A Special Moment in Time: Ida and Isidor Cohen Part III

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By Seth H. Bramson

As noted in the previous discussion(s) Isidor Cohen arrived on the shores of Biscayne Bay on February 6, 1896, having availed himself of the train service then operating into Jupiter in what was then still Dade County and would be until 1909, when Palm Beach County was created. However, it was there that he was held up for several weeks due to the not-infrequent Yellow Fever epidemic that was infecting part of the area further south.

In any event, he did arrive, but we should make it clear, at this point, that Mr. Cohen was not the first Jewish person to show up in what would, five months and 22 days after his arrival, be incorporated as the City of Miami. Indeed, there were several Jewish people here, including Jake Schneidman and his wife Ida, when Isidor made his entry. However, he was the first permanent Jewish settler. All of the others, for various reasons, including Jake’s death from cancer, would depart. Isidor, therefore, while not the first to arrive, was the first of the Hebrew faith to become a permanent fixture in what, during his lifetime, would come to be called “the magic city.”

After Jake’s passing, Ida packed her belongings and returned to New York. Several months later, ostensibly on the pretext of having to go north on a buying trip, Isidor also went to New York, not yet and not for many years to come, “the big apple.”

Trusting you have noted the word “ostensibly,” Mr. Cohen somehow was able to find Mrs. Schneidman and her two sons, then very young boys. Apparently of suave manner and glib tongue, he, as I did a few years later with Myrna, and Bennett did some time after that with Jessica, now his former, was able to convince Ida that her future lay with him, and not just matrimonially-speaking but, also, with a return to Miami, where Isidor had made a good few friends and was not only busy with his business but involved in establishing the city’s first Jewish house of worship.

When Ida came back to Miami, her name had been changed to Ida Cohen and Isidor adopted the two boys, who became his sons. Eventually, daughter Claire was born to them in 1906 and she was the first Jewish baby born in the city that was destined not only to be the center of the Americas but a major hub for Jewish life and activity in the United States, with no small amount of the credit going to the Cohens. “But how and why was that?” you ask, and the answer follows immediately below.

Isidor became the bridge and the conduit between Miami’s Jewish and gentile communities. In effect, he was loved by everybody, and accepted in what, for the most part, were gentile organizations. In addition he signed the city’s charter on July 28, 1896, helped to found the Miami Businessmen’s Club (predecessor of the Chamber of Commerce), and was a member of numerous service clubs and fraternal organizations.

Because of his purchase of Miami Beach property from the Lummus Brothers Investment Company in February and March, 1917, we were able to debunk, hopefully once and for all, the utter nonsense (unfortunately still being bandied about by certain historically-oriented organizations which are—even now–shamefully allowing volunteers, tour guides and docents to spout that hooey) that “oh, Jews were not allowed to buy property north of Fifth Street on Miami Beach until after 1920,” the agreements between the Lummus Brothers and Mr. Cohen shredding that bubbemisseh hopefully forever, although the said organizations can’t seem to stop foisting that silliness on the unwary.

Ida became the first Jewish female to become a member of the now sadly almost defunct Miami Woman’s Club, which, for better or for worse, true or not, was burdened with the reputation of being anti-semitic. Ida’s pinnacle of success, however, was being the founder of the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged, now Miami Jewish Health Systems. It was her organizational skill and cajoling of others to assist in the founding of that organization that, in 1940, brought it to life.

The two boys were also quite successful and Eddie, for no few years, was a sports writer for the Miami News. But the “leader” in contributing to Miami and its daily life, and in helping to improve the city and to bring culture to the city which would, someday, become the largest in Florida, was daughter Claire.
Claire Cohen, after graduating from Miami High School, entered the University of Miami and was in the first graduating class. She married attorney Sidney Weintraub and after they moved to Miami Beach, their son, Albert, went to Beach High. Because he was stricken with polio Claire became the founder of the Miami chapter of the March of Dimes. As an interesting side note (well, I certainly hope it is interesting), my still stunning after 42 years of marriage bride and her first husband, Arthur Nemser, were close friends with Albert and his wife and Arthur went to law school at the University of Miami with Albert. Albert, incidentally, eventually partnered with the great (and now Chief federal Bankruptcy Judge) A. Jay Cristol in their law office.

During World Two, Claire organized the county-wide scrap drives which supported the war effort through railroad carloads of scrap of all kinds being donated to the government. As with her mother’s greatest achievement, it is the belief of your author that Claire, also, with all of the wonderful things she did in and for the community, had, as her single greatest accomplishment, the founding of the Miami Museum of Science. Yet another side note here: Some years ago I called that Museum and offered to do an exhibit for them related to their founder. Have you heard back from them yet? Neither have I and I could have gotten a better response by speaking to my bathroom door.

Suffice to say, that without the Cohen collection having been donated to The Bramson Archive, L’CHAIM! THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF GREATER MIAMI, which is not only dedicated to the Cohen family but for whom the first chapter is named, and is the first-ever book on the history of the Jewish community of Greater Miami, could not have been written.

Although all are now long gone, the memory of Miami’s first permanent Jewish family will always remain enshrined in the history of a city which is, at this writing, 122 ½ years old. Simply put, without the Cohen family, that history would be a good deal poorer, regardless of the accomplishments and achievements of those who followed, irrespective of race, creed, gender, age, handicap or national or ethnic origin. With all that has happened in and to Greater Miami, good, bad and indifferent, the family of Ida and Isidor Cohen will forever remain as a great and shining inspiration to all who have followed.

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