Thursday, June 18, 2026

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – ALL ARE WELCOME!

For further information contact SAJHS

sajhs1565@gmail.com or 804-914-4460

Experience the Mobile Museum of Tolerance (on site) following the reading!

Unlike a traditional museum where visitors walk around and view various exhibits, each Mobile Museum of Tolerance contains seating for up to 30 visitors who experience a series of immersive, interactive educational modules on a range of subjects. This includes modules on the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement, online hate, and others.

REMEMBERING THE 1964 FIGHT FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN ST. AUGUSTINE

Other Commemorative Events Not to be Missed!

Who Were the Secret Settlers of St. Augustine?

In 1565, Spanish law was clear: anyone of Jewish descent was strictly forbidden from setting foot in the New World.

Yet, beneath the official records of Florida’s earliest military expedition, a different story was being written in the shadows.

Join us for a captivating presentation by Dr. Roger Martínez-Dávila, Professor of History at the University of Colorado and a renowned expert in Sephardic Jewish history. Using innovative digital humanities and archival “sleuthing,” Dr. Martínez-Dávila has mapped an invisible network of families who defied the Inquisition to reach the shores of Florida.

What You Will Discover

• The Converso Connection: Groundbreaking research revealing that “Conversos”—descendants of Sephardic Jews—were among Florida’s very first settlers.
• A Hidden Network: The stories of conquistadors, churchmen, and royal officials who sailed with Pedro Menéndez some of whom were carrying secret family histories.
• Deciphering the Past: Learn how the names of 800 solders on 450-year-old muster rolls can be decoded to uncover WHO they were, WHAT they did and WHERE they came from.

The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society will mark Veterans Day on Tuesday, November 11, 2025, 11 am at the St. Augustine National Cemetery, 104 Marine St, St. Augustine, FL 32084. A brief ceremony discussing the Jews who have been identified in the cemetery will be followed by gravesite visitations to those who are known to be Jews and others who are likely to be Jews including burials from the Spanish-American War era.

All are welcome to this event. There is no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary. For best directions call the (904) 766-5222 or visit

 https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/staugustine.as

The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society

will host the 12th Annual Commemoration of the Mass Arrest of Rabbis

Wednesday, June 18, 2025 @ 12:00p

at

St. Johns County Jail Annex

3955 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL

Avi Dresner, documentary filmmaker, the son of Rabbi Israel Dresner, one of the sixteen arrested. 

Avi will read the letter his father received from Dr. King, inviting him to join the protest

All are welcome, there is no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary

For further information contact SAJHS at

www.sajhs.com, sajhs1565@gmail.com or 804-914-4460

Experience the Mobile Museum of Tolerance (on site): 1:15 PM to 4:00 PM

On the afternoon of June 18^th, 1964, the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history took place. That night, they wrote a letter from their overcrowded cell that began: “We came because we could not stand silently by…” This statement, “Why We Went to St. Augustine,” became one of the most powerful Jewish responses to the Civil Rights Movement.

Following the ceremony, guests are invited to step into the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s groundbreaking Florida Mobile Museum of Tolerance: an immersive, interactive space designed to educate students across the state on civil rights, moral courage, and combating hate in all forms. Florida Mobile Museums travel the state leading powerful workshops at schools, community centers, and events.

The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society

will screen the award-winning documentary film

Xueta Island

Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 4pm

at

The St. Augustine Waterworks

184 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084

63 minute screening will be followed by a commentary and discussion with

Andrea White PhD, City Archaeologist for St. Augustine.

All are welcome, there is no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary

For further information contact SAJHS at

www.sajhs.com, sajhs1565@gmail.com or 804-914-4460

While a few have been inspired to return to the faith of their ancestors, their recent entry into the leadership of the local Jewish community has caused an unforeseen controversy among its members. Are they the best suited to lead Mallorquin Judaism despite not having practiced their faith for centuries?

