Subject Line: You are invited: Civil Rights History Revisited in St Augustine

Event Details (free and open to the public):

Hosts: St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society (SAJHS), St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Mobile Museum of Tolerance

What: 13th Annual Commemoration of the Mass Arrest of Rabbis

When: Wednesday, June 18, 2025 promptly 12 Noon

Where: St. Johns County Jail Annex, 3955 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL

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

Friends of SAJHS, 

On Wednesday, June 18 history will come full circle in St. Augustine at the St Johns County jail Annex. This is where, six decades ago, 16 rabbis and a Jewish administrator were incarcerated for answering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s request to come to St. Augustine and help protest racial injustice.

On the afternoon of June 18th, 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. 

This year’s event will feature remarks from local leaders, including the founder of SAJHS, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline, who will read the rabbis’ extraordinary letter aloud. 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.

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.