Exhibit Credits

Task Force Chair: Roz Ettinger Fuchs
Exhibition Curator: Marcia Jo Zerivitz, LHD
Collections Database and Photo Editor: Lisa Schwartz
Script Editors: Rachel Heimovics Braun and Sara Stern
Archival Preservation: Richard Schwartz

In August of 2014, Sara Stern assembled a Centennial Steering Committee for Congregation Ohev Shalom to begin planning its 2017-2018 celebration. The suggestion of an exhibition intrigued the group and they decided to expand the concept and make this a community project highlighting the Jewish history of Greater Orlando. Irwin Feldman and I approached the Orange County Regional History Center (OCRHC) about hosting such an exhibition and were met with enthusiasm by their leadership.

This must have been a project waiting to happen, because so many people were eager to participate. Marcia Jo Zerivitz, a former leader in the Orlando Jewish community and founding executive director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU (JMOF-FIU) heard about what we were attempting and volunteered to serve as our guest curator. A creative committee began working on a name for the exhibit and the themes we should include. Sara Stern, Ina Porth and I assembled a talented group of volunteer theme chairs. With Lisa Schwartz handling IT, Rachel Heimovics Braun as editor and Richard Schwartz helping to archive photos, we began to work in earnest.

The task was challenging and beyond anything most of us had ever done. Our theme chairs recruited volunteers to work with them and generous donors gave us the financial support we needed to fund our portion of the project. In no time at all, Marcia was conducting workshops and teaching all of the volunteers on our task force how to go about the sacred work of preserving our community’s history.

We put the word out in the community that we were looking for photos, artifacts and information that could be included in the exhibit or saved as archives. Our task force became history detectives, finding great stories to tell. Additional volunteers joined our effort and conducted oral histories. JMOF-FIU gave us a great head start with access to their Orlando inventory of photos and information, and the OCRHC were wonderful partners, designing and fabricating the exhibition, suggesting ways to improve it and committing to host it for 100 days.

For me, one of the most meaningful aspects of this effort involved being reintroduced to people I had known as a child. People who are no longer living, whom I never really knew as an adult, and now had the opportunity to meet again and learn about their accomplishments and contributions to our community from a mature perspective. I hope those reading this catalog will feel that same admiration as I have for the individuals and families they will meet on these pages.

“Remember,” a word often found in Jewish liturgy, is what Kehillah: A History of Jewish Life in Greater Orlando is all about. Through this project, our task force volunteers have preserved the gift and mitzvah of memory for our community, helping to tell our unique story of Jewish contributions to the greater community. My deepest thanks to everyone for their participation, collaboration and “can do” attitude. Together we have accomplished something truly special. We have preserved our history, our heritage and our humble origins so that future generations can benefit from the strength of our deep roots in Central Florida.

Roz Ettinger Fuchs, Kehillah Task Force Chair

Jews have lived in Orlando since before it was a city and contributed to the development of Central Florida in every area. This is their story. Every American is an immigrant or has an immigrant ancestor. This story is an example of the acculturation process of each immigrant group who came to America, then to Orlando, to start a better quality of life for their families, in freedom with economic opportunities.

When I was approached in May 2015 to curate the Kehillah exhibition to commemorate the centennial of Congregation Ohev Shalom, I was honored and enthusiastic to continue my passion of documenting Florida Jewish history. For me, this is all about roots and memory. Like cut flowers, Jews wither without their roots. Our collective memories are our roots.

Why is this important? I first learned about the role of memory from Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg who led our Orlando Jewish Federation Young Leadership retreats in the 1970s in the Ocala woods. He taught us “if our memories are Jewish, we will be Jewish.”

It was then that I realized that the Orlando Jewish community had a huge challenge—indeed all of the Jewish communities in Florida—nearly one million Jews— shared this challenge since we had no historic memory. Who were the pioneers? Why did they come? What did they do to make a living for their families? How did Floridian Jews contribute to the development of their communities?

During the MOSAIC traveling exhibit project (that evolved into the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU), I traveled 250,000 miles around Florida (1984-1992) to collect material evidence of Jewish life in Florida since Jews were allowed to settle in 1763. During that process, I collected 1,200 items in Orlando. Much has happened in the Orlando community since that time.

For this exhibition, the chair is the indefatigable Roz Ettinger Fuchs, with a drive to match my own! She led her task force of 60 people to get out into the community and find “stuff” to tell the continuing story of Jewish life in Greater Orlando. About 25 percent of the exhibition contents are from MOSAIC and the rest is “newly discovered.”

And what a job Roz and her task force accomplished! Thank you for all your research to document the collective historic memory of the community. Your work has resulted in nearly 65,000 words— telling the story of the Jewish history of Greater Orlando with 525 photographs, artifacts and documents.

And who benefits from this compelling story? The future generations of Jews will have these documented memories as their roots. This strengthens pride and Jewish identity and helps ensure the continuity of Jewish life in Greater Orlando.

Enjoy the stories and pass them on…

Marcia Jo Zerivitz, LHD
Founding Executive Director, Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU