It’s nice and easy to be kind, generous and welcoming to people who are a lot like us. In fact, many of us make special efforts to make sure we don’t come into much contact with people who are different! A few of us may even live in gated communities to make extra sure we have no accidental encounters with people who are not like us, who do not share the same values, abide by the same principles even speak the same language as we do. Are we happy this way? Why? Why not?

About our Speaker:
Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, the President of the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society studied Electrical Engineering at Cornell University and New Jersey Institute of Technology.  He was a student in Jewish Studies and Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and The Ohio State University and served as a Graduate Research Assistant at Melton Research Centre for Jewish Education in the Diaspora at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has also been a Yad Vashem Scholar at Israel’s Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. He was an Instructor of Jewish History at the University of Central Florida and a frequent Road Scholar and currently an OLLI Educator at the University of North Florida. Shapiro served congregations in Columbus, Ohio, Orlando, Florida and Richmond, Virginia. Shapiro is the Immediate Past National President of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He and his wife Robyn live in Palm Coast, Florida and have two daughters and five grandchildren.