Year of challenge, change, hope here at home

By Compiled by Deborah Moon

article created on: 2010-09-01T00:00:00

With the New Year just around the corner, the Jewish Review has compiled a list of notable local stories from the Jewish year of 5770. Stories are posted under the month they appeared in the Jewish Review, not necessarily in the month they occurred.
SEPTEMBER

As the genocide in Darfur entered its seventh year, Portlanders launched another year of activism to aid refugees. They were encouraged to carry on by leading Darfur advocate and American Jewish World Service President Ruth Messinger on Sept. 8: “If this issue had not become public, many of the two and half million refugees living in camps would have been killed. That is the way you have had an impact.” The Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland in conjunction with a broad range of co-sponsors organized Messinger’s Oregon visit.

Chabad of Oregon appointed Rabbi Motti and Mimi Wilhelm as the Rabbi and Rebbitzin of Congregation BeisMenachem-Chabad. Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm, Motti’s father, said he felt a sense of pride seeing his oldest son become the rabbi of the congregation he began. “Over the past 25 years Chabad of Oregon has developed from one couple in Portland to Shluchim (Chabad emissaries) in nine centers around the state.”

Beit Am in Corvallis received a $24,000 grant from the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project for its Project Keshet (Rainbow): Multiple Paths to Shared Light, designed to integrate religious school students and their families into the life of the community. Beit Am is one of 20 new recipients of the grant, which is renewable for up to three years.

KBOO Radio aired a pilot episode of Shalom Portland Sept. 25. Ed Kraus, who is a co-host of KBOO’s Yiddish Hour on Sunday mornings, said that while that show focuses on Jewish music and culture, Shalom Portland looks at local, national and international political issues from a Jewish perspective. Shalom Portland is now a periodic feature on the community radio station at 90.7 FM.

OCTOBER

Riverdale High School became the first public high school in the area to offer Hebrew language instruction. The class meets outside school hours, but high school foreign language credit is available through a test at Portland State University.

The founder and co-host of Portland’s Yiddish Hour on KBOO radio for 30 years, Jack Falk handed the reins of the Yiddish Hour to a new group of co-hosts: Ed Kraus, Liz Schwartz and Barry Lavine.

The Oregon Jewish Museum found a larger home. The museum, which will celebrate its 21st anniversary next year, moved from its present 1,800-square-foot location to a 6,400-square-foot former film distribution facility at 1953 NW Kearney Ave. in mid-December. Museum Director Judith Margles said the OJM has signed a lease of up to nine years for the single-story property.

More than 80 people turned out Oct. 1 to celebrate the first anniversary of the Greater Portland Hillel at an open house hosted by Hillel President Rob Shlachter and his wife Mara. “I don’t know who had more stars in their eyes, the students who saw a room full of adult community members who were there because they care about the students, or the community members who met bright-eyed, articulate students and listened to them speak about how Hillel has shaped their summer, their semester, their year, their college experience and how directly the support from the community positively affects the students’ Jewish experience,” said PDX Hillel Managing Director Rachel Hall. PDX Hillel serves students from all Portland area colleges and universities.

During B’nai B’rith Camp’s fifth annual ReJewvenation weekend, participants at the women-only retreat at the Devils Lake site spontaneously created an endowment fund for the camp. Of the 131 participants, 43 women donated or pledged to donate to a new endowment fund. About $4,000 was pledged to provide scholarships for children otherwise unable to afford BB Camp.

Rabbi Avi and Faigy Zwiebel celebrated their fifth year of outreach to the Jewish community in southern Oregon with the opening of a state-of-the-art mikvehatChabad House, 804 Hillview Dr., Ashland. The Ashland mikveh is the second mikveh built in Oregon by Chabad. The first, Mikveh Shoshanah, opened in 2006 in Portland.

NOVEMBER

Portland’s newest public park, The Simon and Helen Director Park, named for the maternal grandparents of Portland businessman, philanthropist and Jewish community leader Jordan Schnitzer, was dedicated Oct. 27. A granite-paved plaza, sheltered by a towering glass-and-wood canopy, now stands where there was once a surface parking lot in the heart of downtown between Southwest Ninth and Park Avenues and Southwest Taylor and Yamhill Streets.

B’nai B’rith Camp was purchased by the B’nai B’rith Men’s Camp Association from the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. BBMCA now owns and operates the camp it’s helped fund since 1931; BBMCA purchased BB Camp in mid-October from the MJCC, which had overseen the overnight camp near Lincoln City for 89 years.

