Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - St. Augustine, FL
Overview
In 1565 the Spanish empire, looking to expand its New World territories, founded St. Augustine, which soon became the capital of its La Florida colony. Although under Spanish rule, no person would have been allowed to practice Judaism within St. Augustine (as it was founded just 73 years after the Edict of Expulsion in Spain), Jews eventually prospered and created a home for themselves in the Old City of Florida. Some speculation exists that Conversos (forced converts) in fact were among the earliest settlers of St. Augustine, but it was not until the turn of the 20th century that there was a large enough group to form a congregation. By then, St. Augustine, which is located in St. John’s County in the northeast part of the Florida peninsula, had become a major tourist destination it is today. Jews continued to move to the city throughout the first half of the century, integrating themselves into the white community. As of the early 21st century, a small but stable community still exists, and many still fittingly worship in one of the state’s oldest synagogues in the United States’ oldest European city.
Early Jewish settlers
The exact beginning of Jewish life St. Augustine is still a matter of debate among Jewish researchers. While some locals believe that Jews came to the city with its Spanish founders in the 16th century, no hard evidence exists to confirm this. Whether or not Conversos or crypto-Jews (those converts or their descendants who covertly retained elements of Jewish practice or identity) were among the earliest European settlers, Jews do have a long history in the “Ancient City.” In the late 18th century, several Polish Jewish families lived in St. Augustine, all of whom operated stores on Charlotte Street. However, little is known about Jewish religious or social life in the days of Spanish-controlled Florida, likely because of laws prohibiting Jews from Spanish lands.
Jews began to populate the town in larger numbers in the wake of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which gave the U.S. control of the territory in 1819. In the 1820s, at least five Jews owned land in St. Augustine: planters George Levy and Isaac Hendricks, watchmaker Lewis Solomon, and grocery owner Levy Rodenberg. Jewish peddlers also came through the area, likely to sell to planters and restock supplies. Additionally, Moses Elias Levy bought huge amounts of property around Florida, including the current site of Fort Moosa Gardens, after emigrating from South Carolina in 1821. Although no organized congregation emerged until the end of the century, Levy was an “observant Jew” and a leader in the small St. Augustine Jewish community. He pushed to develop a Jewish theological seminary in Florida (an endeavor that never came to fruition) and the Pilgrimage Plantation in Micanopy, a utopian safe-haven for persecuted Eastern European Jews.
In the next few decades, Levy’s son, later known as David Levy Yulee, became an influential figure on the Florida political scene. Although he later moved away from St. Augustine, the younger Levy grew up, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in the coastal town. After Florida became a state in 1845, its citizens elected him as their first Senator, simultaneously making him first Jew to serve in the U.S. Senate. Most sources indicate, however, that he no longer practiced the religion by this time in his life.
Jews began to populate the town in larger numbers in the wake of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which gave the U.S. control of the territory in 1819. In the 1820s, at least five Jews owned land in St. Augustine: planters George Levy and Isaac Hendricks, watchmaker Lewis Solomon, and grocery owner Levy Rodenberg. Jewish peddlers also came through the area, likely to sell to planters and restock supplies. Additionally, Moses Elias Levy bought huge amounts of property around Florida, including the current site of Fort Moosa Gardens, after emigrating from South Carolina in 1821. Although no organized congregation emerged until the end of the century, Levy was an “observant Jew” and a leader in the small St. Augustine Jewish community. He pushed to develop a Jewish theological seminary in Florida (an endeavor that never came to fruition) and the Pilgrimage Plantation in Micanopy, a utopian safe-haven for persecuted Eastern European Jews.
In the next few decades, Levy’s son, later known as David Levy Yulee, became an influential figure on the Florida political scene. Although he later moved away from St. Augustine, the younger Levy grew up, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in the coastal town. After Florida became a state in 1845, its citizens elected him as their first Senator, simultaneously making him first Jew to serve in the U.S. Senate. Most sources indicate, however, that he no longer practiced the religion by this time in his life.
Organized Jewish Life
After the Civil War, St. Augustine saw an upswing in visitors, many enjoying its comfortable winter weather and storied history. The completion of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway in 1884 connected St. Augustine to North Florida’s largest city, Jacksonville. Tourism surged, and new luxury hotels began opening in the city by the end of the decade. Simultaneously, as Eastern European Jews immigrated to the country in massive numbers, many moved to the Old City to capitalize on this new market hotspot.
