“Generations In The Sun,” is Higher Authority Production’s exciting new documentary which explores the little known and fascinating Jewish roots of Florida history. The project is a collaboration with our community’s respected leader in quality programming, WLRN.
The funding necessary to complete this unique historical project is being provided through the generosity of supporters of the Higher Authority Productions Foundation . . . a federally recognized not-for-profit organization, established in 1982, to support spiritually oriented educational television endeavors. Those who have provided financial support for “Generations In The Sun” include: The Shepard Broad Foundation, DBS Financial Services, David Fleeman Foundation, Emil J. & Estelle Gould Foundation, The Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Seitlin and Co & The Jackson Family, Five Millers Family Foundation & Senator Paul Steinberg, Nancy & Norman Lipoff, Leonard & Sally Robbins, Alan & Amy Kluger, Rachel Appelrouth, Stewart & Gail Appelrouth, Eileen & Neal Fair, Greenberg-May foundation, Podhurst Family Foundation, David & Francie Horvitz Family Foundation, Deborah Feterson Foundation, Joe’s Stone Crab Restaurant, Kenneth M. Myers & Judy Gilbert-Gould, Alan & Amy Kluger, Harold Rosen, Herschel Rosenthal, Charles & Sandra Simon, SunTrust Bank, Judith & Sydney Traum, Weiser Family Foundation, Randy Gumenick, Besty Kaplan, Ira Kurzban, Marjorie & Leonard Wein, Jr.
We applaud these charitable supporters who understand the importance of developing quality television programming of this unique nature.
“Generations In The Sun,” is scheduled to premiere in 2002 on WLRN. The initial coverage area includes Broward, Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties, but we are confident the program will be picked up by PBS affiliates throughout Florida and in other major cities across the country as well.
We anticipate that “Generations In The Sun” will become the first installment of three historical documentaries produced by Higher Authority Productions in conjunction with WLRN. The program we are now completing covers the time span beginning with the earliest Jewish settlers arriving in 1763, and ends with the onset of World War II. The second part will cover the booming 1940s and 1950s. The final installment will open with the mass emigration of Cuban Jews which began in the early 1960s, and take us to current day.
Interviews have already been conducted with some of our areas most unforgettable Jewish personalities. Individuals who played a vibrant role in the development of Florida’s political, financial and religious communities, helped propel our area’s most significant civic, cultural, social service and charitable institutions, and who in many remarkable ways, altered the face of Florida history.
Our program includes interviews with noted historians and demographers such as Howard Kleinberg, Marsha Zerivitz, Paul George, Ira Sheskin, and Dr. Samuel Proctor; as well as true Florida pioneers and the living relatives still carrying on their remarkable legacies.
Our interview list includes: Alvin Cassel*, son of one of Florida’s earliest department store owners, co-founder of the Broad and Cassel law firm, and one of Miami’s earliest native residents; Morris Lapidus*, the internationally renown architect of such landmarks as the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels, as well as Lincoln Road Mall; Mickey and Louis Wolfson III, the son and grandson of the founder of WTVJ and Wometco theaters; Diane Camber, the Director of the Bass Museum, whose famous father was the Everglades fishing guide of former presidents such as Herbert Hoover; the Seitlan brothers, whose father was an early cattle trader and leather tanner; Bernard Blank*, another of Florida’s earliest business leaders; Ruth Greenfield and Edna Wolkowsky, whose great grandfather pioneered Key West; Bernard Roth*, a renown civic activist who battled against Jewish discrimination in the nation‘s courts; Geri Riskin, the granddaughter of Isadore Cohen, who was Miami’s first permanent Jewish settler and an original signer of the City of Miami Charter; Marcella Unger-Werblow, whose father spearheaded the establishment of the Orange Bowl Committee and opened the Florida territory for Buick Motors; Joanne Bass, whose family started Joe’s Famous Stone Crab restaurant; and many others too numerous to list here.
Never intended as a “who’s who” of established and successful Jews, “Generations In The Sun” conveys the dynamism of South Florida history through the eyes of those who were inextricably caught up at the very core of the State’s development and growth. Along the way, the program imparts an integral message that will impact anyone sensitive to the plight of new immigrants endeavoring to adapt to, and make progress in, what was then a risky new frontier - plagued with killer hurricanes, unyielding heat, Yellow Fever, and discrimination. In short, it’s a ground breaking project we believe will provide a fitting follow up to “Israel’s Forgotten Heroes,” our Emmy-Award winning national PBS documentary about the courageous Jewish war veterans of the Diaspora who helped Israel win its War of Independence in 1948.
* now deceased
