Calendar | Oregon Jewish Life

Oct

Tue

Mah Jongg for Beginners @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Tickets

Oct 30 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Mah Jongg for Beginners

Learn to play this ancient game. It will give your mind a workout!

Registration Information: CG101, oregonjcc.org/registration

Cost: $100. Member Cost: $85.

Mah Jongg for Intermediate Players @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Tickets

Oct 30 @ 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Mah Jongg for Intermediate Players

Take your game to the next level!

Registration Information: CG102, oregonjcc.org/registration

Cost: $100. Member Cost: $85.

Israel Film Series @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Tickets

Oct 30 @ 7:00 pm

Israel Film Series

Calling all filmgoers! Join us for an array of Israeli films focusing on the topic of homelessness. A discussion with Q&A will follow each film, please see film details for specifics. Films to be announced soon!

Lost Boys of Portlandia
Wednesday, October 10
7:00 pm

Meet local Israeli filmmaker, Nili Yosha and Executive Director for Outside the Frame. In a riff on Peter Pan, homeless youth of Portland debate if and how to return to mainstream society while creating their own film version of the iconic story.

Diplomat
Tuesday, October 16
7:00 pm

The Hotel Diplomat in Jerusalem was once a five-star hotel. For nearly 20 years it is home to 600 immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Never having integrated into Israeli society, its residents have created their own little island, secluded from the outside world.

Zrubavel
Tuesday, October 30
7:00 pm

The personal dramas of the immigrant Zrubavel family and the universal intergenerational cultural struggles that come with assimilation are depicted in this first feature film made by Ethiopian Israelis.

Purchase tickets at oregonjcc.org/film

In partnership with the Institute for Judaic Studies

Tags: film Israel

Oregon Jewish Voices @ Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education

Tickets

Oct 30 @ 7:30 pm

Started in 1999, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2018 program, who span a range of genres will share selections from their work in OJMCHE’s auditorium. This year’s writers are Ken Gordon, Tracy Prince, Donna Prinzmetal, Joshua Safran, and Hillary Tiefer. The curator and founder of this annual event Willa Schneberg is the emcee for the evening.

Started in 1999, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish writers. The five writers in the 2018 program, who span a range of genres including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and essays, will share selections from their work in OJMCHE’s auditorium.

This year’s featured writers: 

Ken Gordon is the owner of Kenny & Zuke’s Delicatessen, a pioneering artisan Jewish delicatessen with two locations in Portland, Oregon, and one at Portland International Airport. Ken opened the first location in 2007 in response to the Pacific Northwest’s lack of the food he grew up with in his native New York City. He is partly responsible for a resurgence in the U.S. of the Jewish deli. Though self-acknowledged as a non-religious Jew, he feels that opening a Jewish delicatessen in Portland more than makes up for it. He wrote a health and fitness column for The Oregonian.

Tracy J. Prince, PhD, is an Affiliated Research Professor at PSU’s American Indian Teacher Program. She is the author of Portland’s Goose Hollow and Culture Wars in British Literature(with a chapter on British Jewish writers) and co-author of Portland’s Slabtown and Notable Women of Portland. She has spent over two decades teaching and writing about race, gender, and social equity issues in humanities, urban studies, and English departments in Turkey, Canada, and the U.S. and has spent research time in England, Australia, South Africa, and France. She is currently working on Might Oughta Keep Singin’, a book about the music of the South.

Donna Prinzmetal is a poet, psychotherapist, and teacher. She often uses writing to facilitate restoration and healing in her psychotherapy practice. Her poems have appeared in many magazines, including Prairie Schooner, The Comstock Review, The Cincinnati Review, and The Journal. Her first book, Snow White, When No One Was Looking, was published with CW Books in May of 2014.