Despite more than 100 years of Jewish residence in the city, St. Augustine’s first organized congregation was not founded until 1898. Under the leadership of Jake Tarlinsky, a small group of Jews unofficially created the First Congregation Sons of Israel, which adhered to Orthodox customs. Despite their traditional Jewish beliefs, however, the early founders (almost all of whom were foreign born) prioritized adapting to American practices. For example, instead of calling themselves ‘B’nai’ Israel, they maintained that they be called the direct English translation, ‘Sons of’ Israel. Early members also changed their names to sound more American and gave their children American names. When St. Augustine native Loritta Kass asked her immigrant mother why she wasn’t given a traditional Eastern European name, her mother responded that she “came to America to be an American.”
Tarlinsky, who became the first president of Sons of Israel, faced a major challenge from the start: the congregation only had eight men, which was two short of the ten needed for a minyan. Besides Tarlinsky, other early members included shoemaker Isaac Eff, dry goods store owners W.A. Pinkoson and J.A. Lew, grocery store owner Nicola Gamsey, and Morris Friedman and D. Mellma. According to a later congregation leader, Tarlinsky received word in 1907 that two other Jewish men, S.A. Snyder (formerly Solomon Schneidermann) and Jacob Ross (formerly Jacob Chosodovich), were living 85 miles north of St. Augustine, working in an oyster factory in Fernandina. He wrote to the men, requesting that they move to St. Augustine and offering them jobs. The men, along with Snyder’s wife Sara and their children, accepted the invitation and joined the Jewish community in the Old City. The congregation received its official charter the next year.
Despite more than 100 years of Jewish residence in the city, St. Augustine’s first organized congregation was not founded until 1898. Under the leadership of Jake Tarlinsky, a small group of Jews unofficially created the First Congregation Sons of Israel, which adhered to Orthodox customs. Despite their traditional Jewish beliefs, however, the early founders (almost all of whom were foreign born) prioritized adapting to American practices. For example, instead of calling themselves ‘B’nai’ Israel, they maintained that they be called the direct English translation, ‘Sons of’ Israel. Early members also changed their names to sound more American and gave their children American names. When St. Augustine native Loritta Kass asked her immigrant mother why she wasn’t given a traditional Eastern European name, her mother responded that she “came to America to be an American.”
Tarlinsky, who became the first president of Sons of Israel, faced a major challenge from the start: the congregation only had eight men, which was two short of the ten needed for a minyan. Besides Tarlinsky, other early members included shoemaker Isaac Eff, dry goods store owners W.A. Pinkoson and J.A. Lew, grocery store owner Nicola Gamsey, and Morris Friedman and D. Mellma. According to a later congregation leader, Tarlinsky received word in 1907 that two other Jewish men, S.A. Snyder (formerly Solomon Schneidermann) and Jacob Ross (formerly Jacob Chosodovich), were living 85 miles north of St. Augustine, working in an oyster factory in Fernandina. He wrote to the men, requesting that they move to St. Augustine and offering them jobs. The men, along with Snyder’s wife Sara and their children, accepted the invitation and joined the Jewish community in the Old City. The congregation received its official charter the next year.
Jewish Growth and a New Synagogue
St. Augustine’s population swelled over the first two decades of the 20th century, as many northerners became excited by Florida’s cheap land and tropical weather. By 1920, the city had reached a population of nearly 6,200 people, almost triple the number of residents in 1880. Likewise, the Jewish community grew to around 54 people, and many of its members were well integrated into the broader St. Augustine community. In a 1988 oral history interview, Loritta Snyder Kass remembered that, during this time, “all the grocery stores in St. Augustine except for the A&P and Piggly Wiggly were owned by Jews, so when the Jewish holidays came everything was closed.” Other Jews moved out of the traditional grocery business. A.S. “Abe” Weinstein, who moved to the city in 1916, opened a produce store before becoming a successful and far-reaching businessman. Over the next five decades, Weinstein became the owner of more than twenty of Florida’s largest hotels and restaurants.
Saul A. Snyder, St. Augustine rancher, late 1940s. State Archives of Florida.
