Jews have had a great impact on the cultural life of Miami Beach. In 1963 John and Johanna Bass donated their art collection to the city of Miami Beach. The city-owned Bass Museum is renowned for its paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and Albrecht Dxirer, for its 16th-century Flemish tapestries, and for its modern lithographs by Fernand Leger and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. The collection also includes images by Florida photographers Andy Sweet, Jewel Stern,and Marcia Walkenstein, whose represented work includes scenes of Jewish life on the Beach.

John Bass, a Viennese Jew, came to New York in 1914 with dreams of becoming a pianist. Instead he went to work as an errand boy on Wall Street. In time he became president of a Wall Street company and was a leader in the sugar industry. He never wavered in his love for music. He was a composer and a member of chamber music groups. He also was a writer, painter, photographer, etcher and an art collector. His wife, Joanna Bass, was a poet, pianist, and decorator.