Calendar

Join as we celebrate Jerusalem Day!

Free

Enter your best Cheesecake recipe in this fun food lovers contest for Shavuot! Vote for your favorite! Non-Kosher entries are accepted.

Recipes due: Friday, May 26^h to Len Steinberg at lsteinberg@oregonjcc.org

Entries Due: 2:00 PM day of event

Tasting/Judging: 5:15 – 6:15 PM, Winner announced immediately and recipe shared with community.

For more than 40 years, the Jewish Community Orchestra has combined standard classical fare with works by Jewish composers, or works relating to Jewish themes and historical events. As amateur musicians, the JCO’s goal is to further the growth of local artists by presenting concerts that attract, educate and entertain the audience. All JCO concerts are Sunday afternoons at the MJCC.

Verdi – Nabucco Overture

Delibes – Sylvia Ballet Suite

Avshalomov – Elegy for strings

American Prize Winner in Composition

Dvorak – American Suite

Children under 6 free. Tickets at the door.

In partnership with the MJCC.

Summer Day Camp party!
Thursday, June 22
4:00 pm

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon invites you, your family and friends to its upcoming program on two topics – Ellis Island Name Change Myth & “Finding “Waldo” At Ellis Island presented by Joel Weintraub

Ellis Island Name Change Myth
The idea that inspectors at Ellis Island regularly Americanized immigrant names is a persistent myth. We will investigate the evidence that should exist (it doesn’t) to confirm the story as fact, and why name changing at the station was improbable given how immigrants were processed. The history of this immigration station, the types of people who passed through their doors, the legal documents (including their name) they came with, and station detention documents generated for about 1/6 of them, will be discussed with actual examples. Note: be prepared to avoid deportation by Inspector Weintraub.

Finding “Waldo” At Ellis Island
Using a case study, we will show how nine different strategies can be used to find the immigration record of an elusive immigrant to Ellis Island. For those who still cannot locate Ellis Island immigration records of their ancestors, this talk may provide some approaches you might not have tried. The difficulty of providing accurate indexes from transcriptions of ship manifests is a major problem associated with many of these strategies. We will see how well you do as a transcriber of manifest names.

Bio: Joel, a New Yorker by birth, is an emeritus Professor at California State University Fullerton and won awards for his science teaching. He volunteered for nine years at the National Archives and Records Administration. Joel created search tools for the U.S. and New York City censuses that are freely available on the Steve Morse “One-Step” website. He and Steve are currently developing locational tools for the 2022 release of the 1950 federal census. Joel has written and talked on NYC and Federal census research, immigration and naturalization, Ellis Island, biographical research, and Jewish genealogy topics.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon invites you, your family and friends to its upcoming program “Read All About It!: Using Online Newspapers For Genealogical Research” by Janice M. Sellers

Description: Newspapers are valuable in genealogical research because you can find information about births, marriages, deaths, moves, business, naturalizations, court cases, and more. Millions of pages of the world’s newspapers are now accessible online, but there is no one place to find them all. This class provides an overview of what is available online and techniques to help improve your chances of finding information about your relatives.

Bio: Janice M. Sellers is a professional genealogist specializing in Jewish, black, forensic, and newspaper research. She edits three genealogy publications and serves on the boards of San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, and Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy. She is also a member of Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogical Speakers Guild, and California Genealogical Society. Before becoming a professional genealogist, she worked in publishing for many years as an editor, indexer, translator, and compositor. Her web site is ancestraldiscoveries.com.

Event Link: http://tinyurl.com/JewishLuckPDX
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/295086217663190/

What: A screening of selected scenes from the silent film “Jewish Luck” (1925) with scores collaboratively written and performed by PSU students under the direction of Artist-in-Residence, David Spear
When: Monday, December 11th at 8:00pm
Where: Lincoln Recital Hall (LH 75)
Cost: Free and open to the public.
Contact: School of Music & Theater – Ian Wallace | iwallace@pdx.edu | 503-725-3011
Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies – Stacey Johnston | stacey8@pdx.edu | 503-725-8449

Please join us for a performance of selected scenes from the Yiddish silent film “Jewish Luck” (1925) with music composed and performed live by PSU Music students under the direction of 2017 Artist-in-Residence David Spear.

The silent film Jewish Luck (1925) was among the first Soviet Yiddish films to be released in the US during the 1920s. Based on Sholem Aleichem’s stories, the film revolves around the daydreaming entrepreneur Menakhem Mendl who specializes in doomed strike-it-rich schemes.

Jewish Luck features some of the finest artistic talents of Soviet Jewry during this period. The original Russian intertitles were written by renowned Soviet Jewish writer Isaac Babel, who later became a victim of the Stalinist purges in the late 1930s.

Thanks to the restoration of Jewish Luck by the National Center for Jewish Film, the moving “images” of Sholem Aleichem’s philosophical daydreamer have been miraculously preserved. A new score will allow contemporary audiences to view and ultimately “hear” this classic Russian Yiddish silent film.

Sponsored by the School of Music & Theater and the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon invites you, your family and friends to its upcoming program “Jewish Life in Poland” by Avraham Groll.

Description: Part 1 (10th-15th centuries) will explore patterns of Jewish migration to Poland between the 10th-15th centuries. We will discuss when and why the major shifts happened, where the Jews settled and their involvement in the Poland’s development. This presentation is designed for beginners, and is not a workshop. Maps, pictures, and documents will be displayed. Handouts with further information and a bibliography will also be distributed.

Part 2 (16th-18th centuries) will explore patterns of Jewish migration to Poland between the 16th-18th centuries. We will discuss the “Golden Age of Polish Jewry,” the reaction to Shabtai Tzvi, and how the Jewish experience in Poland helped set the stage, in part, for the eventual rise of the Hasidic movement. This presentation is designed for beginners, and is not a workshop. Maps, pictures, and documents will be displayed. Handouts

Bio: Avraham Groll, the Director of JewishGen.org, is passionate about connecting people with their Jewish roots, and helping them experience what it means to be part of the Jewish people. Avraham holds an MBA from Montclair State University, an MA in Judaic Studies from Touro College, and a BS in Business Administration from Ramapo college, and spent two years studying at Yeshiva Ohr Yeruslahayim in Israel. He is a frequent lecturer on a variety of Jewish genealogical and historical topics.

New Year’s Eve at Noon

Join us for this fun family event as we ring in the New Year! Arts and crafts, games, bouncy house, dancing, snacks, pool float, and our annual countdown to 2019 at noon with the balloon drop!

11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Pool Float from 12:30 – 2:00 pm

Free and open to the community.