5767’s top Jewish stories around Oregon, region

By Deborah Moon

article created on:

SEPTEMBER

Nearly 10 years after buying property to accommodate its growing congregation, Temple Beth Israel of Eugene broke ground for a new 21,500-square-foot synagogue at the corner of 29th Avenue and University Street in Eugene.

Congregation Ahavath Achim on Southwest Barbur Boulevard recently received two similar anti-Semitic letters delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Each included a newspaper clipping about Israel’s conflict with Palestinians and Hezbollah, at least one of which was inscribed with the words “fascist bastards,” and both of which had been smeared with excrement. The Sephardic congregation’s synagogue also was spray-painted with non-anti-Semitic graffiti over the Sept. 2 weekend.

Congregation Neveh Shalom begins the new year with three new staff at the head of its education department. The Conservative congregation in Southwest Portland serves some 1,000 member families. Jan Skolnik is the new director of the synagogue’s Foundation School, a daily preschool. Susan Bernstein takes over as the congregation’s youth education director. Roz Andronescu is the new director of high school programs.
 

OCTOBER

Several hundred people celebrated, sang, prayed, danced, laughed and cried Sept. 17 as Temple Beth Sholom trekked 5.2 miles across Salem carrying its two Torah scrolls from its home of 58 years to a new larger building that will accommodate all of the congregation’s diverse programs.

About 200 people gathered at the University of Oregon’s Knight Library Sept. 27 to see the completion of the first Torah reportedly written especially for the community of Eugene. Commissioned by the U of O Chabad House, the community Torah was funded by numerous community members.

“I have some exciting news,” Rabbi Kenneth Brodkin told about 200 people gathered at the Multnomah Arts Center for Congregation Kesser Israel’s holiday services. Kesser Israel had just agreed to buy the former Tuck’s Brewery property across from the Mittleman Jewish Community Center on Southwest Capitol Highway, in the heart of Portland’s Jewish community.

B’nai B’rith Men’s Camp Association voted to extend for a second year its dor l’ dor program to pay half the cost for any camper entering second through fourth grade who attends Maccabee Camp at BB Camp for the first time.

NOVEMBER

About 400 people toured the new fitness facilities at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center Oct. 22.  Visitors toured the pool area, therapy pool, gymnasium and teen room with its own fitness equipment for youth. Totally renovated locker rooms for men and women each feature new lockers, sauna, steam room, hot tub and schmooze room with television.

Though their paths to battle cystic fibrosis began 1,000 miles and nearly 20 years apart, two Jewish men each began the journey because they worked with someone whose child suffers from that debilitating and life-shortening genetic disease. Now Harvey Platt, who since 1989 has helped raise some $3.75 million for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, spearheaded the effort to bring Barry Manilow to Portland for a Jan. 8, 2007, concert in the Rose Garden to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The Portland Section of the National Council of Jewish Women has donated the final $40,000 needed to keep the Mittleman Jewish Community Center therapy pool open until August 2007.

DECEMBER

Noah Baderman, whose wait for a heart transplant was chronicled in the July 1 Jewish Review, received a new heart Sept. 1 and, after several setbacks, is recovering in Palo Alto, Calif.

“Just like a great big New York happening” was how Lydia Lipman’s son Grant described Opening Night: Eyewitness to History, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s kickoff event for its annual campaign that drew more than 340 people to view David Rubinger’s historic photos of Israel. Pledges made that night totaled $361,133, exclusive of the federation’s share of revenue from the sale of Rubinger prints.

The nearly 150-year-old Temple Beth Israel “is a significant presence in this community and this transition after 46 years of Rabbi (Emanuel) Rose’s wonderful rabbinate is a significant transition in the whole community,” said Rabbi Michael Cahana shortly after his formal installation as the Reform congregation’s 18th senior rabbi.

Sarah Liebman, a 26-year-old former Jewish Review intern who now has a master’s degree in education, is looking for a cadre of young Jews here to build programs for their generation while also learning to be leaders. Each of the 15 to 20 participants in the one-year program will be required to develop and run one event for their 20-something contemporaries.

More than 200 people turned out the night of Dec. 7 to honor a Portland State University professor for his key role in the creation of a Judaic Studies program at Oregon’s largest university. Dr. Robert Liebman was toasted repeatedly for creating what is now known as the Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at PSU.

About 150 volunteers connected with more than 1,000 members of the community on Super Sunday and raised a total of $203,882 in pledges for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland 2007 Annual Campaign, including an additional $7,302 for the Israel Emergency Campaign created to repair infrastructure and provide services for victims of the war Hezbollah launched from Lebanon in July.

Rabbi Joshua Stampfer received the Thomas Lamb Eliot Award for Service to Philanthropy at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Philanthropy Awards on Nov. 30.

A new group is forming in Portland for young Jewish adults in their 20s and 30s.  Spearheaded by Rabbi Bradley and Sarah Greenstein, of Neveh Shalom, the group is launching its first event just in time for Hanukkah. Appropriately named “Hinenu,” (“Here we are” in Hebrew), this group has been slowly forming over the last few months to meet the needs of young Jews.

