A story on National Public Radio about house concerts featuring professional musicians in private settings inspired Matt Miner to launch his second career. Matt and his wife, Sasha Kaplan, started presenting great music and delicious food in their home; things grew from there. Matt grew up in Gladstone, across the Willamette River from my family…
In a lucid dream that occurred a few days before the first anniversary of his mother’s passing, Eugene harpist David Helfand answered a phone to hear his mother say, in a voice gravelly from disuse, “Hey, Sweetie! It’s been quite a trip!” He then entered into a conversation with her until his own voice got…
Local Jewish artists are planning a party, and the community is invited. ORA Northwest Jewish Artists returns to the Mittleman Jewish Community Center for its 10th annual art show and sale. ORA will throw a preview party and sale for its juried art show Nov. 5 and 6. Admission to both events is free. Affordable, original, high-quality…
THE HAROLD SCHNITZER FAMILY PROGRAM IN JUDAIC STUDIES Presents The 2016 Levy Event at Portland State University Nov. 4-6 Please join us at the PSU campus for brunch, music, a panel and performances. Featured reading by award-winning poet Alicia Jo Rabins, Artist-in-Residence. Tickets: Free and open to the public Information: pdx.edu/judaic PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT…
For his directorial debut, veteran producer and writer James Schamus chose a Philip Roth novel set during a turning point in the Jewish-American experience. “Indignation” unfolds in 1951, when opportunities and prospects for young Jewish professionals were just beginning to expand. “You discover when you start to inhabit that world that there was a genuine…
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education purchases the former Museum of Contemporary Craft from PNCA Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education Executive Director Judy Margles and Board Chair Elaine Coughlin announced today (July 6) the signing of a purchase agreement for the facilities at 724 NW Davis in Portland –…
The only constant at this year’s Portland Jewish Film Fest is that the films have broad appeal and Jewish content. The 24th annual film fest presents films during 15 time slots from June 15 to 29 (see schedule pages 32-33). (In consideration of Shabbat, no films screen on Friday evenings or Saturday afternoons.) The films…
Under the influence of consumerism, militarism and the pace of the modern world, the People of the Book have little use for poetry. That’s one reading – and the most obvious and simplistic – of “The Kindergarten Teacher,” Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s unsettling saga of an adult’s missteps when presented with a preternaturally talented child….
In the immortal “Casablanca,” cagey club owner Humphrey Bogart remarks that he came to the titular Moroccan city “for the waters.” When police captain Claude Rains points out that they’re in a desert, Bogart’s Rick replies enigmatically, “I was misinformed.” Michael Botbol, the Moroccan-Jewish protagonist of the picaresque comedy-mystery “The Midnight Orchestra” can identify with…
Near the end of her 27-year career illustrating the women’s catalogue for Pendleton Woolen Mills, Diane Russell drew on her passion for music to paint Linda Hornbuckle, known as the matriarch of Portland’s blues scene. The portrait of Hornbuckle, who died in 2014, is one of 16 of Diane’s paintings of local musicians on display…
