Jason Alexander is most recognized as George Costanza, the nebbishy, selfish and lazy character he played on the iconic TV series, “Seinfeld.” But off-screen Jason is anything but lazy, with a career that also boasts movie roles, the Broadway stage, Jenny Craig commercials, TV poker tournaments and his current one-man show. Jason, whose real name…
Local artists and art lovers alike eagerly anticipate the annual Portland Open Studios tour, which takes place during the second and third weekends in October, but probably no one is looking forward to it more than Diana Unterspan. Unterspan is a fiber artist who works primarily with wool and silk to create both decorative and…
Eddy Shuldman hopes this year’s Celebration of Art will be a community event. Scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, the ORA-Northwest Jewish Artist’s exhibition will include paintings, beadwork, glasswork, fiber arts, metalwork and photography. The group Eddy and her friend Esther Liberman founded eight years ago continues to be a…
Jewish Theatre Collaborative, Portland’s Jewish theater ensemble, celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. Fledgling arts organizations come and go, and the fact that JTC launched its inaugural season in 2008, at the beginning of the Great Recession, makes this five-year milestone all the more noteworthy. But JTC has done more than merely survive; it has…
Harold Floom used his skills to help ensure the Jewish future 65 years ago. Now his sons Tobin and Jay are following in his footsteps, using their skills to do the same. After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, Harold put his skills as an airplane mechanic/flight engineer to use…
When Sharon Tarlow kicked off Congregation Beth Israel’s needlepoint pillow reunion on April 11, the women involved in the 1974 project gathered around her and smiled. Their handiwork of two dozen chair backs has graced seats along the perimeter and bima of the Byzantine sanctuary for decades. Envisioned by the sisterhood, designed by artist Janet Louvau Holt (then Jansen), and approved…
Renate Dollinger was a landscape painter with a small gallery in Palo Alto, CA, a husband, four children and lots of dogs when, in 1968, at the age of 44, she suddenly turned to painting life in a shtetl. “Cute,” her husband said when he saw the first painting. “Where did that come from?” “I don’t know,” she replied. Here’s what…
All of Portland was the stage for the nation’s first Food for Thought Festival, an ambitious event that fulfilled its promise. Launched on April 18, the four-day Jewish celebration and learning experience attracted 2,500 participants and raised more than 10 tons of food for the Oregon Food Bank. On opening night, 600 people converged on…
Where is Prusice (formerly Prausnitz), Poland? When did the British withdraw from Palestine? Looking for a children’s book about Passover? Need help finding a long-lost ancestor? The answer to all these questions and many more can be found in the Neveh Shalom Feldstein Library, one of the best-kept secrets in Jewish Portland. Most of the…
THE NEXT SCOTT NADELSON, A LIFE IN PROGRESS by Scott Nadelson, © 2013, Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, Portland, $16.95, original paperback (by Paul Haist.) After the 2004 publication of his first collection of short stories, Oregon writer Scott Nadelson, a New Jersey native, still questioned whether he would ever do something worthwhile. No matter…
