HEADLINES | 5
SPECIAL PULLOUT | B1
DECEMBER EVENTS
SENIOR LIFESTYLE
Celebrations this month designed to bring Greater Phoenix’s Jewish community together
Honoring a special senior, fitness fun and Indiana Jones is back
DECEMBER 2, 2022 | KISLEV 8, 5783 | VOLUME 75, NUMBER 6
Mark Sklar, Jewish philanthropist, iconic real estate developer and respected mentor, dies at 74 SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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esidents of Greater Phoenix will likely remember Mark Sklar as a real estate developer who helped shape the city’s growth, or as a philanthropist who gave generously of his time and money to Jewish and secular causes. But those lucky enough to have known him well, will remember him as a great but humble man who loved his family, made friends everywhere and lived life to its fullest measure — a man who embodied both wisdom and exuberance in equal parts. Sklar died at home in Phoenix on Nov. 11. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1948, and grew up in Milwaukee. He met his future wife, JoAnn (Cookie), at Camp Ojibwa, where both children were part of a theatrical production. Their families lived close and the two grew up in similar circles. Sklar returned to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin and when Cookie transferred there after her sophomore year, it didn’t take long for them to fall in love. (Sklar also fell in love with Badger basketball. He was a sports fan generally, but college basketball was his favorite, and he always had seats to the Final Four. And if Wisconsin was playing, “it was total chaos and excitement,” said Michael Sklar, his son. “He lived for his Badgers.”) Sklar and Cookie married in 1969, moved to Arizona and had SEE MARK SKLAR, PAGE 2
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Spielberg draws from his Jewish upbringing in semi-autobiographical film KATHY SHAYNA SHOCKET
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n one of the early scenes of Steven Spielberg’s new film, “The Fabelmans,” the family is driving home on a winter night. Their young son, Sammy, points out he knows which home on the street is theirs, as it is the dark one among all the others adorned with Christmas lights. The Fabelmans are a fictional family. But it’s one of the scenes where Spielberg draws from his own early memories, growing up in mostly non-Jewish neighborhoods. Through the Fabelman family and Spielberg’s real-life experiences, the movie artistically captures the Jewish American experience in the 1950s and 1960s and reflects Spielberg’s own Jewish upbringing in three different cities. The semi-autobiographical movie shares the joy of unwrapping Chanukah gifts and traditional Shabbat family gatherings. There are various scenes filled with the Jewish culinary favorites of brisket and challah, a peppering of Yiddish expressions and wisdom offered from bubbes and a great uncle. Highlighted with the origins of what shaped Spielberg’s infatuation and steadfast dream to make movies, this is also very much a story of family relationships.
Steven Spielberg, right, directs Gabriel LaBelle on the set of “The Fabelmans.” COURTESY OF MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE/UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT
A family in transition in ways beyond packing up boxes, the unraveling of his parent’s marriage and eventual divorce is also central to the film. It’s an intimate glimpse into the drama of the family’s migration from snowy New Jersey to the desert of Arizona and then Northern California. His stor y is one that his mother had always encouraged him to share. The Spielberg family moved several times during the filmmaker’s adolescence. His father, Arnold Spielberg, SEE SPIELBERG, PAGE 3
Chanukah Gift Guide Find inspiration for your holiday gifts. See page 14. PHOTO COURTESY MODERN MITZVAH
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