Oregon Jewish Life Vol. 4/ Issue 3 April

APRIL 2015

SERVING OREGON AND SW WASHINGTON

ROZ BABENER

& COMMUNITY WAREHOUSE Give Castoffs New Life

: FOCUS ON

s

HOMES

s ISRAEL

E T A T S E L A E R

WHY DO I ALWAYS BUY TOO MUCH MATZAH?

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THE FROGS?

IS IT THE BRISKET THAT GIVES ME HEARTBURN?

WHY CAN’T MY SISTERIN-LAW HOST THE SEDER?

WHO DRANK FROM ELIJAH’S CUP?

WILL I EVER GET THE STAINS OUT OF THIS TABLECLOTH?

On Passover, the four questions aren’t the only ones that get asked. And this year we’re asking a question, too.

Will you help us make a difference in the lives of Jewish children, here at home and around the world?

By giving to Federation you enhance children’s lives. You connect children to Judaism—through after-school programs, Jewish summer camp and Birthright. You provide books to young families through the PJ Library. You help children with special needs. And more.

So this Passover, our fifth question is, “Will you help make a difference in the lives of Jewish children?” Please answer “yes” and give as generously as you can. Visit www.jewishportland.org/donate and give today.

®

THE STRENGTH OF A PEOPLE. THE POWER OF COMMUNITY.

503.245.6219 | www.jewishportland.org

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Inside

Features COVER STORY Roz Babener, Community Warehouse and fresh starts.............. 24 Interior Design through castoffs.............................................. 28

April 2015/ Nissan-Omer 5775 | Volume 4/Issue 3

UPFRONT BB Camp kvells over local dog’s victory.................................... 10 BUSINESS Ins & Outs............................................................................... 12 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Eugene playwright’s Yiddish script feted.................................. 14 Culinary, visual and performing arts unite................................ 16 New play explores musical history........................................... 18 Jewish Storytelling Festival...................................................... 19 Downton Abbey gives Jews mixed welcome.............................. 20 Cover story update: Susan Sygall publishes bio....................... 21 FOOD Chef’s Corner: Breakfast a good start to day............................ 46 NW Nosh: Class project becomes tasty dip.............................. 48 YOUNG ADULT Brothers join forces................................................................. 50 Campus anti-Semitism in the news...........................................51 SENIORS Don’t try to keep up with Alice Meyer....................................... 52 Dance for Parkinson’s............................................................. 54

Home & Garden Spruce up home with mural..................................................... 30 Personality traits affect real estate decisions.......................... 33 Home is where the art is.......................................................... 34 All about cottages, Israeli-style............................................... 35 Six steps to a perfect lawn....................................................... 36 Featured Properties................................................................ 37

JKids Purim fun................................................................................ 38 PJ Library and music............................................................... 39 Grants help BB Camp expand inclusion................................... 40 Presumed safety of fetal ultrasound questioned...................... 44 Camp Advertiser Directory....................................................... 45

JLiving/Focus Israel Leonard Nimoy, z’l, Spock and stained glass............................ 56

30 Cover photo: Roz Babener in the Community Warehouse Estate Store Photo by Deborah Moon Rainbow Table and Chair by Lena Avakyan Benikov Photo by Dave Wilson

4 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

Women’s Day of Learning to study Tamar................................. 57 Portland poet hears voices of Israel......................................... 58 Celebrate Israel’s birthday, commemorate the fallen............... 60 From Startup Nation to Brain Nation....................................... 60 FACES from recent events ....................................................... 62 Previews and Seders............................................................... 64 February Calendar.................................................................. 66

Columns 22....Ask Helen 34....To Life by Amy Hirshberg Lederman 46....Chef’s Corner by Lisa Glickman 48....NW Nosh by Kerry Politzer

YOUR HOME • OUR EXPERTISE

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MJ STEEN

Principal Broker | Premier Director 503.497.5199 | mjsteen@windermere.com | www.mjsteen.com

Wishing you all the joys of the Passover holiday!

From all of us at Rosenbaum Financial

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President and CEO

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150 SW Harrison Street, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97201 503-352-1300 www.rosenbaumfinancial.com

*Securities are offered solely through Ameritas Investment Corp. (AIC). Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Ameritas Investment Corp. or Rosenbaum Financial Inc, a Registered Investment Advisor. AIC and Rosenbaum Financial Inc are not affiliated. Additional products and services may be offered through Rosenbaum Financial, Inc. that are not offered through AIC.

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SERVING OREGON AND SW WASHINGTON

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GENERAL DENTIST 6 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

A Prince Hal Production (TGMR18) The content and opinions in Oregon Jewish Life do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers, staff or contractors. Articles and columns are for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of our published materials, Oregon Jewish Life, and its agents, publishers, employees and contractors will not be held responsible for the misuse of any information contained herein. The publishers reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Publication of advertisements does not constitute endorsement of products or services.

It’s not manna from heaven, but this Passover, provide something just as crucial to the survival of the Israeli people.

In a country where terrorism and sporadic rocket barrages are an all-too-frequent occurrence, your gift to Magen David Adom ensures Israel’s national paramedic organization has the medical supplies it needs to save lives. So this year, while you recount the story of the Jews’ redemption from slavery, your gift will help modern-day Israelis survive the threats they face today.

Thank you for making a gift today. And we wish you and your family a Pesach kasher v’sameach.

AFMDA Western Region 6505 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 650 Los Angeles, CA 90048 Toll-Free: 800.323.2371 western@afmda.org www.afmda.org l

Editor’s Letter April is a season of new beginnings and celebrating new beginnings in years, centuries and millennia past.

When Passover begins the evening of April 3, we celebrate freedom and the birth of a people more than 3,000 years ago.

Their passage to current times has been marked with exceedingly dark chapters. The persecution the Jewish people endured during 2,000 years without a homeland culminated in the Holocaust. On April 15, we remember the 6 million Jews who died because of baseless hatred. Yet from the ashes of that destruction a new nation arose.

And on Yom Ha’atzmaut, April 22, we celebrate the birth of the modern nation founded so Jews around the world would have a place to call home. That nation has not come into being without a price, and we remember that the day before with a solemn ceremony to recall those who have died defending the Jewish state over the past 67 years.

April is also a season of secular beginnings. Flowers bloom as a new season begins.

At Oregon Jewish Life, we are also focused on new beginnings. We have a new, redesigned website (ORjewishlife. com) that we hope will engage our current and future readers in new ways. We also have a new social media diva, Debra Rich Gettleman, who has already begun to bring meaningful interactions to Facebook and Twitter.

Spring is also a time when many consider either refreshing or reinventing their current house or finding a new place to call home. Check out our Home & Garden and Real Estate section for some tips about how to refresh your home life.

Our cover story also looks at new beginnings and new looks for your home. The Community Warehouse serves as both a source of furniture and household items for those transitioning into permanent housing and a place you can ensure your castoffs find a new life when you refurnish your home. This month, the warehouse offers some unique home décor items at the annual Chair Affair fundraiser, which features castoffs turned into works of art by community artists.

So as you sit down to your seder table this year, remember to reflect on all the wonderful beginnings that have touched your life.

Check out our NEW Website!

OrJewishLife.com Join us in welcoming Debra Rich Gettleman, our new social media diva, by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter! You’ll stay up to date on news, views and all the Jews that’s fit to print.

8 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

From our family to your family.

We wish you a joyous Passover.

WE HOPE YOU SHARE OUR EXCITEMENT ABOUT THE NEW DIRECTION WE ARE TAKING IN SERVING OUR ELDERLY. We truly appreciate your continued support in the construction of our brand-new, state-of-the-art care center for our beloved elders. Gifts will be used to develop beautiful long-term residential households.

They will also go toward remodeling the existing Robison Jewish Health Center into a beautiful rehabilitation center that also offers skilled nursing —complete with a private bath for every resident.

Please join us! We have raised 90% of our goal and we’ll soon be able to break ground.

Help us get there sooner with your Passover gift today. Together, we can secure a healthy, happy future for all our elders—for generations to come.

WE’RE ALMOST THERE. See how you can help by calling (503) 535-4303 or visiting www.CedarSinaiPark.org/CapitalCampaign.

DIGNITY by DESIGN CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

[UPFRONT]

Handler Martin Glover show’s “Mick” to Best in Breed honors at the 139th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Photo by JC Photo

BB Camp kvells over local malamute’s win at Westminster

Thea Robinson works to improve breed with “hobby enterprise”

By Deborah Moon

Nearly four years ago, when Thea Robinson first saw the 3-day-old Alaskan malamute now known as Mick, she knew he was a standout. Now the world knows it, too.

In February Mick won best of breed at the 139th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which is televised around the world. The iconic dog show featured 2,711 dogs of 192 breeds competing Feb. 16-17 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“Winning at the Garden is very prestigious,” says Thea, noting Westminster is the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the country, behind only the Kentucky Derby. “Winning Best of Breed at the Garden … is a dream only some can fulfill.”

10 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

She says a Westminster win is often the springboard that launches a dog’s career or is its last win before retirement. For Mick it is neither. In 2014, he was the #1 Alaskan malamute and the #18 Working Dog in the United States.

Mick has won three Best in Shows, 32 Working Group firsts and four malamute-only shows called specialties, including the Alaskan Malamute Club of America show. She plans to continue campaigning him for another year and then retire him after Westminster next year.

“I’ve owned Mick since he was 12 weeks old,” says Thea. “He’s owned me since he was 3 days old. I met this litter at 3 days old and he decided I was his. … (He was) always migrating toward me in the whelping box.”

As a breeder and shower of malamutes since 1998, Thea hadn’t bought a dog in seven years. But, she says, “When I saw him, I had to have him. He is a very good malamute and has done very well in the show ring.”

Mick is co-owned with breeder Michele Coburn and Alisa Syar, but he lives in Scappoose with Thea and her husband, Kyle.

“He is professionally handled by Martin Glover,” says Thea.

“He lives with me and I condition and groom him, but I leave the professional handling to Marty.”

So while Mick was in the Westminster ring with Marty, Thea was watching nervously.

“When Mick and Marty were in the ring, I was surrounded by friends and texting with a dear friend who has been in my position of owning a top winning dog,” says Thea. “Her kind words and thoughts really got me through it; also being surrounded by friends made the win even sweeter. After winning, my phone exploded and we had calls from friends near and far who watched the breed judging through live streaming.”

Many of the calls were from friends she knows through her association with B’nai B’rith Camp. Now BB Camp’s finance director, Thea spent many summers at the Jewish residential camp on the Oregon coast. She was a camper starting the summer before third grade and continued through her teens. The summer before and after her senior year at Lakeridge High School, she worked as a counselor at the camp.

Now BB Camp development director, Aaron Pearlman says that Thea was a 14-year-old Teen Village Camper when he was a counselor for the Teen Village Boys in 1989; and now BB Camp executive director, Michelle Koplan was Thea’s counselor in 1986 and 1987.

“It was awesome to reconnect with her when she joined the full-time staff,” says Aaron, adding “We were friends on FB but hadn’t seen each other since 1989. … We posted on FB the day she was going to be on TV, and a number of our old friends posted congratulations.”

In addition to BB Camp, during her teen years Thea was also active in BBYO, where she served as an international officer her last year before starting college. “I’ve been away from the community for a while, and I longed to reconnect – working at BB Camp is a really good way to do so,” she says.

Breeding and showing dogs is a “hobby enterprise” rather than a profitable business for Thea and Kyle.

“I don’t make money, I do it to improve the breed,” she says. “We improve the breed by breeding closer to the breed conformation standard.”

Mick, whose registered name is Peace River’s Gathers No Moss At Sunstra, has already started helping do that, too. Though he is still showing, he is also standing at stud. When a bitch (female) is in heat, Thea takes him to a reproductive veterinarian who collects and coldships the semen for artificial insemination.

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 11

[BIZ INS & OUTS]

New Look for OJCF Alaskan malamute GCH Peace River’s Gathers No Moss At Sunstra (aka Mick) with his owner Thea Robinson, finance director of B’nai B’rith Camp. Photo by Fred R. Conrad

Currently Mick’s stud fee is $2,500 based on his show record. Thea expects to raise that to $4,000 when his offspring start to win in the ring, too. His oldest pups are now about 5 months and will begin showing later this year.

“The mom of his first litter needed more coat, more head and more substance so they bred to Mick to improve on her and so far they are very pleased with the puppies as they have more substance, much better heads and plenty of coat,” says Thea.

Thea and Kyle have two other malamutes at home, but no females that they are breeding now. But Thea looks forward to having litters again down the road. She has a proven track record of recognizing a standout, a dog that always grabs your attention.

“I was taught to look at puppies ‘wet’ (immediately after birth),” says Thea. In my litters, I pick the best dogs the day they are born and I’ve never been wrong.” Although some dogs don’t have the temperament to be show dogs, she says the confirmation she sees at birth holds true.

