Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Daytona Beach, FL
Overview: Greater Daytona Beach
The Jewish history of the Greater Daytona Beach area is one of “snowbirds” and settlers—a handful of merchant families who created a Jewish community that extended beyond city limits. Present-day Daytona Beach was once home of the Timucua tribe, displaced by disease and conflict brought by Euro-American settlers settlers. Though some Florida cities, like Micanopy, welcomed Jews as early as the 1820s, Daytona Beach remained the burnt down site of Orange Grove Plantation until 1870, when Mathias Day purchased the tract of land and named it for himself, Daytona. In the 1880s and 1890s, Henry Flagler worked to extend his East Coast Railway, and strategically constructed hotels along the route from Jacksonville to Key West. Mathias Day established the city’s first hotel in 1874 and Flagler’s railroad reached Daytona in 1896, setting it on path to become a prominent tourist destination.
Beach Street, in Daytona Beach, 1915. The waterfront thoroughfare was home to several Jewish owned shops in the early 20th century. State Archives of Florida.
Daytona Beach is located in Volusia County, where the earliest examples of organized Jewish life occurred in Daytona and nearby Ormond Beach. These congregations drew Jewish members from surrounding communities, some of which, like DeLand, Deltona, and Palm Coast (in neighboring Flagler County), established their own congregations in the mid-to-late 20th century. In a Florida region best known for spring breakers and NASCAR, the Greater Daytona Beach area has a strong Jewish history, characterized by an early handful of merchant families and a Jewish population fueled by a burgeoning tourist economy.
Early Jewish Life in Daytona Beach
The first Jewish migrants to Daytona Beach arrived in the early 1900s. A “snowbird” culture had set in after the arrival of the railroad, which brought a wealth of northern tourists drawn to the warm weather and hard-packed white sand that made Daytona so ideal for beach vacations and early automobile races. Most Jewish settlers in Daytona Beach looked to the emerging Florida tourist economy for business opportunities, and they found success on Beach Street, a waterfront stretch on the mainland.
Jacob Ginsberg, a Polish-born immigrant, and his wife Annie were the first known Jews in Daytona Beach. They arrived in 1908 and opened Ginsberg’s Panama Hat Store on Beach Street. Their son, Harold, was the first Jewish boy born in the city. Hyman Roth, a cousin of Jacob’s, and his wife, Ceilia, joined the Ginsbergs not long after their arrival. In the coming years Jewish families like the Roths, Dobrows, Nasses, and Silversteins opened shops on Beach Streets as well.
Jacob Ginsberg, a Polish-born immigrant, and his wife Annie were the first known Jews in Daytona Beach. They arrived in 1908 and opened Ginsberg’s Panama Hat Store on Beach Street. Their son, Harold, was the first Jewish boy born in the city. Hyman Roth, a cousin of Jacob’s, and his wife, Ceilia, joined the Ginsbergs not long after their arrival. In the coming years Jewish families like the Roths, Dobrows, Nasses, and Silversteins opened shops on Beach Streets as well.
Harry Pepper with son Leonard, 1916. State Archives of Florida.
Though not Beach Street merchants, the arrival of the Pepper family was pivotal for the formation of organized Jewish life in Daytona Beach. Harry Pepper, born Harry Pfeffer in Austria in 1889, came to the United States at the age of six as a traveling companion for an older sister. Harry met Bella Berman in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1910 and the pair moved to Jacksonville on the recommendation of a doctor. They decided to stay in Florida and moved to Daytona Beach shortly after. In Daytona, Harry started dealing in second-hand automobiles and auto parts before switching to real estate during the development craze of the early 1920s. The Peppers daughter, Florence, was the first Jewish girl born in Daytona Beach, in the year 1919.
The Peppers opened their home as a gathering spot for local Jewish families. In the 1910s and early 1920s, Jewish families congregated in the Pepper home to celebrate holidays and hold services. Though Daytona had been characterized by a transient tourist culture from the start, the Peppers ensured there were year-round services for the city’s permanent Jewish residents, hosting lay leaders and traveling Rabbis.
Ceilia and Hyman Roth’s son, Mack, for whom their Beach Street store, The Mack Shop was named, also became an important figure in the development of organized Jewish life. A letter from Mack’s brother, Burnett, suggests that the rest of the Roth family moved to Orlando in the 1920s, leaving Mack to take over the family business. Roth and his wife, Estelle, were charter members of the city’s first congregation, along with the Ginsbergs, Peppers, and Dobrows, and he and Harry Pepper became the congregation’s first leaders.
