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Embracing a Western Identity + The Jewish Oregon Story

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.

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2. 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.
3. Well Baby Clinic at the Neighborhood House
4. Governer Julius Meier

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1. Portland Hebrew School Students at the Neighborhood House
2. Sewing School at the Neighborhood House
3. 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.
4. Well Baby Clinic at the Neighborhood House
Contents of this tag:
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.
7. 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.
9. Governer Julius Meier
10. Rabbi Joshua Stampfer blowing a shofar in front of Congregation Nevh Shalom's building on Peaceful Lane
11. Angel Ball guests Harriette Mesher, Leah Nepom, Millie Gold, Ceil Heims, and Lois Maizels
12. Yossi Shallman lighting Shabbat candles at SukkahPDX
13. Rabbi Yonah Geller
14. Rabbi Rose, Rabbi Kim Stoloff, and Cantor Judith Schiff with Torah
16. Augusta (Gussie) Reinhardt with Neil Goldschmidt
17. Bat Mitzvah of Miriam Aschkenasy
18. Rabbi Moshe Willhelm lights the Hanukkah Menorah in front of the Aleph Bet School
19. 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.
21. Harry Glickman with Trail Blazer Buck Williams
22. Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield of Congregation P'nai Or of Portland playing guitar
23. NCJW Portland section president Jean Rustin, with a group of children at the Iris Day Court Head Start Program in Albina
24. Rabbi Henry J. Berkowitz of Congregation Beth Israel
25. Holocaust survivor Jake Kryszek adds a shovelful of dirt to the burial of remains at the Holocaust Memorial
26. Rabbi Stampfer with Israel President Zalman Shazar in 1967
27. 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.
29. Shaul Stampfer Speaking at Portland Rally for Soviet Jewry