That played out in February in New York. After winning Best of Breed, Thea gave Mick a nap before preparing him to show in the Working Group.

“At the Garden, at 6 pm, the spectators are let in and the crowds are huge,” she says. “He slept through all of the crowds until I had to groom him. I then had to manage my handler’s nerves, make sure I had sufficient bait for Mick – bait is what keeps Mick’s attention on Marty – and keep myself composed. All eyes are on us through the lenses of cameras for the press, for people’s own enjoyment and of course for social media.”

Mick did not get a ribbon in the Working Group, but Thea says, “He showed his heart out and represented us very well. I couldn’t be prouder of his performance. Sometimes even when you don’t get a ribbon, other judges are watching and they are forming their own opinions about the dog. This was an international stage and to have him showcased was amazing.”

12 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

For the first time in more than 10 years, the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation has a new logo and brand identity.

“The foundation has experienced unprecedented growth in assets under management and ushered in an exciting period of advancement,” says OJCF Board President Sharon Morell. “The foundation staff has grown and moved to larger office space during the past year to meet the needs of all donors and partner agencies.

This seemed the perfect time to establish a new look for the foundation that conveys OJCF’s energy and forward momentum.”

The new logo will be rolled out over the next couple of months and will be used in all print and electronic communications.

“The process undertaken to arrive at the new logo was an exciting one,” says OJCF Executive Director Julie Diamond. “I would like to thank Stan Blauer, OJCF’s marketing committee chair and the rest of the committee members for their input, as well as Gail Mandel, OJCF’s marketing manager, and Mario Garza, the graphic artist OJCF worked with to create this bold, dynamic symbol that will represent the foundation for years to come.”

503-248-9328 | ojcf.org

Cedar Sinai Park names Bobbie J. Jenkins CFO Cedar Sinai Park has hired Bobbie J. Jenkins as chief financial officer effective Feb. 2. Jenkins was most recently employed at Oregon Health & Science University as director of finance, central services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration - accounting. She has extensive experience in valuation consulting, economic analysis, financial advisory services, accounting and auditing. At CSP she will be responsible for professional financial supervision of all fiscal operations for the campus.

“Ms. Jenkins’ broad experience began in a local firm, as an accountant,” says CSP COO Sandra Simon. “Her work has included accounting, finance and management at very high levels. It will be wonderful to see how she brings her broad range of experience to Cedar Sinai Park and our work as we move forward in the coming years.”

CSP provides services through a number of facilities and programs: a nursing home, the Robison Jewish Health Center; an assisted-living facility, the Rose Schnitzer Manor; CSP Adult Day Services; Sinai Family Home Services; special-needs housing for developmentally disabled adults, Kehillah Housing; and four affordable housing apartment buildings in downtown Portland, the

Rose Schnitzer Tower, the 1200 building, the Park Tower and the Lexington.

“I am extremely excited by, and very appreciative of, the opportunity to serve as CFO at Cedar Sinai Park, and I look forward to working with David (Fuks, CEO), Sandra and the rest of the capable and committed staff continuing Cedar Sinai Park’s history of excellent service to seniors and others in our community,” says Bobbie, who was born in Juneau, AK, but spent much of her life in Oregon. cedarsinaipark.org

Happy Passover!

Office closed, but Hadassah plans Portland-area programs Although the Portland Hadassah office in Multnomah Village has closed, the chapter is looking forward to future events. For information on future programming in Portland, contact the Pacific Northwest Region of Hadassah at 425-467-9099.

A second chapter in the Greater Portland metro area is the Shalom Chapter in Southwest Washington, which hosts programs each month in Vancouver. The Shalom Chapter has three groups that meet regularly: a book club meets the first Sunday morning of the month at Congregation Kol Ami (7800 NE 119th St., Vancouver, WA); a social group (Sit & Schmooze) meets the second Wednesday morning of the month at a local Starbucks; and a study group meets the third Wednesday of the month in a member’s home. For more information, contact membership chair Maxine Silverman at 360-566-8188. pnwregion@hadassah.org | shalomchapterhadassah@gmail.com

OJCF staff continues to grow Nathaniel Smith has joined the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation as foundation administrator. In this position Nate will provide support to the foundation’s board and committees as well as work closely with Executive Director Julie Diamond and Director of Finance Chris Vitron.

Nate recently relocated to Portland from Eugene, where he was on staff at Temple Beth Israel, serving as engagement and program associate. He also worked with the Jewish Federation of Lane County as a co-founder and board trustee for Jewgene. Nate’s background also includes serving as a student on the board of trustees for Michigan State University Student Housing Cooperative, Inc., a land trust, as well as working as a market research and analysis associate for a technology company in Israel. Nate holds a B.A. in English from Michigan State University.

“We are thrilled to have Nate join the OJCF team,” says Diamond.

“He brings a wide variety of experience to the position and I know that he will contribute significantly to our work supporting the Jewish community.”

503-248-9328 | ojcf.org

Business Ins & Outs welcomes submissions of news items. Send brief and a photo to Oregon Jewish Life Editor-in-Chief at deborah.moon@ojlife.com.

Alan Bacharach Alan.Bacharach@glic.com Wealth Strategies & Benefits (503) 432-8192 Registered Representative and Investment Advisor Representatives of Park Avenue Securities (PAS), 5100 SW Macadam Ave, Suite 180, Portland, OR 97239 (503)-221-1226. Securities products/services and advisory services are offered through PAS, a registered broker-dealer and investment advisor. Financial Representative, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) New York, NY. Wealth Strategies Northwest is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian.

PAS is a member of FINRA, SIPC

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana, Cantor Ida Rae Cahana, and Rabbi Rachel L. Joseph and the rest of the CBI Team.

(503) 222-1069

www.bethisrael-pdx.org OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 13

[ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT]

Eugene Scene: Hungry Hearts possessed by a Yiddish spirit

By Joseph A. Lieberman

named Dinah Rappoport A 30-year-old (now where have we heard dream inspired that name before?).

Eugene Public Dinah’s loyalty is torn Library Director between her mesmerizing Connie Bennett to director Leon Dalashinsky, pen a full-length play the “Jewish Stanislavsky,” based upon a novel and her secret love for based upon a Yiddish fellow cast member, Benno play. If that sounds Brownstein, the actor who complicated, it is, in is playing Chonon. In fact, more ways than you when the romantic couple might imagine. finally reveal to Dalashinsky Interwoven into that they have clandestinely this tapestry of gotten married, the the arts are secret obstinate director demands lovers, the evil spirit they tell no one, lest his of an Argentinian theater troop’s reputation tango dancer, his be marred by the idea of his scene-stealing Jewish actors’ real lives imitating Connie Bennett, left, with Christopher Massimine, executive producer of mother, the world’s art.

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, and Jamibeth Margolis, the play contest’s oldest consecutively While this odd demand administrator. Photo by Kate Hess producing Yiddish for continued secrecy makes theater company and perfect sense to Dalashinsky, not a small amount of fortuitous fate. it also sets the stage, literally, for the conflict that follows. Being The dream, it turns out, was not Connie’s but that of her forced to hide her love, Dinah turns against Benno and attracts Jewish stage director, Fred Gorelick, a North Eugene High an evil spirit born of her own suffering heart when the Yiddish School drama teacher who had gotten his master’s degree Art Theater brings its Dybbuk play to Argentina. Enter Paco majoring in Yiddish theater. While doing so, he’d come across a Engelhart, a tempestuous tango dancer who has died in an air novel by author Francine Prose called “Hungry Hearts,” which show over Buenos Aires harbor. He inhabits Dinah just as the so impressed him that he spent the next two decades trying to dybbuk in the play does, forcing the confused actress to come convince various writers and dramatists to turn it into a stage to terms with the hungers and questions within her own heart. play. He finally succeeded with Connie, after staging some of At this point, it’s easy to see why Connie Bennett was so her earlier short plays in Eugene. taken with the novel and Fred’s dream to turn “Hungry Hearts” into a many-layered play.

The irony is that “Hungry Hearts” is about the performance of an actual Yiddish stage play called “The Dybbuk, or Between “Although the novel was written in mostly first-person Two Worlds,” originally written in Russian and later translated reminiscence style from the perspective of Dinah when she into Yiddish by S. Ansky (real name, Shloyme Rappoport) gets much older, I recognized that on a stage it was better to between 1913 and 1916. maintain a traditionally sequential ordering of events,” says Connie. “The flashback style is used only in the part where For those unfamiliar with supernatural beings, a dybbuk is a Dinah is actually possessed.” spirit that possesses the body of a living person until exorcized.

In Ansky’s play, the person possessed is a young woman named Connie used some lines from the novel, but mostly she Leah, and the dybbuk who possesses her is Chonon, Leah’s created new dialogue. “Fred and I decided to use only eight former fiancé, who has died of a broken heart because Leah’s actors to play all 30 parts,” she says. “The three playing Dinah, father was determined to marry her off to a rich old man.

Benno and Dalashinsky keep to their roles throughout, but the others use props, wardrobe and hats to quickly change “Hungry Hearts” takes the fact of Ansky’s play and character. It’s actually quite effective.” fictionalizes a 1921 Yiddish Art Theater production of the work in which love and scandal take center stage. In the novel and Connie began writing plays in 2008, but her specialty prior Connie’s play, the role of Leah is performed by a fictional actress to this had been much shorter dramas. Her “Gray Reflections,” 14 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

about a school counselor’s last preretirement session with a teenaged boy who just may have a secret crush on her husband, was a finalist in the Actors Theatre of Louisville 2010 National Ten-Minute Play Contest (Humana Festival). Connie herself is cofounder and executive producer of Eugene’s annual “Northwest Ten!” short play festival, which is now in its seventh year (2015 performances were the last two weekends of March).

Her shorter works have been produced in Oregon, Washington, California and Michigan, as well as in Canada, but “Hungry Hearts” was her first full-length play. Two years after Fred helped her stage a reading at a small theater in Eugene, “Hungry Hearts” was selected as one of five finalists (the only one from the western U.S.) in The David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest at New York’s National Yiddish Theatre “Folksbiene,” in celebration of its 100th anniversary.

“Hungry Hearts” was selected as one of five finalists (the only one from the western U.S.) in The David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest at New York’s National Yiddish Theatre “Folksbiene,” in celebration of its 100th anniversary.

She traveled there in February to do a table reading before a blue ribbon panel of TonyAward-winning and Broadway-savvy playwrights, producers and directors as her judges. The winning play will be professionally produced and performed in New York City in early summer during the Centennial Celebrations Festival, also known as KulturefestNYC, which takes place from June 14-22, 2015. The event will include hundreds of Yiddish performances by international artists. (The winner of the contest – “When Blood Ran Red” by Ben Gonshor – was announced March 3. “Please understand the choice was not easy for our Blue Ribbon Panel,” Play Contest Coordinator Jamibeth Margolis wrote to Connie. “The high quality of all of the work gave them a lot of deliberating to do.”)

Meanwhile, Connie is keeping busy. She recently completed her newest work, a historical play called “Mother/Tongue,” about a 16th century woman named La Malinche, who acted as interpreter, advisor, lover and intermediary for Hernán Cortés in his dealings with Montezuma. La Malinche is considered both a Mexican heroine and traitor who helped bring about Spain’s conquest of the Aztec Empire. The piece was written as part of “365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project.”

The characters of La Malinche, Dinah and the school counselor in “Gray Reflections” have in common that they are strong, sensitive women who must deal with nearly overpowering conflicts of the heart. Whether her real life imitates her art is something only the dramatist can know.

For more information about the playwriting contest or National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, visit nytf.org.

Ord er tick your e tod ts ay!

www.jewishtheatrecollaborative.org For Tickets: 800.838.3006

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 15

[ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT]

Boris Uan-Zo-Li, a 73-year-old Chinese-Russian Jew who spent four years in one of Stalin’s concentration/labor camps, painted this portrait.

Brauna Ritchie created this fused-glass mixed media.

Diane Fredgant and Nitzan Lillie collaborated to create this sculpture.

A feast for the senses in celebration of culinary, visual and performing arts

By Deborah Moon

The April 28-May 24 run of “4000 Miles” by Amy Herzog will feature an exciting collaboration of Artists Repertory Theatre, The Geezer Gallery and ORA Northwest Jewish Artists.

The Geezer Gallery, which is now in residence at ART, asked ORA artists to create visual art responding to the play, which Time magazine named the number one play of 2012.

For two weeks of the run (Wednesday-Sunday, May 6-17), the three nonprofits will join Jamison Restaurant to offer a oneof-a-kind curated evening of local art. The “Trifecta” package will be a feast for the senses: culinary, visual and performing arts.

Tickets for the Trifecta Experience are $125 per person; a portion of the proceeds support the Geezer Gallery’s residency at Artists Rep’s ArtsHub (the eight arts companies in the building).

The evening begins at 5 pm with a three-course dinner at the Pearl District’s Jamison Restaurant and includes a teaser exhibit at the restaurant of the work of ORA artists.

