Tagged Jewish History Museum

Human rights lawyer appointed as new Jewish History Museum director

Gugulethu Moyo, executive director of the Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center in Tucson (Photo courtesy Moyo)

Gugulethu Moyo, the new executive director of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center, comes to the job with a unique set of qualifications, encompassing both her career as an international human rights lawyer and her personal Jewish journey. In November, the museum’s board of directors unanimously approved her appointment… Read more »

Davis leaving Tucson’s Jewish History Museum to lead Baltimore museum

Sol Davis talks to middle school students from the Paulo Freire Freedom School at the Holocaust History Center in May 2018. (Photo courtesy Jewish History Museum)

As director of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center for the past five years, Sol Davis, Ph.D., helped expand the possibilities for Jewish museums nationwide. “He took this idea and transformed it into a living testament of what a museum should be, which is not a place to store… Read more »

Jewish History Museum virtual benefit to honor Rabbi Stephanie Aaron

Rabbi-AaronRabbi Stephanie Aaron speaks June 6, 2017 at the Jewish History Museum in Tucson. [Photo: Steven Michael Braun)

“Be Strong and of Good Courage” (Deuteronomy 31:7) is the title for the Jewish History Museum’s 10th annual fall benefit, which will be held virtually on Sunday, Nov. 1. This year’s benefit honors Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim. “I think of Rabbi Aaron as my primary partner in… Read more »

Jewish History Museum offers online film and book clubs

The Jewish History Museum has launched a summer film club, with Zoom discussion groups twice a month on Sundays at 2 p.m. Participants can watch the films on their own in advance of the discussions. “We know that this is a moment where connection is vital, as the need for… Read more »

Jewish community stands up for racial justice

Tony Zinman, co-founder of Tucson Jews for Justice, attends a candlelight vigil in Tucson June 1, one week after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapoolis. (Courtesy Zinman)

The Southern Arizona Jewish community has joined communities across the globe in expressing outrage at the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. And it is grappling with how best to support the struggle for racial justice. On June… Read more »

JHM and Paisanos Unidos offer legal advice and food to immigrant community

Groceries for distribution to the immigrant community are set outside the Jewish History Museum, June 7. (Courtesy Laurie Melrood)

Paisanos Unidos (Citizens United) is an immigrant self-defense organization that works to inform members of the immigrant community about their rights while living and working in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jewish History Museum has partnered with the organization to provide an outdoor space in which… Read more »

Business briefs 5.1.20

The Jewish History Museum will receive a CORE grant of $15,000 from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, which has granted over $2.1 million to nonprofit organizations providing immediate relief during the coronavirus crisis. The most recent round of grants includes $120,000 from CFSA’s COVID-19 Response Funds, $720,000 in general… Read more »

Jewish History Museum program enriches TPD officer training

Bryan Davis, executive director of the Jewish History Museum, leads cadets from the Southern Arizona Law Enforcement Training Center on a tour of the Holocaust History Center, Jan. 11, 2017. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum)

“What You Do Matters: Lessons from the Holocaust” is an educational partnership initiated in early 2017 between the Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center and law enforcement in Arizona. The program parallels the “Law Enforcement and Society: The Lessons of the Holocaust” initiative launched by the Jewish Community Foundation of… Read more »

Southern Arizona Yom HaShoah observance to be held online

Editor’s note: To allow for the implementation of enhanced security protections, the registration links have been updated to. Visit  https://www.jewishhistorymuseum.org/yomhashoah2020 In accordance with social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Southern Arizona’s community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration this year will take place online at www.jewishhistorymuseum.org between the hours… Read more »

Jewish History Museum seeks entries for new pandemic-era archive

Items from the Oyneg Shabes Archive buried beneath the Warsaw Ghetto include a class schedule in Hebrew and a report on the spread of typhus. (Photos: Ringelblum Archive, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland)

In 1910, a time capsule filled with ephemera was placed in the cornerstone of the historic temple that now serves as the flagship building of the Jewish History Museum. The capsule was buried in the building as part of the inaugural set of projects, services, and celebrations that surrounded… Read more »

