At start of new era, Institute reflects on founder, golden age

By AMY R. KAUFMAN, Special to the Jewish Review

article created on: 2011-08-15T00:00:00

A new era for the Institute for Judaic Studies began when Founding Director Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, after 28 years at the helm, welcomed new Executive Director Sylvia Frankel at an event attended by 190 people July 31 at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

Before reciting the blessing, Rabbi Bradley Greenstein said, “All of us have witnessed and are continuing to witness the Golden Age of Portland, and it is Rabbi Stampfer who has made it come to fruition.”

In attendance were members of the academic community who played a key role in creating the first Judaic studies programs in Portland colleges and universities, Stampfer said. With “deepest thanks,” he recounted the contributions of Paul Bragdon, president of Reed College 1971-88; Robert Liebman, professor of sociology at Portland State University; and Marvin Kaiser, recently retired dean of arts and sciences at PSU.

Stampfer said IJS came into being when he met with Bragdon and several other college presidents to promote the idea of endowed chairs in Judaic studies.

“Dr. Bragdon displayed a profound understanding and interest and support, so that we could always turn to Reed College for every possible assistance in developing our program there,” said Stampfer.

Dr. Merritt Linn, a member of IJS for 25 years, acknowledged Bragdon in his own speech: “Reed College was a major factor in the success of the Institute for Judaic Studies. Most of our early offerings were at Reed. It was a warm, welcoming home...the campus was opened wide for IJS....So much of this was due to the support and kindness of Reed’s president, Paul Bragdon.”

Stampfer said it is “a remarkable achievement for any institution of higher learning to have three chairs in Judaic studies,” as does the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University.

“In order for that to happen, one faculty member of the university had to take the lead in energizing and making possible this great step,” Stampfer said. “And that was Bob Liebman, in a long series of meetings with the administration, with community leaders. He is really to be given our utmost thanks for bringing this miracle about.”

Stampfer said he was “absolutely certain” that “without Marvin Kaiser, a true friend and supporter of higher Jewish education, the program in Judaic Studies would never have developed at PSU.”

Kaiser said the newly created Rabbi Stampfer Chair in Israel Studies at PSU “is the culmination of the four positions we had envisioned in the Jewish studies program,” putting “a capstone on what institutions of higher education must stand for in this complex world and in the way we mentor and bring along another generation.”

Steven M. Wasserstrom, Moe and Izetta Tonkon Professor of Judaic Studies at Reed College, compared Stampfer’s personal vision with that of Solomon Schechter, the founder of Jewish Theological Seminary, where Stampfer was ordained.

Wasserstrom pointed out that both Schechter and Stampfer came to the Conservative movement “from traditional Orthodox distinguished backgrounds...with serious scholarly interests.”

He said the intellectual activities of IJS reflect Stampfer’s “vision of what Judaism should be and particularly what Judaism should be in America.”

Like Schechter, he said, Stampfer “wanted a kind of Judaism in North America that was both open to the world and open to the world of learning, yet faithful to tradition. The Institute was his vehicle for this openness to the world....He brought in some of the finest scholars from around the world for these events.”

Selma Duckler, the first woman president of IJS, said Stampfer founded IJS during a “period of renewal...brought about by the Holocaust and the birth of Israel.”

“There was a deep longing in American Jews . . . to know more about themselves and their history, both ancient and modern,” she said. “. . . [I]n starting the Institute, Rabbi Stampfer connected us not only to each other and helped us with personal searches of identity . . . but also established a historic Judaic connection for us to the larger community in which we live.”

Frankel said, “The legacy Rabbi Stampfer left us with will serve as a guideline for Institute’s future. This crossroads represents a unique opportunity to refashion IJS in a way that matches the new landscape of the Portland Jewish community, a landscape very different than the one facing Rabbi Stampfer and the institute 20 years ago. This landscape has been changed to some extent by the Institute and by the work Rabbi Stampfer has done.”

Frankel is an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark College and teaches courses in Judaism in its Religious Studies department. She also teaches at Portland’s Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.

Linn said Frankel, who has been involved in IJS for some 25 years, was “instrumental in setting up the Writers and Scholars Lecture Series” with Leslie Eisenstein and “has maintained that program through the years.”

“I consider this to have been an apprenticeship for my new position,” said Frankel. She thanked Stampfer for “this phenomenal opportunity.”

Frankel said the Week-End-In-Quest, the Jewish Film Festival in partnership with NorthWest Film Center, and other long-running programs will continue, while the newly established Rabbi Stampfer Lecture Fund will continue the tradition of engaging prominent speakers.

The Percy Bernstein Orchestra, with IJS board member Jordan Epstein on the accordion, provided stirring Jewish music for the event.