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.
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Israel from the Eyes of the Community – A PDX Community Art Display:
Members from the Greater Portland area submitted photos that were taken by them while in Israel. A committee selected the photos on display. During the week leading up to our annual Yom Ha’Atzmaut Celebration (May 8), visitors were ask to vote for your favorite photo! That evening, we will announce the winners.
This year’s winning photo was taken by Nimoi Markel.
Submissions to lsteinberg@oregonjcc.org by April 12.
Exhibit on display April 29 – May 31
Sponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and PJ Library
Spring Monthly Mitzvah Projects
Each month the MJCC and PJA communities will collect items for the monthly mitzvah. Drop off items in the blue bin in the MJCC lobby. Check the display for how you can participate and donate to these worthy causes.
This project reflects 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.
May – Household Supplies for Organizations Serving Refugees
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!
Continue the fun and warmth of Congregation Neveh Shalom’s Tot Shabbat with Kiddush Club. We sing, dance, hear a Torah story and more! 1st Shabbat of the month with Rabbi Eve Posen, 3rd Shabbat of the month with Gershon Liberman. Both followed by Kiddush lunch.
Young children (0-5) and their parents celebrate Shabbat with singing, movement, blessings, and storytelling. We will touch on the main highlights of the Shabbat service: wonder, fun, song, listening to the world, dancing, and Torah. Afterward we will enjoy an informal oneg nosh and the chance to play and schmooze. Please RSVP here.
The Seventh Annual Celebrating our Caring Community luncheon honoring the work of Jewish Family & Child Service will be held 10 am to noon, May 19, at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Lunch is complimentary, but guests are asked to make “a meaningful donation” to JFCS.
The event begins at 10 am with a silent art auction to raise funds for TASK/Tikvah. The silent auction includes art ranging from paintings and drawings to textiles and jewelry. Funds raised will support the TASK/Tikvah disabilities services for children and adults. During the auction, music by Tom Grant and a sponsored Mimosa Bar will be in the MJCC lobby.
Incoming JFCS President Larry Holzman will serve as master of ceremonies. Brunch begins at 10:30. This year’s brunch will introduce “The Wise Aging Program,” which JFCS will launch in June. Developed for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, the Wise Aging program provides a guided path designed to for those who want to discover new resources for living their later years with spirit, resilience and wisdom.
Guest speaker will be Linda Thal, a Jewish educator and spiritual director whose work focuses on adult spiritual development. Linda is co-author of Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience, and Spirit. She facilitates on-going Wise Aging groups in Los Angeles and New York, and also designed and conducts the national Wise Aging facilitator training program for the Institute of Jewish Spirituality.
The brunch will also feature Some “Words of Wisdom” by Guest of Honor Rabbi Joshua Stampfer. Now 97, the well-known scholar and innovator continues to teach several classes each week and participate in many of the institutions he has founded in his 60 plus years in Portland.
Space is limited. The brunch is complimentary, but RSVP is required: jfcs-portland.org/giving/2019-brunch/, 503-226-7079.
Explore the basics of breathing coordination and learn to breathe and speak with more ease and greater power. Taught by Eve Bernfeld, Certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.
PSU History professor David A. Horowitz presents literary and narrative selections from Two on the Aisle: A Judaic American Tale of Romance and Creative Dreams, his recently published biography of his parents, accompanied by PowerPoint and Gershwin musical excerpts.
Two on the Aisle: A Judaic American Tale of Romance and Creative Dreams, is a hybrid cultural history and family chronicle that traces the aspirations, experiences, and creative works of the author’s parents, Nathan and Dorothy Horowitz, in an account encompassing many of the central themes and contradictions of twentieth-century American and Jewish history and identity. The story describes how two offspring of Eastern European immigrants combined a struggle for material security with literary efforts that blended Yiddish-flavored humor, social compassion, religious devotion, and secular concerns with piercing meditations on life’s disappointments and fragility. While sampling fragments of the couple’s three-act play that enjoyed a brief run off-Broadway in the 1950s and excerpts from published poetry, short stories, sketches, and essays, Two on the Aisle draws on an archive of correspondence, journal entries, and unpublished work to provide a fully human dimension to this remarkable story.