Joshua Safran is an Orthodox Jew, author, attorney, and nationally recognized advocate for survivors of domestic violence. His memoir, Free Spirit: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid  (Hachette), about his childhood on the dark side of the Age of Aquarius, was called a “beautiful, powerful memoir . . . reminiscent of David Sedaris’s and Augusten Burroughs’s best work: introspective, hilarious, and heartbreaking” (Publishers Weekly starred review). His legal odyssey to free an incarcerated survivor of domestic abuse from prison was featured in the award-winning documentary Crime After Crime. Safran’s essays have been published in Salon, The Daily Beast, Utne Reader, and Huffington Post, and his story has been heard on the BBC, NPR, PBS, PRX, CBS, and Authors at Google.

Although originally from the East Coast, Hillary Tiefer considers herself an Oregonian. She has a PhD in English and is a former college professor. Her short stories have been published in several journals, among them: Descant, Blue Moon Literary and Art Review,Grey Sparrow Journal, Mission at Tenth, Poetica Magazine, Red Rock Review, and Juxtaprose Literary Magazine. Lily’s Home Front is her debut novel.

Willa Schneberg is a poet, visual artist, curator, and psychotherapist in private practice. She has authored five poetry collections, including In The Margins of The World, recipient of the Oregon Book Award, and her latest volume, Rending the Garment. In February of 2018, she served as a poet-in-residence in Kathmandu. She founded and curates Oregon Jewish Voices with Judy Margles. This is the 19th season, and Willa will emcee this year’s event.

The Big 5 @ Portland Kollel

Tickets

Oct 30 @ 7:45 pm – 9:45 pm

Five Book of Moses, Crash Course, Decoded and MITZVAfied

Led by Rabbi Amster

Did you always wish you knew the five books of Moses better? Well, here is your chance to educate and familiarize yourself in all the major events that take place in the Torah.

More info:

– Learn the 5 books of Moses in 5 weeks.

– Know all major events in the entire Torah

– Get in-depth knowledge of the Torah’s life (changing) messages and how to find the hidden gems

– The Mitzvot? Yes! we will visit and expand on the Mitzvot as they appear inside of the Torah

Oct

Wed

Israeli Dancing @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Tickets

Oct 31 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Israeli Dancing

Join us for a fun Israeli folk dance class. All levels are welcome. Six people needed to run class.

Wednesdays
September 26 – December 12
NO CLASS on October 10 or November 21

Cost: $100 Members + Guests. Drop-in Fee: $15 per class.

Tags: Israeli Dance

Nov

Thu

Monthly Mitzvah Project @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Tickets

Nov 1 – Nov 30 all-day

Monthly Mitzvah Project

Each month, the MJCC and PJA communities collect items for different area organizations in Portland.

In November, we will be collecting holiday gifts for families served by Jewish Family and Child Services. Items may be dropped off in the blue bin in the MJCC Lobby near the Member Services Desk.

Yad b’Yad @ Rose Schnitzer Manor, CSP

Tickets

Nov 1 @ 11:00 am – 11:45 am

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.

Introduction to Judaism Course @ various local synagogues

Tickets

Nov 1 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

This 18-week course is taught by members of The Oregon Board of Rabbis, representing a variety of Jewish affiliations. A carefully constructed curriculum includes Jewish history, life cycle events, holidays, ritual and daily practice, theology, study of Torah and contemporary Jewish America. While not a conversion class, most OBR members consider it a prerequisite for students beginning study for conversion. Classes 7-9 pm, Thursdays, at rotating Portland area synagogues.

Tags: conversion convert jewish Judaism religion

Nov

Fri

Solidarity Shabbat @ Congregations across Oregon and SW Washington

Tickets

Nov 2 @ 5:30 pm – Nov 3 @ 8:00 pm

Nov. 3 has been named a Solidarity Shabbat to stand together to support and comfort each other and the people of Pittsburgh. Whether you gather in a synagogue, share a Shabbat meal or join in with the community in some other way, we hope we can all come together this Shabbat. Many Oregon congregations plan special programming during or after Shabbat services. Oregon Jewish Life has compiled a list of congregations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Explore the list here and check with a synagogue near you for Shabbat plans.

October – November 2018 Oct – Nov 2018