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PicturesBackground InformationPortland, Oregon is blessed with a mild climate,
good rainfall, clean air and clean drinking water.
A pioneer spirit, a sense of individualism, and
acceptance for the "weird" thrive in this college
town. Portlanders garden, read books, listen to
and perform music, support humane and
environmental causes and the arts. Portlanders
love coffee, beer, healthy food, holidays, dogs,
hiking and sunshine. Residents row, kayak and
paddleboard in the rivers. The ocean and mountains
are nearby. Samuel Merton Suwol, 1904-1980, was a lawyer and
teacher in Portland. He published a pamphlet in
1958 [possibly printed at his law office] called Jewish
History of Oregon, in honor of 100 years of
Jewish settlement in Oregon. In the Foreword,
Suwol described how the pioneers arrived in
Oregon. Some came by ship around the Horn, or
across the Isthmus [of Panama], then by ship to
California, and by ship from California to Oregon.
Some came overland on the Oregon Trail in covered
wagons. "Among the earliest Jews who followed the
Oregon Train by ox team and wagon, braving the
desert and mountains, hostile Indians, cholera and
the elements were Dr. Israel Moses, Herman
Ehrenberg and the brothers Jacob and Louis
Fleischner." [Suwol, 1958, Portland, OR, Foreword] In 1889, Isaac Markens, a journalist from New
York, noted in a series of historical sketches, The
Hebrews in America, that the prosperity of
the Jewish merchants in Portland was more widely
distributed than in any other section of the
Union, and the Jewish people were prominent in
public affairs. From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: "Portland is the largest and most populous city the the U.S. state of Oregon, and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in Northwestern Oregon. As of 2019, Portland had an estimated population of 654,741, making it the 26th most populated city in the United States, the six-most populous on the West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest after Seattle. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area [MSA], making it the 25th most populous in the United States. Its combined statistical area [CSA] ranks 19th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area. Named after Portland, Maine, the Oregon settlement began to be populated in the 1830s near the end of the Oregon Trail. Its water access provided convenient transportation of goods, and the timber industry was a major force in the city's early economy. At the turn of the 20th century, the city had a reputation as one of the most dangerous port cities in the world, a hub for organized crime and racketeering. After the city's economy experienced an industrial boom during World War II, its hard-edged reputation began to dissipate. Beginning in the 1960s, Portland became noted for its growing progressive political values, earning it a reputation as a bastion of counterculture. The city operates with a commission-based government guided by a mayor and a council of commissioners as well as Metro, the only directly elected metropolitan planning organization in the United States. In 2025, the City of Portland will begin phasing out its commission form of government. The City Council will set policy and the mayor will oversee city business with the help of a city administrator. The city government is notable for its land-use planning and investment in public transportation. Portland is frequently recognized as one of the world's greenest cities to live in, and Portland was the first city to enact a comprehensive plan to reduce CO2 emissions. Its climate is marked by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. This climate is ideal for growing roses, and Portland has been called the "City of Roses" for over a century. In 1888, the Madame Caroline Testout hybrid tea rose variety was introduced to Portland. Thousands of rose bushes were planted along twenty miles of street to beautify the city for the visitors to the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition of 1905. In 1907, the city held its first Portland Rose Festival. The International Rose Test Garden began during World War I to protect European rose species from the war in Europe. In 2003, Portland adopted "City of Roses" as its official nickname. [Wikipedia] Fur traders and trappers established a path to Oregon City and Portland between 1811 and 1840. Gradually the path was cleared and widened for wagons and wagon trains. From 1846-1869, the Oregon Trail and its offshoots were used by an estimated 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers, business owners and their families. The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. Interstates 80 and 84 follow parts of the Oregon Trail, and pass through towns that were established to serve travelers on the Oregon Trail. [Wikipedia] Large numbers