When the Inquisition decreed the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, there were no Jews officially left on this Mediterranean island. In 1435, the entire Jewish community underwent a massive baptism in order to save them from further persecution. But many converts – or “crypto Jews” – preserved the law of Moses. They lived secretly until 1691, when the “Autos de Fe” saw them publicly burned at the stake in front of the larger Mallorquin society.

Despite the deep rejection, the traces of Jewish gastronomy can be seen in popular Mallorquin food, and it is even believed that world-famous exported products such as the “ensaimada” may have Jewish roots. The chueta used lard or sobrasada (pork sausage) in their preparation, to signify their fervent Catholicism and show that they had left behind the customs of their ancestors.

Rotstein understood that this was not only about legends of the past: it is a story in current development. He met chuetas like the writer Miquel Segura or the chef Toni Pinya, direct bearers of the stigma who undertook the complex path of returning to the Jewish faith; or the young historian Laura Miró, motivated to recover history to pass it on to new generations who completely ignored it to date.

In the only synagogue on the island, there are already discrepancies due to the different degrees of religious observation, the absence of a rabbi, and the diverse ethnicities of its members. The arrival of the chuetas to community leadership opens new dilemmas.
Their children are not Jews according to halacha (religious law), many still do not know how to speak and read Hebrew, and there are those who consider their presence on the front line as an act of performative visibility.

This documentary interrogates fundamental questions of human nature such as historical memory; identity and belonging; generational clashes; and the preservation of tradition.

Despite the unquestionable weight of the past, the documentary explains the history and the present based mainly on first-person stories. It Includes fragments of interviews and follow-ups to the subjects; dynamic footage of events that took place during the “Week of Jewish culture” in Palma; aerial drone shots that explore the geography of the island; and animations to help understand and visualize historical events, to give an updated touch to the story.

Eleventh Annual Commemoration

of

Largest Mass Arrest of Rabbis

Tuesday June 18th, 2024 at 12p
(Noon)

Outdoors at

The Hilton St. Augustine Historic
Bayfront

Dr. Isaac Amon

to describe

“An Extraordinary Odyssey: The 3,000 Year Story of Sefarad.”

A one-hour presentation

February 29th 2024 to begin at 2:00 p.m.

at

Main Library

1960 North Ponce De Leon Boulevard in St. Augustine

Dr. Isaac Amon, Director of Academic Research at Jewish Heritage Alliance, an educational organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Sefarad, Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, is being hosted by
The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society

All are welcome to this event. There is no charge. For best directions call the Main Library 904-827-6940 or visit www.sjcpls.org For further information about the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society call 804-914-4460.

Flagler College Professor Butler

to speak on

the largest mass arrest of Rabbis in US History

April 24th at 4 p.m

at

The St. Augustine Waterworks

184 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084

The Waterworks is being made available through the generosity of the St. Johns Cultural Council and the City of St. Augustine.

Professor Butler’s presentation is hosted by the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society.

SAJHS Celebrates its

Tenth Anniversary

Monday, January 30th—12 Noon

at

TACO LIBRE #3 – St. Augustine

2600 N. Ponce De Leon Blvd. St. Augustine, Fl 32084 

Join us for a celebration and a retrospective of the Ten Year History of

The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society-SAJHS

There is no charge for lunch!

How did we begin? What have been the highlights of our Ten Year History? Who do we have to thank for our amazing successes?

“The Secret,” a one-man play by award-winning playwright and actor Lee Weaver will be staged at the St. Augustine Waterworks, 184 San Marco Ave., St. Augustine, FL, 32084, at 7 pm on September 8th.

Weaver will portray a man in search of Jews, forbidden in the New World by the tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition.

“The Secret” (written and performed by Lee Weaver) is a two-hour presentation about a Spanish Inquisition “Finder” who crosses the Atlantic with Pedro Menendez in 1565. His task: find Jews in the New World and turn them into the authorities. “The Secret” is about adventure. on the high seas, love, family, hiding, discovery, torture, life and death, Judaism, The Church, The Law, and the Rack!

Have questions? Please call 904-907-7987

There is NO CHARGE to attend this two-hour presentation

This play is presented as part of the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society’s celebration of its 10th year and the 457th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, Florida.