JANUARY

Members and friends of Congregation Kesser Israel gathered at the Meade Street shul Dec. 17 to say goodbye to their beloved synagogue, which was the congregation’s home from its founding 90 years ago in 1916.

Portland area high schools are a hotbed of Jewish activity this school year. Wilson and Lincoln high schools have active Jewish Student Unions and Riverdale High School has just launched a Jewish Cultural Club. Students from at least five other high schools are working with Meira Spivak of the Portland Kollel to form JSUs.

A year of free Jewish stories and songs will soon enter the homes of up to 1,200 young families in the greater Portland area thanks to the generosity of six Jewish moms and a group of teen philanthropists. Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years with at least one Jewish parent can sign up for the PJ (pajama) Library from the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation.

A steady stream of visitors toured the Mittleman Jewish Community Center Jan. 7 during the celebration of more than a year of renovations. Between 500 and 1,000 visitors passed through the new, more inviting reception area that opens into a comfortable seating area.

To help bridge the gap while it searches for a new rabbi, Congregation Shaarie Torah has hired Ahavath Achim Rabbi Shlomo Truzman for 10 hours a week. Located in northwest Portland, the 101-year-old congregation serves about 300 member households.

FEBRUARY

An influx of Israelis working for one to two years at Intel in Hillsboro has sparked the opening of a new Chabad Center to serve all Jews in the Hillsboro area. The Hillsboro Chabad Center is the fourth established by Chabad Lubavitch of Oregon.

The Women of Reform Judaism/Beth Israel Sisterhood Silver Tea held Jan. 21 celebrated sisterhood’s 90 years of service. The women’s group was originally founded at the bequest of Rabbi Jonah Wise to assist the congregation’s religious school. 
 

MARCH

Dr. Moisey Wolf, a renowned psychiatrist, Yiddish scholar and writer, died in Portland on Feb. 14 at age 84.

Thieves stole two key laptop computers from the offices of the Jewish Review in an apparent smash-and-grab burglary over the President’s Day weekend.

Connections proliferated throughout the Hilton Pavilion Room Feb. 11 and stretched tendrils out to bind women more tightly to each other, their families, the local Jewish community and the Jewish community worldwide. Some 200 Jewish women gathered for a day of learning, sharing and giving at “Connections—Learn It to Live It.”

Donor advised gifts to the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation for this fiscal year already total $4,512,837, nearly double those reported for all of the last fiscal year in the OJCF 2006 Annual Report.

The American Jewish Committee, celebrating its centennial year, presented the 2007 Human Relations Award to Major General Raymond F. Rees and the men and women of the Oregon National Guard at a dinner attended by 180 on March 6.

Chabad of Oregon now has centers in five cities: Portland, Ashland, Eugene, Hillsboro and now Salem. All of the centers are non-judgmental and devoted to reaching out to all Jews regardless of their level of observance, said Chabad of Oregon Director Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm.

The Oregon Jewish Community Foundation has changed its tax status with the Internal Revenue Service and restructured its board as part of process intended to help the foundation in its mission to provide its donors with meaningful personal financial tools that also provide for the broader interests of the Jewish community.

At least three men broke into a Eugene synagogue Feb. 22, damaging the building and desecrating two sefer Torahs in an act that police are investigating as a hate crime.

APRIL

Rabbi David Fine, the Seattle-based director of the Pacific Northwest Council of the Union for Reform Judaism, was here March 9 for the installation of Rabbi Annette Koch as the rabbi of South Metro Jewish Congregation in West Linn.

The Western Jewish Studies Association held its 13th annual conference—its “bar mitzvah,” in the words of the scholarly organization’s president, Professor Lawrence Baron of San Diego State University—at Portland State University on March 18 and 19.

Congregation Kesser Israel President Harry Glauber says that the congregation is proceeding with renovations at its new site, the former Tuck’s Brewpub at 6698 S.W. Capitol Hwy., near the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Originally planned as an interim move, Glauber said this will now become the congregation’s long-term home.

MAY

Sharon Weil, the co-chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Annual Campaign was struck in the head with a hammer while grocery shopping in the baked goods aisle the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

The inaugural evening for the Sara Glasgow Cogan Scholarship attracted some 200 people from across the community April 19 and raised $25,000 to launch the scholarship at Portland State University.

At an often heated meeting, NCJW’s Portland Section voted April 22 to split the $975,000 from the sale of its Neighborhood House between two local Jewish community projects—a special needs housing project and a permanent Oregon Jewish history exhibit.

Portland Jewish Academy Principal Patricia Schwartz, who next year will serve as interim head of school, has been selected as one of 18 participants from across North America for Project SuLaM: Study, Leadership and Mentoring, a professional development program funded by the Avi Chai Foundation.

Created as a community of adult learners that has grown to encompass all ages, Congregation Shir Tikvah launched its fifth anniversary celebration April 29 at its general membership meeting.

