, he resumed rabbinical studies, although he did not complete his training. In 1949 he married Betty Kramer, and the couple moved with her uncle, Max Idelson, to Leesburg. Idelson purchased a small men’s store for Mularsky to run. Before long, Getzel Mularsky began conducting services for the local Jewish community. He led shabbat and holiday services and officiated bar mitzvahs and funerals for the congregation until his death in 2004.
Leesburg Jewish families, including the Idelsons, Kesslers, and Liebermans, occupied a visible place in downtown as the owners of popular retail stores. They were active in fraternal and civic organizations such as the Elks and Odd Fellows, and community histories report that Jews generally enjoyed cordial relationships with the non-Jewish white and African American communities.
Although Leesburg and the surrounding towns provided comfortable lives for area Jews, the population never became large. The congregation grew somewhat in the 1960s and 1970s with the arrival of retirees, but membership never climbed much higher than 100 individuals. Jewish retail businesses, like other downtown shops, either moved or closed during the late 20th century, and subsequent generations of Leesburg Jews tended to go into other professions. Getzel’s—the Mularsky family’s store—was the last Jewish-owned holdout, closing in 2019.
The Villages
While Congregation Beth Sholom continued to serve area Jews in the late 20th century, a series of developments to the northwest eventually reshaped the Jewish geography of Lake, Sumter, and Marion Counties. In 1982 Chicagoan Harold Schwartz owned Orange Blossom Gardens, a 400-unit mobile home park along U.S. Highway 27-441 about ten miles from Leesburg. Schwartz had acquired the land during his time as a mail-order real estate marketer in the 1960s. Starting in 1983, Schwartz worked with his son, Harold Gary Morse, to develop Orange Blossom Gardens and the surrounding agricultural land into a planned retirement community modeled after Sun City, Arizona.
Through the 1980s, Schwartz and Morse added prefabricated units to Orange Blossom Gardens while providing new amenities, including golf courses and restaurants. In 1993, they changed the name to The Villages and began to build traditional homes. Golf cart paths connected residential areas to new shopping centers modeled after idyllic small town main streets and designed by a company that had worked on the recently opened Universal Studios Florida. The Villages proved popular, and the development included 5,000 homes in 1994.
The Villages has never attracted Jewish retirees to the degree of developments in South Florida, but it did attract a critical mass of Jews during the 1990s. A 1989 article reported that Orange Blossom Gardens (which was overwhelmingly white) was home to “only a half-dozen Jews.” After Jack and Sharna Vitale moved to the Villages in 1993, however, they began to meet other couples in which one or both spouses was Jewish. (Jack Vitale was himself Catholic.) Before long, a group of six couples founded a social club called Jewish Friends. The Vitales traveled to Ocala to attend services, but the idea of founding a congregation in the Villages gained traction by the end of the decade.
In 2001, Jewish residents of the Villages established New Jewish Congregation, which met initially in the Oxford Community Building. The new group catered specifically to local retirees, and, according to newspaper accounts, it appealed especially to interfaith couples, who preferred a less Hebrew-intensive worship service and may have felt less welcome at the Conservative leaning Beth Sholom in Leesburg. While the new congregation tended toward Reform observance, it also attracted Conservative and Orthodox members in its early years.
The New Jewish Congregation’s membership rose quickly, spurred by the rapid growth of the Villages in the early 2000s. In 2003 they claimed more than 200 members and had outgrown the Oxford Community Building and a subsequent rented space at a Lady Lake church. After investigating existing buildings and finding none to their liking, the congregation opted to construct its own synagogue. By that time, the New Jewish Congregation boasted more members than the older congregations in Ocala and Leesburg. They bought land in December 2003 and broke ground in August 2005. At the groundbreaking, the congregation took on a new name, Temple Shalom of Central Florida. In south Lake County, Congregation Sinai was founded in Clermont in 2003 and met in Groveland as of 2018. Like Temple Shalom, Congregation Sinai’s establishment and growth have been fueled by increasing numbers of Jewish retirees in the area.
Through the 1980s, Schwartz and Morse added prefabricated units to Orange Blossom Gardens while providing new amenities, including golf courses and restaurants. In 1993, they changed the name to The Villages and began to build traditional homes. Golf cart paths connected residential areas to new shopping centers modeled after idyllic small town main streets and designed by a company that had worked on the recently opened Universal Studios Florida. The Villages proved popular, and the development included 5,000 homes in 1994.
The Villages has never attracted Jewish retirees to the degree of developments in South Florida, but it did attract a critical mass of Jews during the 1990s. A 1989 article reported that Orange Blossom Gardens (which was overwhelmingly white) was home to “only a half-dozen Jews.” After Jack and Sharna Vitale moved to the Villages in 1993, however, they began to meet other couples in which one or both spouses was Jewish. (Jack Vitale was himself Catholic.) Before long, a group of six couples founded a social club called Jewish Friends. The Vitales traveled to Ocala to attend services, but the idea of founding a congregation in the Villages gained traction by the end of the decade.
In 2001, Jewish residents of the Villages established New Jewish Congregation, which met initially in the Oxford Community Building. The new group catered specifically to local retirees, and, according to newspaper accounts, it appealed especially to interfaith couples, who preferred a less Hebrew-intensive worship service and may have felt less welcome at the Conservative leaning Beth Sholom in Leesburg. While the new congregation tended toward Reform observance, it also attracted Conservative and Orthodox members in its early years.
The New Jewish Congregation’s membership rose quickly, spurred by the rapid growth of the Villages in the early 2000s. In 2003 they claimed more than 200 members and had outgrown the Oxford Community Building and a subsequent rented space at a Lady Lake church. After investigating existing buildings and finding none to their liking, the congregation opted to construct its own synagogue. By that time, the New Jewish Congregation boasted more members than the older congregations in Ocala and Leesburg. They bought land in December 2003 and broke ground in August 2005. At the groundbreaking, the congregation took on a new name, Temple Shalom of Central Florida. In south Lake County, Congregation Sinai was founded in Clermont in 2003 and met in Groveland as of 2018. Like Temple Shalom, Congregation Sinai’s establishment and growth have been fueled by increasing numbers of Jewish retirees in the area.
Tri-County Jewish Life Today
In the first 20 years of the 21st century Jewish retirees reshaped the Jewish geography of Lake, Sumter, and Marion Counties. Temple Shalom of Central Florida surpassed 650 members by 2019, according to its website. Beth Sholom continues to offer Shabbat services twice a month. They have been served by Rabbi Karen Allen since 2008. While Temple Shalom and Beth Sholom welcome families and celebrate b’nai mitzvot for children, only Congregation Sinai in Groveland offers weekly religious school. As in other sections of Florida, the Jewish future of Leesburg, the Villages, and nearby towns will depend in large part on the area’s ongoing appeal to Jewish retirees.
Selected Bibliography
Amanda M. Brian, “The Faux History of the Villages, Florida,” Southern Cultures, Winter 2014.
Congregation Beth Sholom, “A Short History of Congregation Beth Sholom.”
Jo Anne Kessler Burka, “Jewish Presence in Leesburg, Florida,” n.d.
Temple Shalom of Central Florida, “Our Historic Roots.”
Amanda M. Brian, “The Faux History of the Villages, Florida,” Southern Cultures, Winter 2014.
Congregation Beth Sholom, “A Short History of Congregation Beth Sholom.”
Jo Anne Kessler Burka, “Jewish Presence in Leesburg, Florida,” n.d.
Temple Shalom of Central Florida, “Our Historic Roots.”