AGENCIES & ORGANIZATIONS
Jewish Agencies & Organizations Jewish Media Jewish Tax Credit Organizations
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RESOURCE GUIDE 2020-2021 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE
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ommunity is the primary organizing structure of Jewish life. Wherever Jews have lived, they have built synagogues, established communal organizations and communal governance systems. The discovery of gold in Arizona brought many new residents to the state from 1862 to 1864. Most of them came from California, and they included many Jewish businessmen. Beginning in the 1880s, people from the East Coast arrived in Arizona in hopes of a cure for their tuberculosis. During the mining boom in Tombstone in 1881, the first organized Jewish community in the state emerged with Samuel Blace as its president. A B’nai B’rith lodge was established in Tucson in 1882. From about the time of Arizona’s statehood in 1912, an increasing number of Jewish professionals emerged, mainly in law and medicine. The Jewish population grew rapidly after World War II, and synagogues and temples existed in Tucson, Phoenix, Mesa and Scottsdale. The first Jewish Community Center opened in Phoenix in 1945 in a small house on North Fourth Street. Membership in a Jewish community has always demanded a sense of shared destiny, manifested in the obligation to care for other members of the community, as well as in the joy of partaking in others’ celebrations. As community and individual needs shifted in subsequent decades, some organizations faded while others evolved, and new groups arose to meet the needs of 21st century America. Following are the organizations that today meet the needs of Jews living in Arizona.
