The settlement of the Arizona territory, followed the California Gold Rush of 1848-1850. When gold was found in Arizona, many people moved there from 1862 to 1864, including many Jewish businessmen who had originally settled in California. When many of the gold mines’ resources were exhausted or proven economically non-viable, many of the mining towns were abandoned. But the pioneer Jewish families arrived and found other opportunities. Among these early Jewish settlers was Michael Goldwater, who was born Michel Goldwasser in Poland, grandfather of U.S. Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (whose mother was Episcopalian and raised him in that faith). Goldwater worked as a government contractor, a wholesale and retail merchant, a mine operator and a forwarding agent. His son, Morris served as Mayor of Prescott, AZ for 22 years. 

Other prominent Arizonan Jews were Charles and Harry Lesinsky who operated copper mines outside of Clifton, AZ in the mid-1870s, and to facilitate deliveries, built Arizona’s first railway. In the 1870s, people who lived in the Eastern United States moved to Arizona seeking palliation to their tuberculosis in Arizona’s desert air.

In 1881, the first organized Jewish community was founded in Tombstone, AZ, while a B’nai B’rith lodge was launched in Tucson, AZ in 1882. With official statehood in 1912, more Jewish families moved to Arizona, mostly professionals such as doctors and lawyers, and those in merchandising. The Jewish population skyrocketed after World War II in the communities with existing Jewish communities, namely Tucson, Phoenix, Mesa and Scottsdale.

In 2000, the Jewish population of Arizona was recorded as 120,000, and as of 2017, it had declined slightly to 106,725. About 2/3 of Arizona’s Jews reside in the greater Phoenix area and the other third in the Tucson area, although Jewish communities are also found in Flagstaff, Kingman, Lake Havasu, Sedona and Yuma.

On February 14, 1912, Arizona was admitted as the 48th and final contiguous U.S. state.

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