In honor of Jewish Book Month, the Jewish Theatre Collaborative brought the community together across town and generations to celebrate Jewish culture featuring American, Israeli and Yiddish classics. Collaboration with PJ Library brought children’s programming to all corners of Portland in November and December.

Almost 50 Portland metro-area nonprofits filled the MJCC’s ballroom Oct. 18 for the Hand-to-Hand community resource fair. On top of that, a steady stream of people, responding to the pre-fair publicity, came by to donate all sorts of requested items for specific agencies—everything from cell phones for domestic violence survivors to can openers to gently used jeans—at the fair created by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Community Relations Committee and the Community Warehouse.

The grounds and the facility occupied by the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Portland Jewish Academy were formally dedicated as the Schnitzer Family Campus Nov. 8 in recognition of the Schnitzer family’s leadership and philanthropy that have revitalized the center and kept the school in its home in the face of serious financial challenges faced by the MJCC in recent years. The Schnitzer family helped the center to fill a market niche and to address the renovation of the structure.

A successful 10-month grassroots task force that addressed local Jewish community needs during the ongoing economic crisis voted to disband and recommend that Jewish Family and Child Service create a standing committee to carry on the effort. The JFCS board agreed to develop a community liaison committee to continue to get input from the community on needs and the mechanics to meet those needs, and to continue to work in collaboration with other Jewish agencies and institutions.

Rabbi David Zaslow was hired as the part-time interim rabbi for Congregation P’nai Or to help the Renewal congregation continue its transition toward hiring a permanent rabbi to replace its founder Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield, who died in a snorkeling accident in January. Zaslow is the part-time rabbi of Ashland’s Havurah Shir Hadash, which was also founded by Hirschfield.

DECEMBER

Portland’s Jewish community became even more connected Nov. 20, precisely at 11:50 a.m. That’s when the Portland Eruv was officially completed. An Eruv—which literally means “mixing”—is a virtual enclosure around a specific area that, according to Jewish law, creates a communal area in which it is permitted to carry outside of one’s home on the Sabbath, on Yom Kippur, and any festivals that fall on the Sabbath. Carrying from one domain to another, as from one’s home to a neighbor’s, or from a private home to a public area, otherwise is prohibited on Shabbat.

Together with Rabbi Ariel Stone, who was at that time president of the Oregon Board of Rabbis, Debbi Bodie worked for months to create a community-wide program to ensure that the final mitzvah of a proper Jewish burial would be available to all. On Oct. 28, 2009, a memo of understanding titled “HesedShelEmet: so that all Jews can be buried in dignity” was released. The memo garnered the support and agreement to participate from 32 rabbis, 11 Jewish cemeteries, three hevra kadisha (burial societies), four agencies and both Holman’s Funeral Service and Riverview Cemetery Funeral Home.

Portland’s Jewish response to world genocide came out in full force on Dec. 5 when Jewish World Watch Synagogue Resource Director Mina Rush spoke at a Social Justice Havdallah at Congregation Neveh Shalom. Sponsored by the Never Again Coalition, a group of Portland Jewish organizations and congregations, Rush paralleled the mass murder in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the Holocaust. She entreated Jews to honor their pledge, Never Again.

JANUARY

Kehilla House, which will feature 14 apartments at Cedar Sinai Park for adults with developmental disabilities, moved closer to reality in December when CSP applied for a HUD grant. The project is a collaboration between CSP, which will manage the property, and Jewish Family and Child Service, which will provide support services and intake.

Organizers lost track of the count, but they’re estimating that as many as 800 young adults showed up at the PDX Hillel Hanukkah party—the Matzah Ball—held Dec. 12 at the Crown Room. Event organizer Hanna Fisher enlisted Leigh Feldman, who runs a listserv called Life Is a Party that sends out weekly announcements to 14,081 email addresses in the Portland area. Feldman included the Matzah Ball in one of his email blasts and then helped with event logistics and coordination.

Brig. Gen. Fred Rosenbaum (OANG-Ret.) died Jan. 12, 2010, at the age of 83. Rosenbaum escaped Austria in 1938 as part of the Kindertransport, enlisted in the National Guard and served as an enlisted man in the Philippines. Long active in the American Jewish Committee-Oregon Chapter, he served as a vice president of the Oregon Area Jewish Committee from its inception in 2008 until the spring of 2009.

