Calendar

Dec
16
Sun
Opening Night – Peace & Justice Exhibit @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Dec 16 @ 4:00 pm

Opening Night – Peace & Justice Exhibit

Artists Sara Harwin, Kanaan Kanaan and Inga Dubay explore the tradition of sacred letters in Hebrew, Arabic & English calligraphy in many forms of art expression. They each have a creative voice dedicated to peace & justice. “Inga Dubay, Kanaan Kanaan and I come from three different lettering traditions, yet when we each speak about our journeys, we seek to touch upon a sacred, spiritual path,” says Harwin.

Please join us for an opening panel discussion with light snacks, followed by a viewing of the exhibit.

Free and open to the community.

Dec
25
Tue
Chinese Food + a Movie @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Dec 25 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

This program has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Jan
8
Tue
Moments of the Heart: 8-week class @ Congregation Neveh Shalom
Jan 8 @ 7:30 pm – 1:26 am
Moments of the Heart- The 4 Relationships Everyone Must Have
Join educator and author Dorice Horenstein for this eight-week class (Tuesdays, 7:30-8:30 pm, Jan. 8-Feb. 26).
Explore how to live life wholeheartedly. Moments of the Heart/ Rigei Lev is her upcoming book, focusing on Jewish thought and practice, Hebrew language and spiritual connection. Our heart has a tremendous influence on how we view life, how we act and how we build relationships. Just as the heart has four chambers, we will explore four different types of relationships: with oneself, with others, with the Creator, and with special and once-in-a-life time moments that define us, that give us the essence of who we are.
Dorice  arrived in Portland,  from Israel, after meeting her soon-to-be husband while volunteering on a kibbutz. In the States, she received her BA in English Literature and a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language. She taught hundreds of children and adults, Jews and non-Jews, the gems of Judaism, with an emphasis on the Hebrew language. Dorice has worked in synagogues and a private school, led sessions for NewCAJE and Spring Conference of the North by Northwest Region of Women’s League of Conservative Judaism organizations, and was the Education Director at a synagogue in Portland for 16 years. Together with her husband, Bob, Dorice has three children. She enjoys dancing in her spare time.
Moments of the Heart is about the four relationships one should experience in their life-time! It is a book that encourages readers to live fully and wholeheartedly. Our heart has a tremendous influence on how we view life, how we act, and how we build relationships. In the Bible, the word heart—or in Hebrew, lev (לב)—is mentioned no fewer than 202 times. If one takes the first and last letter of the Torah, the word created is lev, heart. And so, my book is a compilation of entries that enable us to find inspiration, direction, concepts and encouragement to live a better life. It is about the universal experience of being human-through the Jewish lens. Join us to find out what are the four relationships that will help create the best YOU possible!
Feb
17
Sun
Family Flicks – An American Tail @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Feb 17 @ 3:00 pm

Family Flicks – An American Tail

Come to the MJCC for an afternoon of family fun! We will be playing a family classic, An American Tail (Rated G), on the big screen. Popcorn and snacks will be provided.

Cost: $10 per family

Tickets: oregonjcc.org/familyflicks

Mar
12
Tue
MJCC Author Series @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Mar 12 @ 6:30 pm
MJCC Author Series
Join us for this thought-provoking program that will bring an exceptional line up of authors and special events to our community.
Guest: $8. Member Cost: $5.
Series Pass: $20. Member: $12.
Tuesday, March 12 at 6:30 pm
Mary Morris – Gateway to the Moon

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.

Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 pm
Mark Sarvas
A son learns more about his father than he ever could have imagined when a mysterious piece of art is unexpectedly restored to him. Of all the questions asked by Sarvas’s Memento Park – about family and identity, about art and history–a central, unanswerable predicament lingers: How do we move forward when the past looms unreasonably large? Sarvas is the author of Memento Park and Harry, Revised, which was published in more than a dozen countries. His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, Bookforum and many others.
Tuesday, March 26 at 6:30 pm
Michael David Lukas
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a moving page-turner of a novel from acclaimed storyteller Michael David Lukas. This tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces–potent magic, forbidden love–that boldly attempt to bridge that divide. Lukas is the author of the international bestselling novel The Oracle of Stamboul, which was a finalist for the California Book Award, the NCIBA Book of the Year Award, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and has been published in fifteen languages. A graduate of Brown University, he has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Mar
13
Wed
MJCC Author Series – Special Event with Mary Morris @ OSU Foundation
Mar 13 @ 4:00 pm
Author Mary Morris will read from her latest book, Gateway to the Moon, on Wednesday, March 13 at the OSU Foundation in Corvallis.