This program is made possible through the generosity of The St. Johns Cultural Council and the City of St. Augustine.

Ninth Annual Commemoration of the Largest Mass Arrest of Rabbis
to be held at the
Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront,
Friday June 17 at 12 pm.

St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society to explore the history of
Temple Bet Yam, May 11th at 2 p.m.

The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society will explore the history of Temple Bet Yam, with a program in the synagogue’s facility at 2055 Wildwood Drive, St. Augustine, Florida 32086, on Wednesday, May 11th at 2 p.m. The program will include presentations by Temple Bet Yam founders Shelly and Marty Cohen, Carol Gladstone, Joan Guglielmo, and Donna and Elliott Palevsky. The program is open to the public, all are welcome. There is no charge. No advance arrangements need be made.

Founded in 1993, the establishment of Bet Yam is a local expression of a seismic shift within the world of American Jewry toward a more liberal understanding and interpretation of Jewish Heritage.

Jewish Community Alliance of Jacksonville will be hosting an overview of the Jewish History of St. Augustine, presented by the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society at
7 pm on Thursday, March 3, 2022.

The event will take place at the JCA’s facilities at 8505 San Jose Blvd. Jacksonville, Florida 32217. This program is open to all, free of charge and no advance arrangements are necessary. Ample parking is available.

The overview will begin with the presence of Jews at the 1565 founding of the first European settlement in what would become the United States of America. The era of Moses Elias Levy who carved out a Utopian plantation for world Jewry in lands from Ocala to Astor, Florida in the 1820s will lead to the oldest Jewish cemetery in Florida and the grave of Gershon Poznanski buried in St. Augustine during Hanukkah 1839. The arrival of Eastern European Jews in the decades that followed 1880 and the establishment of First Congregation Sons of Israel will flow naturally to the largest mass arrest of Rabbis in US History that took place at the Monson Hotel on Avenida Menendez on June 18, 1964. The arrest of the Rabbis, in St. Augustine at the request of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—and to the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner of Mississippi Burning fame in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

The St. Augustine City Commission to Proclaim January as
“St. Augustine Jewish History Month”

Please come with us to the St. Augustine City Commission Chambers on Monday, January 10th at 5 pm. in The Alcazar Room on the first floor of City Hall, located at 75 King Street in downtown St. Augustine.

At that time, the City Commission will be proclaiming January as “St. Augustine Jewish History Month,” recognizing the many contributions of Jews to the community from its founding in 1565 down to the present day.

In October of 2003, Governor Jeb Bush signed a historic bill into law designating January of
each year as Florida Jewish History Month. . It seemed appropriate to honor Jewish contributions to the State, as sixteen percent, over 850,000 people of the American Jewish community lives in Florida. Marcia Zerivitz is largely responsible for the designation in her role as the Chief Ambassador of Florida’s Jewish History.

There is no charge for attending St. Augustine City Commission meetings. All are welcome. It is likely that the City Government will gauge the meaning of this proclamation, in part, through attendance. So please bring your family and friends. The proclamation is made near the beginning of the meeting. You are welcome to stay for the remainder of the meeting or to leave after a short time. But do make plans to join us for just a few minutes at 5 pm. Monday January 10th.

Join us for a visit to First Congregation Sons of Israel

You are welcome (as are your family and friends) to join the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society as we visit the oldest synagogue in Florida in continuous use, First Congregation Sons of Israel on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at 1 pm. Simply meet us at the synagogue found at 161 Cordoba Street, St. Augustine, 32084. There is no charge for this event, no advance arrangements are necessary. Limited off-street and on street parking is available.

There are older Jewish congregations in Florida! There are older synagogue buildings in Florida. The two older synagogue buildings are found in Ocala and Pensacola. One is an Elks Lodge and the other a church! There is no synagogue in Florida holding regular services every week than First Congregation Sons of Israel in St. Augustine!

It’s time we all learned more about the remarkable nature of this building, built just a few hundred yards south of the old Ponce de Leon Hotel in an era when no Jews were permitted to stay as overnight guests!