We Remember Former Instructor and Head of the Hebrew Program, Carla Sebba Samore (z"l)

Carla Sebba Samore (z"l) studied and taught Hebrew at the University of Arizona in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  She passed away on April 24, 2022, in Monterey, California, with her husband and son by her side.Carla lived an extraordinary life.  She was the daughter of biblical archaeologist and theologian Dr. Arnold C. Schultz, and Chicago public school teacher, Beatrice Schultz.  Both were avid travelers. Individually and as a family, they explored the world in spectacular ways, crossing oceans as passengers on freight ships, taking road trips from Illinois to Alaska to Guatemala, in a 1949 Chevy Coupe.  Carla accompanied her father to the Middle East a number of times, most frequently to Israel, with which she fell in love, to which she eventually emigrated, and in which she converted to Judaism. (After her father’s death, Carla and her mother donated many of his slides of Middle Eastern archaeological sites to the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies.  Digital versions were made available to the Non-Professional Archaeological Photographs Project and can be viewed at https://npaph.com/archives/schultz/.)In Jerusalem, Carla met Jon Sebba, whom she married.  In 1967, she and their four month old son, David, endured the shelling of their neighborhood, while Jon soldiered through six days of war.  Shortly thereafter, she and her family returned to the States, and in 1976, now with their second son Rafael, made their way to Tucson.In 1983, Carla completed a master’s degree in Hebrew and Middle Eastern history at what was then the Department of Oriental Studies at University of Arizona.  It was there that she met her second husband, Lee Samore, to whom she was married for 37 years.  Carla taught Hebrew, and was Head of the Hebrew Program from 1983-1986.  Then, in 1986, Carla and Lee made their way to Monterey, California, where they taught Hebrew and Arabic respectively at the Defense Language Institute of the U.S. Department of Defense.Carla and Lee enjoyed traveling, especially by rail. Their many adventures took them all over the Pacific Coast and the Desert Southwest, though these journeys were slightly tamer than those of Carla’s earlier years.  She was a woman of taste who appreciated the pleasure of experiences; visiting with friends and loved ones, savoring a truly exceptional meal, sipping a Cafe Borgia framed by a beautiful landscape, cozying up on the couch with an immersive book. Carla Samore is survived by her husband Lee Samore, her son David Sebba and his wife Leslie Arai, her son Rafael Sebba and his wife Michelle Taft, and her grandson Declan Sebba.