The Mittleman Jewish Community Center (MJCC) in Portland traces its roots to the B’nai B’rith Building Association, an organization formed in 1910 with the specific …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Jewish Pioneers: Becoming Oregonians In 1869, Bernard Goldsmith, an immigrant Jew from Bavaria, was sworn in as the mayor of Portland. Two years later, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Rabbi Jonah B. Wise led Congregation Beth Israel, Portland’s oldest and most prestigious synagogue, from 1907 to 1926. He played a key role …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Though Portland was described by journalists as a city dominated by native-born Americans, its ethnic diversity reflected that of most frontier cities. The proportion of …

Oregon History Project

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of the most significant American Jewish leaders of the twentieth century, served Portland’s Congregation Beth Israel from 1900 to …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Ben Selling—an early Portland merchant, elected official, and philanthropist—truly reflects the inscription on the Skidmore Fountain in the city where he lived and worked for …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Neighborhood House, a settlement house and social services center originally located in Southwest Portland, played a significant role in Portland's social history during …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Shaarie Torah is the name of both a synagogue in northwest Portland and the Jewish congregation that makes its spiritual home there. In Hebrew, shaarie …

Oregon Encyclopedia

In 1958, Theodore M. Swett answered a questionnaire from the Jewish Institute of Religion at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. In one portion, Swett detailed …

Oregon History Project

The pioneers who went west in the mid-nineteenth century found the Willamette Valley “about as Edenic as they had expected,” wrote Terence O’Donnell. The hundred-mile-long …

Oregon History Project