WEBVTT

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All right, welcome. I am your host for this series

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of podcasts. My name is Iqbal Akhtar. I'm here

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in Miami. And we're very honored to have Joe

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Jacoby, who is one of the preeminent leaders

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of the Jewish community here in Miami. And I'll

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let him introduce himself in terms of his background.

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But we first want to just... talk through a little

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bit of your history, your background, and then

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how you came to kind of interfaith work and why

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you think these things are important, and then

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kind of thinking about where does the future

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of our community lie. So if you can just start

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us off a little bit about your own background.

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I'm a native Miamian. I grew up here. I was a

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graduate of public school. which you don't see

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much of anymore here. And I matriculated from

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high school to the University of Florida, and

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I came back to Miami to find a career, which

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I found. I was accepted to a law school in Houston,

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Texas, because my entire family are lawyers,

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and it wasn't for me. So I went in a different

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direction, and I found a great career, and I

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worked at it for 50 years in Miami, and I sold

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my business in 2017. And I went to work for the

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company, the national company that bought it,

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and I was with them for another three years.

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And at the pandemic date, I was able to walk

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away. And so I've been able to pour myself into

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the work that we've been doing together. And

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it's wonderful to have a trusted partner to do

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that. No, absolutely. It's been really remarkable.

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Talk to us a little bit. How has, well, I guess

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Miami changed from the time that you were young

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until today. It's a different city. Well, it

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was so small. There was maybe a quarter of a

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million people here. Now there's millions. But

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my high school graduation class was about 1 ,150

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students. So it was rather large. It's a public

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school. And the Jewish community was very, I

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would say, small and very, I would say, isolated

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from the community in a lot of ways, which was

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never one of my comfort zones. I've always wanted

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to be a member of the community. So I think maybe

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that's where some of my instincts and some of

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my energy has come from. to do the work that

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we're doing. But it was a great community in

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those days, very small. And I have fond memories

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of growing up in Miami, Florida. And when you

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see somebody at my age that says they were born

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here, it's very unusual. But like for my kids,

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who were both born here, you know, it's not very

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unusual. It's changed. So what brought the Jewish

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community to Miami? Well, in 19, my parents,

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excuse me, my father and his family moved here

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from Pensacola, Florida, which had a much bigger

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Jewish community at that time. There was this

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Jewish community in the south that stretched

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from Atlanta to New Orleans, and Mobile, Alabama,

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and Pensacola, and my great -grandfather was

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a... you know a shop owner you know he was a

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he was a merchant and he had a store in Mobile

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Alabama and then my grandfather who I'm named

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for saw opportunity in Pensacola because they

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opened up a naval air base there and they opened

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up a bar and package store you know liquor and

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so they and then the children of that of my you

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know for my grandparents My father and his sister

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and his brothers moved to Miami because there

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was opportunity in Miami. So that's when I think

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the Jewish community kind of began to take off

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was about 1926. Okay. It goes way back. Yeah,

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I mean, I know the community in New Orleans is

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also quite old. Very old. Yeah, and there's a

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lot of institutions that are there as well. Marcia

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Zerowitz. who ran the Jewish Museum of South

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Florida. She put a book together called The Jews

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of Florida, and my family is in that book. Oh,

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that's amazing. It goes way back. So I know there

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is also a history of discrimination against Jews,

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not just in Florida, but in the South especially.

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I can give you two very quick stories regarding

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anti -Semitism. When my mother and father married,

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they wanted to live in what is now Coral Gables.

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And there were signs in front of apartment buildings

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that said, Gentiles only, no Jews allowed. And

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we have pictures of that. I have images of that

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that my mother took because she couldn't believe

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it. And they were astounded at that time. And

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then if you fast forward to, I would say, 15

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years ago, 20 years ago, I got a phone call on

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my way to play golf in Miami, going to Miami

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Beach. And it was my mom, a blessed memory. And

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she goes, where are you going? And I go, I'm

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going to go play golf at Lagorse Country Club.

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And she goes, oh, honey, you can't play there.

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Because that was a Gentile -only golf club, which

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has changed. It's changed. But that's what it

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was like in Miami for her in that era. And it

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had changed in my era. So there was hope, I guess

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you could say. So what is, you know, getting

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to that topic of anti -Semitism, what does that

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look like today? It's taken on a very strange

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perspective. If you interchange Jew for Zionist

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or Zionist for Jew, that's where the problem,

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I think, is the crux of the problem because you

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can be both. You can be a Jew and you can be

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a Zionist. You can be a Gentile and be a Zionist.