Remembering Douglas’s forgotten pioneer Jews along the Mexican border

A grave stands vandalized at the Bisbee-Douglas Jewish cemetery, March 11, 2020. (Mary Levy Peachin)

Time has been harsh to this graveyard. The Bisbee-Douglas Jewish Cemetery has been desecrated by vandals, student initiations, truck drivers busting through the barbed wire fence, party-goers, and more than a century of neglect. The scene is grim. Looming 100 yards to the south, the U.S.-Mexico border wall distracts.… Read more »

JHM vandalism symptom of rising anti-Semitism

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These are troubling times. Anti-Semitic threats and messages are escalating all around us. Three weeks ago, the words “Hail Hitler” (sic) were found scrawled on an exhibit inside our Holocaust History Center. March 5, a man brazenly unfurled a Nazi flag as Senator Bernie Sanders took the stage at… Read more »

Ongoing human rights struggles inform work of Holocaust History Center

On Feb. 21, 2020, the Jewish History Museum will mark four years since the opening of the Holocaust History Center and the expansion of the museum’s campus. The creation of the Holocaust History Center marked the realization of a decades-old community aspiration that began in the 1960s when local Holocaust… Read more »

At Jewish History Museum, author to share ideas for combating ‘anti-social’ media

Andrew Marantz speaks at an April 2019 TED talk.

Extremism has hijacked the global social media conversation. Most of our lives — not just social life but news and entertainment that form our worldview — is online. The once-beautiful dream of a free internet — now a huge, irredeemable dumpster fire — is increasingly corrupted by conspiracy and… Read more »

Jewish History Museum, AME church reach out to community

(L-R) Rabbi Thomas Louchheim of Congregation Or Chadash, Bryan Davis of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum, and Pastor Margaret Redmond McFaddin of Prince Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church speak at the ‘No Hate No Fear’ solidarity rally Jan. 12 in Barrio Viejo. Photo Courtesy JHM

About 160 people filled the forecourt of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum on Sunday, Jan. 12, for a “No Hate. No Fear” solidarity rally organized by the museum and its next-door neighbor, the Prince Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The rally was a response to rising anti-Semitism in the United… Read more »

JHM to debut Sephardic and Mizrahi Festival

Miriam Peretz, left, and Rachel Valfer of the Ladino Project will perform ‘MADRE’ in Tucson on Feb. 2.

The Jewish History Museum is sponsoring “In Diaspora We Are Many,” a festival that explores the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish cultures. The festival will take place Friday, Jan. 31 through Sunday, Feb. 2.  This is the museum’s first Sephardic and Mizrahi festival.    “We are holding a Sephardic and… Read more »

Jewish History Museum courses to delve into Jewish life in borderlands

Maxwell Greenberg

Maxwell Ezra Greenberg will be the inaugural scholar-in-residence at the Jewish History Museum, beginning in January. “Greenberg’s work, which focuses on Jewish encounters and intersections with what he calls Latinidad, has drawn him to Southern Arizona, the Jewish History Museum, and the Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives at the University… Read more »

On border issues, Jewish values spur community work

Jewish community members rally in support of humanitarian Scott Warren on Nov. 12, the opening day of his retrial at the federal courthouse in Tucson. Those in attendance included Rabbi Avi Alpert, Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, Jewish Community Relations Council Chair Mo Goldman, Jewish History Museum Executive Director Bryan Davis, and JHM board member Eric Schindler. Photo: Stephen Shawl

A collaborative Jewish community initiative that sprang from the Oct. 24 day of a learning journey to the U.S.-Mexico border at Nogales, Arizona, continues to move forward. “There are clearly two tracks of interest that emerged from the initial education event,” Jewish History Museum Director Bryan Davis told the… Read more »

John Polacheck

John W. Polacheck, M.D., 77, died Nov. 25, 2019, in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Polacheck was born on April 10, 1942 in Milwaukee, where he grew up with his parents, Walter and Shirley Polacheck, and his younger siblings Linda, Mary, and Tom. After graduating as the valedictorian from Riverside High… Read more »