Jewish Oregon

By Paul Haist

Portland's and Oregon's synagogue community adapts to its environment over time, changing its shape and size and even its facets, each one reflecting in its unique way the one light that burns at the center of Judaism. It expands, it contracts and it expands again.
Today, Jews here may choose from many very diverse congregations in their search for a way to express their Judaism that is most meaningful in their lives.
The face of our congregational community is quite different today than it was over much of its modern history.
Fifty years ago in Portland the congregations present to serve that community were fewer and less diverse than they are today. They covered the spectrum from Orthodox to liberal, but there were fewer options in between than there are today.
For many years there were three large congregations—Beth Israel, Neveh Shalom and Shaarie Torah—that served the spiritual needs of most in the community from Reform to Conservative to Orthodox, respectively (Shaarie Torah eventually broke with the Orthodox Union).
Neveh Shalom was and remains an example of how the synagogue community adapts and evolves. It was formed in 1961 with the merger of Ahavai
Sholom and Neveh Zedek, a move spurred in part by Portland's urban-renewal program that devastated the old South Portland neighborhood that had been home to a vibrant Jewish community, and included both synagogue.
Neveh Zedek, too, was the product of an earlier merger of Congregation Talmud Torah and Neveh Tzedek. The full name of the merged groups was Neveh Zedek Talmud Torah, although it was generally referred to as just Neveh Zedek.
In fact, Shaarie Torah, Portland's first Orthodox congregation, grew via merger in 1914 with Congregation Linath Hazedek.
Some smaller congregations endured through most of the last century and continue today. Ahavath Achim is home for Portland's Sephardic Jews. Kesser Israel, which some members used to call "the little shul," was a more intimate venue than Shaarie Torah for Portland's Orthodox Jews.
Each of these old-line congregations is a vital and vibrant part of today's Jewish congregational world. But now, there is much more on the table, many more choices.
John Moss came to Portland about 17 years ago. He played a key role in the early evolution of the Internet here before moving into a leadership role in Portland's Jewish community. Today, he is the executive director of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, a job that puts him in touch with Jewish leaders all across the community here.
His position, coupled with a natural inclination to observe and reflect on his surroundings, has made him something of an advocate for evolution in the Jewish community.
In fact, he has been more than an advocate. He was one of the founders of South Metro Jewish Congregation in West Linn. He is part of the phenomenon of growth in greater Portland's Jewish congregational community.
"I am looking at the different lights all getting brighter and stronger. Jewish lights are coming on all over Oregon," he said. "When I moved here, there wasn't anything in the suburbs to speak of. There wasn't anything for interfaith couples."
He helped to change that in West Linn, and he has watched others make similar changes elsewhere in the community.
"There wasn't a formal congregation in Vancouver," he said, referring to the establishment there of the Reform congregation Kol Ami (which grew out of the Southwest Washington Jewish Community Association), and, more recently, Chabad of Clark County.
"There wasn't an eastside, Havurah (Shalom) didn't have its own building yet."
"Look at what's happened in this relatively short period of time."
In the decade and a half since Moss arrived here the Eastside Jewish Community of Portland has emerged as a popular and durable Jewish presence on the east side of the Willamette River, the first venue for Jewish religious services there since 1986 when Congregation Tifereth Israel on Northeast 20th Avenue merged with Shaarie Torah.
The Eastside also is home now to Congregation Shir Tikvah, a liberal congregation established in 2002.
Havurah Shalom, a Reconstructionist congregation that became a leading Portland congregation even before it had a permanent home, was able to acquire and remodel its own property in Northwest Portland. They moved in on August 1998.
Smaller congregations have emerged in Portland in recent years to meet a desire for differing modes of Jewish expression.
P'nai Or is a Jewish Renewal congregation that stresses egalitarianism in Jewish observance.
Kol Shalom was created as the congregational home of Jewish humanists.
Gesher has pioneered as a bridge or gateway back to Jewish observance for the disaffected and others who, for whatever reasons, have fallen away from congregational life.
Chabad of Oregon was created a few years before Moss arrived in Oregon. Its well-known brand of Chasidic Judaism has flourished and grown here alongside the emergence of more liberal expressions of Judaism
Other worship groups, such as the Egalitarian Shul and the Women's Tefillah Group were created to meet the special requirements that its members could not find elsewhere.
In addition to the congregation-like groups other groups have emerged which, according to Moss, underscore the richness of the new diversity in the local Jewish community.
