Rabbi Merrill Shapiro Presents: “The Jewish History of Florida”

Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, formerly adjunct faculty at the University of Central Florida, serves as chairman of the Board of Directors for the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society.  The organization’s founding in November 2011 was prompted by a St. Augustine Archeological Association discussion about the possibility that hidden Jews (Conversos forced by the Spanish Inquisition to convert to Catholicism) may have been on the ships that arrived in St. Augustine with Pedro Menendez in 1565.  Rabbi Shapiro will speak about the history of Florida’s Jewish community.