Daily Podcasts Video Research

This rabbi made history in the civil rights era. I had to tell his story.

JL;DR SUMMARY In the early 1960s, Rabbi Allen Secher was among 16 rabbis who responded to Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for support in St. Augustine, Florida, a city embroiled in the civil rights struggle. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Reform JudaismSocial JusticeProtestsCivil RightsCivil Rights ActRabbisMartin Luther King Jr.St. AugustineAllen SecherJewish Black Relations

Places mentioned

St. Augustine, Florida, United States
"St. Augustine, Florida is a city of firsts."
Albany, Georgia, United States
"He first met King in Albany, Georgia in 1962."
Long Island, New York, United States
"Bailed out after a week wading in sewage up to his ankles, he received a heros welcome back home in Long Island."
Mexico City, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
"Secher moved on to a new congregation in Mexico City, which went well until the day he began organizing a food drive for the homeless."
Chicago, Illinois, United States
"Earlier, I flew to Chicago to meet Secher, who has the bittersweet distinction of outliving his 15 fellow St. Augustine rabbis."
Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States
"King reached out on June 17, 1964, to a Reform rabbi convention in Atlantic City seeking backup for his Southern Christian Leadership Council."
Whitefish, Montana, United States
"One of his antagonists in his new home town, Whitefish, was the inflammatory Richard Spencer, the alt right white nationalist and one of the leaders of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia."
Glencoe, Illinois, United States
"The play will also be staged July 13 at Temple Am Shalom in Glencoe, Illinois."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 84714
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2026-06-12 18:00:28 UTC
Curated 2026-06-12 19:00:32 UTC