The Peppers opened their home as a gathering spot for local Jewish families. In the 1910s and early 1920s, Jewish families congregated in the Pepper home to celebrate holidays and hold services. Though Daytona had been characterized by a transient tourist culture from the start, the Peppers ensured there were year-round services for the city’s permanent Jewish residents, hosting lay leaders and traveling Rabbis.
Ceilia and Hyman Roth’s son, Mack, for whom their Beach Street store, The Mack Shop was named, also became an important figure in the development of organized Jewish life. A letter from Mack’s brother, Burnett, suggests that the rest of the Roth family moved to Orlando in the 1920s, leaving Mack to take over the family business. Roth and his wife, Estelle, were charter members of the city’s first congregation, along with the Ginsbergs, Peppers, and Dobrows, and he and Harry Pepper became the congregation’s first leaders.
Congregations Form in Daytona, Ormond Beach, and DeLand
Daytona’s early Jewish community held services in private homes or in rented spaces, such as the Daytona Beach American Legion Hall. In 1924, at a meeting at this same American Legion Hall, Harry Pepper and Mack Roth joined forces to establish the Daytona Hebrew Association, an organization intended to facilitate the purchase of land for a cemetery, and a physical space in which to establish a congregation. That same year, the Association achieved its goal, obtaining the land for both Temple Israel and the Temple Israel Cemetery.
Harry Pepper and Mack Roth, founders of Daytona Hebrew Association, c. 1970s. State Archives of Florida.
The congregation appointed Mack Roth as temporary President for the first three months and Harry Pepper was elected President when Roth’s appointment was up. Jacob Ginsberg, Samuel Dobrow, and Louis Ossinsky also served as early Presidents. In February 1924 the congregation ordered a Megillah and in March David Sholtz drew up their first charter. Initially, the congregation had a base of “40 or so breadwinning families,” according to charter member Louis Ossinsky. Visitors from neighboring communities, such as Deltona and DeLand, travelled to Temple Israel for services, especially during the High Holidays. By August of 1924 the Dayton Hebrew Association had gathered enough funds to complete a building for Temple Israel, and at the end of that year they hired a Mr. Singer to act as schochet and torah reader, as well as to help maintain the Temple. The first Rabbi—Rabbi I. Ravitch—signed on for a term set through Passover of 1927. Although the congregation kept the services of a full-time Rabbi early on, their ability to do so fluctuated throughout the 20th century.
The late 1920s and early 1930s saw hard times for Temple Israel, as well as for the rest of the state. Florida’s real estate bubble burst in 1925 and an address from Harry Pepper at the beginning of 1927 reflects this, beginning, “Economy has been keynote.” That same year, the Temple Israel Sisterhood began fundraising towards the payment of the Temple’s mortgage, though their efforts would be derailed with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. At one point, in 1934, the congregation bank account balance dipped to $24. As a result, Temple leadership increased dues, resulting in two congregation votes for each family, rather than one, which allowed women to vote for the first time. Despite financial hardships, Temple Israel’s first Hebrew school was established in 1931.
In the early 1940s, as the economic tide began to turn, the congregation decided to push towards finally paying off the Temple’s mortgage. Daytona Beach Jewish merchants stayed open late on Saturdays to raise additional funds and Louis Ossinsky and his wife Marcelle roamed the streets, asking for funds and delivering collections to co-treasurer Jacob Ginsberg at the end of the evening. By the mid-1940s, the congregation was able to pay off their mortgage, and they burned the papers in a celebratory ceremony. By 1950 there were more than fifty students at Temple Israel’s Hebrew School, and the congregation boasted a total of 123 “member units.”
When Temple Israel was founded in 1924, charter members intended it to be “on liberal plans, carrying out the religious ideas of the modern American Jews, rather than the customs of European countries.” Although the congregation did not join the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism until 1953, its members founded it as a Conservative establishment. In the early 1950s, a group met to discuss founding a Reform congregation in the Greater Daytona Beach area—Temple Beth-El. Founding members of Temple Beth-El included past Presidents of Temple Israel, as well as a number of existing congregants.