Following this gourmet dinner, travel just under a mile from 900 NW 11th Ave. to Artists Rep at 1515 SW Morrison to 16 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

view The Geezer Gallery’s full installation of juried works in the Morrison Lobby.

At 7:30 pm enjoy great seats to see “4000 Miles,” directed

by Alana Byington. The ART website says the play “follows a cross-country bike trip from the Pacific Northwest that brings 21-year-old Leo, unannounced, to his 91-year-old grandmother’s West Village apartment. Trapped in inertia and trying to escape his past, the young man’s world views are rattled by his grandmother’s recollections of her radical, bohemian past. Ideological sparks fly in this subtle, comedic drama as the two discover where their worlds intertwine.”

As a company-in-residence at Artists Rep, Geezer Gallery artists offer patrons rotating visual art installations that reflect or are inspired by the work onstage. The Geezer Gallery invited ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists to create an art show from their interpretations of the play. The resulting exhibit will be on display, and the artwork will be for sale in the lobby throughout the run of the play.

“ORA has been astounding,” says Nicole A. Lane, marketing and public relations director for Artists Repertory Theatre.

“Artists started reading the play last fall and have created pieces for the play.”

“This is a very unique and exciting event for ORA,” says Brauna Ritchie of ORA. “In preparation for the exhibit, two study groups met to discuss the play and explore possible artistic themes. After each artist submitted work, the art was juried by The Geezer Gallery’s curator. The result is a thought-provoking art exhibit paired with a poignant play – and a new art partnership for Portland!”

In Hebrew, ORA means light, luminosity, warmth, perspective, liveliness, brightness. ORA is a group of artists in the Portland area who have come together to support, share, inspire, enjoy and showcase a wide variety of art forms within the context of the Jewish experience. Mittleman Jewish Community Center members who show their membership card will receive a 10% discount on any ORA art purchased during the show.

During the first season of its residency at ART, The Geezer Gallery has featured dozens of local artists as they explore how visual art and performance can converse with each other to make for a more enriching experience. Art sales at Artists Rep support the Geezer Gallery’s programs for seniors. The Geezer Gallery is devoted to celebrating master-level senior artists, providing therapeutic arts programming for low-income seniors for the Portland community.

To purchase tickets visit artistsrep.org or call the Artists Rep box office at 503-241-1278.

A RT I STS

R E P E RTO RY

T H E AT R E

Verses from a Cataclysm: New Translations of Boris Slutsky

JEWISH SOVIET SOLDIER POET

April 21  7 p.m.

This event is being co-sponsored by Congregation Shir Tikvah.

Please call ahead to (503) 226-3600 for ADA accommodation requests.

The More We Get

TOGETHER Celebrating Our First Year

Sunday, May 17, 2015 Mittleman Jewish Community Center 5pm – Silent Auction 6:45pm – Dinner

TRIFECTA

by

PACKA

GE $125/PER 1) DINNER SON @ JAMIS ON REST 2) GEEZE AURA R GALLER Y WITH O NT NORTHW RA EST JEW ISH ARTIS 3) PLUS TS 4000 MIL ES

RSVP at www.ojmche.org or 503-226-3600

Amy Herzog Alana Byington

directed by

APR 28 - MAY 24 PDX PREMIERE SEASON SPONSOR

RONNI LACROUTE

a r t i s t s r e p .o r g 503. 241 .1 278

1953 NW Kearney St., Portland, OR 97209 | 503-226-3600 | www.ojmche.org Tue/Thu 10:30am-4pm | Wed 10:30am-8pm | Fri 10:30am-3pm | Sat-Sun noon-4pm

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 17

u M sical [ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT]

at left: Rabbi Alan Berg and Michael Allen Harrison; above: Harrison and Julianne Johnson-Weiss

Collaborators explore how two Jewish women and five black singers changed music history By Deborah Moon The seeds for “Soul Harmony” were planted four years ago when Portland pianist and composer Michael Allen Harrison and Rabbi Alan Berg collaborated on their first musical theater creation, “Crossing Over: A Musical Passover Story.”

As the pair worked on that musical, Alan says he told Michael their next collaboration should be based on an essay he used to teach a class at Portland State University; the class focused on “Jews who sing the blues.”

The essay by Greil Marcus (which appeared originally in Rolling Stone magazine and was later published in his book The Dustbin of History) tells the story of Jewish songwriter Deborah Chessler (aka Shirley Reingold), and how she and her mother, Irene, managed Sonny Til and the Orioles as they became the first rhythm and blues band. Deborah and Irene travelled by bus through the segregated South and along the East Coast with the black vocal group starting in 1948. After Irene died in 1950, Deborah continued to manage the group alone until 1954.

Greil Marcus will be in Portland April 16 to deliver a free talk at noon at the Burnish Theater, where “Soul Harmony” opens later that night.

During the year Michael and Alan worked on Crossing Over, Alan was also spending an hour and a half a week interviewing Deborah and her husband by phone during the last year of her life. Those interviews, which he taped, provided key insights during the writing of the play.

After Michael wrote the musical score for Stumptown 18 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

Stages’ “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the theater expressed interest in working with Michael on another project. So Michael and Alan began another collaboration – this time joined by Janet Mouser, who co-wrote the music and lyrics; Kirk Mouser, director and Stumptown Stages’ executive artistic director; and Julianne Johnson-Weiss, “Soul Harmony” co-director, who also appears in a cameo as Ella Fitzgerald.

“Soul Harmony” is more than a story of the manager and band that popularized doo-wop and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is also a story about segregation, anti-Semitism and racism, and the people “walked through segregation and broke barriers,” says Alan.

“Deborah had strong ideological social justice concerns,” he says, adding that the band and Deborah “were equally intuitively committed to inclusiveness at a time when that took more guts than most of us have.”

Deborah and the Orioles came together when Deborah was looking for a group to sing a song she had written called “Too Soon to Tell.” A friend called her and had her listen to Sonny Til and his four backup singers on the phone.

“She was looking for the sound she was hearing in her head and heart and soul,” explains Michael. “What she was hearing inside and what she heard on the phone … they came together.”

That moment is reflected in the play by “The Music Inside,” one of the 10 “relationship” songs Michael composed for the play. In addition to the new relationship songs, the musical also

features 16 of the original Orioles songs performed onstage by the actors portraying the band. Sonny Til’s grandson, De’Sean Dooley, portrays the band leader and also provided additional dialogue for the play.

The blending of the new and classic songs is seamless.

Kirk Mouser says, “Michael Allen Harrison is masterful in his understanding of musical composition. He has exquisitely blurred the lines of a modern musical composition with the innate feeling of R&B.” Janet Mouser concurs: “Michael’s music fleshes out the individual characters (like Sonny, returning from the war to find that his freedom had not been won and things were pretty much the same as when he left ... in the song ‘Over There’), establishes time and place, and moves us thematically and historically from scene to scene. Michael is a master in creating and understanding the many genres of music and the time periods in which they existed.”

She hopes the musical will bring to light a story that has been in the pages of rock ‘n’ roll history. “It has been recorded by music historians but remains fairly unfamiliar and lost to

It has been recorded by music historians but remains fairly unfamiliar and lost to today’s general public.

Eric Stern. By Ben Mund courtesy Portland Story Theater

Brian Rohr. By Merly Alcabes

Cassandra Sagan.

Jewish Storytelling Festival May 2-3 today’s general public. The genre of music, once referred to as ‘race music’ on our USA music charts, became rhythm and blues because of Deborah Chessler and the Orioles. It is an enlightening story of young musicians in the racially divided city of Baltimore, who saw past their ethnic backgrounds and together created music that would influence all those who followed them. It is an important story, and we hope our musical will be its rediscovery.”

Kirk adds, “ ‘Soul Harmony’ shares a universal language through its music. The result is riveting, participatory and engaging. You can’t help but identify with the protagonists (Sonny, Shirley/Deborah and the music) and the antagonists (society’s ignorance and fear itself ). We journey through the relationships identifying self along the way. It is very cathartic.”

Soul Harmony WHAT: Musical featuring “The Story of Deborah Chessler, Sonny Til & the Orioles” WHEN: April 16-May 3 WHERE: The Brunish Theater at the Portland’5 Center for the Arts, 1111 SW Broadway TICKETS: Stumptownstages.org or 800-273-1530 EXTRA: Renowned rock critic, Rolling Stone Contributing Editor and author of the essay that inspired “Soul Harmony,” Greil Marcus presents a free lecture at noon, April 16, in the Brunish Theater.

Congregation Shaarie Torah presents “Tell It Like It Is: Jewish Storytelling Festival” May 2-3 with featured storytellers: Maggid Cassandra Sagan, mythteller Brian Rohr and musician/teller Eric Stern of Vagabond Opera.

Storytelling is both an ancient and modern part of the Jewish tradition. The festival begins Saturday evening and continues the next day from 1-7:30 pm at Shaarie Torah, 920 NW 25th Ave, Portland.

In addition to the featured performers, the festival will also feature an opportunity for local maggidot to perform.

“What’s more Jewish than a great story?” asks Rabbi Josh Rose of Shaarie Torah. “Stories and storytelling are fundamental to the Jewish worldview – each story in the Torah and stories from our sages points us toward some new way to comprehend the world, and we even derive law from these narratives. But even beyond the Torah, stories from our collective past and family legend are just so much a part of how we make sense of the Jewish experience.”

“This festival will bring together classical and maggidstyle storytelling, moth-style personal narrative, storytelling workshops for those who want to learn the art, and even events for kids,” says Rabbi Rose. “The festival culminates in a performance by the magnificent ‘Bohemian Cabaret’ ensemble Vagabond Opera.”

503-226-6131 | info@shaarietorah.org | Shaarietorah.org/storyfest

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 19

[ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT]

Jews receive a mixed welcome at “Downton Abbey” Lady Rose and Atticus Aldridge. Photo by Nick Briggs/Carnival Film & Television Limited 2014 for Masterpiece

as Jewish if he didn’t tell us. In other words, Rose is smitten with an Englishmen of her status and breeding, and whose Jewishness is incidental rather than fundamental.

In fact, the moment when he confides that he’s descended from Jews who left Odessa after particularly brutal pogroms doesn’t belong to him but to his listeners – bitter, broke Russian expatriates of the pre-Revolution regime who insult Atticus over their shoulders as they walk away.

Now Atticus is of the right class and has parents of means, and those are the credentials that matter in Downton’s rarefied world. But his perpetually unsmiling father, Lord Sinderby, is

By Michael Fox Jewish characters finally joined the impeccably attired throng less sanguine about his son’s involvement with a shiksa, and the utterance of the epithet stamps him as intolerant and cinches at “Downton Abbey,” and it’s not an altogether happy day. our dislike.

While Lord and Lady Grantham welcome the new arrivals There are certainly valid arguments against intermarriage, with exquisite manners and the perfectly calibrated amount of and Fellowes could have written an impassioned monologue modest warmth, series creator and writer Julian Fellowes is a for Lord Sinderby that expressed the costs and worth of Jewish good deal less hospitable. Fellowes has devised a nuclear family identity, and the weight and meaning of traditions and rituals. of cardboard cutouts that fit unflattering Jewish stereotypes and Instead, Lord Sinderby has a couple of angry lines that leave the generate viewer antipathy. impression that he prizes money and influence above all else.

Before we rush to judgment or leap to conclusions, however, While much is made of Lord Sinderby’s family values, we should allow for the possibility that the uncomplimentary namely his hatred of divorce, it’s presented as evidence of presentation of the Aldridge family in Season 5 is merely a his inflexibility and anachronism rather than allegiance to teaser for Season 6 (and beyond, given the series’ extraordinary popularity in the colonies). It’s not a stretch to imagine Fellowes vows and moral behavior. As for Lady Sinderby, she is totally gracious and agreeable, but in an unwaveringly superficial way. using the Aldridges as a means of exposing and examining To keep things in perspective, “Downton Abbey” is an upstairs/ British anti-Semitism as “Downtown Abbey” rolls into the late downstairs soap opera that is generally more concerned with the 1920s and early 1930s. romantic complications of its female characters (Lady Rose, in As everyone knows, PBS’ hit Masterpiece series has long particular) than with the big picture of class-conscious Britain. featured a character with Jewish ancestry. Lady Grantham, aka In the last episode of the season, Lord Sinderby is revealed Lady Cora Crawley, is the American-born daughter of the late to be a major hypocrite with a child by a mistress. In the Isidore Levinson. Cora is Episcopalian, like her mother, but she context of “Downton Abbey,” this feels more like a critique doesn’t view Jews as “the other,” needless to say. of the upper class’s proclivity for moral double standards than I must reveal a spoiler or two at this point, namely that Lord yet another dagger at a chilly Jewish character. Any doubts are Grantham’s niece, Rose, doesn’t see Jews as different, either. That extinguished when the sequence ends with the humbling and is, not when they’re as hunky as Atticus Aldridge, a square-jawed humanization of Lord Sinderby as a man who can admit his banker’s son who chivalrously shelters Rose with his umbrella in fallibilities and accept Rose in the bargain. one of the least-inspired meet-cutes in the annals of television.

