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Author tells history of Pinellas' Jews

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published April 11, 2007

"And thou shalt tell thy child," says the commandment requiring Jews to retell the Passover story - with its themes of freedom, redemption and hope - from generation to generation.

This retelling of the Exodus story is central to Jewish tradition and a cornerstone of the annual Passover seder, when families around the world gather for special foods and observances.

Belleair Beach resident Herman Koren, 73, is helping to preserve Jewish heritage on a less global scale.

His 728-page Histories of the Jewish People of Pinellas County, Florida - 1883-2005, which comes out in May, chronicles the community's development, from its earliest beginnings.

It took the Indiana transplant six years and 9,000 hours to write the book. He interviewed people throughout the county and country and scoured libraries and other institutions for historical documents.

"I had no idea what I was getting myself into," said Koren, a professor emeritus of Indiana State University at Terre Haute and author of academic books. "I hardly knew anybody within the community."

He proposed the book six years ago to leaders at Temple B'nai Israel in Clearwater. Rabbi Arthur Baseman and the temple's executive board readily agreed to publish the book that is being financed with donations from people throughout Pinellas County.

"It sounded like a wonderful project to support," said Baseman, likening past generations to lamplighters.

"We have trailblazers that have given us a path to follow. I think we can't know where we're going unless we know where we've been," said Baseman, whose Reform congregation was incorporated in 1949.

Koren's project, said Rabbi Jacob Luski of Congregation B'nai Israel in St. Petersburg, is "a wonderful legacy for the future."

One of his most exciting discoveries, Koren said, was learning about the county's first Jewish resident, Edward A. Blum, who opened the first post office in Tarpon Springs in 1883.

He also learned a lot from Reva Kent. She and her late husband, Marshal - it's their name on the Golda Meir/Kent Jewish Center in Clearwater - arrived from Chicago in 1956.

"We were Jewish family No. 35 in Clearwater," said Kent, 80, whose husband developed the Green Briar subdivision.

Her family encountered little anti-Semitism, she said, but she does remember a large Ku Klux Klan billboard on Alt. U.S. 19.

After the openings of Honeywell and General Electric, more Jewish people moved to the area, she said.

"By the early '70s, we were able to build a big temple over by Belcher," said Kent, a longtime member of Temple B'nai Israel.

In St. Petersburg, Bunnie Rothblatt Katz's parents arrived in the area in 1924, following her grandfather and uncle from Chicago.

Katz, 79, said her family helped to start Congregation B'nai Israel, the first Jewish religious community in St. Petersburg. Koren writes that her uncle, Hyman Jacobs, was the first permanent president of the congregation and the first Jewish member of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce.

In 2000, when the congregation moved to new and larger quarters just before Passover, Katz and her husband, Abe, had an honored place in the procession to the new building.

While he turned to longtime county residents like Kent and Katz for help, Koren also sought assistance from former colleagues at Indiana State.

Sister Alma Mary Anderson, professor of graphic design, and Paul Hightower, professor of communications, spent a week in Pinellas County scanning historical photographs and taking pictures for the book. Like Koren, they volunteered their time.

A portion of the material Koren used in his research has been donated to Heritage Village, Pinellas County's 21-acre living history museum, in Largo.

"It was a very important acquisition for us," said Jan Luth, director of Heritage Village. "The research materials will be kept in our archives as a special collection, so that future researchers can have access to the notes and information that were behind the creation of the book."

Now that the project is nearing completion, Koren is looking ahead. He hopes a future generation will take up the job of writing the next phase in Jewish history.

"Jewish life is an ongoing story," he said.

Fast Facts:

About the professor's book

-Edward A. Blum was Pinellas County's first Jewish resident. He also was the first postmaster of Tarpon Springs. His signature appears in the minutes of a Feb. 12, 1887, meeting that led to the chartering of the town.

-The book, Histories of the Jewish People of Pinellas County, Florida - 1883-2005, will be available in May. The cost is $50 plus postage. Contact Temple B'nai Israel, 1685 S Belcher Road, Clearwater, FL 33764. Call 727 531-5829.

-Some of Herman Koren's research materials are available for viewing at Heritage Village, Pinellas County's 21-acre living history museum, in Largo.

[Last modified April 10, 2007, 21:00:08]