Approximately 10,000 Jews left Cuba during the anti-Castro exodus, most settling in the Miami-Dade area. It was these Cuban Jewish exiles who in 1961 founded this congregation, one of two that were designed by the Cuban-born Jewish brothers-Oscar and Isaac Sklar. Caves near the Western Wall in Jerusalem inspired Oscar Sklar's ultramodern design for the sanctuary. The Temple Beth Shmuel Cuban Hebrew congregation is Ashkenazic and Conservative; the other congregation, the Temple Moses Sephardic Congregation of Florida, is Orthodox and Sephardic. Services are held in both English and Hebrew, but congregants are often addressed in Yiddish and Spanish, their languages of choice.

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

Image courtesy of cubanhebrew.com