I find the series most interesting, though, when it invokes One could trace Rose’s open-mindedness to last season’s and reflects the changes in British society after World War color-blind liaison with a black jazz singer, and her naive I (and evokes contemporary parallels). Julian Fellowes has modernity to her fight with Lord Grantham over bringing a introduced a story arc that’s tailor-made for illuminating antiwireless into the sacred realm of Downton Abbey.

Semitism between the wars. On those grounds, I’m already But Atticus (played by Matt Barber) is so bland, so anticipating Season 6, which begins in January. assimilated and so devoid of personality that he wouldn’t register Michael Fox is San Francisco-based film critic and journalist.

20 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

COVER STORY UPDATE: SUSAN SYGALL

By Deborah Moon The October 2012 cover story of Oregon Jewish Life shared the story of Susan Sygall and her band of 156 “Loud, Proud and Passionate” WILD women and “their efforts to enhance the lives and rights of women with disabilities around the globe.”

Now the Eugene resident and cofounder of Mobility International USA has shared her own story for the first time. Co-authored

by Ken Spillman, her autobiography, No Ordinary Days: A journey of activism, globe-trotting and unexpected pleasures, is available from Amazon and on Kindle.

The 270-page book is a fast, enjoyable, eyeopening read.

The book offers an honest look at a life that has taken many unexpected turns, beginning with the car accident that left her a partial paraplegic just as she was poised to begin college. But it is a life so filled with joy and journeys most able-bodied Americans would be afraid to attempt, that it will change your perspective on how you look at someone in a wheelchair. How many American women in their 20s would hitchhike across New Zealand or travel on local buses through Southeast Asia (much less in a wheelchair)?

Yet Susan doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges she has had to overcome, both because of her physical limitations and the perceptions of society. People who touch her life, whether for brief moments of helping her get her wheelchair off a train in a foreign country to relationships that last for years, come alive in vivid detail.

The book is rife with the role Judaism has played in her life. In one chapter she describes her extreme frustration when trying to say Kaddish for her father in Singapore’s only synagogue. After managing to shakily use her canes to climb 20 steps to the sanctuary, the Orthodox rabbi insists she leave or climb an insurmountable spiral stairway to the women’s section. She also shares how that pain finally flowed out years later when she shared her story at a seder and was comforted by an Orthodox friend.

And she reflects on the changes in the Jewish world in recent decades, including synagogues with ramps.

The music that gave birth to R&B! World Premier musical

The Story of

Deborah

Chessler, Sonny Til &the Orioles

A Free Lecture with Greil Marcus, author of The Deborah Chessler Story A Review of the Newly Discovered First Live Recordings of the Orioles April 16, Noon, Brunish Hall Portland ‘5, 1111 SW Broadway

MUSIC BY Michael Allen Harrison BOOK AND LYRICS BY Alan Berg and Janet Mouser

APRIL 16 – MAY 3, 2015 PORTLAND’5 BRUNISH THEATRE

stumptownstages.org | 800.273.1530

The Herbert A. Templeton Foundation | The Ronni Lacroute Cornell University Foundation Gretchen Barnes and the Law Offices of Cable Huston | Ed Sherman & Dr. Martha Rich

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 21

[ADVICE]

Ask Helen

Treat online friends like real people

A Nosh of Jewish Wisdom: If you eat a man’s cake you must also eat his lentils.

Dear No Trump: Online friendships are different from in-person ones, but in both cases there are real people on the other side of the relationship. If you changed some settings on your computer and cell phone, she might think you had vanished off the face of the Earth. That’s cowardly and rude. Instead of disappearing into the mists of cyberspace, be the kind of friend you likely were to your former partner. Even if there is a medical reason for her lapses, you probably won’t cook her chicken soup or drive her to chemo appointments the way you would a close friend. But simple courtesy suggests that you treat her like a real person with real feelings and not like some imaginary robot.

Send her a simple text that says, “Are you OK? The last few weeks you have seemed slower and more distracted than when we met. I am uncomfortable telling opponents we are fast and then not playing that way. I also feel weird prompting you.

Please tell me if there’s something that explains it or how we can get back on track.”

If it’s temporary, accept the inevitable apology. If it persists, tell her you want to diversify your partner base. The cyber world has both limitations and advantages. Distance is a double-edged sword.

A resident of Eugene since 1981, Helen is a member of Temple Beth Israel, where she studies and speaks on Torah. She claims to have black belts in schmoozing, problem-solving and chutzpah. She’s a writer and an artist (kabbalahglass.com). Please email your questions to helen@yourjewishfairygodmother.com and check out the blog at kabbalahglass.com/blog/ 22 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

PHOTO: SOL NEELMAN

Dear Helen: I recently discovered online bridge. At any hour of the day or night there are 10,000 active tables. A randomly assigned partner complimented my playing. We had compatible values of fun and fast play. I gave her my cell, so we could text to set up games. As “friends” we also see when the other logs on. She “replaces” my partner of many years who died of breast cancer six months ago. My new partner started out great, but recently I’ve had to prompt her with a “P?” when it is her turn to bid or lead.

This now happens far too often. We tell people we are fast and friendly, but lately, in addition to lapsing out, she has made bids that have both opponents and me scratching our heads. Should I change my online name? What should I do?

No Trump

COVER STORY

Glasnost and fresh starts

Roz Babener helps families start anew in furnished apartments

By Deborah Moon

Missie Heath, right, thanks Roz Babener.

Roz Babener’s decision to stop teaching in 1989 after the birth of her third child coincided with the doors of the Soviet Union opening for emigration under Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost (openness). Who could have guessed that concurrence would end up benefiting tens of thousands of Oregonians in need?

Some 30,000 Portland-area families have received the beds, kitchen supplies and other household items they need to start a new life – originally from the JFCS Russian Resettlement Warehouse and later from the Community Warehouse, founded by Roz after the influx from the former Soviet Union slowed. In 2014, the average family size of those being helped was 2.8 people.

When she stopped working, Roz joined Congregation Neveh Shalom’s social action committee chaired by Barb Schwartz. As Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union began to arrive in Portland, many members of the committee signed up to welcome the new arrivals and serve as their advocates. As each family arrived, they were picked up at the airport and delivered to a furnished apartment with a refrigerator stocked with groceries, including a pot of soup made by Roz’s mother, Madeline Nelson.

After two decades of marches and protests calling for the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate, the open doors were met with elation and generosity. Donations flooded in.

Soon Portland’s Jewish Family and Child Service needed space to store furniture and household goods donated to furnish apartments for the new arrivals.

Schnitzer Steel donated a bay in one of its warehouses; the Resettlement Warehouse was born, and Roz found her niche coordinating it. Soon other social service agencies asked if they could both store donations and get assistance

Community Warehouse: communitywarehouse.org Portland: 3969 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. | 503-235-8786 Tualatin: 8380 SW Nyberg St. | 503-347-2147 24 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

In 2014, Community Warehouse helped 7,234 people

Community Warehouse Founder Roz Babener

Roz Babener and her mother Madeline Nelson visit with Rabbi Joshua Stampfer at a community event.

for some of their clients, and JFCS said “Yes!” Over the next decade more than 700 Russianspeaking Jews arrived in Portland, and the warehouse moved into progressively larger spaces.

“My job was to organize the donations,” says Roz. As each family arrived, the furniture and household goods they needed would be delivered

“One of my personal interests is pots and pans,” says Roz, citing “the impact of a family dinner and the exchanges that go on when you are sitting at a table.”

to their new home. And Madeline would make soup.

By 2001 arrivals had slowed to a trickle. But the warehouse was still serving about 10 families a week.

“We only had a few families a year, but other agencies were using 90% of the warehouse,” says Roz. “JFCS said maybe it was time to stop. But those of us volunteering said, ‘No, this is a good service.’ We noticed there is a whole wide world of homeless vets, people with mental health issues 26 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

and others who have limited resources. If they are lucky enough to get help to move into an apartment, they are sleeping on the floor.”

Roz’s husband, Jeffery, and his firm Babener and Associates provided legal guidance; Gersham Goldstein, who later chaired the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, drew up the 501(c)3 articles of incorporation for the Community Warehouse.

“And we were off and running (in 2001),” says Roz, who in addition to being the founder also served as board chair for more than a decade.

The Community Warehouse now serves clients of nearly 200 social service agencies. About 50 families a week, two-thirds of which include children, get the pots and pans they need to cook a meal, the dishes to eat that meal, a table to sit around together and beds to sleep in at night – things that enable these families to start life anew.

Roz considers beds and kitchen supplies the most important items the warehouse supplies.

“One of my personal interests is pots and pans,” says Roz, citing “the impact of a family dinner and the exchanges that go on when you are sitting at a table.”

So each year in March, synagogues across town host Pots and Pans for Purim. People coming to Purim parties bring pots and pans to bang and drown out the name of evil Haman and then donate the pans to the warehouse to quiet the cries of hungry children.

“Forty-three percent of the people we serve are children living in poverty,” says Interim Executive Director and Volunteer Director Jessica Thompson.

In 2014, Community Warehouse helped 7,234 people from its main warehouse on Martin Luther King Blvd. in NE Portland and the new Tualatin Warehouse, which was purchased in May 2012 after new Board Chair Jeffrey Weitz found the site.

“We do a lot of work to help homeless vets, and sexual traffic victims and parents trying to get back custody of their children after completing drug treatment,” says Roz. To regain custody of their children, Roz says the parent needs to be able to provide a mattress that is off the floor.

One day last month Transition Projects Veterans Case Manager Lindsay Hyland brought a couple ( Jason Reaney and Missie Heath) to the warehouse to get the things they needed for their new apartment, including beds for their two daughters, who had been sleeping on the floor while the family stayed in a small house with relatives.

Jason served in the Army from 1999 to 2006, including two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. When he was hit with an IED (improvised explosive device), he suffered a broken back and says his lower back is now held together by nuts and bolts and pins.

Eight months ago the family was hit by another tragedy when a motorcycle accident broke Jason’s hip and collarbone.

“You don’t know the struggles we’ve had the past eight

Linda Nelson and Sara Nelson created the tablescape “For the Love of Frogs,” one of about 35 Tablescapes that will be sold at the annual Chair Affair fundraiser.

Please bring a non-perishable food item for the Sunshine Pantry!

Beit Haverim Community Passover Seder Led by Rabbi Alan Berg and Cantorial Soloist Ann Brown Please join us for a family-friendly Seder CELEBRATE CONFERENCE CENTER 15555 Bangy Rd, #100 | Lake Oswego, OR

Saturday, April 4, 2015 Seder: 6:00 pm/Dinner to follow PRICES

Buffet dinner with vegetarian options Member adult $35 | Member child (ages 6-12) $15 Non-Member adult $45 | Non-Member child (ages 6-12) $20 Children age 5 and under are Free

Please bring a non-persihable food it Reservations: www.beithav.org office@beithav.org 503-568-1241

em for the Sunshine Pantry!

Please bring a non-perishable food item for the Sunshine Pantry!

months,” said Missie. “This means the world to us. Thank you isn’t enough.”

As they watched a truck fill up with beds and kitchen supplies, Jason said, “Everybody needs help sometimes. … Now we can start our life over.”

Over the years, Roz has heard stories of so many families who have been helped by the warehouse.

Now she has stepped back a bit from her full-time involvement at the warehouse to spend more time with her mom and her two grandchildren, Sammy, 4, and Ani, 2. All three of her children still live in Portland. They are Rebecca and her husband, Walter Mast; Jeremy, a tax attorney with Lane Powell; and Rachel, who is in nursing school at OHSU. “They have all been interested in the warehouse, and they all look out for the warehouse,” says Roz. She says she’s dropped down to spending just 60% of her time at the warehouse. Keep in mind that 60% of her time adds up to much more than 60% of a normal work week!

Just what does a board chair emeritus do?

“These guys (staff ) have lists,” says Roz. “If something needs to be done, I fill in and do things that don’t fit. I speak at groups and work on the Chair Affair (annual fundraiser, see box).

Things fall on my plate.”

FOR – Friends of Roz – is also a powerful force at the warehouse, according to Jessica, who has worked there for two years. “At least once a week someone comes in and says, ‘Say Hi to Roz.’ ” She says that personal connection brings many people in to donate or volunteer. In 2014, 54 regular volunteers donated 7,004 hours of labor and an additional 145 volunteers provided one-time help.

“We give the community a way to be helpful,” says Roz. “Not everybody can write a check. But you can go through old linens and say, ‘I’m not using this anymore.’ ” She says there are lots of ways to help. People donate items for families in need, but they can also donate antiques or other items such as sets of china or large buffets that wouldn’t fit in a typical apartment. Those items are sold at the Estate Stores attached to the warehouses. And the money raised in the Estate Store is used for warehouse operating expenses and to buy goods families need.