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The problem is that for the anti -Semitism today,

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it's kind of lumped into one thought. And that's

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just inaccurate. And sadly, it's what I think

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is driving the social media that we see, most

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of the anti -Semitism that we see in social media.

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With you sort of being raised in Miami, your

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children, of course, being born here and living

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now away from Florida, how has their relationship

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to Judaism and the Jewish identity shifted over

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the generations? It's really portable. Both of

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my kids went to Beth Am, Temple Beth Am, which

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I'm a member of. There's also a day school at

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Beth Am, and they both attended the day school

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there, the Hebrew day school, the Rambam day

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school. And now I have one daughter that lives

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in Atlanta, Georgia, and we have two grandchildren

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there, and my granddaughter, She's eight years

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old. She's attending religious school at The

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Temple in Atlanta. And my four -year -old grandson,

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he doesn't really go to any religious school

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yet, but he will. That's where they'll go. They're

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members of The Temple. And my daughter that lives

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in Connecticut, lives in Westport, Connecticut,

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they're members of Temple Israel. And my grandson

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goes to the religious school there. I mean, my

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granddaughter goes to the religious school, and

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my grandson goes to day school there. Okay. So

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it's portable. It's whatever we were able to

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transmit in the beauty of living a Jewish life

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and having them grow up in Miami at Temple Beth

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Am has really kind of, you know, they're both

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seeking that for their own lives and for their

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own children. What are, for you, the core values

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of being Jewish? The core values of being a Jew?

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There's so many, but I think that in the Torah,

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and I know you know these things, because you

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and I have had these conversations, one of the

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most used comments or used sayings in the Torah

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is that, you know, be kind to strangers because

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you were a stranger in a strange land. And I

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think that opens up to community. I think, you

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know, and I believe that's what the Torah...

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which was given to us, it's about building community.

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And when you say build community, that means

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everybody in the community, you know. And so

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that's a core value for sure. And then, you know,

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the most core value of all, you know, you want

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to treat people the way you want to be treated.

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And I think that's a core value. You've seen

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a lot of stages in terms of the development of

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the United States also throughout the course

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of your life and of course your family's time

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and presence in the South. Where is the United

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States headed as a society? We seem to be real

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divided, siloed. You hear all of these buzzwords.

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But I don't think it's really as unusual as people

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want to make it or as social media makes it.

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I think that that's pretty much the way it was

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before the Civil War and drove us to a Civil

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War. I think that we've been this way on many

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issues over the course of the lifetime of the

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United States. But this has a more insidious

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feel to me. And that I follow social media because

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I'm working in this area with regard to anti

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-Semitism and trying to build community with

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other people, other than Jews. And the social

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media drives this hate like nothing I've ever

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experienced before in my life. And it's alarming.

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I mean, it's alarming. which makes the work that

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we do even more important. It drives me to work

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on this and to be a part of it and to try to

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have, if I can have a conversation with one person

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and change their mind about what maybe a Jew

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is, or maybe together we change the minds of

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how people view Jews and Muslim people and even

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the Christians that live in our community. then

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I think our job is not complete by any means,

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but, you know, we're on the right track. What

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is, so with regards to social media, what do

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you think, so if you had the ability to change

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kind of the way that people use technology or

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the way that people... the way the tech companies

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kind of have organized their social media, what

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do you think would be a good either cultural

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or policy solution to kind of the polarization?

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Boy, that's a mouthful. I think that maybe age

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should have something to do with this. Okay.

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Where people have access or limited access depending

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on the age. I think that's important. And then

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I think... Education, education, education. The

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more you know about somebody else, the easier

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it is for you to have a better understanding

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of who those people are. And it kind of assuages

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the hate mongers that tell you differently in

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social media. And again, I wouldn't know how

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you prevent that, but I would think that they...

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If it wasn't about money and those people in

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social media, and we know who they all are, if

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they were to look at that, they could certainly

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come up with algorithms, in my opinion, that

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could change that model. So how do you affect

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that kind of change? Iqbal, with all due respect

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to you and the educators in the world, I have

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no idea how we would do that. So in terms of

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education, I mean, one of the things that I think

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is important for me and I think for a lot of

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us is thinking about character formation and

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sort of how do we produce the next generation

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with people, with, you know, solid values, right,

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in terms of respect, in terms of humility. Some

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of these values are important to all of our traditions.

