“You build, and they come.” For attorney Mikhael Keifitz, the new $21 million Leizer Verbukh Jewish Community Center in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida is proof of a belief tested over two decades.
Keifitz met Rabbi Alex and Chani Kaller more than 20 years ago when Jewish life in Sunny Isles Beach was still in its earliest stages. “We were meeting in condo community rooms, and we barely had a Shabbat minyan,” he recalled. Early supporters who lived in those buildings arranged access for Shabbat and holidays. Soon, the community began renting small storefronts in strip malls, moving again and again as it slowly grew.
What followed was a long, fitful journey. The land for a permanent building was purchased more than a decade ago, but construction was repeatedly delayed — most significantly by the COVID pandemic…