In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill-gotten riches, from an early-twentieth-century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity.
Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed.
Rachel Kaufman's first poetry collection, Many to Remember (Dos Madres Press, 2021), enters the archive’s unconscious to reveal the melodies hidden within the language of the past. The collection unravels Kaufman's historical research on New Mexican crypto-Judaism and the Mexican Inquisition alongside the poet’s own family histories. This presentation will explore questions of history, memory, mythology, and translation. How can poetry translate history and the rhythms and form of the archive?
Arizona Memory Project - Arizona Jewish Historical Society
The archives of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society contain over 50,000 unique photographs, documents, artifacts and other memorabilia. They have conducted over 250 oral history and 100 video history interviews with local Jewish residents.
Jewish Historical Society of San Diego Archives
The Jewish Historical Society of San Diego maintains an archives of documents, records, photographs and papers, of the San Diego Jewish community. Working with the Jewish Studies Program and Special Collections at San Diego State University, the JHSSD Archives is the only repository dedicated to this purpose.
New Mexico Jewish Historical Society
Since the early 1990s, NMJHS has been actively engaged in the collection and preservation of New Mexico Jewish family histories, including the history of Crypto-Jews, through research and oral history interviews.
Southwest Jewish Archives
Until recently, little has been written documenting the pioneer Jewish experience. Visitors to this website learn that Jewish pioneers not only built Jewish communities, but that they also made significant contributions to the development of the U.S. Southwest.
Video Histories of Arizona Jewish Residents
[Videos accessible online]
The collection consists of short video interviews of notable Jewish residents in the Greater Phoenix area. Subjects share memories which span from Arizona's admittance to the Union up until the collection's creation in 2008-2009. This collection was produced by the Arizona Jewish Historical Society.