Eyewitness to History
By Paul Haist
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When Portland's Goldsmith Co. moved to new quarters on Northwest 16th Avenue last November, its historic building between Northwest Fourth and Fifth Avenues just off West Burnside Street was destined not to sit idle for very long, or at all really.
In fact, while Goldsmith was moving slightly uptown, the new Portland Art Center was moving into the old building at 33 NW Fourth Ave. that long had been home to the successful Jewish-owned hotel supply business.
Now, just one year after that move, Portland's Jewish community will gather at the new Portland Art Center in the old Goldsmith building to mark the formal beginning of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland's 2007 Annual Campaign.
The Portland Art Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated, according to its mission statement, "to creating space for Northwest artists and the community to connect and communicate." It offers galleries for the display of contemporary art.
Connecting and communicating is exactly what Portland's Jewish community will be doing at the PAC on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 9, and they'll be doing it surrounded by Jewish art.
The exhibit, on display earlier this year at London's Proud Gallery, is a visual history of modern Israel that reflects all the joy and hope and sadness that has distinguished the Jewish state's turbulent first few decades.
The photographer will come to Portland for the opening of the exhibit, which thereafter will be open to the public through Nov. 26.
Portland art patron and philanthropist Arlene Schnitzer is, along with her husband Harold, honorary co-chair of the federation's Opening Night.
The unusual union of Jewish life, art and philanthropy in the Opening Night event was not lost on her.
"How satisfying it is to see the community come together to celebrate the blending of Jewish communal life, Jewish art and the life of modern Israel this way," said Schnitzer.
Event planners intend to make the first ever Opening Night a celebration and a night to remember.
Joyce Loeb, who has volunteered in Portland's Jewish community for about 40 years and who chaired the gala for "Phantom of the Opera" that attracted 800 people, heads the committee responsible for feeding the several hundred people expected at Opening Night.
Unlike the federation Gala of past years, which Opening Night replaces as the formal launch of the Annual Campaign, there will be no sit-down banquet. That was decided to facilitate interaction between attendees, who, in past years, were more or less kept to their dinner tables after the initial social hour.
They're calling it an elegant cocktail-buffet supper, with an
emphasis on elegant, including a red-carpet entry and a complimentary bar.
Loeb said that this year "there will be very hearty hors d'oeuvres. People will be able to make a supper of them. There will be enough so that people won't say later, 'Where do we go for dinner?'"
Popular kosher caterer Alan Levine has been enlisted to prepare all the food. Everything will be fully kosher.
"We're going to feed them very well," said Loeb.
The affair will begin at 6 p.m. in the PAC gallery where 60 of Rubinger's photographs will be on display.
By about 7:15, attendees will move to a second gallery to sit in on a conversation between Rubinger and Portland Art Museum Photography Curator Terry Toedtemeir. People will have an opportunity then to rest their feet while enjoying more food and libations during the conversation.
At the conclusion of Rubinger and Toedtemeir's discussion, there will be another opportunity for people to mingle, enjoy dessert or more hors d'oeuvres.
Attendees can participate in a silent auction of Rubinger prints, which also may be purchased apart from the auction. In both cases, a portion of the proceeds will go to the Annual Campaign.
Opening Night Co-chair Lydia Lipman said Rubinger will be accompanied on his visit to Portland by British photographer, writer and curator Ruth Corman who produced the UK exhibit of Rubinger's photographs. Corman is writing Rubinber's biography, which is due out this fall.
Rubinger and Corman will remain in Portland for a week after Opening Night to meet leaders in Portland's Jewish, arts and broader general communities and to speak with the media about the exhibit.
The Oregon Jewish Museum, which will open an exhibit of images by the late American Jewish photographer Arnold Newman a month before the Rubinger exhibit opens (the Newman exhibit will run through Jan. 14), has stepped forward to provide outreach to the general community for the Rubinger exhibit.
OJM Executive Director Judith Margles also is assisting Corman in curating the Portland exhibit of Rubinger's work.
"OJM is developing a series of educational programs for school children and adults, designed to explore the role that a photojournalist has in defining a period of history and providing a way for us to learn about and remember it," said Margles.
Besides helping to organize youth and adult group tours of the Rubinger exhibit, the OJM will train docents to interpret the exhibit for visitors.
Persons interested in volunteering as docents should contact Margles at 503-226-3600.
While Opening Night is for those whose combined family gift to either or both the Annual Campaign or the Israel Emergency Campaign is $1,000 or more, it was important to federation leaders that Rubinger's work and the story it tells of Israel and its people be made available to as many people as possible while it is here.
"What really strikes one is that photographs are as timely and relevant today as when they were taken," said Lipman.
"The sons and daughters of the soldiers Rubinger photographed are still fighting the same wars, and the Jewish people are still facing the same challenges, both in Israel and here.
"I think it's a great privilege for us to have this collection in Portland and to meet the man who has created this legacy for us and Jews around the world."
Eligible parties may purchase tickets for Opening Night at $60 per person by Oct. 23. After Oct. 23 the price is $70.
For more information about Opening Night or to register visit www.jewishportland.org on the Internet or call Rachel Halupowski at 503-892-7413.