Marcia Jo Zerivitz tells of Jewish history in Florida

Marcia Jo Zerivitz shared a saying she heard from a rabbi once: "If our memories are Jewish, we will be Jewish."

Her speech Tuesday was part of UCF's Judaic Studies Distinguished Lecturers Series and the topic was the history of Jews in Florida.

"I want young members of the Jewish community to take pride in those who came before them, appreciate what their ancestors accomplished and overcame, and for those of us that aren't Jewish, to have a better understanding of our state's history. Achievement can triumph discrimination," Zerivitz said.

Zerivitz has been working since 1985 as chief curator of the Jewish Museum of Florida and for its "Mosaic: Jewish Life in Florida" traveling exhibit. She named it Mosaic as each picture, artifact, or story represents a tile in a big picture.

She has collected more than 100,000 items, all from families. None of the items were collected in mass, which Zerivitz believes adds a personal touch to each piece.

 "I love bringing people together, and having a sense of community," she explained.

Zerivitz prepared a slideshow of her favorite pictures. Her absolute favorite was of an 1850s family in Milton, Fla. In the photo, the mother and the father are grinning from ear-to-ear with their children packed in around them.

Years after acquiring the picture, Zerivitz had it on display at a Jewish community meeting and two separate women who had never met both approached her, saying a girl in the picture named Anna was their great grandmother. Moments like this are what make it all worth it to Zerivitz.

"I believe it is moments like this that make my project special," she said.

She also showed black-and-white photos of Moses Levy's Pilgrimage Plantation for Jewish farmers, U.S. Army Quartermaster during the Second Seminole War, Abraham Charles Myers, the founder of Fort Myers, posing in uniform, and Henry Brash's famous "Porches" house – it was four stories tall and each level had a porch complete with thick white decorative pillars.

This should come as news to no one, but anti-Semitism goes back pretty far. She talked of the hardships jews faced. She told a story of how Herman Philistine had to wait 60 years to receive his Silver Star from the Army, because his commanding officer said "Over my dead body will I give one of those to a Jew."

Additionally, she delved into what Floridian Jewish settlers did for a living. Many of them were peddlers, some owned mom and pop grocery stores, and others were involved in the tobacco business for the Cuesta Rey Cigar, Company. There was an allure to farming as well, because they weren't allowed to farm in Europe.

The speech was held at 1:30 p.m. in the Math and Physics building to a crowd of about 50 people, half of whom were students.

Chase Bernstein, a 21-year-old judaic studies major, was one of them.

"I found her presentation very informative and I thought she did a wonderful job of incorporating Jewish life principles into the American way of life and how it has changed through history. It's still applicable today," he said.