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.
PJ Library Connection Adventures presents our first Tot Shabbat at Pioneer Hall in Friday, September 11 at 5:00 PM. Cyrise Beatty Schachter will lead with story, song and movement. A light dinner will be provided. Families of children 6 mos – 8 years of age are invited to participate. Come connect with other young families raising Jewish children. RSVP to PJLibrarySOregon@gmail.com with your name and number of adults and children who will be attending. Thanks to the Harold Grinspoon Foundation for their generous grant to fund Connection Adventures in Southern Oregon.
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon is pleased to present Handwriting Analysis for Genealogists by Ron Arons
Description: This presentation will cover both document examination and graphology. The former is the more accepted discipline of comparing questioned samples with known handwriting samples. For decades courts have allowed document analysis as evidence in probate cases, etc. Graphology is the more questionable “art” of trying to determine personality characteristics and behavior based on the analysis of signatures and handwriting in general. Although a “soft science” graphology has some merit. Examples of both how document examination and graphology can be used in genealogical research will be provided. Also, various software packages and books that can help understand these two topics will be discussed.
Bio: Ron has presented at 12 of the past 15 IAJGS conferences on a wide variety of subjects and has also been behind the scenes at 3 IAJGS conferences to help produce “Game Show Night/Jewish Genealogy Jeopardy”. Ron has traced his roots to Lithuania, Poland, Romania, England, Belarus, and the Ukraine. In 2006 Ron appeared on the PBS TV series The Jewish Americans. He has published three books including The Jews of Sing Sing and, most recently, Mind Maps for Genealogy. Ron earned a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from the Univ. of Chicago.
Come one, come all and join us for the CNS annual Chanukah party. There will be a fish/dairy dinner with latkes, music by the Koleinu Choir, prizes for the ugliest sweater, a donut bar and more. Bring your own menorah and candles for a community lighting. And bring multi-packs for unused toilet paper – the Men’s Club is working to wipe away poverty. They will build a giant TP menorah and then donate it all to Neighborhood House. Cost for dinner: $15/adult, $9/child, $48 family max.
RSVP at: tinyurl.com/cnschanukah2016
Havurah Shalom will host a Passover Community Seder on Tuesday, April 11, at 6:00 pm. Adults and children of all ages are welcome!
Back by popular demand, Havurah’s very own Beth Hamon and Adela Basayne will lead the seder. The dinner will be vegetarian, with gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free options.
Please register no later than April 5 at tinyurl.com/Pesac17! To inquire about cost adjustments, contact Rachel at rachelp@havurahshalom.org or 503-248-4662 ext 2.
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.
Federation Women Make an IMPACT!
Women’s Philanthropy welcomes producer, Nancy Spielberg https://www.facebook.com/whowillwriteourhistory/ to present at IMPACT. Women’s Philanthropy provides a place in the Portland Jewish community for all women. We represent the diversity of women from all ages and stages of life. Women are thoughtful, powerful and caring as individuals and make a difference when we collaborate and unite…we have IMPACT! Join us October 26 @ 7 pm at the MJCC and make your IMPACT!
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”
- LH 75 – Marat Grinberg, Reed College
- 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.
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
- 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.
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.