On June 17, 1964, Rabbi Allen Secher, answered an emergency appeal from the Reverend Martin Luther King. He immediately flew to St. Augustine to join a civil rights protest hampered by violent attacks, fire bombings and death threats directed at King and leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Council.

The following day Secher and 15 fellow rabbis were arrested by Ku Klux Klan sheriff’s deputies in the midst of a parking lot prayer service at the segregated Monson Motel.

Their jailing, as well as images of the motel owner dumping muriatic acid on black and white teens attempting to integrate his Monson pool, were horrifying lead media stories coast to coast. This Adam Bell performance profiles a turning point in American civil rights history. He portrays 91 year-old Allen Secher, the last of the 16 rabbis arrested in St. Augustine Florida, still alive.

This protest led directly to the passage of the Civil Rights Act the day after the rabbis were arrested. While they were in prison the rabbis wrote a letter explaining Why We Went that has been called “one of the most dignified and prescient documents of that pivotal era.” It has been compared to King’s letter from the Birmingham jail by former United Nations ambassador Andrew Young who was repeatedly beaten near the St. Augustine Slave Market.

When The Rabbis Came to Town profiles Secher’s seven decade battle against racism and and anti-semetism across America. Sixty-two years later, the victories those rabbis helped secure are under open assault. Secher knows this. It is why why he agreed to have his story told on the Am Shalom stage by Adam Bell and join him for an audience discussion. It is also why he will stand in front of that jail on June 18 and read the letter aloud again.

This event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by Am Shalom Rabbi Steve Lowenstein and the Heartland Independent Film and Drama Forum. For more information contact rogerdrapoport@me.com or call (231) 720-0930 (voice only).