Honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day: April 15-16

Historic City News readers are invited to attend the April meeting of St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society; honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 16th, including a special guest speaker, Dr. Keith Schlegel, Professor Emeritus of English at Frostburg State University.

Professor Schlegel will provide the audience with a historical overview of patterns used to resist Anti-Semitism, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, during the meeting on April 16th.

“Centuries of anti-Semitism forced Jews to develop strategies for survival,” Professor Schlegel told local reporters. “For good reasons, preparing armed resistance and rebellion was not contemplated.”

In its place, Professor Schlegel explains how Jewish endurance, until the mid-20th century, was assured through more subtle approaches that included making friends of the powerful, keeping a low profile, assimilating socially, and instituting social welfare to protect the powerless.

Their tactics included bribing those who could offer assistance, pretending to convert, preparing means to hide or escape, making themselves useful, or even indispensable, and, complying in anticipation of worse measures to come.

If you plan to attend this free public event on the Flagler College Campus, the gathering will take place in the Flagler Room on the first floor of the former Ponce de Leon Hotel, located at 74 King Street in St. Augustine, from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. All are welcome and no advance reservation is necessary.