Monthly Mitzvah Project
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.
October
Welcome Basket Items for teens moving out of homelessness
• Second Home (Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon)
Leonard Bernstein at 100 celebrates the life and work of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), the great Jewish American composer and conductor who dedicated his life to making classical music a vibrant part of American culture.The exhibition features photographs, personal items, papers, scores, correspondence, costumes, furniture, and audio and video recordings. A vocal booth gives visitors the chance to sing lead in West Side Story. The exhibition is the most comprehensive retrospective of Bernstein’s life and career ever staged in a museum setting.
Curated by the GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live ® in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Bernstein Family. Presented in cooperation with the Bernstein Family, The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc., Brandeis University, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Generous support for this exhibition is from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation and the Collins Foundation.
Portland Open Studios is coming up this weekend! This self guided tour of more than 100 Portland area artists studios takes place October 12-13 & 19-20! More information online at https://portlandopenstudios.com/.
Michael Allen Harrison Oregon Music Hall Of Fame Induction
Come celebrate with Michael his induction to The Oregon Music Hall Of Fame
Aladdin Theater – October 12th, 2019 – 7:00pm
Tickets will be on sale at Ticketfly.com and the Aladdin Theater box office July 10th. Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door. VIP tickets, which include prime seating, collectable laminated pass, a Gary Houston limited edition hand pulled signed and numbered poster plus entrance to the catered after-induction party with the inductees, musicians and other VIPs, are $100 in advance or $110 at the door.
Community Sukkah Building
Help build our NEW community Sukkah! Fun for kids and adults! Bring your own decorations or create some while you are here to hang up in the Sukkah! Tools and supplies provided.
Sunday, October 13
10:00 am
Supported by the Cookie and Merritt Yoelin Fund at OJCF
Portland Open Studios is coming up this weekend! This self guided tour of more than 100 Portland area artists studios takes place October 12-13 & 19-20! More information online at https://portlandopenstudios.com/.
Fun Days off from School
Need something for your kids to do during school breaks? Keep them busy and having fun at the MJCC with sports, swimming, gymnastics, arts and crafts, games, and more! Kids must be potty-trained. Registration open now!
Ages 3-11
Half-Day: 8:00 am – 1:00 pm, Cost: $33. Member Cost: $28
Full-Day: 8:00 am – 5:30 pm, Cost: $60. Member Cost: $50
All campers must be fully potty trained. No exceptions.
We welcome campers from 8:00 – 9:00 am + begin programming at 9:00 am. For half-day campers, check out is at 1:00 pm.
For full-day campers, check out begins at 4:00 pm
and will continue through 5:30 pm.
Schedule for Vacation Day Camp
2019-20 – Register Today!
Oct. 1, 11, 14, 21, 22
Nov. 1, 11, 25, 26, 27
Dec. 23, 26, 27, 30, 31
Jan. 2, 3, 17, 20, 27
Feb. 17
March 13, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
April 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
May 8, 21, 22, 29
Full day: 8:00 am – 5:30 pm
Half day: 8:00 am – 1:00 pm
Contact Carli Rosenthal at 503.452.3436.
Unity Through learning.
Study Torah with a partner and make connections with Jews from across Portland. Hot drinks, light snacks, and study resources will all be made available.
Join Portland as we learn one on one. Bring your learning partner or ask us to provide one.

In this seminar, we will discuss the “other” Jewish American writers — not Bellow, Roth, Pinsky or Chabon, but work by Jewish American women writers who have created a different canon. We will discuss work by Susan Sontag, Cynthia Ozick, Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy and others arguably of their stature. These Jewish women writers are not defined by the Jewish male writers’ gaze. They do not perpetuate stereotypes of the Jewish mother as martyr, or as the controlling Jewish woman. They are writers who may be mothers or child-free, partnered or not, straight or non-heterosexual, observant or secular, of Ashkenazi, Sephardic or Mizrachi backgrounds. We will explore the particular light Jewish women writers shine on the American Jewish experience and why their profound contributions to literature have often been overlooked.
READING LIST:
I, Etcetera: Stories by Susan Sontag
Cannibal Gallery by Cynthia Ozick
Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity by Adrienne Rich
He, She and It by Marge Piercy
A Few Words in the Mother Tongue by Irena Klepfisz
The Moon is Almost Full by Chana Bloch
Divinity School by Alicia Jo Rabins
Paper is White by Hilary Zaid
Getting Home Alive by Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales
Willa Schneberg is a poet, ceramic sculptor, interdisciplinary artist, photographer and curator. She is the author of five collections and received the Oregon Book Award for In the Margins of the World. Her poetry and visual art have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and the Tikkun anthology.