Grossinger Beach Hotel and Grossinger Pancoast Hotel, Miami Beach
Grossinger Beach Hotel and Grossinger Pancoast Hotel, Miami Beach
In mid-twentieth century America, the two leading “Jewish resorts” were the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York in the summer and Miami Beach in the winter. Due to anti-semitism in the early part of the century, which lingered into the post-World War 2 era, Jews were barred from many hotels and resorts. This discrimination led to a need for alternative lodging that would readily accept Jewish families as guests. In addition, many Jews still lived in heavily Jewish neighborhoods and may have been more comfortable around their co-religionists while vacationing.
Indeed, nicknames that arose for these two vacationlands are a giveaway to the substantial percentage of Jews who visited both. For the Catskills, the “borscht belt”. The name comes from borscht, a soup of Ukrainian origin made with beets as the main ingredient. It is popular in many Central and Eastern European countries and was brought by Jewish and Slavic immigrants to the United States. For Miami Beach, “shtetl by the sea”. Shtetl is a Yiddish word for the small towns and villages with predominantly Jewish populations that existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.
Many hotel owners had hotels in both places, and employees would go back and forth between the two areas, working during the high seasons. One of the most famous hotels in the Catskill Mountains was Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel, opened by the couple Selig and Malka Grossinger in the nineteen-teens. Less well known today is Grossinger’s Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, owned by descendants of the same Grossinger family, which opened in 1939.
The Miami Beach Grossinger’s was first located in an Art Deco tower designed by L. Murray Dixon, one of the two leading Art Deco architects who worked in the city. Located at 17th Street and Collins Avenue at the time of its construction, it was the tallest building in Miami Beach for the next thirty years. Room rates when it opened were $15 to $25 per night, including three meals a day, which were added $50 per person per week to the rate. Kosher dietary laws were observed.
A brochure for the hotel stated:
Florida gets a great new name - New to Miami... known to the nation.
Rich in tradition... Grand in fame.
Perfect spot for a fine vacation...
Known for its friendly hospitality..
Known as the place for people keen On sport, and fun, and informality..
Comfort, service, fine cuisine.
This is the spirit that we have brought To Florida - tropical and romantic - This the tradition that we have wrought Close to the surf of the blue Atlantic...
This is the spirit you'll love so well...
The soul of The Grossinger Beach Hotel
During World War 2, Miami Beach became a large U.S. Army training facility, and the army used the hotel during the war to accommodate high-ranking officers. After the war, the property was returned to the Grossinger family, who promptly sold it and re-opened in 1946 as the Ritz Plaza. Today, it is the SLS South Beach Hotel. However, the family was not finished with Miami Beach. The family purchased the Pancoast Hotel located at 29th Street and Collins Avenue and ran it briefly, calling it the Grossinger Pancoast Hotel. Due to family obligations making it difficult to commute between the Catskills and Miami Beach, that property was sold by the Grossinger family not long after it opened. The building was razed, and the Seville Hotel, now the Miami Beach Edition, opened where Grossinger Pancoast once stood.
Due to a decline in discrimination, both the Catskills and Miami Beach declined as Jewish resorts in the 1970’s. Grossinger’s Catskill Hotel closed for good in 1986. A trace of the Grossinger family in Miami Beach May be found at the Jewish Museum of Florida -FIU, originally Beth Jacob Synagogue, where one of the stained glass windows is dedicated to Selig Grossinger, the founder of the Grossinger Catskill Resort.