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And a lot of times, I think, unfortunately, nowadays,

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the education, especially secular education,

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just tends to focus on kind of mastery of certain

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types of knowledge. But sort of that character

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formation part of it is either left for religious

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institutions, for families, or it just doesn't

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happen. What are your thoughts on kind of character

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formation? I think there's a certain amount of

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that certainly in your DNA, and you're not going

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to be able to duck that. But I think that it

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starts with family, and I think that it's a learned

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tradition in most cases. And then I think that

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you have to be a lifelong learner, and you have

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to have an open mind, and you have to be able

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to accept all these people in the community as

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your equal and understand that they have. their

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known or their their truths and you have yours

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but doesn't mean that you don't communicate with

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them it doesn't mean you don't try to build a

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community with them and try to make it a better

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place um so i you know to answer your question

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directly i think it's it you know i um come from

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the perspective of of learning and of torah so

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that's what was given to me but i have and as

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we've had these discussions i'm reading the quran

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right okay and Most of our biblical stories are

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in the Quran. In fact, I think it was you that

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told me that Moses gets mentioned more than the

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prophet in the Quran. And there's some commonality

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there. So there's something there that you can

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build up of without having to even have the meetings

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and the conversations that we've been lucky to

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have that I believe. brought us to this moment.

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Absolutely. I agree. I know you've traveled the

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world as well, and you've been to many different

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places. We talked very briefly about China. What

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is the place that you have traveled to that has

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had the most impact in terms of your... India.

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Okay. Talk to us a little bit about that. India

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is a... They have a caste system. You're probably

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aware of that. But they have quite a community

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there. And they look after one another in a lot

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of different ways, which I found interesting.

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But I found it to be a very spiritual place.

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And I found it to be where a lot of people go,

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I wouldn't want to be there. I wouldn't want

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to go there. I found it to be, it assaulted my

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senses in every aspect. And I found the people

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to be incredible, and they're all living their

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truths, too, because they have a Muslim population

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there, and they have a Hindu population there,

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and they have the Sikh population there. I mean,

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there are so many, and that's what I found really

00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:03.000
most interesting, is they had all of these different

00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:05.920
groups, and they were all kind of, they weren't,

00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:09.859
I believe, as divided as we are in the United

00:17:09.859 --> 00:17:13.910
States. So that was appealing to me. Okay. You

00:17:13.910 --> 00:17:17.569
know, and I would go, I want to go back. I would

00:17:17.569 --> 00:17:20.930
go back to India in a minute. Okay. Yeah. That's

00:17:20.930 --> 00:17:25.069
wonderful. Yeah. You were also the leader of,

00:17:25.089 --> 00:17:29.329
you were the head of the Temple Bethan here.

00:17:30.029 --> 00:17:33.930
What are some of the accomplishments that you

00:17:33.930 --> 00:17:35.470
were most proud of and some of the challenges

00:17:35.470 --> 00:17:37.869
that you had also leading the community, which

00:17:37.869 --> 00:17:40.289
I'm sure there were quite a number of those as

00:17:40.289 --> 00:17:46.250
well. Yeah, Beth -Am's a complicated place. It's

00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:49.230
one of the largest synagogues in the southeast,

00:17:49.470 --> 00:17:55.130
and we have now close to 2 ,000 families. So

00:17:55.130 --> 00:17:58.269
the impact that you can have at Beth -Am, if

00:17:58.269 --> 00:18:01.069
you think about it, an average -sized family

00:18:01.069 --> 00:18:05.089
of four, you're looking at a lot of people in

00:18:05.089 --> 00:18:10.839
one place. And the challenges are many. Back

00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:14.740
in my day, my wife, as you know, was just installed

00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:18.279
as the current president of Bethlehem. But I

00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:21.319
did this when I was like 45. I did it like 30

00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:25.660
years ago. So it was a completely different place.

00:18:25.819 --> 00:18:28.599
We had the day school. The day school drove the

00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:31.480
synagogue. It still does today. That's where

00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:35.440
all the money comes from, basically, to do all

00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:38.079
the programming that we do, the compelling program

00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:42.539
that we do. And we were blessed because of that.