Rabbi Sydney Lefkowitz, a Reform Rabbi from Temple Ahavath Chesed in Jacksonville, was pivotal in the organization of Temple Beth-El, facilitating membership in the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and lending the new congregation a Torah and small, portable Ark. The Union gave Temple Beth-El their first permanent Torah—a rescue from the Holocaust. In 1950, Rabbi Lefkowitz led the first Sabbath for Temple Beth-El at the Princess Issena Hotel, “one of the showplaces of Daytona Beach.” The first congregational seder was held that Passover at Seabreeze Manor, with 120 guests in attendance. In 1951 the congregation purchased a former church building at the corner of 5th Street and Wild Olive. By 1965 Temple Beth-El had reached 200 members and in 1966 they held a mortgage burning ceremony, echoing Temple Israel’s twenty years prior. Temple Beth-El moved to its current location on North Nova Road in Ormond Beach in 1982.
The late 1920s and early 1930s saw hard times for Temple Israel, as well as for the rest of the state. Florida’s real estate bubble burst in 1925 and an address from Harry Pepper at the beginning of 1927 reflects this, beginning, “Economy has been keynote.” That same year, the Temple Israel Sisterhood began fundraising towards the payment of the Temple’s mortgage, though their efforts would be derailed with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. At one point, in 1934, the congregation bank account balance dipped to $24. As a result, Temple leadership increased dues, resulting in two congregation votes for each family, rather than one, which allowed women to vote for the first time. Despite financial hardships, Temple Israel’s first Hebrew school was established in 1931.
In the early 1940s, as the economic tide began to turn, the congregation decided to push towards finally paying off the Temple’s mortgage. Daytona Beach Jewish merchants stayed open late on Saturdays to raise additional funds and Louis Ossinsky and his wife Marcelle roamed the streets, asking for funds and delivering collections to co-treasurer Jacob Ginsberg at the end of the evening. By the mid-1940s, the congregation was able to pay off their mortgage, and they burned the papers in a celebratory ceremony. By 1950 there were more than fifty students at Temple Israel’s Hebrew School, and the congregation boasted a total of 123 “member units.”
When Temple Israel was founded in 1924, charter members intended it to be “on liberal plans, carrying out the religious ideas of the modern American Jews, rather than the customs of European countries.” Although the congregation did not join the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism until 1953, its members founded it as a Conservative establishment. In the early 1950s, a group met to discuss founding a Reform congregation in the Greater Daytona Beach area—Temple Beth-El. Founding members of Temple Beth-El included past Presidents of Temple Israel, as well as a number of existing congregants.
Rabbi Sydney Lefkowitz, a Reform Rabbi from Temple Ahavath Chesed in Jacksonville, was pivotal in the organization of Temple Beth-El, facilitating membership in the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and lending the new congregation a Torah and small, portable Ark. The Union gave Temple Beth-El their first permanent Torah—a rescue from the Holocaust. In 1950, Rabbi Lefkowitz led the first Sabbath for Temple Beth-El at the Princess Issena Hotel, “one of the showplaces of Daytona Beach.” The first congregational seder was held that Passover at Seabreeze Manor, with 120 guests in attendance. In 1951 the congregation purchased a former church building at the corner of 5th Street and Wild Olive. By 1965 Temple Beth-El had reached 200 members and in 1966 they held a mortgage burning ceremony, echoing Temple Israel’s twenty years prior. Temple Beth-El moved to its current location on North Nova Road in Ormond Beach in 1982.
Judaism and Politics: David Sholtz
Governor David Sholtz with his family, 1930s. State Archives of Florida.
One Jewish figure remembered by the Volusia County Jewish community is David Sholtz, elected governor of Florida in 1933. Sholtz was born in Brooklyn in 1891, the son of an American mother and a German father. After attending a Brooklyn public school he studied at Yale and Stetson Law School in DeLand. The year after David left for Yale his father, Michael Sholtz, visited Daytona Beach, fell in love with the city and decided to move there and invest in through a variety of infrastructure and tourism projects (none of which were ever profitable). It was Michael Sholtz’s business interests which likely drew David Sholtz to Daytona Beach in 1915.
