WINNER of the FLORIDA BOOK AWARD

Phillip and Dana Zimmerman Gold Medal for Florida Nonfiction

WINNER of the President’s Award | Florida Authors & Publishers Association

—Sundial Book Club Selection, WLRN Public Radio and Television (February 2019)

—#1 Bestseller, Small Press Distribution (nonfiction; September 30, 2017-December 31, 2017)

—#1 New Release, Amazon.com (Judaism; November 15-December 15, 2017)

“[A] charming, important, beautifully-produced book… This book tells the truth, and tells it beautifully… [It] adds a significant paragraph to the long history of the Jewish people’s survival in the oddest places, under the strangest circumstances… Haskell … fully attains his objective.”
—T.D. Allman, in American Jewish History

“Fascinating story … skillfully told… Haskell fills his social history with detailed and colorful sketches of individuals and families, bringing their accomplishments to life through personal letters, contemporaneous newspaper articles, and archival photos and drawings… This excellent book will appeal to readers who want to better understand the richness and diversity of the American Jewish experience.”
—The Jewish Book Council

“Dazzling … In seven well-shaped chapters, Arlo Haskell packs an enjoyable and frequently astonishing history of Key West’s Jewish community. Hearing of the topic, some people will assume that this is a slender thread to spin into a book. They would be wrong.”
—Florida Weekly

“Arlo Haskell’s chronicling of the story of Key West Jews has opened new doors for researchers and for those who visit Key West. It is a valuable template for all who seek to learn about local Jewish history and mine the materials around them with a forensic eye to bring to life the experiences and stories of those who forged American Jewish life.”
—Henry Green, in The American Jewish Archives Journal

“This welcome addition to southern Jewish historiography introduces a fascinating cast of characters, revealing a unique saga of Jewish community life that no previous historian has chronicled.”
—Raymond Arsenault, in Southern Jewish History

“Working from previously untapped sources, [Haskell] has identified and restores an important gap in South Florida history.”
—Miami Today

“In-depth, exceedingly well-researched… It’s impossible to understand the full scope of Key West history without reading this book.”
—Keys Weekly

“Shows us another dimension of America’s southernmost island city … filled with historic photos and other primary source material … beautifully printed… Arlo Haskell has given us a well-researched and lively history of a small Jewish community that has played an outsized role on the world stage.”
—ReformJudaism.org

“A fascinating book with insight into immigration and the growth of a Jewish community. All too often we concentrate on political history. This book discusses the interface between national political vents and local realities. Bottom line: Certainly recommended.”
—The Jewish Tribune
(Jay Levinson, author of Jewish Community of Cuba: The Golden Age, 1906-1958)

“A stroke of ethnographic genius.”
—Robert Birnbaum

“It seems that every part of Key West’s history has been chronicled at one time or another … but until now one topic has been ignored — the contributions that the Jewish community have made to our tropical paradise. This deficiency has now been corrected in a highly entertaining and informative book.”
—Key West Citizen

“Terrific … fascinating … superb.”
—Brenda Wineapple, author of Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848–1877.

“I learned many things that I didn’t know about the contact between the Jews of Key West and Cuba. Impressive.”
—Margalit Bejarano, author of The Jewish Community of Cuba: Memory and History

“Fueled by international intrigue.”
—San Diego Jewish World

“A fascinating work of historical reconstruction.”
—Key West The Newspaper

“Go out and buy this beautiful book.”
—The Jewish Advocate

“Key West Should Be Known For This, Too”
Op-Ed, History News Network
(Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, George Washington University)

Featured in Tablet Magazine: “Smuggling Jewish Refugees in Key West: How the Caribbean became a stopping point for the American journey of so many Jews.”