“We are a place than can help people help families,” says Roz. Quoting a warehouse tagline, she adds, “We put their used goods to good use.”

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 27

gn si de r rio te in d an se ou eh ar W ity un Comm

By Deborah Moon up this month is just The Chair Affair annual fundraiser coming homeowners and one way the Community Warehouse helps ive and practical ways. people in need furnish their homes in creat DECORATE cast-off furniture or Each year more than 90 artists transform sold at the Chair Affair household goods into works of art to be during the evening’s silent auction. s,” says Community “These are very unusual, one-of-a-kind piece the annual fundraiser Warehouse Founder Roz Babener. Initially that bidders could buy featured chairs converted into works of art artists can select any the now to add flair to a room or garden. But unique piece people a e creat to e hous cast-off item from the ware can purchase to support the warehouse. s that had a life and they “This is reuse,” says Roz. “They take thing unique and support thing some get repurpose them so people can the warehouse.” tablescapes. The This year the Chair Affair will also feature tablescape also will each of centerpiece, napkins and tablecloth to use in their own le peop for on aucti t be sold through the silen homes. ring vacation The evening also includes a live auction featu icket items. For big-t r othe and r packages, a stocked wine cella les donated Bicyc side Lake of r Habe on instance, Meryl and Gord s ittee plan to wrap into two Dahon folding bikes, which the comm certificates – so people gift a “Portlandia Package,” with tickets or er in typical Portlandia dinn to out or can ride their bikes to a show fashion.

Council of Jewish Meryl, a former president of the National the warehouse because helps Women-Portland section, says she into regular society. back lies fami “it’s important to me to help y to support the happ I’m so job, lous fabu … Roz has done a warehouse.” friends, a mitzvah A paddle raise, or as it is known among Roz’s ing. even the moment, is also part of $186,700 for warehouse Altogether last year’s Chair Affair raised operating expenses. ive pieces to give a And more than 90 people took home creat unique flair to their home decorating.

The CHAIR AFFAIR WHEN: 6 pm, April 18 WHERE: Leftbank Annex, 101 N Weidler, Portland TICKETS: $100 from communitywarehouse.org/ chairaffairtickets

28 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

NEW FURNITURE? DONATE THE OLD e, consider donating your When you buy new furniture for your hom so other families can old pieces to the Community Warehouse off at either of the two furnish their homes. Items can be dropped pickup of furniture you for ge warehouse locations or you can arran warehouse accepts the s item of list a For cannot fit in your vehicle. to offset expenses), visit and to arrange a pickup (there is a $30 fee k-up. communitywarehouse.org/request-a-pic items you are no longer “If you buy new furniture for yourself, the lies,” says Roz. fami our of one for using will be wonderful ture bank, the warehouse As the community’s only full-service furni families need as they that ture provides household goods and furni undesirable living from away or t stree move out of shelters, off the 1 families served 2,48 d helpe e hous ware the situations. Last year apar tments. their sh by nearly 200 social service agencies furni pillows, 1,398 6 3,05 s, resse The warehouse provided 3,199 matt pans, as well as a and pots 6 3,78 and s dressers, 1,185 kitchen table eat together in their own host of other items families need to live and home.

FIND UNUSUAL ITEMS are sold in the Estate Donated items that are not family-friendly warehouse. Items such Stores at both the Portland and Tualatin and buffets, china sets s as antiques, art, large dining room table eeds supporting the proc with store and collectibles are sold at the Estate Store – “Our the to goes also ture warehouse. Outdoor furni clients don’t have backyards,” notes Roz. es shop at the Estate “Lots of young families setting up their hom , noting those sales pson Thom ca Jessi Stores,” says Interim Director furniture bank. the for et budg ating oper the of cover about a third ual items for their home Many collectors and people looking for unus also shop at the stores.

Store purchases, community Through both the Chair Affair and Estate homes, while enabling members get distinctive items for their own s and household items shing the warehouse to provide donated furni to families in need. ce, reuse and recycle is Through the Community Warehouse, redu – and everybody goes home being played out to the fullest in Oregon a winner.

Jewish artists who have created pieces for the 2015 Chair Affair include: Rachel Babener, Lena Avakyan Benikov, Glenn Decherd, Lois Gold, Jack Heims, Jackie Lipshutz, Stu Luxenberg, Linda Nelson and Eddy Shuldman.

“Dragon Lamp” by Glenn Dechard

“Fused Glass Tabletop” by Lois Gold

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO HOMES? HINT: IT HAS TO DO WITH SAVING ENERGY AND MONEY. Though two homes may look alike, energy-efficiency upgrades can make a big difference in terms of maximizing comfort and reducing energy use and cost.

Energy Trust of Oregon can help you find a trade ally contractor and provide cash incentives that help offset the cost of qualifying energy improvements. With upgrades to your water heater, appliances and lighting, you could save up to 20 percent on your home energy costs while not having to scale back on comfort.

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” by Eddy Shuldman

+Start getting more from your energy today. Call us at 1.866.368.7878 or visit www.energytrust.org/residential.

Serving customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas.

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 29

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Home & Garden INSIDE 30 Murals brighten homes 33 Personality influences home purchase 34 Home is where the art is 35 Cottages, Israeli-style 36 Six steps to a perfect lawn 37 Featured properties

above left: Smoke alarm mural. top: Cherrywood Village murals. above right: Kitchen mural.

Muralist discovers importance of art in Peace Corps Corie Hinton: coriehinton@gmail.com | talkingwallsmurals.com

30 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

By Gloria Hammer

Oregon-grown Corie Hinton is a muralist who specializes in interior and exterior walls. If you can think it, Corie can create it. Talking Walls, the name Corie has given her business, was a process that took her a few years to figure out. Her time in the Peace Corps was pivotal to making that happen.

Corie’s projects include murals for Parkview at Cherrywood Village, a memory care facility in NE Portland. The goal is to stimulate residents’ minds.

When Corie’s parents remodeled their kitchen, she created a tropical garden that now covers their walls.

A certain 5-year-old’s fear of smoke alarms prompted her parents to commission Corie to meet with their daughter to create ceiling art to comfort her frightening thoughts of the alarm on her ceiling. Yes, walls talk.

Corie comes from an artistic family – her parents grew up in Chicago and moved to Eugene, where they raised their two daughters. Corie follows in the footsteps of her mother, Cindy, who has a background in art education; her father, Jim, a graphic designer; and her grandmother, who at age 60 earned a bachelor of fine arts. Corie’s parents encouraged her to follow a path that would allow her to use her creative talent. They saw that as equally important to traditional monetary measures of success.

I talked with 29- year-old Corie about graduating from South Eugene High School, college in California, the Peace Corps and her passion for speaking through her Talking Walls. Her replies have been edited for brevity and clarity.

After graduating from high school, how did you land at Laguna College of Art and Design?

I applied to a bunch of schools thinking I would be a double major in art and environmental studies. It was not turning out that way. I got a half-ride scholarship to just art school at The Laguna College of Art and Design. I studied illustration and animation. After a four-year program I was still struggling with what I wanted to do. I even thought it was really selfish to just do art. I was torn between environmental studies and art. I was going through this crisis of how is art meaningful and how does it give back to the world.

What happened?

I thought about the Peace Corps. I had a high school teacher who was in the Peace Corps in Kenya and another teacher at Laguna who was also in the Peace Corps. Both kept talking about it. I decided to just do it. I was out of school and I did not know what I wanted to do. I applied in August 2007, and I was in Madagascar in February 2008.

Why Madagascar?

I got sent to Madagascar. They don’t ask you where you want to go, except for continents or regions of the world. I knew I wanted to go to Africa, and they ended up sending me to Madagascar. My job was environmental education.

Madagascar hospital mural

From Eugene to Laguna Beach to Madagascar… describe the lifestyle change.

It was very different. I lived by myself in a village of about 2,000 people in a little grass, thatched hut. I had a hole in the ground for a toilet.

You went primitive?

Yep. I was there for about a year doing the typical Peace Corps stuff. We were making fuel-efficient cook stoves and doing a lot of work with the rice farmers. We had an environment club. I brought all my acrylic paints and brushes. I knew before I left I would not be able to buy them there. I knew I was going to paint murals, but I did not know where.

Did you sense a need to paint?

Yes. There were not a lot of walls in my village that were sturdy enough, but the one wall that was available was the hospital wall. It was concrete. My first mural was on that little hospital wall.

What did you paint?

My first mural was about nutrition. As Peace Corps volunteers we are dealing with, for the most part, an illiterate population. So telling the story of nutrition with pictures instead of words is educational.

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 31

Did someone advise you that this would be a tool to teach?

We had three months of training when we got to the country, and a lot of Peace Corps staff talked about the value of art.

We actually had a book called Art for Development, and it had different pictures for non-artists to copy. This involved using a grid system to put a picture on a wall if they were not artsy.

The mural I did showed the flag of Madagascar, which is red, white and green. Each section of the flag was a food group. Red represented meat and protein, white was starches, and green was fruit and vegetables. I used the flag to show new moms nutrition.

Were you still torn between environment and art after your time in Madagascar?

Well, this was the epiphany. They were teaching people in Peace Corps who were not artists at all the value of doing murals, because it is important for non-artists to do this kind of visual expression. This is how valuable it is as a teaching tool.

Now I am aware and I am wrapping up this crisis thing of the value of art. It must be important enough if it is curriculum in the Peace Corps. I am experiencing the value to the world of my work. Besides missing running water, I missed painting murals. I had been doing it since high school. Art is useful not just pretty. This is what I missed the most – this is what I should be doing.

MITTLEMAN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

After you went home to Eugene. What evolved?

Loving running water and hot showers, I landed jobs teaching art in several schools. I was going from one school to another doing murals with different classrooms from elementary through high school, but I wanted something more stable. I wanted to increase my financial stability. I started filling out applications and got a job as marketing specialist and graphic designer at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. I like the comradery and family-oriented setting.

Your mom is Jewish. Did you follow traditions?

Tuesday, May 19 11:30am–1:00pm Multnomah Athletic Club Visit jfcs-portland.org or call 503-226-7079, ext. 118 to reserve a seat or learn more.

Special thanks to our major supporters:

The Holzman Foundation / Renee & Irwin Holzman The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation our services Counseling, Disability Support Services, Emergency Aid & Homemaker Assistance

32 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

We didn’t go to temple regularly, but we did go on the High Holy Days. I knew the Hanukkah prayers and celebrating Hanukkah was a family tradition. In 2012 I was part of a Birthright trip to Israel with my sister. I love working at the MJCC, and I am learning a lot about my Jewishness. My mom likes to tease me that I am such a good Jew now.

How did Talking Walls, your mural business, evolve?

It started my senior year when my mom was redoing her kitchen. I said let me paint something. I painted a tropical garden. People came over to see it, and they would hire me to paint their murals. Looking back I realize how lucky I am that my parents showed support till I figured it out. My sister, Jamie, on the other hand always knew she wanted to be a physical therapist. My journey has taken a little longer. My murals are a love business.

Tel Aviv University research finds

personality traits affect home-buying decisions Distributed by American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Do you consider yourself a conscientious person? Then sign up for a fixed-rate mortgage. Neurotic? You’ll probably opt for home ownership over renting.

According to a new study published in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, personality traits are strong indicators of real-estate decisions. The research,

by Dr. Danny Ben-Shahar of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Management and doctoral candidate Roni Golan of the Technion Institute of Technology, finds a correlation between personality and individual real estate choices, and a follow-up study by the same team finds an identical link between local personality types in America and statewide real estate trends.

“This research falls within the scope of a much larger discussion in the social sciences in general, and in economics in particular, about what constitutes decision-making: the rational view versus that affected by emotional and cognitive biases,” says Dr. Ben-Shahar. “My work shows that people in the real estate framework act ‘irrationally,’ as economists say, and not according to traditional economic assumptions.”

The “Big Five” and home ownership

In their first study, the researchers administered a widely used personality assessment test called the “Big Five” to a diverse sample of 1,138 respondents. The test asks takers to rate themselves on a scale from 1 to 5 on questions that measure standard personality traits: Openness (artistic, curious, imaginative), Conscientiousness (efficient, organized), Extroversion (sociable, outgoing, energetic), Agreeableness, (forgiving, undemanding) and Neuroticism (tense, discontented).

Once the researchers established the personality types of the respondents, they asked five questions about their real estate preferences – such as the type and duration of a mortgage, whether to rent or buy, and whether to invest in real estate or stocks. The findings were controlled for a series of variables including, among others, level of education, homeownership, age, gender and income.

The results showed a clear link between personality and real estate decisions. Neurotic people, for example, prefer homeownership over renting. When they do buy, they opt for a mortgage with a lower “loan-to-value” ratio, which means the loan amount is low compared to the price of the home.