Her novel alternates between late medieval Spain and Portugal during the traumatic time of the Inquisition, and a very small town in New Mexico in 1992. The modern New Mexican characters are Catholics with peculiar habits. Nobody in town eats pork but they don’t know why. It is likely they are the descendants of conversos, Jews who converted during the Spanish Inquisition. The story weaves a connecting thread from the Iberian Peninsula to Mexico City and then on to the original settlers who moved into what is now the American Southwest. Five hundred years later, a young amateur astronomer wonders about the secret of the town he grew up in: Entrada de la Luna, or Gateway to the Moon.

Morris’ previous work, The Jazz Palace, won the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Award for important contributions to the understanding of racism in 2016. She also writes short stories and travel memoirs. Her many novels and story collections have been translated into six languages. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

Doors open at 4:00 PM to meet and greet the author. A one-hour author reading and discussion will follow beginning at 4:30 PM. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is free.

Co-sponsored by the Beit Am Jewish Community and the MJCC. Grassroots Bookstore will be there with copies of the paperback edition of Gateway to the Moon for sale and author signing.

Mar
19
Tue
MJCC Author Series @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Mar 19 @ 6:30 pm
MJCC Author Series
Join us for this thought-provoking program that will bring an exceptional line up of authors and special events to our community.
Guest: $8. Member Cost: $5.
Series Pass: $20. Member: $12.
Tuesday, March 12 at 6:30 pm
Mary Morris – Gateway to the Moon

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.

Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 pm
Mark Sarvas
A son learns more about his father than he ever could have imagined when a mysterious piece of art is unexpectedly restored to him. Of all the questions asked by Sarvas’s Memento Park – about family and identity, about art and history–a central, unanswerable predicament lingers: How do we move forward when the past looms unreasonably large? Sarvas is the author of Memento Park and Harry, Revised, which was published in more than a dozen countries. His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, Bookforum and many others.
Tuesday, March 26 at 6:30 pm
Michael David Lukas
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a moving page-turner of a novel from acclaimed storyteller Michael David Lukas. This tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces–potent magic, forbidden love–that boldly attempt to bridge that divide. Lukas is the author of the international bestselling novel The Oracle of Stamboul, which was a finalist for the California Book Award, the NCIBA Book of the Year Award, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and has been published in fifteen languages. A graduate of Brown University, he has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Mar
26
Tue
MJCC Author Series @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Mar 26 @ 6:30 pm
MJCC Author Series
Join us for this thought-provoking program that will bring an exceptional line up of authors and special events to our community.
Guest: $8. Member Cost: $5.
Series Pass: $20. Member: $12.
Tuesday, March 12 at 6:30 pm
Mary Morris – Gateway to the Moon

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.

Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 pm
Mark Sarvas
A son learns more about his father than he ever could have imagined when a mysterious piece of art is unexpectedly restored to him. Of all the questions asked by Sarvas’s Memento Park – about family and identity, about art and history–a central, unanswerable predicament lingers: How do we move forward when the past looms unreasonably large? Sarvas is the author of Memento Park and Harry, Revised, which was published in more than a dozen countries. His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, Bookforum and many others.
Tuesday, March 26 at 6:30 pm
Michael David Lukas
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is a moving page-turner of a novel from acclaimed storyteller Michael David Lukas. This tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces–potent magic, forbidden love–that boldly attempt to bridge that divide. Lukas is the author of the international bestselling novel The Oracle of Stamboul, which was a finalist for the California Book Award, the NCIBA Book of the Year Award, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and has been published in fifteen languages. A graduate of Brown University, he has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Apr
19
Fri
Art Gallery Exhibit: The Passover Series @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Apr 19 – Apr 28 all-day

Art Gallery Exhibit: The Passover Series

Shlomo Katz, Polish/Israeli, 1937 – 1992
Born in Lodz, Poland, Shlomo Katz immigrated to Palestine when he was eight years old in 1945. Katz developed an original technique of oil painting on a gilded metal surface. The result recalls medieval icons on the one hand, and oriental miniatures on the other. These ancient resources combine to form a totally modern image with a light humorous touch and a noble character. It took a lot of experimentation to translate these images to the graphic art form. The metallic inks of the golden tones and the importance of absolute registration presented just a part of the challenge, but the Katz serigraphs became the ultimate in modern printmaking.
Exhibit on display April 19 – 28, MJCC Lobby

Apr
29
Mon
Israel From the Eyes of the Community – A PDX Community Art Display @ Mittleman Jewish Community Center
Apr 29 – May 31 all-day

First place Israel photo by Niomi Markel

Israel from the Eyes of the Community – A PDX Community Art Display:

Members from the Greater Portland area submitted photos that were taken by them while in Israel. A committee selected the photos on display. During the week leading up to our annual Yom Ha’Atzmaut Celebration (May 8), visitors were ask to vote for your favorite photo! That evening, we will announce the winners.

This year’s winning photo was taken by Nimoi Markel.

Submissions to lsteinberg@oregonjcc.org by April 12.

Exhibit on display April 29 – May 31

Sponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and PJ Library