Sholtz established a law practice upon arrival in Daytona Beach, setting up above Princess Shop, Mack Roth’s second business venture. He married Alice Mae Agee, a non-Jew, and they raised four children. When Sholtz decided to run for governor in the early 1930s, his law partners ridiculed him for running without local political support from the Volusia County “courthouse ring.” Yet in the second primary Sholtz won the highest majority ever recorded for a candidate at the time—a surprising win given that Sholtz was a non-native Floridian and a born Jew with very little state or local support.
During the primary campaign, Sholtz’s opponents attempted to use his Jewish background against him, but he was seemingly immune. Although Sholtz was born Jewish, he was not a practicing Jew, which historians have argued may have been intentional. Sholtz belonged to the St. Mary Episcopal Church in Daytona Beach and when a reporter asked him what it meant to be Episcopalian, he replied, “Something midway between a Methodist and a Baptist,” a nod to Christianity that was apparently enough for Florida voters. At the time, political factions in the state, a desperate economy, and an influx of new, non-native voters had set the stage for a wildcard like Sholtz to win. David Sholtz served as Florida’s governor between 1933 and 1937, unsuccessfully running for Senate in 1938.
Sholtz established a law practice upon arrival in Daytona Beach, setting up above Princess Shop, Mack Roth’s second business venture. He married Alice Mae Agee, a non-Jew, and they raised four children. When Sholtz decided to run for governor in the early 1930s, his law partners ridiculed him for running without local political support from the Volusia County “courthouse ring.” Yet in the second primary Sholtz won the highest majority ever recorded for a candidate at the time—a surprising win given that Sholtz was a non-native Floridian and a born Jew with very little state or local support.
During the primary campaign, Sholtz’s opponents attempted to use his Jewish background against him, but he was seemingly immune. Although Sholtz was born Jewish, he was not a practicing Jew, which historians have argued may have been intentional. Sholtz belonged to the St. Mary Episcopal Church in Daytona Beach and when a reporter asked him what it meant to be Episcopalian, he replied, “Something midway between a Methodist and a Baptist,” a nod to Christianity that was apparently enough for Florida voters. At the time, political factions in the state, a desperate economy, and an influx of new, non-native voters had set the stage for a wildcard like Sholtz to win. David Sholtz served as Florida’s governor between 1933 and 1937, unsuccessfully running for Senate in 1938.
Mid-Century Daytona Beach
Jews were relatively well integrated in mid-20th century Daytona Beach. A letter from Daytona Beach mayor, E.L Padgett on the occasion of Temple Israel’s Silver Jubilee in 1950 states, “little did they [the founders] anticipate the development of the close cooperation and harmonious relationship, which today is felt between the people of Jewish and other faiths in our city.” Padgett celebrated what he perceived as “the abolishing of prejudice in our city.” Yet Jews were still occasionally barred from facets of tourism culture. Despite any social prejudice, Daytona Beach Jews were active in community life, whether through civic organizations like American Legion, or Jewish organizations, such as the Jewish Welfare Board and B’nai Brith. Jewish community members were involved in initiatives that ranged from African-American education to support of the Women's Army Corps during World War II and advocacy against anti-Semitism, both at home and abroad.
While there is some evidence of early racial integration and African-American participation in local politics in the late 19th century, Daytona Beach in the 1950s was racially segregated, like other cities in the Jim Crow South. Schools were a space of steadfast segregation and as early as 1904 a local activist, Mary McLeod Bethune, had rented a small space to serve as a private high school for African American girls—the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. The school merged with the Cookman Institute, a boys school in Jacksonville, in 1923, and became an accredited College in 1931. Under the advisement of Booker T. Washington, McLeod solicited funds from both black and white community members. Temple Israel member Annie Gilmore was known for her fundraising efforts for the school, and Harry Pepper was another recognized supporter and donor.
While there is some evidence of early racial integration and African-American participation in local politics in the late 19th century, Daytona Beach in the 1950s was racially segregated, like other cities in the Jim Crow South. Schools were a space of steadfast segregation and as early as 1904 a local activist, Mary McLeod Bethune, had rented a small space to serve as a private high school for African American girls—the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. The school merged with the Cookman Institute, a boys school in Jacksonville, in 1923, and became an accredited College in 1931. Under the advisement of Booker T. Washington, McLeod solicited funds from both black and white community members. Temple Israel member Annie Gilmore was known for her fundraising efforts for the school, and Harry Pepper was another recognized supporter and donor.