“It turns out, not surprisingly to psychologists and behavioral economists perhaps, that there are very significant correlations between personality traits and preferences in real estate,” says Dr. Ben-Shahar.

State-by-state

In the follow-up study, Dr. Ben-Shahar examined the results of the Big Five personality test with respect to a much larger sample of 1.6 million Americans. By matching predominant “personality types” of U.S. states with housing data from the U.S. Census and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the team

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found that here, too, personality was associated with real estate choices. The so-called “personality” of a state was defined by previous studies in which researchers averaged the responses of individuals on the Big Five test for each state.

The neurotic state of New York, for example, tended to choose lower loan-to-value ratios on mortgages, whereas states with relatively high marks for openness, like South Carolina, leaned toward a relatively greater share of fixed-rate mortgages.

Vermont, on the other hand, scored relatively highly on openness and tended to choose lower LTVs. “While not every state’s real estate profile lined up exactly with its predominant personality, we saw the macro level reflect trends detected at the micro level,” says Dr. Ben-Shahar.

Dr. Ben-Shahar is currently working on other models of non-rational decision making in the real estate market.

American Friends of Tel Aviv University (aftau.org) supports Tel Aviv University. A leader in the pan-disciplinary approach to education, TAU is internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research and scholarship – attracting world-class faculty and consistently producing cutting-edge work with profound implications for the future.

REAL ESTATE BROKERS

Proactive Proficient Professional 503.810.8195 Jeanne Paul Principal Real Estate Broker

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JEANNEPAULTEAM.COM OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 33

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HOME is where the art is!

By Amy Hirshberg Lederman

Keith’s team of RE/MAX professionals are here for you with Honesty, Integrity and Experience — OVER 12 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE — STRONG ATTENTION TO DETAIL — INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS — TENACITY — HIGHEST ETHICAL STANDARDS — RE/MAX HALL OF FAME — 100% CLUB — TOP 10% PERFORMER — MASTERS CIRCLE — GRI

INVENTORY IN MONTHS 2013

2014

2015

January

4.7

4.1

3.4

February

4.5

3.9

3.0

March

3.2

3.1

April

3.1

2.8

May

2.5

2.8

June

2.9

2.8

July

2.8

2.9

August

3.1

3.0

September

3.7

3.1

October

3.4

2.8

November

3.7

3.2

December

3.2

2.3

Keith Berne

Broker, GRI RE/MAX Equity Group 6245 SW Capitol Hwy. Portland, OR 97239 Cell: 503-734-6646 Fax: 503-495-5288 KBerne@EquityGroup.com www.KeithBerne.com

I love the home my family has created. We moved into our house with our 2-year-old son, Josh, when I was seven months pregnant with my daughter, Lauren. It was 105 degrees that smoldering July day in Tucson almost 28 years ago, and we have remained here ever since. Our home contains a lifetime of memories, milestones, stains and artifacts that reflect, more than anything I could capture in words, what our family is like and what we have devoted our time and energy to as we raised our family.

Early on my husband and I began to create rituals for our family. These rituals grew as we did, and we continue to this day to find new ways to celebrate the holidays using Jewish stories, art, music and food.

But one of the things I treasure most is that we created a sacred, special place in our home for Jewish art. When our kids were little, we devoted a shelf to items they created. From tzedakah boxes decorated with stickers to macaroni menorahs that glittered, we proudly displayed these pieces and used them for the holidays. Our shelf grew to an entire cabinet, with beautiful Jewish pieces we acquired from our travels to Israel and abroad. Today, I have more menorahs than shoes (which is saying a lot), and much of the art on our walls has a Jewish theme or is by a Jewish artist.

There is a lovely concept in Judaism called Hiddur Mitzvah that encourages us to elevate the performance of Jewish rituals and mitzvoth by using beautiful ritual items. The idea is that in order to capture the fullness of performing the mitzvah itself, for example, lighting holiday candles or saying the Kiddush over wine, we should experience it in all of its glory, beauty and splendor. The beauty and importance of the action is matched by the quality of the “tools” we use to perform the act. So having lovely candlesticks, perhaps passed down from a parent or grandparent, or using a special wine cup rather than a paper cup to say the Kiddish, actually raises the act to an even higher level of observance.

Hiddur Mitzvah is a win-win proposition. It encourages us to try out Jewish rituals as a family that we might not otherwise do, engages and strengthens our family bonds, and inspires us to bring beauty and meaning into our homes with Jewish values as the foundation.

Amy Hirshberg Lederman is an author, Jewish educator, public speaker and attorney. Her first book, To Life: Jewish Reflections on Everyday Living, is in its second printing. Visit her website at amyhirshberglederman.com.

34 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

All about cottages,Israeli-style

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By Teddy Weinberger

When we first moved to Israel in the summer of 1997, it took awhile before I got used to referring to where I live as a “house.” We had made aliyah from Miami, and there we clearly had your standard-definition house: a large unattached structure with spacious front and backyards. In Givat Ze’ev, we moved in to what’s called a “cottage,” which in American terms is a small attached or semidetached duplex, but which Israelis unselfconsciously also call a “bayit,” meaning a house. (It’s only fair to say at this point that while cottage yards are similarly small, our backyard is jam-packed with seven kinds of fruit trees.)

Our address is 2/4 Mishol Ha’Admonit, that is, the fourth cottage of the second building on Peony Lane (which consists of just three other such structures). Built in the early 1980s, ours were the earliest cottages in Givat Ze’ev. Originally, all the cottages were very small (three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms), but the economics of housing prices in Givat Ze’ev suggests that as people’s housing needs increase, they choose to build additions to their cottages rather than move (thanks to cheap Arab construction labor).

As a result, when we moved into our cottage it had already been increased from 90 to 140 square meters (about 1,000 to 1,500 square feet) and to five bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms. We rented our cottage for 2 years and then bought it – let’s just say that after our aliyah we were predisposed not to move again for a very long time. We made the bedroom on the ground floor into a study/guest room and moved our personal stuff upstairs. Since we assumed that every house has to have a family room, we put the girls in the old “master” bedroom, managed to squeeze the three boys into one small bedroom (thankfully we have a bunk bed) and left our sofa bed to preside over the family room. After we woke up to the fact that we were now living in a Givat Ze’ev cottage, we ditched the sofa bed and big-brother Nathan got his own room.

When we first moved to Givat Ze’ev, only the lucky elite were privileged enough to own “villas,” two-story Americantype houses (attached or semidetached). I say lucky because the pioneers in this area, who began life down the road at the small Givon settlement, were awarded villa rights in Givat Ze’ev. However, a funny thing has happened over the last decade: some of our friends moved from cottages to villas.

Our children and our visiting parents have noticed this and have lobbied for our doing the same. Sarah and I have resisted for several reasons, a main one being a hidden family secret: our children have gained tremendously from rooming with each other. Our children have learned – sometimes the very hard way – about the need to compromise and work together in human relationships. And there is nothing like the shared intimacy of the soft bedtime conversation between

roommates. Our daughters especially have benefited from their living arrangement. Though Rebecca and Ruthie are each very different people, they are extremely close (yes, best friends), in part because they grew up physically close. It’s interesting to note that despite complaining about the size of our cottage, our kids have never complained about having to room with a sibling. So while it’s true that kilo per kilo Ezra and Elie must hold the longevity record for two human beings on a bunk bed, for now were are staying put.

Because of our villa-owning friends, it has again become difficult for me to call our cottage a “house.” Yet now I have absolutely no problem calling our cottage a bayit, because bayit also means home.

Teddy Weinberger, Ph.D., writes from Givat Ze’ev, a suburb of Jerusalem just over the Green Line. He and his wife, Sarah Jane Ross, made aliyah in 1997 with their five children. Teddy is director of development for Meaningful, a company that works with Israeli nonprofit organizations.

carolyn and robin weinstein

Realtors for Every Generation ®

Working for you and our community since 1978 to learn more visit

cweinsteinpdxhomes.com or contact us personally

carolyn 503.802.6415 robin 503.802.6405

carolynandrobin@hasson.com

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 35

H G A OM RD E & EN

Celebrate April’s Lawn Care Month with six steps to the perfect lawn

S

By Bryan Ostlund

Spring is a time of new beginnings, reflected by Passover, blossoming flowers and longer days. As such, April is recognized as National Lawn Care Month. In conjunction with this event, Grass Seed USA, a coalition of American grass seed farmers and turf specialists, offers six steps to get your lawn on track for summer.

“As seasonal temperatures begin to rise across Oregon, we’re entering the prime lawn growing season and the perfect time to do some basic lawn maintenance,” said Bryan Ostlund, Grass Seed USA executive director.

“Investing even a little time now to seed or repair your lawn will pay off in the months to come and make sure you’re ready for summer.”

Rake – Raking your lawn removes dead grass, leftover winter leaves and other debris, allowing you to control thatch and see bare or worn areas that need attention. It also permits new, young grass to grow more easily and increases soil contact when seeding.

Test your soil – Good soil is one of the essentials of a healthy lawn. Doing a soil test is simple and inexpensive (do-it-yourself kits are available at your local garden center), and it provides valuable information about your soil’s current pH level. Simple amendments like lime or sulfur can be added to neutralize overly acidic or alkaline soil and help your grass thrive.

Aerate – Older or heavily trafficked lawns can suffer from soil compaction.

A core aerator with hollow tines will pull small plugs of soil out of the ground, allowing increased movement of water, nutrients and oxygen into the soil. Lawn aeration can also increase the soil contact with new seeds and improve the success rate of new growth. You can rent an aerator or hire a professional to aerate your lawn for you.

Seed – Oregon’s spring offers optimal conditions for establishing new lawn spaces or repairing thin or bare patches in existing lawns. Expanding your current lawn or repairing high-traffic areas will allow the grass to grow in healthy and strong before summer, when the lawn will likely experience the heaviest use. For best results, talk to a turf specialist at a garden store or your local university extension office to help you select the right seed for 36 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

your area and usage. The specialist will be able to identify which seed is closest to your existing lawn or suggest an alternate option if you’ve experienced recurring problems. After you plant the new seed, water lightly but regularly to make sure the reseeded areas stay damp until the new grass grows in. Applying a starter fertilizer is an option, though not required.

Control weeds – The best way to control weeds is to maintain a healthy, lush lawn, which will in turn squeeze out the weeds. If, however, you experience problems with crabgrass or dandelions, herbicides may help. Talk to a local garden specialist about which herbicide is right for your lawn and the best way to apply it. Applying a pre-emergent herbicide in the spring before weed grass emerges can reduce problems down the line. Herbicides can kill grass seeds, so if you’ve applied seed you’ll want to make sure you use a product that will not affect new growth. For dandelions, digging them up is often an effective solution. If not, a broadleaf herbicide can be applied.

Tune up your lawn mower – Get ready for the first mow by giving your lawn mower a tune-up.

Don’t wait until your mower starts acting up.

Keep it running smoothly with an annual service that includes changing the oil, changing the spark plug, swapping out or cleaning the air filter, and sharpening the blade. Most lawns are ready to be mowed when the grass reaches a height of 3 inches, although newly seeded areas or recently overseeded existing lawns should be mowed closer to 2 inches until the new grass is established. Remember to mow with a frequency that allows you to cut less than one-third the height of the grass. An easy-to-follow rule is to let it grow no taller than 3 inches and cut it to no shorter than 2 inches.

Following these six steps will have your lawn looking great throughout the season. If you have any questions or would like lawn care tips throughout the season, visit Grass Seed USA at weseedamerica.com or follow We Seed America on Facebook or Twitter.

Mazel tov!

Bryan Ostlund is executive director of Grass Seed USA. Grass Seed USA is a national coalition of grass seed farmers and academic turf specialists with a wealth of experience in studying, growing and harvesting grass and grass seed.

H GA OM RD E & EN

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S 22965 SW Miami Pl. Tualatin, OR

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Happy Passover Chag Sameach

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Joan Castro: 760-250-2984 or joancastro1@me.com Managing Principal 2550 Southshore Blvd., Lake Oswego, OR Sweeping driveway rises above Southshore to an Entertainers Dream! Formal living and dining rooms, two family rooms, hobby room with third bath. Greenhouse, tool shed and hobby shed! Driveway holds 5-6 cars. Palisades Park membership available.

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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 37

Kids

& Teens too A child friendly resource for parents

Purim

Fun

Congregation Neveh Shalom

Havurah Shalom

Congregation Shaarie Torah 38 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

PJ Library expands musical experience

Portlander Justin Jude Carroll with Rich Recht, a well-known Jewish recording artist whose wife, Elisa, helps run the Song Leader Boot Camp.

By Deborah Moon

Portlander Justin Jude Carroll was among 180 song leaders, musicians, storytellers, Jewish educators, rabbis and program professionals who attended the sixth annual Song Leader Boot Camp in St. Louis, MO. Justin, who performs as Justin Jude, participated in the conference’s first PJ Library track, which enabled participants to learn more about PJ Library and how to connect to families in their home communities.

