June 3, 2005/Iyar 25 5765, Volume 57, No. 40
Mapping the past
DAVID FEINBERG
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 Peggy Neiman proudly points to the location of her 1950s abode. Inset: Central Phoenix was the hotspot of Jewish life decades ago. Photo by David Feinberg |
Then the AJHS received another call from David Kazan, formerly in the nursery business, inquiring about the strawberry fields that used to be on 35th Street and Thomas Road.
And the idea of "Map It" was born.
As part of this program, AJHS invites Jewish residents of Phoenix to place stickers, color-coded by decade, on the location of their first residence. AJHS wants to visually represent the shifting center of Jewish community and residences in the Valley over time.
The few purple stickers are for the people who first settled in Phoenix in the 40s. Orange is for the 50s, black for the 60s, and pink for the 70s. The project, which started May 22 at the CutlerAPlotkin Jewish Heritage Center, will be ongoing throughout the Valley.
On May 25, the Chris Ridge Village Health Center hosted the project.
Neiman stood proudly over the map and pointed to a solitary black circle in Mesa. "This was Mayor Al Brooks' drugstore," Neiman said, grinning. Neiman migrated westward from Baltimore in 1953 to escape inclement weather and to help her ex-husband start a real estate company.
Anne Schindler stood and placed an orange circle on Osborn, marking her first home. "This was the northernmost part of the city back then," Schindler said. "My daughter was ill and we brought her down here so she could recover." Schindler and her husband had sold their grocery store in Iowa and trekked cross-country in 1952.
Rita Desman and her husband, Sol, also left the mercurial Midwest weather to try and eradicate their son's asthma.
Desman, Schindler, Neiman and Mary Rakow (who placed a purple sticker on the map - 1942) exchanged recollections about what was where back in the "golden era" of Phoenix's Jewish community. The Westward Ho, they agreed, was host to many glamorous downtown parties. The drive-in theater on Seventh Street and Missouri Avenue was a staple of social life, Bell Road was still gravel and the stores in Scottsdale closed during summertime.
Today, the group's collective memory creates a celebratory atmosphere of lives lived long and full.
Call AJHS, 602-241-7870, or e-mail AzJHS@aol.com.
David Feinberg is a freelance writer in Phoenix.