Seder for service men and women, organized by the Daytona Beach Jewish Community and Jewish Welfare Board, c. 1943. State Archives of Florida.
World War II provided ample opportunity for Jewish community involvement, particularly when Daytona Beach became a station for the Women’s Army Corps, the women’s branch of the United States Army, in 1942. With 8% of the ranks identifying as Jewish, Isadore Breslau was hired to be the sole Jewish Chaplain in the Women’s Army Corps and was stationed in Daytona. The forty to fifty existing Jewish families were thrilled to welcome a full-time Chaplain with the WACs, and gladly lent their space, excited to attend services during a period when they had no full-time Rabbi. The April of the WAC’s arrival, six Temple Israel women cooked over the course of two days to provide the troops 585 full-course Passover meals, which they served at the Williams Hotel. That same year, at a Chanukah ceremony, WAC members feasted on homemade latkes, courtesy of the congregation, danced the horah and watched films from the Israeli Youth Aliyah.
As World War II ended, tourism in Daytona Beach increased, fueled in part by the founding of NASCAR in 1948. One of the most popular resorts of the time was Ellinor Village, which opened in 1949 in nearby Ormond Beach. Ellinor Village came under fire when they distributed advertisements claiming “restrictive clientele,” and staff told several Jewish families that they could not make reservations. After a successful writing campaign, conducted by Jews and non-Jews alike, Ellinor Village attempted to explain away their stance, claiming they meant only “nice people” should be allowed. Local school children and B’nai Brith membres stamped out the “restrictive clientele” notice on pre-existing literature and the resort allowed Jews to book, while still barring black clientele. In the late 1950s, Milton Pepper, Harry Pepper’s son, bought Ellinor Village. In 1960 Temple Beth-El celebrated their tenth anniversary at the resort, a far cry from their ban at the beginning of the decade.
In 1956 congregants decided to move Temple Israel across the water. Early Daytona Beach Jews had lived on the mainland, where their stores were located, but now they picked a new location on Peninsula Avenue, since many members—both pre-existing community members achieving higher levels of affluence, and new out-of-state arrivals—had moved closer to the beach. Temple Israel started using the Peninsula Avenue location in 1959. Daytona Beach was growing in the mid-20th century, and in 1962 the American Jewish Year Book listed the Jewish population of Daytona Beach at 950. Many of these new arrivals were tourists turned residents, while others arrived hoping to make a living in development or real estate.
Outside of Daytona Beach, the rest of Volusia County offered opportunity in development as well. In 1962 the Mackel Brothers opened the “planned residential community” of Deltona Lakes, constructing 26 homes on land that had been all “pinewoods and moonshine stills.” The new development was marketed heavily across the United States, as well as in Puerto Rico and Germany, and between 1965 and 2000 the population increased from 1,600 to approximately 69,000 residents. In 1971, Deltona Jewish community members established a Reform Congregation—Temple Israel. Today, the city is it the most populous in Volusia County, with a population of roughly 90,000.
The end of the 20th century saw a new type of “snowbird” in Volusia County, as an influx of Soviet Jewish refugees, fleeing religious persecution, entered the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the early 1980s, The Daytona Beach Jewish Federation decided to “adopt” a Soviet family, financing the move of the Shekhter family from Leningrad to “the sunny shores of Daytona Beach, instead of one of the more gloomy beaches of Brooklyn.” When they first arrived, Boris and Lydia Shekhter ran a tour package at the Voyager Hotel in Daytona Beach before leasing the Carousel Inn, beginning in approximately 1989. The Shekhters ran the Carousel Inn to feel more like “a guest house by the Black Sea” than a typical area hotel, attracting Soviet tourists from other parts of the country eager to speak their own language and dine of familiar foods, such borscht and Siberian dumplings.
As World War II ended, tourism in Daytona Beach increased, fueled in part by the founding of NASCAR in 1948. One of the most popular resorts of the time was Ellinor Village, which opened in 1949 in nearby Ormond Beach. Ellinor Village came under fire when they distributed advertisements claiming “restrictive clientele,” and staff told several Jewish families that they could not make reservations. After a successful writing campaign, conducted by Jews and non-Jews alike, Ellinor Village attempted to explain away their stance, claiming they meant only “nice people” should be allowed. Local school children and B’nai Brith membres stamped out the “restrictive clientele” notice on pre-existing literature and the resort allowed Jews to book, while still barring black clientele. In the late 1950s, Milton Pepper, Harry Pepper’s son, bought Ellinor Village. In 1960 Temple Beth-El celebrated their tenth anniversary at the resort, a far cry from their ban at the beginning of the decade.