Another notable newcomer, S.A. Snyder, became involved in the cattle ranching industry. His family had raised cattle in Russia, and he quickly familiarized himself with the business in Florida. He opened his own ranch shortly after moving to St. Augustine and, according to his daughter, “wound up owning half of St. John’s county for pasture land.” He also later helped found the Cattlemen’s Association of Florida and made newspaper headlines for his ranches. Snyder’s wife, Sarah, was president of the Daughters of Israel in St. Augustine for more than 17 years.
To accommodate the number of new arrivals, the First Congregation Sons of Israel needed its own worship space. Since its founding, the congregation had met and conducted lay-led services in a member’s house on the corner of Bridge and Washington Streets. By the early 1920s and still under the leadership of Jake Tarlinsky, the group decided to raise money for a temple. In 1923, Sons of Israel built a synagogue on Cordova Street, which one reporter described as “a lovely building, with a rococo sculptured stone facade” and another as “a simple, white two-story building…[with a] 155-seat sanctuary.” Since the group adhered to Orthodox customs, women sat in the balcony and men sat on the ground level. Also attached to the building was a mikvah, as well as facilities for Sunday school classes and social functions. Around the same time the synagogue was dedicated, the congregation purchased land for a Jewish cemetery. The group chose an area west of the city where a Hebrew-engraved tombstone already marked the site where American Indians had killed two Jewish peddlers in the 1840s. Although for the first years the Sons of Israel had no rabbi, this changed in 1925 during the height of the real estate boom, when the congregation hired Arthur Ginzler as their first ordained leader.
Despite the bursting of Florida’s real estate market in the mid-1920s, St. Augustine’s population grew over the next few decades, and so did the congregation. The 1930 census shows St. Augustine’s population practically doubling from ten years earlier, and the Jewish community grew to nearly 90 families. The group remained close knit, however, with one member recalling later that “everybody knew everybody.” When the U.S. entered World War II, 41 members of First Congregation Sons of Israel served in the armed forces. Several Holocaust refugees, including Anne Martin and Ruth Feldheim, were able to flee Europe and start a new life in St. Augustine.
After the war, Jews involved themselves in political life. Nathan (Sonny) Weinstein, an attorney and past president of the St. Johns County Bar Association, won election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1954, a position he held for eight years. Other Jews served on the city commission and one served as a tax assessor.
By this time, the Sons of Israel had already chosen to leave the Orthodox Union and join the Conservative movement. Men and women sat together and women participated more fully in prayer services. The mikvah was floored over, and the congregation redesigned the area to become the synagogue’s lounge. Additionally, in 1957 members Sarah Bernstein, Florence Felden, and Lena Lichter rescued stained glass windows from a synagogue in Atlanta that was being torn down and donated them to the synagogue.
To accommodate the number of new arrivals, the First Congregation Sons of Israel needed its own worship space. Since its founding, the congregation had met and conducted lay-led services in a member’s house on the corner of Bridge and Washington Streets. By the early 1920s and still under the leadership of Jake Tarlinsky, the group decided to raise money for a temple. In 1923, Sons of Israel built a synagogue on Cordova Street, which one reporter described as “a lovely building, with a rococo sculptured stone facade” and another as “a simple, white two-story building…[with a] 155-seat sanctuary.” Since the group adhered to Orthodox customs, women sat in the balcony and men sat on the ground level. Also attached to the building was a mikvah, as well as facilities for Sunday school classes and social functions. Around the same time the synagogue was dedicated, the congregation purchased land for a Jewish cemetery. The group chose an area west of the city where a Hebrew-engraved tombstone already marked the site where American Indians had killed two Jewish peddlers in the 1840s. Although for the first years the Sons of Israel had no rabbi, this changed in 1925 during the height of the real estate boom, when the congregation hired Arthur Ginzler as their first ordained leader.
Despite the bursting of Florida’s real estate market in the mid-1920s, St. Augustine’s population grew over the next few decades, and so did the congregation. The 1930 census shows St. Augustine’s population practically doubling from ten years earlier, and the Jewish community grew to nearly 90 families. The group remained close knit, however, with one member recalling later that “everybody knew everybody.” When the U.S. entered World War II, 41 members of First Congregation Sons of Israel served in the armed forces. Several Holocaust refugees, including Anne Martin and Ruth Feldheim, were able to flee Europe and start a new life in St. Augustine.
