Jacksonville Jewish Center: A Community Hub That Survived a 1958 Bombing

In 1958, a bomb blew in the doors of the Jacksonville Jewish Center in Florida and left a crater at its main entrance; a local Black school was bombed at the same time. The congregation had supported the end of segregation and racial discrimination in the South, and it kept doing so through the 1960s. The community center it had built in 1950 — listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2021 — tells the story of a Jewish community that grew fast after World War II and made a home for itself in Springfield.

From five families to a building boom

Jewish Community Centers grew up across the United States in the early twentieth century as the heart of local social, educational and religious life. Jacksonville's followed the vision of New York Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and his model West Side Jewish Center in Manhattan.

Between them, the two buildings held 19 classrooms, a chapel, library, social hall, school, playground, auditorium-gymnasium, banquet facility, bridal lounge, meeting rooms and offices.

A melting pot

In many northern cities, synagogues formed around a country or even a village of origin. Jacksonville's Jews came from families that had arrived at different times from many parts of Europe, South America and the Middle East; by 1954, members came from 38 states and 27 countries. The center became their home away from home, where religion, art, music, literature and the rest of Jewish culture were nurtured and shared — described at the time as "one of the busiest social centers in the city and the pride of the Jewish community of Jacksonville."

School, gym and stage

Unlike many religious schools in Duval County, the center taught religion and culture, not math, science or social studies. It ran a daily nursery-kindergarten, and in summer a Hebrew school and day camp with Hebrew studies, athletics, arts and crafts and field trips. Its buildings also hosted health education, wedding receptions, plays, concerts, readings, debates and meetings of every kind, and the gym held basketball and volleyball.

The Sunday School, from age 6 to confirmation at 16, broke with Orthodox tradition by teaching girls alongside boys, and girls could have Bat Mitzvah ceremonies — the first Bat Mitzvah program offered by any congregation in Jacksonville. Church groups and public school classes visited to learn about Jewish practice and culture, and the center hosted interfaith meetings with local Protestant and Catholic congregations.

Under attack, and after

Besides the 1958 bombing, youths from the neighborhood painted swastikas on the center in 1960. The community stayed committed to civil rights and to desegregating public schools and accommodations.

The center later moved elsewhere in Jacksonville, largely because most of its members had moved to the Southside. The U.S. Department of Labor bought the property and in 1979 opened the Jacksonville Job Corps Center there, which operated for 26 years before moving in 2005. The original synagogue is gone; a private developer has since bought the campus to convert into apartments.

Sources

Based on "Jacksonville Jewish Center," National Park Service, part of the series National Register and National Historic Landmarks Celebrate Jewish Heritage Month; a work of the United States government in the public domain.