KGUN9 News

October  24, 2010

Reported by: Jessica Chapin

TUCSON (KGUN9- TV)- After one hundred years, a piece of Tucson history is now on display. Tucson’s Jewish History Museum revealed a century-old time capsule Sunday, hidden in the cornerstone of their building, formerly the state’s first Jewish temple.

Hundreds gathered outside to watch the capsule excavation. It was placed in June 1910, two years before Arizona became a state. At the time, Tucson’s population was just 13 thousand. To some, witnessing the contents of the box was like witnessing the perseverance of their community.

“They came when there was nothing here,” said Joan Elder, “and especially for Jewish people to leave the comforts of New York where there were other Jewish people and come out here where it was wild at that time. It’s just very exciting to me.”

The capsule contained copies of the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen from 1910, with headlines describing possible state-hood. It also included coins and a Masonic medal.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had the honor of removing the box from the stone.

“I could just feel the power and the history as I removed the box from the cornerstone,” she said, “and to be here in Tucson Arizona thinking what it was like a hundred years ago and then seeing the box put back in by a young child who hopefully will be here a hundred years from now, it’s very humbling.”

In full Masonic ritual, a new time capsule took its place. The contents include a copy of Sunday’s newspaper, a set of 2010 coins, brief histories on the museum and holocaust survivors of Southern Arizona, and both the American and Israeli flags.

The Jewish History Museum will sell individual time capsules open to anyone for the rest of the year. They will be placed in a crypt behind the museum for the next century.