14 | JULY 8 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued from page 12

Carlyle, Dickens, Irving 
and Emerson avenues.) 
Eventually a street would 
be named for him. He must 
have enjoyed the irony 
that some of the hotels of 
Surfside once restricted 
Jews. One shamelessly 
boasted, “Always a view, 
never a Jew.” 
Singer strolled the 
sunbaked landscape in 
a white suit and impish 
teardrop fedora. Always 
taking notes, he fiercely 
studied and measured 
the patterns of these 
transplanted Jews: melting 
snowbirds and Holocaust 
survivors looking to the 
sun to cure memories of 
more ashen, cloudier days; 
widows and divorcees 
looking for a male ticket 
back to the Northeast or 
out of loneliness; young 
families tired of the transit 
strikes and crime waves of 
New York; hasidim who 
dressed in the sweltering 
Sunshine State as if still in 
Lublin; and vaudevillians 
wearing makeup suitable to 
the burlesque surroundings 
of Miami Beach.
All of them immortalized 
in Kodak color, or in the 
pages of My Love Affair 
with Miami Beach, a book 
of photos by Richard 
Nagler, for which Singer 
wrote the introduction 
in 1990. Imagine them as 
Singer once did: plotting 
affairs, swatting tennis 
balls, staring at stock 
tickers, clacking mah jong 
tiles, gliding discs along 
shuffleboard courts and 
gesturing wildly about 
socialism. 
“For me, a vacation in 

Miami Beach was a chance 
to be among my own 
people,” Singer wrote.
He found them sitting 
on the Broadway medians 
and inside the cafeterias 
on the Upper West Side, 
too, of course. But the Jews 
from Miami Beach were 
somehow of a different 
species — and not only 
because they were more 
prone to skin cancer.
It was a Shangri-La 
of Jewish misadventure, 
a shtetl still trembling 
but without Cossacks, 
the Chosen People out 
of choices, the detour of 
a once wandering tribe 
— finally at rest in and 
around sleepy Surfside.
And now it is home 
to new waves of Jews, 
reflecting the area’s 
diversity: retirees, of 
course, but also younger 
and wealthier Jewish 
families, many drawn 
to a booming Chabad; a 
large cohort of Hispanic 
Jews with feet in North 
and Latin America; a 
smattering of Israelis; and 
more Sephardic Jews than 
the national average.
Miami Beach has served 
as a refuge for some, and 
as a playground for others. 
An infinite coastline of 
condos always seemed to 
be rising from the sand. 
Today, unimaginably, we 
know that one can come 
crashing down. 

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, 

the author of “How Sweet It Is!,” 

“The Golems of Gotham,” “Second 

Hand Smoke” and “Elijah Vislble,” 

among other works of fiction and 

nonfiction.

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

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24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

What Is
Your Plan?.....
Call Us.

We focus on Probate Litigation 
and Administration. Administering 
estates where everyone is on the same 
page. Protecting you from self-dealing 
parties appointed by will, trust or the 
court. Protecting you from family 
members who always want more.

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
1-248-945-1111

michprobate.com

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110

Southfield, MI 48034

1-248-945-1111

We are here for you 

and any of your 

legal needs during the 

COVID-19 outbreak.

The Probate Law Firm of

The Probate Law 
Firm of

