JAM Art Show + Sale
March is Jewish Arts Month but the show starts in late February! Enjoy a rotating exhibit in the MJCC lobby. Members of ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists will answer questions, accept commissions, and sell their art. A portion of the proceeds benefits the MJCC.
Monthly Mitzvah Project – March
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.
March – Pillows for Purim for Community Warehouse
OJMCHE looks back at the determination, resilience, and leadership that have brought Portland’s Conservative congregation through 150 years, preserving tradition while embracing modernity.
In 1869 a group of Polish and Prussian immigrants settled in Portland and founded the city’s second synagogue, Ahavai Sholom, blending traditional religious practices with modern American customs, struggling to find stability in their early days. Three decades later a group of Russian immigrants faced the same challenges when they founded Neveh Zedek Talmud Torah. The two congregations eventually merged, becoming Neveh Shalom in 1961. Always ready to adapt and innovate, today the congregation stands at the forefront of social justice, carrying forward the Jewish values which light their way.
The exhibit gives visitors a view into the history of Neveh Shalom, highlighting some of the events and people who shaped its growth, drawing personal connections between devotion to tradition and the progressive outlook which has characterized the congregation from its very beginning.
CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE ISRAEL360 TALK at Neveh Shalom March 12.
Mel Bochner: Enough Said from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Mel Bochner (b.1940) consistently probes the conventions of painting and language. Bochner’s text-based works will be on view.
From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundations, this body of recent works, 2007-2018, challenge audiences to reflect on the nature and structure of everyday language. Curated by Bruce Guenther, adjunct curator for special exhibitions, the exhibition explores language as image and idea through Bochner’s long-held interest in complex printmaking techniques.
“Bochner’s historic use of language and words as both a linguistic system of inquiry and as a formal visual vocabulary of his painting practice has found new focus in the last decade through the artist’s intense engagement with printmaking and his exploration of the relationships of words as image, text, voice and thinking,” says Guenther. “He plumbs English and Yiddish for language’s power to establish identity, to command respect, or to attack in works of unpredictable emotionality and humor.”
“Mel Bochner is one of the most important conceptual artists of our time. His word art makes us smile, laugh, frown and jeer – but always forces us to think,” says Jordan D. Schnitzer. “He seduces us with emotions, words and phrases that we all have used. Whether we laugh or frown experiencing his art, we are forever moved.”
Born in 1940 to an Orthodox family in Pittsburgh, the artist attended Hebrew school and was exposed to art early through his father, who was a sign painter with a workshop in the family’s basement. Displaying an early talent for drawing, Bochner participated in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s innovative children’s art classes, eventually winning a scholarship to Carnegie Melon University.
ojmche.org
Drawing on his memoir, The Scorekeeper, a finalist for the 2018 Oregon Book Award, retired journalist and author Edward Hershey reflects on the lofty aspirations and sobering limitations of Jewish-American life in the 1950s and 60s when his own New York neighborhood was “as Jewish as Ivory soap — 99 and 44/100s pure.”
“The city may have been diverse as a whole, but it was less a melting pot than a collection of ethnic neighborhoods,” Hershey writes. “And few were more homogenous than those housing the two million Jews who comprised a quarter of its populace in 1950 (before many started migrating to Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey to form suburban Jewish enclaves). This Jewish-American circumspection about how—and where—to live reflected a perceived need to stick together for support and even protection.
“After living through the Great Depression without losing focus, watching relatives succumb to the Holocaust without losing faith and facing endemic anti-Semitism without losing heart, my parents’ generation had come to view the American reality with a grain of kosher salt. Banding together was one way to counter—or at least circumvent— the limitations and indignities of bias in employment, housing, education, and social access. ‘They would not let us in so we bought the place’ became a laugh line in the Catskill Mountains ‘Borscht Belt’ and on the Miami Beach ‘Gold Coast’ where Jewish resorts emerged in areas previously ‘restricted’ to gentiles. But such humor belied a widespread effort to hide in plain sight. Avoid making waves. Better not to be noticed. Don’t invite trouble.”
Hershey’s vivid recollections — some humorous and others sobering – give context to a bygone era that shaped his generation. “Post-War Jewish-America: Hiding in Plain Sight” will inform some, evoke nostalgia in others and delight all who are proud of their Jewish-American heritage.
This is part of the OJMCHE series of informal lunchtime conversations. Bring a lunch or buy a brown bag lunch in Lefty’s Cafe and join us in the museum’s auditorium for a lively give and take as we share and explore ideas, experience, and expertise.
Edward Hershey enjoyed a varied career as a sportswriter, news reporter, author of books on baseball and police hostage negotiation, journalism teacher, government official, college publicist and union activist that included stints as an antiques columnist, Shakespearean theater president, city alderman, college basketball announcer, member of the Portland Independent Police Review Board, chair of the City Club of Portland Friday Forum Committee and, for 42 years, a mainstay of the George Polk Awards in journalism. He and his wife Leah, a hand weaver and retired college administrator, live in Mount Tabor neighborhood.
P’nai Or has some fun in store for families that you won’t want to miss. Wear your costumes! Drown out the name of Haman, be in a rhythm band parade, bring your stuffed animals for a stuffed animal petting zoo, bake gluten-free chocolate chip hamantaschen, and more! This event will be downstairs in the indoor park. Sponsored by the P’nai Or Education Committee. Carnival: 5:00-6:30 pm (Doors open at 4:30) – Puppet show upstairs in the Sanctuary; finger food (and HAMANTASCHEN) potluck in the Jarrett Wing. 6:30-9 pm: Finger food potluck and hamamtaschen, songs, Purim shpiel, megillah, and merriment!
Come one, come all, for a night of joy, masquerade, and retelling the story of the courageous individuals from long ago whose valor saved the Jewish People. We will have pizza and vegetarian potluck, Megillah chanting, spieling, a costume parade, Hamantaschen contest, and dancing.
Wear a costume, if you have one, or pick out something from Havurah’s collection.
6:15 pm – Pizza will be provided by Havurah. Please bring a salad or vegetarian side dish if your last name begins with A-L. Please bring a dessert if your last name begins with M-Z.
6:45 pm – Costume parade with paparazzi
7:00 pm – Spiel/Megillah
8:00 pm – Dance Party and Hamantaschen Judging
Bring Hamantaschen for the contest! Havurah High will do the judging.
Please RSVP here and sign up to bring a salad, veggie dish, or dessert to share!
ESTHER! A Megillah Reading and Purim Schpiel
March 20, 2019, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Main Sanctuary
1972 NW Flanders St
Portland, Oregon 97209
Don’t cry for me, Sushan, Persia! Enjoy a the comedic and musical talents of Congregation Beth Israel’s clergy, staff, and lay leadership. Free and open to the public.
Seniors and young families enjoy an inter-generational celebration of stories and songs each Thursday.
Join Kim Schneiderman for this weekly inter-generational story hour for young families with music, PJ Library books, and the residents of Cedar Sinai Park.
Come study and discuss the Bible with Rabbi Isaak at Neveh Shalom.