00:18:43.859 --> 00:18:48.420
But the challenges are like any challenge in

00:18:48.420 --> 00:18:51.619
any community with different personalities and

00:18:51.619 --> 00:18:56.960
things like that. But I guess I felt that there

00:18:56.960 --> 00:18:59.740
was a shortage of leadership in the synagogue.

00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:05.119
I think there still is. And I never... wanted

00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:07.579
to be the president of the congregation, but

00:19:07.579 --> 00:19:10.799
I think that during my period or my era, the

00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.359
music stopped and everybody jumped in the scene.

00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:19.500
So I took the position on. But it was a challenge,

00:19:19.799 --> 00:19:26.720
but I grew as a person from it, and I don't know

00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:28.819
that I became a more spiritual person from it

00:19:28.819 --> 00:19:35.579
because it's the business side of religion. I

00:19:35.579 --> 00:19:39.839
would prefer to be studying and learning than

00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:46.000
administrating. And my wife has a significant,

00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:49.279
her budget is twice the size of the budget that

00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:53.180
I had when I was president. And so she's got

00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:55.720
her hands full and she's got more meetings than

00:19:55.720 --> 00:20:01.299
I think I had back in the day. But it was, there

00:20:01.299 --> 00:20:04.250
were highs and lows. The highs were great and

00:20:04.250 --> 00:20:09.470
the lows were bad. And it's a one -time deal.

00:20:09.569 --> 00:20:12.130
You never want to do that again. I can imagine.

00:20:14.089 --> 00:20:19.990
Two more questions. One is in terms of this conversation

00:20:19.990 --> 00:20:22.130
that we're having, the ongoing conversation between

00:20:22.130 --> 00:20:25.369
Islam and Judaism, what are some of the things

00:20:25.369 --> 00:20:29.880
that you want to learn more about? As you know,

00:20:29.980 --> 00:20:31.680
I'm studying, I wouldn't use the word study.

00:20:31.859 --> 00:20:34.500
I'm reading the Quran. I'm not studying it. To

00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:36.579
study it, I would need a study partner, which

00:20:36.579 --> 00:20:41.160
I might engage you in at some point. But I'm

00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:43.519
reading it. And I think that's the first step.

00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:46.599
I think that you've got to walk in somebody else's

00:20:46.599 --> 00:20:51.799
shoes to understand and then be able to communicate

00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:55.420
and then to be able to build from that. As we

00:20:55.420 --> 00:20:57.799
have done with this work that we've been doing

00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:00.940
you can't just jump into it. It's not something

00:21:00.940 --> 00:21:03.940
that You have to build trust right and if you

00:21:03.940 --> 00:21:06.019
don't build the trust then you can't you can't

00:21:06.019 --> 00:21:11.259
build anything beyond that and I'm I'm convinced

00:21:11.259 --> 00:21:15.079
that That if you can communicate with your neighbor,

00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.240
and if you can understand your neighbor then

00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:22.579
you can build something that we need to see happen

00:21:22.579 --> 00:21:25.779
in the United States and in the universe as well.

00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:29.359
And that is just compassion and love for one

00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:34.940
another. Absolutely. Last question. What message

00:21:34.940 --> 00:21:41.180
do you want to relay to your great -grandchildren?

00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:48.859
That I tried. I put my best foot forward. I gave

00:21:48.859 --> 00:21:55.420
it 100 % effort. And I believe, I hope that they

00:21:55.420 --> 00:22:00.099
will see the value in having a cohesive community

00:22:00.099 --> 00:22:02.920
where everybody has respect for one another.

00:22:03.380 --> 00:22:06.500
And you're hopeful about the future? Indeed.

00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:11.059
Okay. Yes. I have five grandchildren, and I see

00:22:11.059 --> 00:22:14.490
the future in there. and their faces that's good

00:22:14.490 --> 00:22:17.930
and i'm and and what i see makes my day okay

00:22:17.930 --> 00:22:20.849
that's wonderful well thank you so much for your

00:22:20.849 --> 00:22:23.490
time i really appreciate you coming out here

00:22:23.490 --> 00:22:26.049
thank you it's always a pleasure to be with you

00:22:26.049 --> 00:22:28.009
and to work with you thank you so much