Jewish heritage lives on in Seminole Co.

Special to the Herald

April 14th marked the 89th anniversary of the dedication ceremony for Congregation Beth Israel’s former community center on 16th Street and Magnolia Avenue. Paid for in large part by A. H. Moses, whose famous clock stands refurbished on 1st Street, the center was at the time lauded as a “progressive step” for a community rich in “civic spirit” according to the Sanford Herald article published the next day.
It provided a venue for worshippers outside of Charles Kanner’s house, where the congregation had been meeting for the past several months. Though the center closed its doors in 1967 and has since taken on new tenants, the building is one of many still-extant reminders of Jewish building-blocks scattered throughout Seminole County communities today. Congregation Beth Israel still practices its faith at a new location on Maple Avenue in Sanford.
The Jewish community in Sanford has thrived since the 1880s, when the Cohens, Myersons, Goldsteins, and others came south from Jacksonville after emigrating from Germany and Romania. Though the Mellonville fire of 1887 drove many of these first settlers away, a few hardy ones remained to draw other members of their faith into the area. Charles Kanner arrived in 1892 from “Rumania,” and soon transplanted other members of his family to join him.
When the great freeze of 1894 ruined citrus crops around the state, he moved to Miami to start a general store, only to return in 1896 to start again after his new home down there went up in flames. The next generation built on his accomplishments: his son Abram Otto became a Florida Senator and Judge, his daughter Ruth a beloved schoolteacher. Descendant Aaron Kanner later co-founded the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity at the University of Florida.
The Kanners and other members of the Jewish community in Sanford have become irreplaceable threads in the fabric of Seminole County. As May is National Jewish Heritage Month in the United States, the Museum of Seminole County History has taken this opportunity to highlight stories from the Kanner, Moses, Dingfelder, and other Seminole County families in a special exhibit located in its front parlor. This display runs through May 28.
The Museum is located at 300 Bush Blvd, Sanford FL, and admission to the museum is $3 for adults, $1 for children, plus tax. The Museum of Seminole County History would like to extend special acknowledgements to Alicia Clarke and the Sanford Museum, Christine Kinlaw-Best, Heritage Florida Jewish News, and the Holocaust Memorial Research and Education Center for their contributions to this exhibit.