Calendar

Join us in a short ritual in which we reflect on our special relationship with the written and printed Hebrew word, and on the transitory nature of even our most cherished sacred objects.

Bring your any old, unusable sacred text you have – old Bibles, prayerbooks, papers – to River View Cemetery.

(The day of our event, there will be major construction on Taylors Ferry Road between Macadam Blvd and the entrance to the cemetery. Access is ONLY available via Terwilliger Blvd!)

Materials can also be dropped off at Congregation Shir Tikvah at our lecture on May 6 or at the JFGP prior to May 28.

Please wrap your materials in a brown paper bag.

This ancient ritual for disposing of unreadable or unusable ritual texts is open to all. On Sunday, May 31, the community will gather at the River View Cemetery to experience and participate in the ritual burial of sacred Jewish texts and objects. At 10:30 a.m., participants will meet at the cemetery’s main office, located at 0300 SW Taylors Ferry Rd. From there, people will make their way – via car or bike – as a processional to the Jewish Cemetery at River View for a brief, traditional ceremony.

Havurah’s Dorot “Short & Sweet” Shabbat service was created to welcome families with young children, but the service and potluck are for all ages! Young ones look up to the older ones, and older ones enjoy the younger ones’ joy and singing. A casual, family-friendly and music-filled service, it begins with candle lighting, Kiddush and challah, and continues with prayers and music led by Havurah members.

After the service, we’ll enjoy a vegetarian potluck dinner. Please bring a kid-friendly main dish. For more information and to RSVP, please email dorot@havurahshalom.org. Feel free to invite some of your friends and family to join in as well–the more the merrier!

Dare I Call You Cousin, an exhibition of photos, poems, and videos compassionate to the struggle of both Israelis and Palestinians, will open on Thursday, March 3, at Havurah Shalom.

“…have the fears from our history/crusted our eyes like the inside of kettles/ have they rusted the hinges of our mouths…” – Frances Payne Adler

Cousin is a collaboration by three artists:

– Portland poet Frances Payne Adler
– Jerusalem photographer Michal Fattal (photo on left © Michal Fattal)
– Tel Aviv videographer Yossi Yacov

Many of the voices and images shared, from both Israeli and Palestinian points of view, are those that are often missing from national and international media narratives. These voices reveal the simmering conditions that underpin day-to-day lives—conditions that repeatedly erupt into war. Viewers will see and hear from both Palestinians and Israeli settlers in Hebron; Israeli and Palestinian high school students at the region’s only bilingual, integrated school; workers and students crossing over at Qalandiya checkpoint; rabbis; peace activists; and others.

The exhibition offers viewers the opportunity to experience, through art, some of the struggles of Israelis and Palestinians; to meet people perhaps not yet known to them, stories not yet heard. Dare I Call You Cousin provides the occasion to come together to participate in reflection and dialogue, creating breathing space for community discussion.

First Thursday, March 3
Opening & Reception, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Brief Poetry Reading, 8:00 pm
Havurah Shalom

Please join us at the opening on March 3 and return for a follow-up event of your choice:

• Sunday, March 6, 2:00-5:00 pm, Viewing at your own pace. Brief reading 3:00 pm.
• Tuesday, March 8, 7:00-9:00 pm, Poetry reading by Frances Payne Adler. Viewing of the exhibition is from 7:00-7:30 pm. Poetry reading is from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. Introduction by Paulann Petersen, Oregon’s Poet Laureate, 2010-2014.
• Thursday, March 10, 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Video screening. Reflect & discuss in community. Viewing of exhibition is from 7:00 – 7:30 pm. Videos are from 7:30-9:00 pm.
• Sunday, March 13, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, Video screening. Reflect & discuss in community. Viewing of exhibition is from 2:00-3:00 pm. Videos are from 3:00-5:00 pm.

Carpool and public transportation are recommended. The Lovejoy streetcar stops one block away.

Funded in part by Portland’s Regional Arts & Culture Council
Co-Sponsored by J Street Education Fund
Hosted by Havurah Shalom

About the artists:

A Jerusalem photographer and a Tel Aviv videographer whose ancestral families emigrated from the conflicts in Iraq and Yemen; a Portland poet whose grandmother, by herself at the age of 13, walked out of Russia and away from pogroms. Three artists concerned about the settlements have collaborated to create Dare I Call YouCousin. Poet Frances Payne Adler, author of five books and founder of the Creative Writing and Social Action Program at California State University Monterey Bay; photographer Michal Fattal, who works for Ha’aretz newspaper and whose photographs have been published in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and the Guardian; and videographer Yossi Yacov, who has documented the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements for years.

