Jewish Museum of Florida exhibits ' Bonim' ~ Builders of Florida

Tuesday, 13 February 2007 00:24

Miami Beach, FL - From swampland to cities, the “Bonim” exhibit highlights the enormous impact of Florida’s Jews on one of our State’s leading industries – development. Since the 1820s Jews have played a major role in transforming the South’s least populated state into one of the nation’s largest.  “Bonim,” a Hebrew word meaning builders, tells the story of Jewish participation in the development of Florida.  There are roughly 120 companies or individuals whose stories are portrayed through biographical profiles and approximately 600 visuals with descriptive captions of their projects.  The developers, builders and those in allied professions, however, represent a small fraction of the number of Jews who have helped shape our state. Nonetheless, they are role models and leaders in their communities, hence the exhibit’s vision, Jewish Developers Building Florida and Building Community.

The “Bonim” journey begins in 1820 when Moses Levy, one of Florida’s earliest developers, began purchasing 100,000 acres in north-central Florida. Since then, Jews have been involved in every aspect of the development of Florida.  As “risk-takers” with various enterprises, they purchased land for development, built residential, office and retail communities, designed buildings as well as subdivisions and cities, provided the financing for development, sold building materials and argued before zoning boards and city and county commissions on behalf of development.  The roles of Floridian Jews have made an indelible imprint on our community’s future and have helped transform Florida from the South’s least populous state one hundred years ago to the powerhouse that it is today.