Abigail Gumbiner Abigail Gumbiner defies the adage “you can’t go home again.” On Sept. 14 she will speak at the Jewish History Museum of Tucson about photos she and two other artists have contributed to the current exhibit “Temple of Shadows.” The exhibit title refers to the building that many in… Read more »
"Lights on Shadows" by Abigail Gumbiner The Jewish History Museum will present Temple of Shadows, a photography exhibit, from Aug. 20 through Nov. 1. A set of 15 prints shows the museum, formerly the Stone Avenue Temple… Read more »
A photo of Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg in the early 1940s is surrounded by a few of her beloved shul hats. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum) The Jewish History Museum’s summer exhibit, “Skullcaps and Shul Hats,” which runs through June 30, focuses on two family collections of head coverings. One is a collection of elegant shul hats worn by Tucsonan Nicki Lasky’s mother, Sara Kaplowitz Greenberg. They range from “fascinators,” small, often feathered decorative headpieces,… Read more »
On Sunday, April 6 from 2-4 p.m., the Jewish History Museum will hold a dedication of an Eshet Chayil (Woman of Valor) stained glass window honoring Eileen Warshaw, who died earlier this month. Warshaw was instrumental in establishing the museum on the site of the Stone Avenue Temple after… Read more »
Models pose at the home of Catherene Morton prior to the Jewish History Museum’s bridal style show on Jan. 1. (Athol Cline/JHM) Exotic gowns in red, purple and gold as well as the traditional white are on display at the Jewish History Museum’s sixth annual ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) and wedding dress exhibit, which continues through March 30. The exhibit features gowns from the 1500s to 2010, with origins from New… Read more »
Giffords honored with Jewish Heritage Award More than 250 people turned out as the Jewish History Museum honored Gabrielle Giffords with the 2013 Jewish Heritage Award on Sunday, Nov. 3 at the Marriott University Park. Barry Friedman, JHM president (pictured at right), presented the award to Giffords as her… Read more »
Eileen Warshaw Eileen Warshaw is stepping down at the end of January as executive director of the Jewish History Museum, an institution she helped create. “I am retiring because a decade of commitment here has laid a great foundation. Now it’s time for new energy, new thoughts, new programming to come… Read more »
This wall at the Holocaust History Center presents information on 120 of the survivors who have lived in Southern Arizona since the 1940s. The center is seeking information on 110 other survivors who have lived here. (Martha Lochert) The Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 20. The inaugural exhibit at the center goes “from dark to light,” with one long wall presenting the history of the Holocaust and the opposite wall dedicated to the lives of 230… Read more »
Gabrielle Giffords Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will receive the 2013 Jewish Heritage Award at the Jewish History Museum’s annual brunch and silent auction on Sunday, Nov. 3 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. The event will take place at the Tucson Marriott University Park, 880 E. Second Street. The award is… Read more »
Holocaust survivors Meyer and Susan Neuman with their children, Rosie (left) and Phillip upon arrival in Tucson. (Courtesy Rosie Eilat-Kahn) Although the mission of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum is to tell the stories of Jewish settlers in the American Southwest, the museum is about to highlight another imperative. After raising funds for expansion and purchasing the building on the adjoining Stone Avenue property four years ago, “we started doing… Read more »
A Tucson Walking Tour in Women’s History, presented by the Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail, draws from the significant involvement of Jewish women in the city’s history. Take the former residence of Theresa Marx Ferrin at the corner of Meyer and Cushing Streets. Ferrin and her family lived in the… Read more »
One of the oldest gowns in the Jewish History Museum exhibit was worn in 1702. The gown was shown in the museum’s first ketubah exhibit and was so fragile it was kept behind glass. It has since been restored at the Costume and Textile Study Center in Norfolk, England, and has been donated to the JHM permanent collection. Three dark-colored wedding gowns will be spotlighted in the Jewish History Museum’s Fifth Annual Ketubah exhibit, which opens Jan. 1, including a Virginia widow’s gown of black satin with a collar trim of white lace. The bride who wore it, Elizabeth Rachel Richardson, was a wealthy confederate widow, says… Read more »
Pictured (L-R) in front of the Holocaust History Center space under renovation: Lily Brull, Holocaust survivor; Rosie Eilat-Kahn, chair, Holocaust Education & Commemoration Project/HHC advisory board; Barry A. Friedman, president, Jewish History Museum/HHC; Howard Schneider, vice president, JHM/HHC; Stuart Mellan, president and CEO, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona; Bryan Davis, director, HECP (Photo: Athol Cline/JHM) The Holocaust Education & Commemoration Project of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish History Museum are opening a new exhibit space at the museum dedicated to Holocaust history. The newly renovated space will be located in an 1880s Arizona Territorial house directly north of the museum… Read more »
Barry Friedman The Jewish History Museum will honor Barry Friedman with the 2012 Jewish Heritage Award at its annual luncheon later this month. Designed to honor an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the museum’s mission and to the larger Southern Arizona community, the award recognizes Friedman’s contribution to preserving… Read more »
Joseph Toltz, Ph.D. (Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Musical memories have helped Holocaust survivors deal with their trauma, a connection Joseph Toltz, Ph.D., has researched for the past 14 years. Toltz will lecture on “The Accidental Pioneer: Music from David Broder’s 1946 Work in the Displaced Persons Camps of Europe” at the Tucson Jewish Community Center on… Read more »
The Jewish History Museum has begun cataloging and archiving artifacts in its permanent collection, thanks to partial funding from the Arizona Humanities Council. Photographs of many of the artifacts may be viewed on the museumís website, jewishhistorymuseum.org (click on the artifacts tab). Among the artifacts are over 40,000 paper… Read more »
Nancy K. Miller A Jewish uncle who was the first mayor of South Tucson, a family past discovered as an adult, ownership of unknown property in Israel — all this, and more, contribute to the story of Nancy K. Miller’s family. Miller, the author of “What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish… Read more »
Charles Moses Strauss, the first Jewish mayor of Tucson, Arizona Territory (elected 1883), with his son, Charles junior. Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum, explains that Strauss was actually a very dapper gentleman. The Western “duds” he and his son are wearing in this photo were photographer’s props. (Courtesy Jewish History Museum) Tucson has a rich Jewish history, which the Jewish community will celebrate during the city’s Arizona Centennial Weekend from Feb. 10 to 12. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum and one of the co-chairs of the Downtown Centennial Celebration Committee.… Read more »
The Jewish History Museum will hold the grand opening of its fourth annual ketubah exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 1 from 2 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will be on display Jan. 4 through Feb. 5 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Fridays from… Read more »
Scene from the 2010 Tucon Meet Yourself Festival (Steven Meckler) Tucson’s Jewish community will have a significant presence at the Tucson Meet Yourself Festival this weekend. In celebration of the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which started Thursday, the Jewish History Museum will house its festival booth in a sukkah (which is apropos, as the word “sukkah” means “booth”)… Read more »
