Calendar

Aug
19
Sat
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Aug 19 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders

1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am

Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!

Sep
16
Sat
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Sep 16 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders

1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am

Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!

Oct
8
Sun
JGSO: Ellis Island Name Change Myth & “Finding “Waldo” at Ellis Island @ Congregation Ahavath Achim
Oct 8 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 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.

Oct
21
Sat
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Oct 21 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders

1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am

Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!

Nov
5
Sun
From the Shtetl to the Lower East Side – HUNGRY HEARTS: A Scored and Restored Silent film @ Portland State University - Lincoln Recital Hall
Nov 5 @ 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Event page     |   Download Full Event Flyer

What: A screening of the restored silent film “Hungry Hearts” (1922) preceded by a reception with a choice of three parallel 20-min lectures. Q&A with the composer, David Spear, to follow.
When: Sunday, November 5, 2017 | 5:30pm to 9:30pm
Where: Lincoln Recital Hall (LH 75) | Pocket Lectures in LH 75, LH 21, and LH 37
Cost: Free and open to the public. RSVP requested, but not required.
Contact: Stacey Johnston | judaicst@pdx.edu | 503-725-8449

Join the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies for the Portland premiere of the recently restored and rescored silent film “Hungry Hearts” (1922), filmed on location on New York’s Lower East Side. Based on the short stories of Anzia Yezierska, one of the first immigrant authors to write about American Jewish women for a mainstream audience, the film focuses on the members of the Levin family who emigrate from Eastern Europe to New York City and captures the hopes and hardships of Jewish immigrants in the New World.

The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis restored Goldwyn’s original print, and with generous support from the Casden Institute, a new score was composed and produced by David Spear in collaboration with his students from the USC Thornton School of Music. The new score for “Hungry Hearts” premiered at the 2007 New York Jewish Film Festival in Lincoln Center.

The event will begin at 5:30pm with a “Feast for the Senses and the Mind.” You are invited to sample hors d’oeuvres alongside three “pocket lectures” (20 minutes each) on various aspects of the film’s cultural and historical context. The film will begin at 7:00pm and will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with the lead composer, David Spear, about the process of scoring a historic silent film and breathing new life into “old art”. (Full Schedule Below)

  • 5:30 pm      Welcome Reception with Food
  • 6:00 pm      Choose your own mini-lecture!
    • LH 75 – Marat Grinberg, Reed College
      • “At the Intersection of Screen and Text: American Jewish Culture Before the War”
    • LH 37 – Joseph Butwin, University of Washington
      • “Exile and Return: Anzia Yezierska Finds her Vocation”
    • LH 21 – Amy Borden, PSU School of Film

      • “Immigration and Nativism in New York’s Nickelodeon’s”
  • 7:00 pm      Hungry Hearts Film Screening
  • 8:45 pm      Q&A with David Spear
    • Soundtrack Producer & 2017 Artist-in-Residence

This is the first half of the 2017 Levy Event, which focuses on the nexus between East European Jewish immigrants to the U.S. and twentieth-century American film and music. For information about the second half of the 2017 Levy Event, visit the event page.

This event is sponsored by the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies thanks to the generous support of Larry Levy and Pamela Lindholm-Levy. Cosponsored by the PSU School of Music + Theater and the Northwest Film Center.

Nov
6
Mon
Cabaret J – From the Lower East Side, to Broadway, Hollywood, and Beyond! @ Portland State University - Lincoln Recital Hall
Nov 6 @ 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Event Page     |     Download Full Event Flyer

What: A cabaret revue drawn from the American popular songbook with Artist-in-Residence David Spear, featuring PSU student and faculty performers. Preceded by lecture on “The Songs Are You: Jewish Songwriters of the Great American Songbook” with composer and musicologist Aaron Fruchtman.
When: Monday, November 6, 2017 | 6:00pm to 9:30pm (performance begins at 7:30pm)
Where: Lincoln Recital Hall (LH 75)
Cost: Free and open to the public. RSVP requested, but not required.
Contact: Stacey Johnston | judaicst@pdx.edu | 503-725-8449

The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies and the School of Music + Theater present an evening cabaret performance featuring the songs of such Jewish composers as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Kurt  Weill, and Harold Arlen, performed by PSU students and faculty, local professional vocalists, and cantors. The revue will be punctuated by historical, cultural, and musical notes by musical director David Spear, the Judaic Studies Program’s 2017 Artist-in-Residence

Join us before the performance for a guest lecture “The Songs Are You: Jewish Songwriters of the Great American Songbook” with composer and musicologist Aaron Fruchtman.

  • 6:00 pm          Lecture w/ Aaron Fruchtman
    • “The Songs are You: Jewish Songwriters of the Great American Songbook”
  • 7:00 pm            Intermission
    • Free appetizers, Beer/Wine available for cash purchase
  • 7:30 pm             Cabaret Performance
    • Musical direction by David Spear
    • Performances by: Dean Leroy Bynum Jr, Dr. Bonnie Miksch, Sherry Alves, John Gilmore, Cantor Eyal Bitton, Amy Hansen, Pamela South, Anders Tobiason, Danielle Barker, & Maeve Dahlen
  • 9:00 pm             Dessert Reception

    • Desserts, Coffee, and Tea provided

This is the second half of the 2017 Levy Event, which focuses on the nexus between East European Jewish immigrants to the U.S. and twentieth-century American film and music. For information about the first half of the 2017 Levy Event, visit the event page.

This event is sponsored by the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies thanks to the generous support of Larry Levy and Pamela Lindholm-Levy. Cosponsored by the PSU School of Music + Theater.

Nov
18
Sat
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Nov 18 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders

1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am

Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!

Dec
3
Sun
JGSO: Read All About It!: Using Online Newspapers For Genealogical Research @ Congregation Ahavath Achim
Dec 3 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

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.

Dec
16
Sat
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Dec 16 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders

1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am

Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!

Jan
20
Sat
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Jan 20 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders

1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am

Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!