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