PJ Library supports families raising Jewish children through the gift of high-quality Jewish children’s books and music, along with resources, events and programs.

Justin is the early childhood music teacher at PJA, music teacher at Little Garden preschool and music director at Congregation Kol Shalom. He has performed at several Jewish community events, including healing services at the Robison home and holiday concerts at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

Partnering with PJ Library on music events to build Jewish community is the next item on his agenda, and he expects the boot camp experience to enhance that.

“Song Leader Boot Camp sent me home with both deep inspiration and practical tools to inspire audiences,” says Justin.

“Jewish song leading isn’t only about leading singing, it’s about building lasting Jewish community. A skilled song leader brings ruach into a room and helps students, adults or families connect with each other through song. I’ve brought home a commitment to perform this service in Portland, and I’m actively reaching out to Jewish organizations in Portland to see how we can work together.”

In addition to learning practical tools, such as how body language and clapping can enhance the audience’s musical experience, Justin says he expanded his repertoire, learning new songs from top Jewish artists including Rick Recht, Ellen Allard, Sheldon Low, Joanie Leeds and Craig Parks.

Justin calls the experience totally transformative. “It wasn’t just about being a song leader, but about being a Jewish person living Jewish values, reflecting on what it means to be Jewish today – how our values plug into the modern world. I left with a renewed faith in the power of music to move us deeply, and to connect us to each other. I’m excited to share that faith here at home.”

Pjlibrary.org | jewishportland.org/pjlibrary

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF JEWISH SERVICE FOR 6TH-12TH GRADERS

J-SERVE is the chance for teens to fulfill their Jewish values and

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JewishPDX

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 39

KIDS

GRANTS HELP BB CAMP EXPAND INCLUSION

By Suzye M. Kleiner

Five years ago B’nai B’rith Camp introduced an inclusion program named Kehila (community) so that all children, even those with disabilities, could have a Jewish camp experience.

Several campers have graduated from the one-week session to attend multiple weeks, and even the 15-day wilderness trek, very successfully. This year, thanks to two selective grants, BB Camp is broadening Kehila and has hired Cheryl Peizner as a year-round inclusion specialist to oversee the program.

Cheryl brings many years of outstanding experience in providing services to children with special needs. As part of the grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camp Ruderman Inclusion Initiative, Cheryl will attend FJC’s intensive inperson training sessions.

The second grant, from The National Inclusion Project, provides the Let’s ALL Play program model, which ensures that no child sits on the sidelines.

BB Camp is one of four camps to receive the FJC Ruderman Inclusion Initiative, a three-year program to significantly increase access to Jewish camp for children with disabilities.

In response to an overwhelming need expressed by families of children with disabilities and disabilities’ advocacy groups, FJC conducted a study in 2012-13 that documented that children with disabilities are significantly under-represented at Jewish camp.

“Camping is a formative experience for Jewish youth across North America,” says Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. “It is an experience that draws campers closer to their Jewish roots and should be an experience open to all our children regardless of their abilities. The Ruderman Family Foundation’s partnerships with the Foundation for Jewish Camp and B’nai B’rith Camp will not only bring a more inclusive camping experience for children with disabilities, it will change the attitudes of thousands of campers and counselors, who will live the value of inclusion.”

Cheryl received her training at the University of North Carolina, Division TEACCH, and then began her career as a family and educational support specialist. She has specialized in autism, communication disorders, mental health issues, conflict resolution and advocacy. Her philosophy is to use a non-aversive approach, in which she develops plans from the strengths of each individual.

Cheryl, who worked at camp last summer, is excited to create individualized strategies to modify BB Camp’s enriched curriculum and to work with parents on intakes, develop creative approaches and assess needed support. Cheryl subscribes to “people first language” and trains counselors to put the person before the disability and establish plans that support overcoming deficits.

“My focus is to increase a camper’s independence, success and self-esteem while experiencing everything from our new zipline to an enriched Jewish program,” says Cheryl. “My job is to support a child with a disability, or a camper experiencing extreme homesickness – and everyone in between.”

BB Camp Executive Director Michelle Koplan says, “We are proud that BB Camp was selected for two trailblazing inclusion grants. The FJC Ruderman Inclusion Initiative and the National Inclusion Project will enable us to strengthen our efforts and reach even more children under Cheryl’s leadership. Inclusion has been an important pillar to our mission, and we have seen firsthand how Kehila campers thrive and positively impact our camp community.”

The National Inclusion Project, which was cofounded in 2003 by entertainer Clay Aiken, strives to create an inclusive environment where children with and without disabilities can play, learn and laugh together. BB Camp is one of the select organizations throughout the country that the National Inclusion Project has chosen to partner with for the second year.

BB CAMP INCLUSION PROGRAMS: CPEIZNER@BBCAMP.ORG OR 503-452-3443 BB CAMP: LINCOLN CITY, OR | BBCAMP.ORG 40 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

“We believe our partnership with BB Camp will get us one step closer to making the inclusion of children with disabilities the expectation and not the exception,” says National Inclusion Project Executive Director Jerry Aiken.

In 2009 BB Camp developed the Kehila summer camp program to rectify a lack of programming for campers with special needs on the West Coast and to serve children with special needs locally in its Lincoln City day camp program.

Kehila campers are fully integrated into cabins and activities with additional counselors for increased supervision and support.

Research shows overwhelming evidence that the Let’s ALL Play model helps children with disabilities improve self-esteem, social skills and confidence, while those without disabilities improved their leadership, problem-solving and empathy skills. The model makes it possible for all children to come together and participate in recreational activities such as swimming, arts and crafts, community service, physical fitness and more.

More importantly, it allows children with and without disabilities to create friendships that may not have been possible in other parts of their lives.

Kehila is living proof that the model works.

Suzye Kleiner resides in Scottsdale, AZ, and loves spending her summers at BB Camp. She has enjoyed the positions of camp store manager, photographer and writer.

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WHERE JUDAISM AND JOY ARE ONE! OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 41

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ART

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JUNE 25

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JUNE 29 N CONSTRUCTIO

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serviCe learning/ Community Work JULY 27

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geo caching JULY 14

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Israel

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AUGUST 10

TOPSYY TURV

JULY 22

Com Helmuni ty p Dayers Internation al JULY 28

AUGUST 4

Glow in the Dark

GOLF AUGUST 11

– JULY

DAY

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idf day AUGUST 12

Jewish

OUTDOOR H SURVIVAL Extraovliday ang

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game show day

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HORSEBA CK RIDING

little engineers AUGUST 7

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Book questions presumed safety of fetal ultrasounds

Hadassah wishes you and yours a joyous Passover!

Hag Sameakh L’Pesach!

Dr. Ariel Revel Hadassah’s Fertility Expert Caters to Hopeful Potential Parents with New Clinic

Despite advances in fertility, many live with unfilled dreams of parenthood. Hadassah Medical Organization’s fertility expert Prof. Ariel Revel met with a large crowd of potential parents where he and other Hadassah physicians revealed a successful program to overcome one of the common fertility barriers: egg donation. http://www.hadassah.org/pnw. Click read about it: HNews

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44 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

R

By Deborah Moon

Released just as this winter’s measles epidemic refueled discussion of the public health risks created by the nowretracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines, a new book has come out with another theory to explain the autism epidemic.

Ultrasound and Autism: What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know, by Jack Rabin, M.D., with Amy Kaufman, was published in February as the first book by new Portland publishing company Medical Discourse.

The autism epidemic is a public health crisis that now affects 1 in 50 U.S. children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of autistic students ages 6-21 enrolled in a government special education program increased from 5,415 in 1991 to 443,562 in 2013, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics.

The new book purports to prove prenatal ultrasounds cause autism. And while its authors quote from numerous papers regarding the safety of ultrasound imaging of fetuses, it seems a stretch to call it proof that it has caused the epidemic.

However, it does offer a valid warning to parents that the ultrasound should be used for medical purposes, not to create a “keepsake video.”

A member of Congregation Kesser Israel, Amy Kaufman is a Portland journalist and independent book editor who has known Dr. Rubin most of her life, since he was a colleague of Amy’s father, a retired neurosurgeon. Dr. Rubin is a longtime supporter of the Dr. Israel Goldstein Youth Village in Jerusalem and is active in the Jewish Federation of Greater Long Beach and West Orange County (CA).

The book includes several quotes from Jacques S. Abramowicz, M.D., the chair of the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology and a member of the Biosafety Committee of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

“There has been a rapid increase in the use of diagnostic ultrasound in obstetrics since its introduction in the late 1950s,” Abramowicz wrote in a 2008 article (iame.com/online/ bioeffects_of_obstetric_ultrasound/content.php). He attributes the increase in part to “immediate availability of results, relative low cost, when compared to other imaging modalities and, especially, assumed complete safety.”

Noting there is a marked lack of knowledge on effects of ultrasound in tissues being examined, Abramowicz concludes, “While it seems evident that DUS does not cause major structural/anatomic anomalies in the fetuses being scanned, more subtle effects cannot completely be ruled out. … scanning should be performed only with a valid medical indication.”

Kaufman says that that is her hope in co-authoring the book. “We hope it will discourage unnecessary ultrasounds and will enable women and families to make informed decisions.”

The book is available for $19.95 from medicaldiscourse@ comcast.net.

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[FOOD/CHEF’S CORNER]

Chef’s corner Start your day with a good breakfast – even during Passover

By Lisa Glickman

I am not a morning person. There, I’ve said it. Weekdays call for me to rise and shine just before 6 am to prepare for the day. Breakfast needs to be made, lunch needs to be packed and school drop-off looms at 7:20. Left to my own devices, I would happily linger through the first hour of the “Today” show before getting up and getting on with my day. I am much more a “burn the midnight oil” type of person who will stay up well into the evening to finish a project after everyone else has gone to bed.

The first thing I typically put in my body in the morning is a strong cup of black coffee and maybe a few leftover bites of my son’s breakfast. I know better. Skipping breakfast sets me up for bad choices like overeating later in the day. I know that starting the day with a healthy breakfast gives me energy, satisfies my appetite and sets the stage for smarter eating choices all day long. With this in mind I’ve decided that maybe I need to come up with some ideas that will help me “break the fast” with the nutrition that my body needs.

46 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

A healthy breakfast should combine good carbohydrates and fiber with some protein. Eggs, cheese, yogurt, nuts and seeds are all good sources of protein. Proteins function as building blocks for bones, muscles, cartilage, skin and blood. Whole grain cereal, oatmeal and fresh and dried fruit provide fiber and carbohydrates that help fuel the body and fill us with the necessary energy to get through the first part of the day without feeling ravenous by noon. A blender comes in handy for a speedy breakfast and also allows us to add super greens like spinach, kale or nutritious flaxseeds to our breakfast smoothies, amping up the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Filling up on empty calories in the form of simple carbohydrates and sugary cereals is never a good idea, because the sugar crash that will inevitably happen by midday can lead to a sense of tiredness and lethargy – stimulating us to make more poor food choices.

Balancing calories throughout the day also helps us lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. Energy-boosting carbohydrates and belly-filling fiber and protein provide the fuel you need to keep your body moving. Being overly hungry leads to reaching for a late afternoon cookie or candy bar, resulting in regret and weight gain.

Starting the day with a healthy and satisfying breakfast is just a good idea. Whether we like our eggs sunny side up, need a little toasty crunch or gotta whip it up fast in the blender, we need to eat breakfast! Even during Passover week, these quick and tasty recipes will start the day off right.

MATZO BREAKFAST PIZZA

LAUREL’S MATZO GRANOLA

¼ 1 2 1

¼

3 1 1 1

cup prepared pizza sauce clove garlic, minced tablespoons olive oil large handful leafy greens (spinach, kale or a combination) teaspoon chili flakes Salt and pepper to taste tablespoon shredded mozzarella cheese matzo egg teaspoon prepared basil pesto or shredded basil

16 ounces matzo farfel (or whole matzo broken up into small pieces) 4 eggs, beaten ½ cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup sliced almonds 1 cup pecans 2 tablespoons maple syrup 2 tablespoons flaxseed (optional) 1 cup golden raisins 1 cup dried cranberries, apricots or berries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat olive oil in a nonstick pan. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Toss in leafy greens, chili flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. Sauté until just wilted. Place matzo on baking sheet. Spread pizza sauce on matzo and sprinkle with cheese. Top with wilted greens and place in oven. While pizza bakes, break egg into nonstick pan and cook to desired doneness. Remove pizza from oven and top with egg and basil pesto or fresh basil.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix first six ingredients in a large bowl. Spray a large cookie sheet generously with nonstick spray. Spread mixture in an even layer and bake for 40 minutes, stirring to break up when crisp. Remove from oven and drizzle with maple syrup and sprinkle with flax seeds. Return to oven and bake additional 20-30 minutes until lightly brown and crisp. Cool. Transfer to bowl and add dried fruit. Store in covered container.