“Thank you for Dare I Call You Cousin. The poems and photographs are close to my heart. Sending my respect and appreciation.” – Amos Oz

We invite you to join us on Friday, Dec. 30, to welcome Shabbat, spread the light of the Chanukah candles, and share our feelings, fears, and hopes for the difficult times we are facing as a country. For those of us who came together on the Sunday after the election, it was a powerful expression of community, and there have been requests to identify some next steps. It continues to feel premature to launch a specific action plan. Instead, it seems more appropriate to gather in community, listen to how we are doing, and continue conversations about our hopes and fears about areas such as immigrants and refugees, poverty and homelessness, climate change, equity, and gun control.

We will begin by lighting the Chanukah and Shabbat candles, sing some songs, and then spend our time talking and listening. There will not be a formal Friday night service.

Please RSVP here.

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.

MJCC Author Series Events 2019-2020
Film Screening and Conversation with Author Aimee Ginsburg Bikel
Join us for an engaging evening featuring a screening of legendary Theodore Bikel’s z”l critically acclaimed documentary film, In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem, followed by a lively audience discussion with Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, widow of Theo, and Director of The Theodore Bikel Legacy Project.
Monday, October 28
7:00 pm
Cost: $10. MJCC Member Cost: $8.
Register: oregonjcc.org/bikelfilm
Co-sponsored by the Kostiner Cultural Education Fund and Portland State University’s Judaic Studies Department

Talk with Jamie Bernstein
Join us for a talk with Jamie Bernstein on her memoir, Famous Father Girl, in conjunction with the exhibition Bernstein at 100! and Jewish Book Month. Jamie Bernstein is a writer, narrator, broadcaster, and filmmaker who has transformed a lifetime of loving music into a career of sharing her knowledge and excitement with others.
Monday, November 11
7:00 pm
OJMCHE Members Cost: $12.
General Public Cost: $15.
Register: ojmche.org/tickets/a-talk-with-jamie-bernstein
Held at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
Organized by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education with support from the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Institute for Judaic Studies

SAVE THESE AUTHOR SERIES DATES FOR 2020!

January 15 – Josh Frank

May 5 – Yousef Bashir

Check back for more details, soon to come!

MJCC Author Series Events 2019-2020
Film Screening and Conversation with Author Aimee Ginsburg Bikel
Join us for an engaging evening featuring a screening of legendary Theodore Bikel’s z”l critically acclaimed documentary film, In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem, followed by a lively audience discussion with Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, widow of Theo, and Director of The Theodore Bikel Legacy Project.
Monday, October 28
7:00 pm
Cost: $10. MJCC Member Cost: $8.
Register: oregonjcc.org/bikelfilm
Co-sponsored by the Kostiner Cultural Education Fund and Portland State University’s Judaic Studies Department

Talk with Jamie Bernstein
Join us for a talk with Jamie Bernstein on her memoir, Famous Father Girl, in conjunction with the exhibition Bernstein at 100! and Jewish Book Month. Jamie Bernstein is a writer, narrator, broadcaster, and filmmaker who has transformed a lifetime of loving music into a career of sharing her knowledge and excitement with others.
Monday, November 11
7:00 pm
OJMCHE Members Cost: $12.
General Public Cost: $15.
Register: ojmche.org/tickets/a-talk-with-jamie-bernstein
Held at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
Organized by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education with support from the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Institute for Judaic Studies

SAVE THESE AUTHOR SERIES DATES FOR 2020!

January 15 – Josh Frank

May 5 – Yousef Bashir

Check back for more details, soon to come!

K-6th Grade Led Kabbalat Shabbat

Friday, November 22, 6:15-7:15pm

Join the ALIYAH K-6th graders as they lead a special Kabbalat Shabbat at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

Please note: Programs are subject to change; please contact the office for more information: 503.246.8831 or visit the website at: www.nevehshalom.org

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 2020 at noon with the balloon drop!
Tuesday, December 31
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Pool Float from 12:30 – 2:00 pm
Free and open to the community.

In partnership with MJCC Day Camp