Eugene’s oral history project completes first year
Before the memories are gone forever
By Lynn Reichman
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Concern that the memory of the history of the Jews of Eugene may soon be lost spurred the creation of the Jewish Federation of Lane County’s History Project.
Their task is to gather first person accounts from members of the Eugene area Jewish community. These historical interviews will be incorporated into the Oral History Project of the Oregon Jewish Museum in Portland.
“The early history of the Jews in Eugene is disappearing quickly,” said Gary Tepfer, who is involved in the creation of the History Project as well as being one of those interviewed.
Eugene is “losing this history rapidly” Tepfer says, as older members of the community die.
And the realization that the whereabouts of an important box of newspaper clippings and other historical documents, that had been stored at Temple Beth Israel, is currently unknown also made project organizers realize that they “needed to get serious” about documenting the area’s Jewish history.
“The history of the Jews in the Portland area has been well recorded but not much on outlying areas like Eugene,” noted Tepfer, a well-known photographer.
He moved to Eugene in 1956 as a child when the Jewish community consisted of about 40 families, most of them merchants, unlike his father who was a University of Oregon professor.
“Growing up in Eugene, you had a strong feeling of being different … of not sharing a cultural part with the [non-Jewish] people around here.”
He mentions that when he took a trip to France with his family, he felt more comfortable in European culture than in Eugene.
Tepfer says Eugene’s Jewish population doubled in the mid-1960s when “the UO expanded and a lot of Jewish people, including a lot of intellectuals, moved in” to work at the university.
The project focuses on recollections of those growing up in Eugene, most now elderly, with an emphasis on Jewish identity and community. There also will be interviews with those whose memories are related to other important aspects of Jewish history, such as Jews who came from Europe including one resident who was part of the Kindertransport, which took Jewish children out of Germany and Austria early in World War II.
Judy Margolis, OJM executive director, and Sylvia Frankel, chair of OJM’s Oral History project, came to Eugene to help train the Eugene group and also recommended written materials for use as a guideline.
Shirley Shiffman is the Eugene project’s interview coordinator. She points out how, as one of the interviewers, it is “interesting to hear the different people’s perspectives.” Other interviewers include Carole Stein and Marsha Miller. Transcribing the material are Renee Gottesman, Jennifer Furl and Phyllis Kantor.
A number of people have helped with the history project. These include Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin of Temple Beth Israel who helped initiate the project and also contributed money from his Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund. Other participants include Randi Jacobs, Dick Littman, Harriet Behman, Bill Toll, Marylyn Klein Larsen and Ellen Todras.
With the help of Joan Malmud, two law firms—Johnson, Clifton, Larson and Schaller, and Hershner, Hunter—donated transcribing equipment. Dana Weinstein also contributed a transcribing machine.
More interviews with Jews in Eugene are planned although the total number to ultimately be included is still unknown. Since the program is staffed by volunteers, they are not limited by any dependence on funding and have the option of continuing as they see fit. As the project progresses and investigation continues, the coordinators say more potential interviewees with interesting histories about old-time Jewish Eugene are coming to light.
To participate in the project as a volunteer or interviewee, e-mail ss3210@aol.com.