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Embracing a Western Identity + The Jewish Oregon Story

Julius, Delia, and Sylvan Durkheimer and others in open car

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1. Heppner & Blackman Gold discoveries lured Henry Heppner and hundreds of other young men to the prairies of northeastern Oregon. After first peddling goods in California and Corvallis, he took advantage of the homesteading opportunities in eastern Oregon. He began operating a mule pack train from The Dalles to Canyon City and the Idaho mines in 1861. Henry later met Colonel Jackson Morrow and together they opened the first mercantile store in the Umatilla area.
3. Durkhiemer General Store, Burns, Oregon With pioneer resourcefulness and the desire to make good, Julius Durkheimer went east to Baker City at the age of 17. He prospered in eastern Oregon selling dry goods to gold miners and homesteaders. By age 30, Julius had bought and sold a half-dozen businesses and brought three of his brothers out to help run two of his most successful stores. While he was civic-minded and participated in building the community (he served as mayor of Burns for several years), Julius kept the promise he had made to his wife that she would only have to endure the hardships of frontier life for ten years. In 1896, he moved his young family back to Portland to enjoy the luxuries of gas lamps, sewers, and indoor plumbing.
4. Morris Mensor of the New York Store in Jacksonville, OR

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1. Nessim Menashe in front of his shoe store
2. Morris Mensor of the New York Store in Jacksonville, OR
3. Ida Loewenberg, head worker at Neighborhood House Ida Loewenberg was born in 1872 to a wealthy Portland family. She trained as a social worker in New York and became the head worker at the Neighborhood House, where she remained for thirty-three years. She developed programs designed to help new immigrants of every religion and nationality adjust to their new life in America. She taught classes on English and Judaism, as well as Americanization classes for young children.
4. Matilda and Ben Selling outside their home in NW Portland Ben Selling was an active member of the community. He served as President of the Oregon Senate, and at one point filled in for the Oregon Governor, making him the first Jewish Governor in the United States. He ran for the United States Senate in 1912, losing by a few hundred votes to Harry Lane. From 1901-1917 hevolunteered with his friend Sig Sichel for the IRO (Industrial Removal Office), which was instrumental in bringing new Jewish immigrants from overcrowded conditions on the east coast to settle in the west.
6. Governer Julius Meier
10. Harry Glickman with Trail Blazer Buck Williams
11. Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield of Congregation P'nai Or of Portland playing guitar
12. NCJW Portland section president Jean Rustin, with a group of children at the Iris Day Court Head Start Program in Albina
13. Rabbi Henry J. Berkowitz of Congregation Beth Israel
14. Holocaust survivor Jake Kryszek adds a shovelful of dirt to the burial of remains at the Holocaust Memorial
15. Rabbi Stampfer with Israel President Zalman Shazar in 1967
16. Judge Gus Solomon Gus Solomon was born in 1906 in Portland to Eastern European immigrants. He attended law school at Columbia and Stanford and practiced law in Portland. President Harry Truman appointed him as a United States District Court Judge. In 1935, he helped organize the American Civil Liberties Union in Oregon, and in 1936, he successfully appealed to the Oregon State Bar to sponsor a Legal Aid Committee. During the Second World War, he was one of the chairmen of the Oregon Committee to Aid Relocation to help the Japanese internees return to their homes.
18. Shaul Stampfer Speaking at Portland Rally for Soviet Jewry
19. Rabbi Joshua Stampfer blowing a shofar in front of Congregation Nevh Shalom's building on Peaceful Lane
20. Angel Ball guests Harriette Mesher, Leah Nepom, Millie Gold, Ceil Heims, and Lois Maizels
21. Yossi Shallman lighting Shabbat candles at SukkahPDX
22. Rabbi Yonah Geller
23. Rabbi Rose, Rabbi Kim Stoloff, and Cantor Judith Schiff with Torah
25. Augusta (Gussie) Reinhardt with Neil Goldschmidt
26. Bat Mitzvah of Miriam Aschkenasy
27. Rabbi Moshe Willhelm lights the Hanukkah Menorah in front of the Aleph Bet School
28. Arlene Schnitzer at the Fountain Gallery With her mother, Helen Director, and good friend, Edna Brigham, Arlene Schnitzer opened one of Portland's first art galleries. Schnitzer, an art student at the time, recognized that Portland lacked exhibition space and sales opportunities for local artists. The Fountain Gallery, named in honor of the nearby Skidmore Fountain, quickly became one of the region’s largest and most influential commercial galleries. The Fountain Gallery distinguished itself as one of the first galleries in the Northwest to exhibit artworks by internationally recognized artists, Northwest artists, as well as special exhibitions of African art and Japanese prints.