Mah Jongg for Intermediate Players
Take your game to the next level and become an expert!
Tuesday Afternoons
March 5 – April 2
1:30 – 3:30 pm, CG203
Cost: $100. Members: $85.
Register: oregonjcc.org/registration
From award-winning novelist and memoirist Mary Morris comes the story of a sleepy New Mexican community that must come to grips with a religious and political inheritance they never expected. Morris is the author of numerous works of fiction, including the novels The Jazz Palace, A Mother’s Love, and House Arrest, and of nonfiction, including the travel memoir classic “Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone.” She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in literature and the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Award for Fiction.
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST: A FREE LECTURE SERIES AT ROSE SCHNITZER MANOR
Cedar Sinai Park cordially invites you to join us at Rose Schnitzer Manor for a timely lecture on the Middle East. Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, Rabbi Emeritus at Nevah Shalom, will speak on the topic “How Israel Was Created.” He will talk about the forces that led to the decision by the United Nations to establish a State of Israel, the tactics that were used in the war and how Israel succeeded in winning.
Mike Murawski, Portland Art Museum and Judy Margles, OJMCHE and Bobbin Singh, the Oregon Justice Resource Center and Erin McKee, co-founder of the OJRC and the Co-Director of our Immigrant Rights Project.
Everyone loves a good story and in 2019 with the help of storyteller Cassandra Sagan, Maggid-Educator, OJMCHE is going to be storytime headquarters. Cassandra will be working with community members from across cultural and social service agencies to polish their stories for sharing and the audience will also have the opportunity to share in an open mic segment. The series includes Immigration Stories, Family Stories, and Stories of Resistance.
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.