My second journalism job took me to South Florida, a part of the country I didn’t know at all, to work as a general assignment reporter for a small daily based in the beach city of Hollywood. We covered news in South Broward County.
I was the only reporter there interested in developing a religion beat, so it didn’t take me long to figure out the two major religious groups in town were Catholics and Jews. There were some large Protestant congregations in the area as well, but they didn’t have the same influence as the Catholic and Jewish communities.
When it came to covering Jewish life, I learned my readership was an astute one that wanted pieces on complex issues and not just some fluff pieces on Rosh Hashanah. Folks wanted to know about the new eruv being constructed in one of Hollywood’s tonier neighborhoods; they were curious as to which synagogue had the best hamantaschen for sale during Purim; what that Messianic congregation in Fort Lauderdale was all about and how much of the funds raised for the local Jewish Community Center were really going towards it.
Halfway through my sojourn in Florida, I moved from Davie, a town in central Broward, to North Miami Beach in Dade County, which is how I became aware of the tremendous concentration of Jews living in condos lining the beach. One of those condo communities was in Surfside, the site of the ill-fated building collapse last week.
As this piece in the Washington Post points out, there are a ton of Jews living in similar spots all up and down the beach reaching up to the Broward County line. There are several articles out there on the number of Jews affected by the collapse, but this one stands out for its details on the religious angle of the disaster.
SURFSIDE — Jewish congregations in the Miami area have a growing mi sheberach, a list of Hebrew names included in a public prayer for those in need of divine good, especially those requiring healing. The number of Jewish missing or dead in last week’s building collapse at 8777 Collins Ave. has crept to nearly 50, almost a third of the total number.
The disaster has rocked Surfside’s Jewish community, a cohesive and interconnected group mirrored in just a few places in the United States. … Casualties have been disproportionately Jewish because about a third of Surfside residents are Jewish.
The bulk of the dead were Orthodox Jews. This raises issues that really need to be explained, if readers are going to understand the tight-knit nature of this community.
Thus, this article goes on to detail how intricately structured Surfside is to the needs of Orthodox who need stores, schools and a synagogue within walking distance because of biblical and Sabbath restrictions.
The oceanside community is home to more than 10 kosher restaurants, six synagogues and a kosher grocery store all within a few walkable blocks. Its community center, a beachfront facility with a water park, has kosher food service.
The walkability is crucial for religious Jews, who abstain from work and technology from sundown Friday to after dark on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest called Shabbat. They avoid activities including handling money, preparing food, using electrical switches and driving.
Surfside is built to accommodate those practices, with restaurants serving Shabbat meals prepared and paid for in advance. Multiple buildings are equipped with elevators that operate automatically, allowing for their use without electrical switches.
These are the details that make the story sing. At least one of the reporters for this story either had major contacts in this community or has relatives living there, as a reporter wouldn’t know about these details otherwise.
And for Orthodox Jews who want to leave their homes on the Sabbath, there is something called an Eruv, a ring of string that demarcates a neighborhood and represents a symbolic extension of the home. The Eruv in Bal Harbour includes a walking path in Surfside where Orthodox Jews can carry things on the Sabbath.
Like I say, one doesn’t write that many stories about an eruv unless you’ve got a readership that cares about biblical law and convenience. (I am not sure why they capitalized “eruv,” however).
The story goes on with a ton of details about all the Jewish organizations that have stepped in to help the suddenly homeless residents of these buildings. Even the Israeli consulate showed up to help pay for medications for people who had to abandon all their belongings in one of the doomed buildings.
Quite a few publications picked up the religious angle, ie the Miami Herald, because the Jewish population in that area is so well known. Religion News Service ran this. There were churches also involved in the rescue effort, according to Christianity Today but the bulk of those affected appeared to be Orthodox Jews.
The Times of Israel is running names and small profiles of each of the Jewish dead here.
From my experience living in the area, many of these folks were once New Yorkers who relocated to Florida because of the weather, lower taxes and less expensive cost of living. New York has the country’s largest Jewish community, so it’d make sense that many would want to flee to Florida, where a huge network of supportive Jewish institutions already exists. I lived in the area 35-38 years ago and that network was firmly in place even then.
So many stories ignore the religious angles of a disaster — but in this case, it was impossible to ignore. Fortunately, most media didn’t miss those crucial details.
FIRST IMAGE: Memorial rite for those lost in Surfside condo collapse. From the Twitter feed of Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid.