Walking tour of Historic Jewish Portland

In the early 1900s, Eastern European and Sephardic Jews settled in South
Portland.
It was a close and largely self-contained neighborhood. There were kosher
butcher shops and bakeries, a Jewish orphanage and an old age home, social
activism and immigrant benevolent societies. There were schools, a library
with Yiddish books, and the Neighborhood House, a community focal point
with Hebrew lessons, citizenship classes and a medical clinic.
In 1958, Portland voted to create the South Auditorium Urban Renewal
District and bulldozers demolished 54 blocks of the immigrant community.
Despite this, today there are intact reminders of the way life used to be. Based on
her books A Walking Tour of Historic Jewish Portland,The Immigrants’ Children:
Jewish and Italian Memories of Old South Portland, and Stories From Jewish
Portland, Polina Olsen shows you places that remain as she shares first-hand
memories of people who grew up in the neighborhood.
$10 per person, all proceeds are donated to the Jewish Federation of Greater
Portland. RSVP and learn the starting location at ojfas@comcast.net.