Support the MJCC and PJA communities by donating books for our annual Used Book Sale.
Book Collection Drive: January 14 – March 15. Donate your used books to the MJCC. Drop off at the front desk. Need a pickup? Email pjabooksale@gmail.com to schedule pickup. No encyclopedias, please.
The Book Sale will be at the MJCC March 31 – April 2
Free and open to the community.
Monthly Mitzvah Project – February
Each month, the MJCC and PJA communities will collect items for the monthly mitzvah. These projects reflect the Jewish commitment to Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), providing opportunities to give back to our community.
Please drop off items in the blue bin in the MJCC Lobby.
February – Lunch + snack items for Portland Backpack
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders
1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am
Torah Troop allows families at Congregation Neveh Shalom to move into the main sanctuary while still enjoying youth-oriented activity. At 10:00am, families meet in the main service. After the beginning Torah service, youth join their friends for a lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week with adult leaders, and come back to help lead the Adon Olam at the end of the service.
As always, we end with our community for lunch!
Talk with Esther Podemski following the screening!
Tracing the history of an old family photograph, the filmmaker, Esther Podemski, travels to Poland with a group of her parents’ contemporaries. Fifty years after surviving the Holocaust, the elders return to their hometown, Poddebice, to conduct a memorial service in the Jewish graveyard. They find an empty field, marked by a lone tablet, the only testament to the history of this place to survive the wartime desecration. In the nearby city of Lodz , we meet Layb Pradskier, custodian of the immense, crumbling Jewish cemetery. Here we discover that all that remains of the once several hundred thousand strong Jewish population of Lodz is a handful of aging Holocaust survivors. Lodz, and indeed all of Poland, exemplifies the success of the Holocaust; Poland is all but totally cleansed of Jews. A montage of historical images, snapshots, and archival music, together with new location footage, House of the World moves between personal accounts of Jewish Poland and historic events.
Esther Podemski is a filmmaker and visual artist whose works have been exhibited in galleries, film festivals and academic venues. House of the World, her documentary about the aftermath of the Holocaust, was shot in Poland and has been showcased in European and American art centers and festivals, including Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, Lincoln Center, and Los Angeles International Jewish Film Festival.
The screening is in conjunction with Memory Unearthed at the Portland Art Museum and Last Journey of the Jews of Lodz at OJMCHE.
Jewish Women’s Roundtable annual Sisterhood Havdalah will be lead by Rabbi Ariel Stone. Afterwards there will be refreshments, a social hour and an exhibition of Israeli dancing.
Rabbi Gary Ellison, who was the rabbi at TBS for 11 years, has offered to teach a 10-part class that he offered at Willamette University for all those who feel they would benefit from an introduction to Judaism course.
If you are interested in this course, please contact Rabbi Eli at rabbi@tbsholom.org.
This class will require a serious commitment from students: $200 for TBS members ($300 for non-members) and attendance at all 10 classes. There will be one textbook (Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy, $35 new/$8.50 or more used) required for the course.
Needs-based scholarships will be available upon request.
Class will begin on Sunday, January 27 at 11:00 am.
Mah Jongg for Beginners
Learn to play this ancient game. It will give your mind a workout!
Tuesday Mornings
10:30 am – 12:30 pm, CG200
Cost: $100. Members: $85.
Register: oregonjcc.org/registration
Mah Jongg for Intermediate Players
Take your game to the next level and become an expert!
Tuesday Afternoons
1:30 – 3:30 pm, CG201
Cost: $100. Members: $85.
Register: oregonjcc.org/registration
Ostrow Memorial lecturer Judith Cohen, Director of Photo Archives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The lecture presents and analyzes the importance of ghetto photographers during the Holocaust, including Lodz Ghetto photographer, Henryk Ross. Since the vast majority and best known Holocaust photography – images as the boy in the Warsaw Ghetto and the selections at Auschwitz – was taken by German photographers, more often we visually imagine the Holocaust through Nazi eyes. There also exists, however, a considerable corpus of Jewish ghetto photography taken both by professional and amateur photographers. These photographs not only capture aspects of the ghetto hidden to the Germans, but also show layers of ambiguity and nuance that the official photos miss. How do these photographs differ from the better known Nazi photographs? Does it matter who took the photo or just what appears in the image?
Israeli Dancing
Join us for a fun, introductory Israeli folk dance class. All levels are welcome. Six people needed to run class.
Wednesday Evenings,
Dec. 26 – Feb. 27
Cost: $100 Members + Guests.
Drop-in Fee: $15 per class.
Registration information: CG105, oregonjcc.org/registration