Synagogue Unearths 100-Year-Old Time Capsule
As the old saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. That was certainly the case yesterday when deteriorating documents, newspapers and coins were unearthed at the Jewish History Museum in Tucson, which once served as Arizona’s first synagogue. The items were found in a time capsule buried inside a cornerstone of the building 100 years ago by members of the original congregation.
Hundreds of people gathered for the ceremony, including the family of Eva Goldschmidt Mansfeld, who pushed for the first temple’s construction in 1910 and donated the land for its creation.
“It was almost overwhelming,” Amanda Manspeaker Weiss, Mansfeld’s great-great-granddaughter, told the Arizona Daily Star. “I feel proud to be here and see all of this. It’s my family’s history. It’s awesome.”
Since the synagogue first opened on October 23, 1910, it has hosted a Reform congregation, 11 different churches and other groups. Today it’s the home of the museum.
At the celebration, a 2010 time capsule was placed in the ground — filled with, among other things, 2010 U.S. coins, local newspapers and an American flag with 48 stars that was carried in Tucson in 1912 — to be opened 100 years from now.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30