He pointed specifically to Rabbi Kim Rosen's Beit Midrash Eitz Chaim and the new Portland Kollel.
And it's not just the Portland area where this is happening in Oregon.
"There's a Jewish ecosystem here," said Moss. "It's the entire state."
Pointing first to the Willamette Valley, he said, "Eugene has become a Jewish magnet up and down the West Coast because of the strength of the Schnitzer Family Judaic Studies Program (at the University of Oregon) and the strength of Hillel (at UO). And you have new congregations in Eugene, and (Temple) Beth Israel's building program has gotten traction."
Eugene's Temple Beth Israel has been around since 1934, while in the last few years four other groups have formed in Eugene: Ad-Olam, Congregation Ahavas Torah, Chabad of Eugene and Or Hagan.
"If you move further north to Corvallis, Beit Am has a new rabbi. I don't think they ever had a full-time rabbi before," said Moss. "Beth Sholom in Salem is having their Torah Trek in September, moving from the old building to a new one."
Jewish congregational life also is flourishing south of the Willamette Valley.
Ashland is home now to three congregations: Emek Shalom, Havurah Shir Hadash and Chabad of Southern Oregon.
Klamath Falls is home to Congregation Anshe Shalom, a group that was formed 12 or 13 years ago, according to one group member. A rabbinic student leads services there twice a month.
In nearby Roseburg is the Umpqua Valley Havurah.
There are a few other outposts of Jewish observance in Oregon.
In the Columbia Gorge, Hood River is home to its own havurah. The North Coast Shabbat Group holds occasional services in the Seaside and Astoria areas. There also is the Central Coast Jewish Community in Depoe Bay and Mayim Shalom in Coquille on the southern Oregon Coast.
In rapidly growing Bend, the Jewish Community of Central Oregon is far more than an outpost of Jewish practice and observance. It is an established, well-organized and growing worship community with its own rabbi. The group holds regular services, operates a Jewish education program and Hebrew school and hosts a variety of Jewish events throughout the year.
Moss attributes the emergence of all this new Jewish life in Oregon to a variety of factors, but chiefly to an influx of Jews from outside Oregon and the renewed involvement of Jews who grew up here.
Oregon's vibrant new economy has attracted large numbers of people from across the country and even from around the world. More than a few of those who have come in recent years are Jews, who bring with them understandings of Jewish communal life and expectations of the Jewish community that may differ from what we have taken for granted.
As the newcomers become part of this Jewish community, the understandings and expectations they brought with them become part of this community, diversifying it.
"We've been able to grow our way into all this richness," said Moss, a growth he believes opens more doors into Jewish life.
"Today, if you're new to the community, you can find a shul here that matches your taste," he said. "You can find one that fits where you are spiritually. Before, you might not have been able to do that."
Moss thinks also that the influx of rabbis to Oregon has helped to invigorate Jewish life here. He pointed to how Rabbi Shlomo Truzman's presence at Ahavath Achim (the old Sephardic congregation's first full-time rabbi) has changed it. "It has gotten to be a much stronger institution by virtue of having the rabbi," said Moss.
Likewise, he recalled how Kesser Israel was revitalized by its first-ever rabbi a few years ago and now how its new rabbi is continuing to bring the old Orthodox shul into the 21st century and Portland's emerging Vermont Hills Jewish neighborhood.
He felt similarly about the new associate rabbi at Neveh Shalom, a large congregation whose members now will have increased access to spiritual leadership.
Congregation Beth Israel in Northwest Portland recently welcomed a new rabbi whose wife is a cantor whom Moss was confident also will find her place among Portland's Jewish spiritual leadership.
With new rabbis at the Portland Kollel, and the recent addition of a third rabbi at Chabad of Oregon, as well as new rabbinic presences in other communities, Oregon's Jewish spiritual leadership is both multiplied and diversified.
"When people look at how many synagogues we have now across the community, there is not a way you want to observe Judaism?that you can't find a place or a home here. That was not the case before
"Because of the new rabbis on the marquee, because of the changes institutionally, we have this marvelous opportunity to coalesce," said Moss, suggesting that a new unity can arise out of all the new diversity.
"We're only limited by our lack of imagination. There is very little that we can't do as a community," he said.
He called this a time of incredible opportunity for Oregon's Jewish community.
"You couldn't necessarily find that 15 years ago when I got here," he said. "I think this is the most exciting time to be a Jew in Portland and in Oregon."