Celebrating 80 years ...

One of the top stories in the Dec. 27, 1996, Jewish Western Bulletin was that Joe, “the 53-year-old gay man who went public with his tale of being a Jew living with AIDS,” had died. He had passed away in his sleep in his apartment on Oct. 21, according to a friend.

“Joe, who was born in Morocco, was featured in a special AIDS issue published by the Bulletin in conjunction with the XI International Conference on AIDS, held in Vancouver in July,” states the article by Roberta Staley. In the July interview, Joe, “[f]ormerly a successful Vancouver businessman, art collector and athlete,” spoke of his experience with the disease, of the poverty faced by many AIDS victims and his unfaltering connection to Judaism.

The image accompanying the article was a piece of work created by "another Joe," the artist Joe Average, who designed it for the XI International Conference on AIDS.