JUNE

“I am thrilled that after three years we’ve created again a living room for the Jewish community,” said Mittleman Jewish Community Center President Jordan Schnitzer. He was speaking in the MJCC ballroom before an audience of MJCC supporters, well-wishers and the curious at the May 16 public rededication of the center after three years of financial restructuring and the repair and remodel of the building that houses the center and Portland Jewish Academy.

After leading two local Jewish agencies through dark days to brighter futures, Julie Smith is moving on to head a Jewish day school in California.  Smith has served as interim executive director of the MJCC since October of 2004, when the financially strapped center’s board had curtailed virtually all programs and contemplated shutting its doors. She assumed the role while continuing as head of school for Portland Jewish Academy, which shares the center’s campus.

As a demonstration of their faith in the 24 teenage directors of the Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation, the 160 attendees at the 11th Commandment Honor Thy Children Benefit Dinner May 20 seized the opportunity to pledge $27,600 for allocation to Oregon charities.

“Besides ‘Thank you,’ what do you say to someone who’s given you a new life and a new opportunity for your wife and kids?” asked David Rosenberg two weeks after receiving an exceptional gift from his long-time friend Marshal Spector. On May 21, the two men cemented a relationship that transcends generations when one of Spector’s two kidneys was transplanted into Rosenberg, 45, whose own kidneys failed last fall after 20 years of diabetes.

“An extraordinarily generous and transformative gift” of $1.5 million by Lorry I. Lokey, one of the nation’s top 10 philanthropists, will spur the growth of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University, announced Academic Director Michael Weingrad at an annual review of the program’s successes May 30 at PSU.

A former Israeli prime minister told an audience in Vancouver, Wash., on the 63rd anniversary of D-Day that the threat posed to Western Civilization by radical Islam today is more sinister and dangerous than the threat to civilization for which D-Day was a beginning of the end. An estimated 350 people, most of them Christian supporters of Israel, gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Vancouver June 6-7 to hear 11 Middle East experts, including three local Jews and members of Israel’s Knesset, among others, present what was billed as “an honest depiction of the current state of the war in Israel.”

At its June 6 board meeting the Oregon Board of Rabbis elected Rabbi Ariel Stone as president of the board.

Congregation Neveh Shalom launched its first major capital campaign June 5 with the announcement that the Conservative congregation’s new chapel will be named in honor of Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer.

JULY

The Jewish Review recently placed news boxes on the streets of five small cities in Oregon well outside the Portland metropolitan area. This is the first time the Review has reached out in this way to potential readers far beyond Portland.

In an evening of stories and laughter, the Oregon Chapter of the American Jewish Committee honored Merle Greenstein—whom various speakers called a mensch, a community gem, one of the great citizens of the community, a lucky dealmaker and a compassionate man—with the Maurice Sussman Award at the AJC’s 28th Annual Meeting June 27.

Nearly $5 million was pledged to the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland 2007 Annual Campaign and the Israel Emergency Campaign. With pledges still trickling in during the last week of June (the end of the fiscal year), the annual campaign had exceeded $4.25 million and the IEC had brought in more than $658,000.

Young adults, singles and couples ages 21-39, will celebrate the second anniversary of 1-800-Shabbat in Portland on July 13 with the sixth such local event. Since July 2005, Jodi Berris has organized five 1-800-Shabbats, three Israeli Club Nights, two Sukkah hopping events for youth, one Hanukah party and one Purim party.

Jewish Family and Child Service is remodeling and reconfiguring their office space to separate the business operations from social services and to provide a warmer, more welcoming environment reflective of their mission.

Temple Beth Sholom in Salem hired Rabbi David Kominsky as interim rabbi while the Reconstructionist congregation searches for a permanent rabbi to replace Rabbi Gary Ellison, who resigned June 30.

AUGUST

Congregation Neveh Shalom will perform and recognize same-sex commitment ceremonies.

The Institute for Judaic Studies, which sponsors the annual Portland Jewish Film Festival, will launch a new program—Portland Jewish Cinematheque—that will present Jewish film and film-related activities throughout the year.

About 200 celebrants welcomed back the Torah desecrated during a break-in last February at Ahavas Torah, an Orthodox synagogue in Eugene.

At least 1,000 people filled the sweltering sanctuary at Temple Beth Israel July 22 to hear Oregon’s own two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof make yet another pitch for action on the continuing genocide in Darfur.

After more than a year without a full-time rabbi, Congregation Shaarie Torah has hired Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman for the position of interim rabbi (with the future possibility of the position becoming permanent), and he will begin his work at the synagogue on Aug. 15.

Tamar Boussi of Portland received the 2007 national award for Israel, Zionist and International Affairs at the Hadassah convention held in New York City July 15-18.

On Aug. 24, the South Metro Jewish Congregation invites the community to join its celebration as it adopts the new Hebrew name Beit Haverim.

Debate over an Ashland theater company’s proposed staging of “My Name is Rachel Corrie” has prompted Oregon Stage Works to put the production on hold while Peter Alzado, the theater’s artistic director, gets input from the community.

Aug. 7 marked the grand opening of the Cafe at the J, the new, all kosher eatery at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.