It wasn’t always easy, but look what they created: a thriving Jewish community in the heart of South Florida.
Historians mark the beginning of Jewish life in Boca Raton to the 1920s, with an investment in a hotel by composer Irving Berlin. Jews began moving to the city, which blossomed into a vibrant population of thousands that today includes many denominations, synagogues, neighborhoods, restaurants and cultural institutions.
A new exhibition at Florida Atlantic University, “A Century of Jews in Boca Raton (1925-2025),” will explore this community that rapidly expanded and place it in the context of the state’s Jewish history, which scholars will explore during a symposium, free and open to the public, on Oct. 26-27.
The exhibition and symposium show how deeply held principles bound Florida’s Jewish community from the beginning and have kept it going through the decades.
“It’s part of the larger story of Jewish immigration to the United States and the narrative of immigration to Florida,” said Rachel Harris, director of FAU’s Program in Jewish Studies. “It’s about the values people held about what it meant to build a community.”
For the exhibition, Harris and Victoria Thur, associate university librarian, mined FAU’s archives to find an assortment of photographs, documents and artifacts that tell the story of a Jewish presence in Boca Raton that at first grew slowly and then exploded in the late 20th and early 21st century.
In the 1920s, Berlin, the composer, invested in The Cloister Inn, a 100-room hotel opened by famed architect Addison Mizner. A few years later, the first known Jewish residents of Boca Raton, Florence and Harry Brown, arrived from St. Louis, according to the Boca Raton Historical Society.
Harry Brown died in 1935; Florence Brown operated a store and later a diner called Brown’s on Federal Highway with her sons.
Harry Brown’s sister, Nettie, and her husband, Max Hutkin, joined the family in Boca Raton in 1936. Max Hutkin was a founder of Temple Beth El, which is now a large Reform synagogue on the east side of the city, and was deeply involved in civic organizations. Based on the FAU archives, he once said, “I stuck my finger into everything that needed it. That’s how I became Mr. Boca Raton. I made Boca Raton my hobby.” He died at 92 in 1987.
Restrictive and antisemitic real estate practices forced the community to remain small prior to World War II, the society found.
But by the 1960s, the population began expanding. In 1979, the Jewish population of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach was estimated at 37,000. By 2018, a survey showed about 134,000 Jewish residents.
A study has not been done since 2018 on south Palm Beach County’s Jewish population, but if Jewish day schools are an indicator, the community is showing tremendous signs of expansion. There are now a dozen Jewish day schools in the Boca Raton area, up from about four 10 years ago.
FAU is working closely with the blossoming Jewish population, “proactively ensuring that Florida Atlantic becomes the safest and most welcoming university for Jewish life in America,” its president, Adam Hasner, wrote recently in the Sun Sentinel.
The Boca Raton-based university is hiring instructors to expand its Jewish course offerings. It also has begun construction on the Kurt and Marilyn Wallach Holocaust and Jewish Studies Building, which will house a Holocaust museum, classrooms and a pavilion dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide.
Last year, Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach received $2.5 million — its largest-ever donation — to enlarge its building and increase programming not only at FAU but at Hillel’s other South Florida campuses: at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Lynn University in Boca Raton, Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth Beach and Broward College.
Hillel estimates 7% of FAU’s population, or about 1,750 students, is Jewish, ranking it No. 38 among its “Top 60 Public Universities by Jewish Population.”
The exhibition on Boca Raton’s Jewish history is opening with a symposium that will bring together scholars who will take a deep dive into Jewish history across the state. Among the seminars:
- “Winter Wonderland: Jewish Real Estate Developers in the Postwar South Florida Boom 1945-1970”
- “White on the Outside and Black Inside” — South Florida Jews and the Modern Civil Rights Movement
- “Disney World and Florida Jewish Experiences: A Very Short History”
- “Antisemitism in 1930s Florida”
These topics, although explored by academics, show a truth about everyday Jewish life in Florida, particularly in Boca Raton, said Susan Gillis, curator at the Boca Raton Historical Society, which helped with the exhibition.
“People get along pretty well,” Gillis said. “It’s a thing to be proud of.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “The Florida Jewish Experience” symposium
WHEN: 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, and 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27
WHERE: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute auditorium, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
EXTRA TIDBITS:
- Closing reception 6-9:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, at Schmidt Center Gallery
- Art exhibition, “A Century of Jews in Boca Raton (1925-2025),” on display at Schmidt gallery Oct. 27-Dec. 14
COST: Free for symposium and exhibition; $45 for closing reception
INFORMATION: fau.edu
