THREE RABBIS—Congregation Neveh Shalom’s three rabbis begin the Torah parade from the main sanctuary to the new Stampfer Chapel. From left are Assistant Rabbi Bradley Greenstein, Senior Rabbi Daniel Isaak and Emeritus Rabbi Joshua Stampfer.

JULIE BROPHY PHOTO

Neveh Shalom dedicates new, renovated facilities

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2008-11-01T00:00:00

Even as hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the dedication of Congregation Neveh Shalom’s new and improved spaces the weekend of Oct. 25-26, speakers at the event were already looking to the future.

“What’s next for our congregation?” asked Neveh Shalom Executive Director Fred Rothstein. “Whatever we want. This is our congregation and we have the power and the responsibility to make…the congregation what we want it to be.”

The celebration kicked off Saturday evening with 280 people enjoying a donor dinner, dessert and dancing in the renovated Birnbach Hall and new Stampfer Chapel. On Sunday, about 500 people turned out to tour the Conservative synagogue, which added 13,000 square feet and renovated much of the existing 60,000 square feet.

The evening began in the Stampfer Chapel where Irwin and Renee Holzman said their family was very pleased to use their lead gift to the $9 million capital campaign to name the congregation’s new intimate chapel after Rabbi Emeritus Joshua and Goldie Stampfer.

Goldie Stampfer thanked “the whole Holz-man family…for everything they have done for us, the synagogue and this community.”

Leading havdallah in the newly dedicated Stampfer Chapel, Neveh Shalom Rabbi Daniel Isaak noted that the words engraved on the gates of the new courtyard come from the havdallah service: “How happy are those who dwell in your house.”

After moving the crowd to the renovated Birnbach Hall for dinner, weekend co-chairs Toinette Menashe and Leah Rubin welcomed everyone to the “night of thank yous” and noted that future historians would look back on 2008 and “marvel at what our congregation has accomplished.”

Master of Ceremonies Steven Kahn, who was born the same year the congregation moved to its current location, spent the evening introducing a string of commentators and luminaries who had made the celebration a reality.

In sharing a brief history of the congregation, Isaak noted that next year the congregation will celebrate its 140th anniversary. Ahavai Sholom was founded in 1869, a year in which Isaak said there were reportedly only 460 Jews in Portland. In 1961 that Conservative congregation merged with Neveh Zedek to form Congregation Neveh Shalom.

Isaak said that the synagogues’ early years were “led by visionaries and characters” as they took part in the American experience and regional challenge. Three waves of immigration—eastern European Jews, those who escaped Nazi Germany and finally Jews from behind the Iron Curtain—“added to who we are” and “morphed us from a congregation of peddlers and shopkeepers … into a sophisticated, educated and professional community.”

Isaak pointed to three phenomena that “distinguish our time and our generation as Conservative Jews”—the elimination of barriers for women’s participation in the Conservative movement; the proliferation of general and Jewish education creating educated, well-read Hebrew-speaking Jews; and the quest for spirituality and willingness to speak openly about God after the trauma of the Holocaust.

“What will Neveh Shalom look like in 50 years?” asked Isaak. “If the last 50 years are any indication, it will indeed look different 50 years from how it does today.”

With that introduction, Rothstein launched his contemplations on the congregation’s future. After noting the congregation can become whatever congregants are willing to make it, he turned to the words of modern Zionist founder Theodor Herzl and said that the congregation’s watchwords should be “If we will it, then it will not be a dream.”

While the capital campaign for the expansion and renovation is not yet complete, Neveh Shalom President Doug Lenhoff said, “The summit is clearly in view. … Let us go confidently in the direction of our dreams.”

Lenhoff announced that his family had decided to make their donation to dedicate the executive suite in honor of Fred Rothstein, the congregation’s first full-time executive director.

As of the celebration weekend, Neveh Shalom had raised $7,835,000 of the $9 million goal. The capital campaign has been led by co-chairs Merrit Yoelin and Alan Blank, who recently moved to Denver but returned for the dedication, and past president Sandy Axel.

Blank praised the Holzman family for their vision and courage in making the lead gift to the campaign and naming the new chapel in honor of the Stampfers. He concluded the formal part of the evening with an invitation to return to that chapel for dessert and dancing.

“It is time to instill our new space with spirit and adventure,” Blank said.