Lakeland sits at the western edge of Polk County in Central Florida, and although Lakeland and nearby Winter Haven are sometimes counted as part of greater Tampa, the area has its own Jewish history, which dates back to the early 20th century. Prior to that, European settlements in the area began in the mid-1800s and grew slowly until the arrival of railroad lines in the 1880s. A handful of Jews may have lived in and around Polk County prior to 1900, but the current community traces its roots to Cy Wolfson’s arrival in 1909. In the following decades, Lakeland developed a small but active Jewish community which attracted participants from a number of surrounding towns and continues to serve the local Jewish population in the early 21st century.