Rabbi Yosef Garcia died June 17 at age 62 in Arizona, where he moved in 2005 from Portland. Rabbi Garcia cofounded the Association of Crypto-Jews of the Americas with Neveh Shalom Emeritus Rabbi Joshua Stampfer. The two later created the “Ceremony of Return,” which includes a Certificate of Return that is recognized by the Ministry…
PHOTO: A camper leaps from the dock into the camp’s private lake. This summer Solomon Schechter campers will have a new aqua park on the lake giving them more options for water fun. Last summer under new Executive Director Zach Duitch, Camp Solomon Schechter swelled by 60 campers, bringing more than 460 campers to…
ABOVE: Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, right, and Rodney Page, former executive director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, are planning a new interfaith effort to combat hatred, poverty and other injustices. Photo by Deborah Moon BELOW: Rabbi Joshua Stampfer at Congregation Neveh Shalom c. 1960. Courtesy of Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education: OJM09392 Shortly…
OPENING EVENT RESCHEDULED FROM FEB. 10 TO FEB. 17 due to weather. PHOTO: From left, Rabbi Emeritus Joshua Stampfer, Senior Rabbi David Kosak and Rabbi Emeritus Daniel Isaak visit during an event at Neveh Shalom, where each has served as senior rabbi. The congregation’s clergy also includes Assistant Rabbi Eve Posen and Cantor Eyal Bitton….
PHOTO: Rabbi Joshua Stampfer’s Bible class has drawn a full house for the yearlong course. Judaic scholar Professor Christine Hayes will be in Portland for two talks in January. “A world-renowned scholar of the Bible and Talmud and professor at Yale University, she is probably the greatest scholar in Judaica ever to visit Portland,”…
PHOTO: Above, the first Graduation Shabbat of the University of Oregon Hillel supported by a fund created by Millard and Wendy Lesch, at left. A new endowment fund at the University of Oregon Hillel will support two special Shabbat celebrations each year. “We are so very grateful to Millard and Wendy Lesch for establishing…
Stampfer dinner to honor three women who created agencies to aid needy By Priscilla Kostiner The 2017 Joshua Stampfer Community Enrichment Award will honor three women who have made outstanding contributions to the Jewish community and the Portland community at large. Those women are Dr. Jill Ginsberg, Tracy Oseran and Sharon Strauss, each of whom…
PHOTO: While visiting camps and meeting camp leaders in Oregon, Foundation for Jewish Camp CEO Jeremy Fingerman stopped by to see an old friend, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, who officiated at Jeremy’s 1973 Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem. Jeremy says, “I brought with me the Tanakh which Rabbi Stampfer inscribed to me as follows many years ago: …
Alice Meyer has a resume that would get her an interview for just about any project management job you could think of. She was the board president who guided the Friends of the Multnomah County Library in its transition from a private to a county institution. She was a tireless force in the team of…
On a recent afternoon, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer made his way to a light-filled classroom in Congregation Neveh Shalom, greeted other members of his study group and opened a volume of Talmud. Everyone turned to page 119b(5) in Tractate Shabbos, but the real topic was “Why was Jerusalem destroyed?” Rabbi Stampfer read aloud, in Hebrew and…
