Boca Raton's Jewish population is nearly 50 percent-the highest percentage of any city in Florida. This growth occurred slowly after World War II and represents a phenomenal increase that started with the two Jewish families known to have lived in the city before the war. Harry and Florence Brown arrived in 1931, followed by his sister and brother-inlaw, Nettie and Max Hutkin, in 1936.

Originally this was the Cloister Inn an exclusive, restricted resort built in 1926 and designed by Addison Mizner. In the 1940s, hotel magnate J. Myer Schine, who owned other resort hotels such as the Roney Plaza on Miami Beach and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel of Atlantic City, bought the resort. Schine had been a penniless immigrant from Latvia. In Boca Raton, J. Myer and his wife, Hildegarde, sponsored art exhibits at the resort. Hildegarde became an organizer of the Art Guild, which is now the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

Information courtesy of Florida Division of Historical Resources, a division of Florida Department of State.