After the war, Jews involved themselves in political life. Nathan (Sonny) Weinstein, an attorney and past president of the St. Johns County Bar Association, won election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1954, a position he held for eight years. Other Jews served on the city commission and one served as a tax assessor.
By this time, the Sons of Israel had already chosen to leave the Orthodox Union and join the Conservative movement. Men and women sat together and women participated more fully in prayer services. The mikvah was floored over, and the congregation redesigned the area to become the synagogue’s lounge. Additionally, in 1957 members Sarah Bernstein, Florence Felden, and Lena Lichter rescued stained glass windows from a synagogue in Atlanta that was being torn down and donated them to the synagogue.
Civil Rights and the St. Augustine movement
The early 1960s brought major change to St. Augustine. The city had hit its peak population of over 14,700 residents, 245 of whom were Jews. In 1962, eight years after the Supreme Court declared educational segregation illegal in its landmark case Brown v Board of Education, all of St. Augustine’s schools were still segregated. Two years later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brought specific attention to the Florida city and, in particular, to the strong Ku Klux Klan presence there in a letter he wrote while sitting in a St. Augustine jail cell. Dr. King sent the letter to his New Jersey-based friend Rabbi Israel Dresner, requesting that Dresner organize a rabbinical group to join the protests. In response, Dresner assembled a group of seventeen rabbis to travel to St. Augustine to lead an interracial prayer group and protest on June 18, 1964. The event, which took place outside of the Monson Motor Lodge, led to the largest mass arrest of rabbis to date. As the police handcuffed the rabbis, other protesters jumped in the hotel’s pool. The hotel owner then poured muriatic acid into the water, an action that was captured in one of the most famous photographs from the Civil Rights Movement. The police dragged the protesters out of the pool, then beat and arrested them.
After their arrests, which Dr. King called “raw police brutality” and the Tampa Bay Times described as “a wild melee,” the jailed rabbis wrote “Why We Went: A Joint Letter from the Rabbis Arrested in St. Augustine.” In part, they explain that
After their arrests, which Dr. King called “raw police brutality” and the Tampa Bay Times described as “a wild melee,” the jailed rabbis wrote “Why We Went: A Joint Letter from the Rabbis Arrested in St. Augustine.” In part, they explain that
We came because we realized that injustice in St. Augustine, as anywhere else, diminished the humanity of each of us. If St. Augustine is to be not only an ancient city but also a great-hearted city, it will not happen until the raw hate, the ignorant prejudices, the unrecognized fears which now grip so many of its citizens are exorcised from its soul. We came then, not as tourists, but as ones who, perhaps quixotically, thought we could add a bit to the healing process of America.
The arrests and subsequent letter set off a wave of protests across the country. The Jewish community in St. Augustine, however, responded harshly and strongly against the northern rabbis. According to historian Clive Webb, the synagogue president himself went to the jail that night and threatened the rabbis with his power as “a former state legislator and a prominent lawyer in town,” telling the “so-called rabbis to shut up.” As of 2018, the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society—whose primary purpose is to research the possibility of Jewish presence in St. Augustine during 16th century Spanish colonization—holds an annual commemorative event for the mass arrest and the rabbis’ role in efforts to desegregate the city.
Late 20th Century Jewish Community
As in previous decades, the number of Jewish residents in St. Augustine mirrored that of the general population, and both numbers began to fall in the 1970s as people likely began to move to larger urban centers. Still, the Jewish community remained active; in 1988 it was comprised of 62 families, and new leaders emerged during this era of decline. Most notably, Jerry Kass, who moved to St. Augustine in 1933 to join his father in the family grocery business, became the point person and go-to-guy for Jewish residents and visitors alike. In addition to serving as president of First Congregation Sons of Israel for multiple terms, he also led services when the congregation was between rabbis. Even after they hired a spiritual leader, he remained gabbai and gave tours of the synagogue for visitors. Additionally, whenever a local Jewish inmate at jail wanted to consult a Jewish leader, Kass acted as the chaplain for the synagogue. Outside of the Jewish sphere, Kass announced the St. Augustine High School football games (until his son took over the job) and served on various municipal government boards. The city honored him with a lifetime service achievement award in 1998. Kass’ wife, Loritta, was the daughter of early congregation member and cattle rancher S.A. Snyder.
