Shema Arizona is a website developed in a collaboration of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society and Arizona State University Libraries and funded by a grant from the Library Services and Technology Act.

The website has transcriptions of some 65 oral histories taken by AJHS. In addition, photos, sound excerpts, graphics and music will enhance this rich resource for learning about the development of the Arizona Jewish community.

Shema Arizona Website

Here's a sampling of the content to expect when you visit the site:.

Excerpt from the interview:

On lessons learned bucking bales of hay in Safford

If someone needed a ton of hay, my father would tell me, here, deliver this to so and so, and I would go back to Solomon and get the hay and deliver it. This was my high school deal for one summer. I learned a few very, very important lessons which have never left me.

INTERVIEWER: Like?

The best one I remember, and the man that taught it to me was a fellow in Safford by the name of Wert. I was delivering a load of hay to, I think, the Ellsworths. The Ellsworths were very prominent. I was to deliver it to their barn. When I got there, Mr. Wert, who was their foreman, said, "Alright, put the truck over here. I have to stack the hay." He had a wall that was about 12 feet high. It was another four feet higher than this. I pulled the truck up there. He says, "What do you want to do. Do you want to buck the bales off or do you want to stack them?" Well, it was so simple and so obvious, that the least work would be to take the bales from the top of the truck and just throw them over the wall and let him stack them. This is snap judgment.

The only thing I did not remember, is that every layer, and there were about six layers of bales, and bales are about as big as this desk. Every layer that you toss to him you go down one layer. So eventually, it gets to a point where you have to take the bales and raise them up and over to get up over the wall. As you do this, every layer becomes tougher and harder and more difficult and hotter. And the sweat is running in your eyes. And the hay leaves are running in your nose. And he is down there laughing his head off. Because he knew he pulled a fast one on me.

That taught me then and there, what looks easy right now might turn out to be very tough. So now I sometimes give it a second thought. I never forget that.

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