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Embracing a Western Identity + The Jewish Oregon Story

People

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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.
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.
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.
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.