FEBRUARY

More than 100 people showed up for J Street Portland’s kickoff event at the Oregon Jewish Museum Feb. 4, coinciding with similar J Street kickoff events in 20 other cities across the country. J Street, established in April of 2008, is the political arm of a pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. The events celebrated the incorporation of Brit Zedekv’Shalom, The Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, into J Street.

Moved by the real stories of local women who have benefited from the dollars raised by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, the 300 women at Impact opened their hearts and their purses. Attendees pledged a total of $285,511 to the 2010 Annual Campaign, of which $52,223 was pledged at the Feb. 8 event at the MJCC.

Jewish Arts Month, a new collaborative festival of the arts, kicked off with a pre-JAM Slam at the MJCC Feb. 24. The Oregon Arts Commission awarded the MJCC a $4,200 Arts Build Communities grant to organize and promote Jewish Arts Month in Portland. JAM is a collaborative effort between various Jewish and secular cultural arts agencies.

As part of JAM, The Jewish Theatre Collaborative partnered with Oregon Holocaust Resource Center and Oregon Area Jewish Committee to mount its first mainstage production of Kindertransport. Playing to more than 1,700 people including 450 students, the production earned critical acclaim and a drammy award. Building alliances with 30 community sponsors, JTC reached out broadly to the Jewish community and beyond.

MARCH

After more than a year of intense work, the Jewish Education Task Force (created by the Leadership Council convened by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland) developed four proposals that it hopes will excite the community and motivate it to develop an ever-improving system of Jewish education.The four proposals are: Create an educational ombudsperson to provide community-wide educational support; develop community-wide educational teen programming; develop and market a community-wide integrated website; and develop a community educational scholarship fund.

A swastika was painted on a Reed College student’s door three days after a panel of Holocaust survivors spoke at Reed College in a program organized by senior Leslie Zukor. The program was a response to articles satirizing the Holocaust in The Pamphlette, a two-page weekly published by Reed College students. Reed faculty cited free speech in defense of the first two articles, but Reed President Colin Diver emailed a campus-wide apology in the aftermath of the final article and The Pamphlette apologized in print. Then three days after the Holocaust panel, which drew about 100 people to hear three panelists share their poignant stories of surviving the Nazi horror, a swastika was drawn on a student’s doorway noteboard at Reed College. Diver responded with another campus-wide email—this one appealing for anyone with knowledge of the incident to come forward.

Oregon Jewish Museum Executive Director Judith Margles was elected chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums at its annual conference in Los Angeles.

Robert Horenstein, community relations director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, is the new national president of the Directors Association of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

The March 6 “Ninety Years Young” event to celebrate and benefit residents of Robison Jewish Health Center netted $160,000, far exceeding organizers’ goal of $125,000. The annual fund-raiser for the nursing home on Cedar Sinai Park this year took the form of a 90th birthday celebration for the Robison Home, as the residence is fondly known.

APRIL

Ruben and Elizabeth Menashe were awarded the 2010 Rabbi Joshua Stampfer Community Enrichment Award March 18. The award was created in 1999 to honor its namesake on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his ordination. He remains the emeritus  rabbi of Congregation Neveh Shalom where he served as rabbi for 40 years.

Portland’s Jewish Student Union, which has clubs in seven area high schools, will launch Hebrew High in September, when Wilson High School will join Riverdale High in offering Hebrew for foreign language credit in on-campus, after-school classes. And all students in Portland Public School high schools will be able to take Hebrew conversation and Israel history/advocacy for elective credit in afternoon classes offered in Southwest Portland.

During a March 21-24 social action seminar in Washington, DC, six Portland Jewish Youth Initiative members handed out hygiene supplies and talked to homeless people. They then invited Portland teens to replicate that experience here as one of three service projects organized by PJYI for the April 25 National Day of Service organized by J-Serve. Under the auspices of the Oregon Board of Rabbis with funding from an Innovation Impact Grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, PJYI began this school year as a council of 12 teens from a variety of synagogues and youth groups who plan community-wide programs and social action opportunities for all Jewish teens.

MAY

At its April 12 meeting, Shaarie Torah’s board approved the ritual committee’s recommendation on theological changes to permit women to read the Torah and to permit women to say the blessing for an aliyah. Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who has lead the traditional synagogue for the last three years of its 105-year existence, described the change as part of the formerly Orthodox synagogue’s ongoing transition to adapt to the modern world.