of pioneer settlers began arriving in the Willamette Valley in the 1830s via the Oregon Trail, though life was originally centered in nearby Oregon City. In the early 1840s a new settlement emerged ten miles from the mouth of the Willamette River, roughly halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. This community [Portland] was initially referred to as "Stumptown" and "The Clearing," because of the many trees cut down to allow for its growth. [Wikipedia] Not on the Oregon Trail, Jacksonville, in southern Oregon, was a site where gold was discovered about 1851. Gold was mined there until the 1860s. The town grew from 1851 to 1884. By 1860, about one-third of the merchants were Jewish. In 1884, the Oregon and California Railroad was built, bypassing Jacksonville. Most of the residents left, and some moved to Portland, including some Jewish merchants. About one hundred old buildings have survived, and Jacksonville is a National Historic District. [Eisenberg, Ellen, "Jews in Oregon" essay posted in oregonencyclopedia.org https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jews-in-oregon/#.Xz4W9pNKhBw. Used with Ellen Eisenberg's permission.] Immigrants from many countries arrived in Portland about 1849; many of them were Jewish. The Hirsch Brothers started stores in several towns in the Willamette Valley. Henry Heppner, a pack-train operator and merchant started his own town, called Heppner. Aaron Meier was a peddler in gold country; he founded his first store in Portland in 1857. In 1872, he joined with Emil and Sigmund Frank to form Meier & Frank Department Store. Many of the Jewish merchants were established merchants from San Francisco and other U.S. cities. Jewish residents joined religious, civic and fraternal organizations. [Eisenberg, Ellen, "Jews in Oregon" essay] Congregation Beth Israel began in 1858. Its first building was completed in 1861, and was the first synagogue building in Oregon. Its second building was completed in 1889. It held 750 people, had a large rose window and a pipe organ. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise served there from 1900 to 1906. There was an arson fire in 1923. The new synagogue was completed in 1928. It seats 1,000 people, and includes the Sherman Education Center and Schnitzer Family Center. It became a Reform synagogue. Congregation Ahavai Sholom was founded in 1869 by men from Posen, Prussia [now in Poland]. It became a Conservative synagogue. Benevolent associations were formed by men's groups and women's groups, starting in 1859. The Neighborhood House was established in 1905. It provided classes, athletic facilities and social services. Sephardic Jews were ousted from Spain in 1492, and settled in many countries. Many retained their language, culture and religion. About 1916, there was an influx of Sephardic Jews, and they formed Ahavath Achim, the first Sephardic congregation in Oregon. The members came from Turkey and other locations in the Ottoman Empire, including the Isle of Rhodes. At Ahavath Achim, the services were led by the congregants for many years. The new building on Barbur was completed in 1965; the next year, the congregation hired its first Rabbi. The sanctuary has a domed ceiling, so no microphone is needed. [Information about the synagogues is from various authors, oregonencyclopedia.org.] Most of the early Jewish residents lived in a neighborhood just south of Downtown, called South Portland. "Children of Eastern European and Sephardic immigrants who came of age in the 1920s and 1930s remember the neighborhood as insular and nurturing. It was a time of increased antisemitism locally and nationally, and the neighborhood and its institutions provided a respite. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, and accelerating in the 1940s and 1950s, families moved to more prosperous areas of the city. Still, South Portland remained a Jewish institutional hub, with ethnic shops, the Portland Hebrew School, the Jewish Home for the Aged, Neighborhood House, the B'nai B'rith Building [later the Jewish Community Center], and all but two of the city's congregations." [Eisenberg, Ellen, "Jews in Oregon" essay] In 1958, urban renewal began to push the Jewish neighborhood to a southwest Portland neighborhood called Hillsdale. A new community center was built. Neveh Shalom synagogue was built, a conservative congregation combined from Neveh Zedek and Ahavai Sholom. [various authors, oregonencyclopedia.org] Today there are twelve Portland synagogues listed in Google. It is estimated that there are at least 40,000 Jewish residents in Portland. There is a Jewish community center, a Jewish assisted living center, Jewish Federation, a Jewish Museum, a Holocaust Memorial, a Chabad chapter, a B'nai B'rith camp, five Jewish cemeteries and a Jewish Genealogical Society chapter. Linda Kelley September 2020
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