The Jewish Community in St. Augustine Today
While for nearly a century just one Jewish congregation existed in St. Augustine, this changed in the 1990s. In 1993, a few Jewish families wanted to find a Reform congregation to join, but none existed in the area around the city. The group decided to form their own, and Congregation Bet Yam (“Temple by the Sea”) was chartered as an affiliate of the Reform movement later that year by fourteen families. In early 1994 it opened its doors in a converted Unitarian Fellowship Hall on Anastasia Island. To celebrate the synagogue’s first Torah, the congregants arranged for a police escort for the scroll as it was paraded through St. Augustine in a horse drawn carriage. Rabbi Mark Goldman led Congregation Bet Yam as its first permanent ordained leader, serving in the role from 2004 to 2013. Under his leadership, the congregation built its own synagogue on Wildwood Drive.
In the 21st century, Congregation Bet Yam dramatically grew its membership from its fourteen founding families; as of 2018 it is comprised of 110 family members from St. Augustine and surrounding communities. Similarly, First Congregation Sons of Israel was back up to 100 families by 2001 and, according to Jerry Kass, was “getting new people all the time.” Additionally, the Chabad of S. Augustine now operates on South Tree Garden Drive. Public markers of the historic Jewish life still exist: for example, a Lew Boulevard runs in the city, named for Jacob Lew, an early Jewish philanthropist and shop owner. But no better sign of a historic Jewish community exists than the Sons of Israel synagogue. The building is currently the oldest synagogue in continuous use in all of Florida.
As of 2023, institutions like the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society, as well as its active Reform, Conservative, and Chabad congregations allow Jewish life to flourish in a city that claims more than 450 years of colonial and United States history.
In the 21st century, Congregation Bet Yam dramatically grew its membership from its fourteen founding families; as of 2018 it is comprised of 110 family members from St. Augustine and surrounding communities. Similarly, First Congregation Sons of Israel was back up to 100 families by 2001 and, according to Jerry Kass, was “getting new people all the time.” Additionally, the Chabad of S. Augustine now operates on South Tree Garden Drive. Public markers of the historic Jewish life still exist: for example, a Lew Boulevard runs in the city, named for Jacob Lew, an early Jewish philanthropist and shop owner. But no better sign of a historic Jewish community exists than the Sons of Israel synagogue. The building is currently the oldest synagogue in continuous use in all of Florida.
As of 2023, institutions like the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society, as well as its active Reform, Conservative, and Chabad congregations allow Jewish life to flourish in a city that claims more than 450 years of colonial and United States history.
Selected Bibliography
Leon Huhner, “David L. Yulee, Florida’s first Senator,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society No. 25 (1917), 29.
Speech by Jerome G. Kass at the National Council of Christians and Jews, Congregation Sons of Israel, St. Augustine, FL, April 28, 1988. Jewish Museum of Florida, St. Augustine Files.
David Bittner, “St. Augustine’s Jewish roots,” Jewish World, June 3-9, 1988.
Oral History with Loritta Snyder Kass, July 27, 1988, Jewish Museum of Florida, St. Augustine Files
“History,” First Congregation Sons of Israel website.
Ruth Rovner, “St Augustine – proud to be America’s oldest city” The Palm Beach Jewish News, March 20, 2001
Clive Webb, Fight against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2001)
“16 Rabbis Arrested as Pool Dive-in Sets Off St. Augustine Rights Clash,” The New York Times, June 19, 1964.
“History,” Temple Bet Yam website.
Leon Huhner, “David L. Yulee, Florida’s first Senator,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society No. 25 (1917), 29.
Speech by Jerome G. Kass at the National Council of Christians and Jews, Congregation Sons of Israel, St. Augustine, FL, April 28, 1988. Jewish Museum of Florida, St. Augustine Files.
David Bittner, “St. Augustine’s Jewish roots,” Jewish World, June 3-9, 1988.
Oral History with Loritta Snyder Kass, July 27, 1988, Jewish Museum of Florida, St. Augustine Files
“History,” First Congregation Sons of Israel website.
Ruth Rovner, “St Augustine – proud to be America’s oldest city” The Palm Beach Jewish News, March 20, 2001
Clive Webb, Fight against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2001)
“16 Rabbis Arrested as Pool Dive-in Sets Off St. Augustine Rights Clash,” The New York Times, June 19, 1964.
“History,” Temple Bet Yam website.