16 | JANUARY 5 • 2023
S
outh Haven’s First
Hebrew Congregation
was established by
Jewish farmers who became
resort operators.
In the early 1900s, Jewish
people had a tough time vaca-
tioning around the shoreline of
Lake Michigan because many
communities excluded Jewish
patrons. South Haven was an
exception, welcoming Jews and
developing an identity with
the Jewish clientele from the
Detroit-Chicago markets.
Jewish life in Southwest
Michigan started with the
arrival of Jewish farmers from
Eastern Europe. The farmers
began to let rooms to vaca-
tioners from Chicago and
Detroit during the summer. As
the farming industry became
a more difficult way to make
a living, it eventually became
more profitable to run a resort
than a farm, and many aban-
doned farming altogether. At
its height, South Haven had 80
Jewish resorts.
Barry Fidelman, board mem-
ber and past president of the
congregation, has been in the
community and congregation
his whole life. “We were one of
the resort owners here in South
Haven, Fidelman’s Resort,
” he
said.
The original synagogue in
South Haven was in the middle
of where many of the Jewish
farmers were located. When the
area’s major industry switched
to resorts, there was a need for
a synagogue in the downtown
area — which is how the First
Hebrew Congregation came to
pass in 1928.
“It flourished,
” Fidelman said.
“We had a class of 16 kids in the
cheder. I went to Hebrew school
there through high school.
”
As time progressed, many
of the families who ran resorts
left South Haven — leading to
many of the resorts being torn
down or made into non-Jewish
facilities. Over time, the congre-
gation went from 200 families
with a full-time rabbi down to
12 families.
Even with the Jewish com-
South Haven’s
First Hebrew
Congregation
OUR COMMUNITY
SYNAGOGUE SPOTLIGHT
Small-town shul serves Orthodox,
Reform and Conservative Jews.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
Barry
Fidelman