In 1956 congregants decided to move Temple Israel across the water. Early Daytona Beach Jews had lived on the mainland, where their stores were located, but now they picked a new location on Peninsula Avenue, since many members—both pre-existing community members achieving higher levels of affluence, and new out-of-state arrivals—had moved closer to the beach. Temple Israel started using the Peninsula Avenue location in 1959. Daytona Beach was growing in the mid-20th century, and in 1962 the American Jewish Year Book listed the Jewish population of Daytona Beach at 950. Many of these new arrivals were tourists turned residents, while others arrived hoping to make a living in development or real estate.
Outside of Daytona Beach, the rest of Volusia County offered opportunity in development as well. In 1962 the Mackel Brothers opened the “planned residential community” of Deltona Lakes, constructing 26 homes on land that had been all “pinewoods and moonshine stills.” The new development was marketed heavily across the United States, as well as in Puerto Rico and Germany, and between 1965 and 2000 the population increased from 1,600 to approximately 69,000 residents. In 1971, Deltona Jewish community members established a Reform Congregation—Temple Israel. Today, the city is it the most populous in Volusia County, with a population of roughly 90,000.
The end of the 20th century saw a new type of “snowbird” in Volusia County, as an influx of Soviet Jewish refugees, fleeing religious persecution, entered the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the early 1980s, The Daytona Beach Jewish Federation decided to “adopt” a Soviet family, financing the move of the Shekhter family from Leningrad to “the sunny shores of Daytona Beach, instead of one of the more gloomy beaches of Brooklyn.” When they first arrived, Boris and Lydia Shekhter ran a tour package at the Voyager Hotel in Daytona Beach before leasing the Carousel Inn, beginning in approximately 1989. The Shekhters ran the Carousel Inn to feel more like “a guest house by the Black Sea” than a typical area hotel, attracting Soviet tourists from other parts of the country eager to speak their own language and dine of familiar foods, such borscht and Siberian dumplings.
Conclusion
While Daytona and Ormond Beach were once the only hubs of organized Jewish life in Volusia and Flagler counties, as of 2018, several other synagogues had developed in the area. DeLand and Deltona both formed congregations between 1950s and 1970s. As of 2018, Ormond Beach is also now the home for Congregation B’nai Torah, a Conservative congregation, and the Chabad of Greater Daytona Beach. In Palm Coast, forty-four miles from Daytona Beach in Flagler County, eighteen Jewish families started their own congregation in the early 1970s, naming it Temple Beth Shalom. Temple Beth Shalom moved into its current building in 1980 and established a Sisterhood in 1982, though there is evidence of a Jewish Men’s Club in the community as early as the 1950s.
As of 2015, Jews made up an estimated 0.6% of the general population in Volusia and Flagler Counties. Despite their small numbers, Jewish life has sustained in pockets across the region, with a total of eight synagogues between the two counties today, expanding beyond Daytona and Ormond Beach. There is even a kosher restaurant in Volusia County—Jerusalem Kosher Restaurant in Daytona Beach. This restaurant boasts a menu featuring Middle Eastern dishes, like falafel, with popular Ashkenazi and Eastern European Jews, such as rolled cabbage and kasha varnishkes. They even offer dishes more well-known amongst American Jews and Northern “snowbirds”—reuben sandwiches, whitefish salad, and bagels with lox.
As of 2015, Jews made up an estimated 0.6% of the general population in Volusia and Flagler Counties. Despite their small numbers, Jewish life has sustained in pockets across the region, with a total of eight synagogues between the two counties today, expanding beyond Daytona and Ormond Beach. There is even a kosher restaurant in Volusia County—Jerusalem Kosher Restaurant in Daytona Beach. This restaurant boasts a menu featuring Middle Eastern dishes, like falafel, with popular Ashkenazi and Eastern European Jews, such as rolled cabbage and kasha varnishkes. They even offer dishes more well-known amongst American Jews and Northern “snowbirds”—reuben sandwiches, whitefish salad, and bagels with lox.