Message From the Festival Chair

DSC01298Welcome to the 2024 Jewish Heritage Festival. We are so pleased to get back to a sense of normalcy and press on with creating a day of celebration of Jewish heritage and culture.

The Festival started as the vision of the Temple Presidents’ Council for Volusia and Flagler Counties. A Steering Committee began meeting in January, 2007 leading to our first Festival in March, 2008 which was a rousing success that attracted 10,000 visitors. As one of our food vendors told the Daytona Beach News-Journal: “This is better than Bike Week.” Year after year, the Jewish Heritage Festival is one of the top attended festivals in the area.

The Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation with the sole purpose of putting on this Festival on every other year. Festival funding has come from Sponsorships and tax deductible Family/Individual Donations. We are proud once again to have the Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flagler Counties as our Grand Sponsor as well as great local support from corporate and individual sponsorship.

The Festival features continuous nationally acclaimed entertainment.  Attendees can feast on Kosher, Israeli and Jewish-style food. We will have Israeli and Judaica artists and vendors, Jewish Organization booths, and exhibits including a Holocaust Memorial and Jewish Hall of Fame. Our Hall of Fame is a multidimensional display that has included a Shtetl exhibit, Righteous Gentiles plays, an Israel exhibition, an Ancient Hebrew scroll exhibit and much much more!  Children’s entertainment will be available throughout the day. You might even run into Moses and other biblical characters!

The Festival will express the heart and soul of Jewish Florida.  For a single day it will intertwine the sounds, sights, and spirit of Jewish culture and bring together every facet of the Jewish Community, young and old, singles and families, regardless of their religious and cultural background.   Like other cultural festivals, we also want to share our heritage with others – you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy a Jewish Festival! Let’s celebrate Jewish Heritage.  Please don’t miss an opportunity to be part of this special event.

To stay updated on Festival news, please Click Here to “Like” our Facebook page.

Click Here to see the program from the 2022 Festival.
(2024 Program will be posted shortly)

– Jeffrey Bigman, Chair