The Rev. John Pawlikowski, a priest and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, opened the first session of presentations at a two-day University of Portland conference on “History 1933-1948: What We Choose to Remember” by explaining the importance of history to Catholic-Jewish relations.

The Oregon Jewish Community Youth Foundation Dare to Care dinner May 6 drew 161 people, who pledged $31,118 during the event’s Mitzvah Moment. The OJCYF teens will distribute those pledgesduring their third round of allocations considering 30 grant requests from Jewish and secular nonprofits. During the first two rounds, the teens awarded a total of $7,200 in community grants to Jewish and secular nonprofits.

The Oregon Jewish Community Foundation announced on May 11 that John Moss, its executive director for the previous eight years, has resigned for personal reasons. OJCF President Stan Geffen said, “John raised the foundation’s stature and served as a dedicated steward of the foundation’s funds during his tenure.”

Superior Kosher Foods, LLC, an offshoot of The Portland Kollel, is now selling CholovYisrael dairy products in an effort to expand choices for kosher consumers. Starting out with five flavors of lowfat yogurt under the “Wholesome Creamery” label, Superior Kosher also distributes a special line of milk under the Mallorie’s label.

The 2010 Rabbi Rose TikkunOlam Award was presented at Congregation Beth Israel’s 152nd Annual Meeting to two recipients who were honored for their commitment to Social Action: Tracy Oseran, founder of Urban Gleaners, and Dr. Gregg Coodley, co-founder of the Fanno Creek Clinic.

JUNE

The annual Friends of the Center Dinner May 23 at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center raised $164,251 during the mitzvah moment and honored Portland businessman and Jewish community leader Jordan Schnitzer for his leadership and generosity in pulling the MJCC back from the brink where it had teetered on the edge of financial cataclysm at the outset of this century.

Leaders at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland faced challenging choices last month when they divided up the revenue from their most recent Annual Campaign, which raised $3,495,000, down 9.6 percent from the previous year’s campaign, which was down 10.9 percent from the year before, as the economic recession tightened its grip on the community. In all, the federation this year earmarked $2.37 million for Jewish communal support. This was made possible in part by a $60,000 budget cut at the federation this year and a $253,000 set-aside a year ago—also from cuts to the federation budget.

Congregation Neveh Shalom selected Cantor Deborah Bletstein as its new cantor. The Conservative congregation chose Bletstein for the position after a year-long nationwide search.

Nearly 30 young adults attended the Jewish Leadership Retreat at B’nai B’rith Camp to learn leadership skills and connect with other young adults. Designed to inspire and enable participants to take an active role in the local Jewish community, the community-wide retreat was organized by Machar with the help of Urban Jews, Moishe House, Hinenu, Jews Next Dor and Beit Kayam.

JULY

Community leaders used the opportunity of the recent annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland to praise Charles R. Schiffman who retired on June 30 after 23 years as JFGP executive vice president.

At its annual meeting June 10, the federation elected and installed Layton Borkan, Lauren Goldstein, Lee Gordon, Jordan Plawner, Mark Rosenberg, Larry Wasserman and Marcia Weiss as new members of the 18-member board. Robert Shlachter was re-elected to a three-year term. “I’m heartened by the fact that such a diverse group of people accepted (nomination to the federation board),” said JFGP President Gersham Goldstein.

AUGUST

The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has hired a 41-year-old Jewish professional from Philadelphia to fill its top post, vacant since the retirement June 30 of Charles R. Schiffman. Marc N. Blattner will become the federation’s president and chief executive officer on Sept. 1. Blattner brings to Portland some 16 years of leadership experience within the federation system, in addition to specialized leadership training as a Jewish communal professional.

Temple Beth Tikvah in Bend hired Rabbi Glenn Ettman to lead the Central Oregon Reform congregation. Ettman spends four full days in Bend each month to lead services, adult education programs and children’s activities. He also holds regular office hours and helps train lay leaders.

Chuck Karsun, who died in 2007, left a legacy through the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation in the form of a $3.5 million endowment. In the first annual distributions last month from the fund, a total of $178,000 was awarded to the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, Jewish Family and Child Service, Portland Jewish Academy, Congregation Shaarie Torah, the Jewish National Fund in New York and OJCF’s Community Endowment Fund.

This summer, more than 250 people enjoyed Jewish Theatre Collaborative’s series of Israeli plays, performed as staged readings by some of Portland’s finest actors. The third annual staged reading series of Israeli plays took audience members on a time journey through Israeli history illuminating profound social transformation.