The History of The Jewish community & Temple Beth El of Boca Raton Florida 1931 to 2011

When Myra and I settled in Boca Raton in 1978, we found a small but devoted Jewish Community that had first started putting down roots in Florida in the 1930s.

As the new spiritual leader of Temple Beth El, I was curious to learn more about the history of the Jewish community here, and spent time seeking out those who were among the first to settle here to hear their stories. I wanted to know how Temple Beth El started and how it came to fit in to the larger community of our growing city.

Here then, in this film produced in 2011, you will learn what Jewish life looked like in Palm Beach County in the early days of Jewish pioneers making their way to Florida, along with how Temple Beth El has evolved as it grew to become one of the largest reform Judaism synagogues in South Florida.