“APPLE PIE FOR BREAKFAST” SMOOTHIE 1 tablespoon almond butter 1 apple, cored but not peeled, coarsely chopped (depending on your blender) 1 banana ¾ cup plain Greek yogurt ½ cup almond vanilla milk 5-6 ice cubes ¼ teaspoon cinnamon 2 pitted dates 1 teaspoon ground flaxseeds (optional) Place all ingredients in blender and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.

Lisa Glickman is a private chef and teacher who lives in Portland. She has made TV appearances on COTV in Central Oregon and appeared on the Cooking Channel’s “The Perfect Three.” She can be reached at lisa@lisaglickman.com.

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 47

[FOOD/NW NOSH]

UO class project turns into tasty business

By Kerry Politzer

Red Duck Foods cofounder Jessica Zutz Hilbert wasn’t always obsessed with ketchup. But one day, while a graduate student at the University of Oregon, she had a revelation at a campus bar. She was sharing Tater Tots with now-business partners Karen Bonner and Shannon Oliver, when she suddenly realized: “The ketchup being served to us was boring! We’d had curried ketchup in Belgium and Germany, and cherry coke ketchup in Hong Kong … totally random flavors. We always found ourselves mixing ketchup with whatever else we could find – hot sauce, mayonnaise.”

The trio wondered if they might have a business opportunity idea for their New Venture Planning class project.

Says Hilbert, “For the final presentation, we decided to make some ketchup, and everyone really liked it. From there, Red Duck Foods has grown.” The company now produces a line of classic, curry and spicy ketchups, as well as a cocktail sauce, and was designated a 2014 Food Finalist in the Martha Stewart American Made awards.

Hilbert gained valuable culinary experience as a member of the Hillstone Restaurant Group and its management training 48 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

program. “I basically did everything in the restaurant as part of this program – washing dishes, waiting tables, being on the line preparing all the food that goes out. I’d had some exposure to making ketchup; we made our own ketchup in the restaurant.”

She was also inspired by her Jewish grandmother. “She was the best cook. I’m pretty sure that everyone who has a Jewish grandmother says that, but it is an objective fact for me. I have so many fabulous memories of outrageous brisket and chicken that is impossible to replicate, Passover dinner … her brisket has inspired a recipe I have since made many times – with my own ketchup.”

Red Duck Foods products are organic. “Part of what we do is dictated by what we can get our hands on. Finding organic products is not always the easiest thing,” explains Hilbert. Local sourcing is also important to the business. “We get our jars from a company in Portland; our labels and our spices are custom blended by a company here in Portland.”

Hilbert is enthusiastic about Portland’s food culture.

“Portland is the coolest place in the world for food,” she says.

“We’re very lucky to have started a food company in Oregon;

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Red Duck Foods has been very involved in local food events, participating in the Oregon Truffle Festival and Feast Portland. At the latter event, Hilbert presided over a 400-degree oven and produced her own tater tots to showcase Red Duck Foods ketchup.

Hilbert is a recent transplant to Portland, having moved here from Eugene with her entrepreneur husband and 18-month-old daughter in July 2014. They are enjoying sending their child to the Portland Jewish Academy.

Red Duck Foods products can be purchased online at redduckfoods.com and at stores such as Pastaworks and New Seasons Market.

Call today for catering! 503-227-NOSH (6674) or order online at www.bowerybagels.com

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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 49

[YOUNG ADULT]

Two Portland brothers join forces Ben and Jon Yablon were both in Portland to visit their parents in January. Photo by Jon Perrin Photography

By Polina Olsen

They grew up to be mensches, which is what their father hoped for. Today Ben Yablon, 21, and his brother Jonathan, 19, proudly serve their country – though it isn’t the same country. After making aliyah, Ben joined the Israel Defense Forces. And Jon, who always wanted to be a United States Marine, finishes basic training this spring.

“I wanted my sons to be good people, solid and reliable,” says their dad, Brian Yablon. Both he and his wife, Laurie, believe a strong Jewish background is essential toward that goal. Their sons attended Portland Jewish Academy through middle school, summered at Camp Massad (campmassad.org), a Hebrew immersion program near Montreal, and were active in NCSY (portland.ncsy.org). The family, which includes a younger son, Will, belong to Congregation Kesser Israel, and their belief in Zionism provides a lasting influence. Brian is Oregon State Chair of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The brothers reunited during a visit to Portland in January.

Ben and his wife, Miriam, got leave from their IDF postings to take vacation to coincide with Jon’s graduation from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, where male recruits from west of the Mississippi River complete their recruit training.

“My whole life I’ve been taught the importance of standing up for our people and being Jewish,” Ben says.

“The variety of people in the IDF surprised me,” Ben adds.

“It’s impossible to stereotype Israelis because there are so many types, and the army brings them into one group. But, from the religious to Bedouins, everyone knows why they’re there.”

Ben visited Israel several times and attended the Israel Experience at Bar Ilan University (israelxp.com) for a year after graduating high school. This is where he met Miriam, who now serves in the Israeli Air Force. The couple intends to remain in Israel and raise a family.

Meanwhile, his brother Jon’s enlistment came as no surprise.

“It’s something he always wanted to do,” Ben says. “He talked about joining the Marines before I was set on Israel.”

Like Ben, Jon doesn’t find the different choice of countries surprising. “My brother’s home is in Israel and mine is in the United States,” he says. Like Ben, Jon visited Israel several times.

“We both want to serve and protect our homes,” Jon says. “The Marines is a brotherhood, like a big family. I’ve always known I wanted to do this with my life. It’s difficult. They take a lot away to build you back up. It’s the hardest but most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.”

THE FIGHT AGAINST IN EUROPE:

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50 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

O

CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM ON THE RISE NATIONALLY

ONE GROUP PEGS PSU AS HOT SPOT

By Deborah Moon

On the same day about a month ago, two press releases arrived regarding the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses. One of the releases called Portland State University one of the worst offenders – an allegation that PSU students and leaders called surprising and inaccurate.

The first release from Trinity College and Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law reported the results of The National Demographic Survey of American Jewish College Students, from a spring 2014 online survey of 1,157 self-identified Jewish students at 55 campuses nationwide. More than half of those students reported having been subjected to or having witnessed anti-Semitism on their campuses.

The release noted, “There was only a slight variation in the rates across the regions of the United States, strongly suggesting that anti-Semitism on campus is a nationwide problem. …

Numbers of participating students voiced concern that their experiences of anti-Semitism made for an uncomfortable campus climate.”

“There are students and other groups on campus who focus their attention more on anti-Israel events rather than pro-Palestinian awareness.” —— PSU junior Kelsey Kaplan

The second release announced a new campaign launched by the David Horowitz Freedom Center to combat rapidly growing anti-Semitism on college campuses in the United States and named PSU one of the top 10 campuses for anti-Semitic activity in the United States.

“We deplore and condemn all anti-Semitic expressions or acts,” said PSU President Wim Wiewel in responding to the release. “At the same time we firmly believe in the rights of all groups to express their political opinions, including those related to the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing challenges of the relations between Israel and Palestinians.”

In a telephone interview with Oregon Jewish Life, the center’s founder David Horowitz said PSU was on the list in part because it has a chapter of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, which he considers a hate group, and that SUPER displays an “apartheid wall” on campus every spring.

Israeli Shlicha Shiran Halfon, who works with students on Portland campuses, noted in mid March: “The wall did not come up at all this year yet. Last year they didn’t do an apartheid week but they had an al Nakba day and a Palestinian movie month with a lot of really anti-Israel movies as well as they hosted antiIsrael speakers throughout the year. The wall came up once all of last year.”

Horowitz says, “My beef with universities is that they don’t enforce the code of conduct when violations are directed at Jews.” He adds that many college students around the country don’t understand that SUPER and apartheid week “are about destroying Israel. …The (college) administration wouldn’t tolerate that against any other ethnic group.”

PSU released a statement noting that the David Horowitz Freedom Center is “a political organization that has been described as far right by the watchdog group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for promoting anti-Muslim views.”

Of the center’s list of issues at PSU, Wiewel said, “It should be noted that several of the acts and events listed as evidence of the climate at PSU actually took place elsewhere in the city or are a Facebook posting.”

In a letter to Wiewel about the report, which she shared with OJL, PDX Hillel Executive Director Rachel Hall wrote, “I know you were quite shocked to read this, as was I. … In my past seven years running Portland Hillel, I can say that PSU is certainly not an extremely pro-Jewish or Pro-Israel campus, but it certainly does not feel like one of the worst campuses. … We feel that the services, staff and programs at Portland Hillel empower our Jewish students on campus to be Jewish openly and with pride.”

Three PSU Jewish students agree PSU has an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic climate, but none felt it was enough to land PSU on the worst in the nation list.

Looking at the list that landed PSU on the list, junior Kelsey Kaplan says those events and more did occur, but some were exaggerated. She adds that PSU students are fortunate to have an extremely supportive Hillel and a Jewish community that supports the Jewish and pro-Israel students.

“It saddens me to see that there is a part of the Portland State community that is anti-Semitic,” says freshman Ilana Anfanger, noting she enjoys expressing her love for Judaism openly. “I can only hope that the anti-Semitic portion of the student body at Portland State University becomes more tolerant of the diversity found on campus.”

Senior Adina Henderson adds, “There are disputes about Israel and Jews often especially on PSU’s campus. I hope students both Jews and non-Jewish continue to create dialogue and feel safe on campus.”

“PSU is a campus that has a very anti-Israel and oftentimes anti-Semitic atmosphere,” says Kaplan. “There are students and other groups on campus who focus their attention more on antiIsrael events rather than pro-Palestinian awareness.”

“There is still work to be done and the anti-Israel battle to be fought but we will defeat the hate that occurs on campuses around the U.S.,” concluded Kaplan.

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 51

[SENIORS]

Meet Alice Meyer… but don’t try to keep up with her!

A

By Liz Rabiner Lippoff

So what does a wife of 58 years, mother of Alice Meyer has a resume that would get three, grandmother of two, social activist and her an interview for just about any project community volunteer do now that she is 85? management job you could think of. She Well, for one thing, she works out. “It helps was the board president who guided the you stay healthy and feel better.” Alice goes to a Friends of the Multnomah County Library trainer twice a week, and she and longtime friend, in its transition from a private to a county Eve Rosenfeld, walk 4 to 5 miles together once a institution. She was a tireless force in the team week. of dedicated people who worked with Rabbi She also enjoys “the passion of a new idea” Joshua Stampfer to create, from scratch, the and goes out of her way to learn new things. She Oregon Jewish Museum, now the Oregon has become actively involved with Compassion Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust & Choices, a national nonprofit that offers Education. She initiated a recent series of consultation and resources for people who programs at Congregation Beth Israel called Alice Meyer at the Oregon want to take control of their end-of-life plans, Jewish Museum annual The Longevity Generation, which advocated including availing themselves of Oregon’s Death lunch in January. taking control of one’s senior years through with Dignity Act. The Longevity Revolution at thoughtful, thorough advance planning. And Beth Israel evolved from that interest. Another she is, according to Rabbi Stampfer, “largely example: she used to play bridge but took up mah jongg three responsible” for the fact that a comprehensive history of the Jews years ago because “they say you can’t learn it after 65, and I of Oregon from 1950 to 2010 will be completed this summer. wanted to prove them wrong. I’m ‘medium’ at it: some days are This is just a partial list. And all of it is volunteer work. very, very good and some days are horrid.”

Alice was a Depression baby, raised in northeast Portland.

Alice intentionally spends time with people of all ages. She is “We didn’t have stocks or anything. When I got married and had in two, count ‘em, two book clubs, one with her contemporaries kids, my dad said, ‘They are the dividends!’ ” The family was quite and one whose members are all younger than she. The second “political.” Her mother, an active volunteer, sewed for Russian group is currently reading books from the ’50s, and Alice put Relief, which Alice says was pretty controversial at the time.

James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain on the list. Some of Although she says she dislikes labels like “left wing” and “right them were reading it for the first time, and the discussion, she wing,” she acknowledges that they were all “to the left … and I’m says, was lively.

“I love their generosity of spirit, their warmth to the left of all of them!” and their openness to new ideas.”

In fact, Alice embraces her liberal views as an integral part And she still volunteers. One consistent commitment is of her Jewish identity. She and six longtime Jewish friends had a weekly stint, again with Eve Rosenfeld, in the archives of a conversation recently about the preponderance of Jews among the Oregon Jewish Museum, located in the permanent home the volunteers who went into the South to register voters during she once pounded the pavement to help find. They have just the tumultuous, often violent, civil rights years. “This led to a broader discussion about the liberal causes and social actions that archived some of Rabbi Emanuel Rose’s papers and look forward to their next project. “Twenty five years ago, Alice Jews, except for fundamentalist Orthodox, so often support,” she served as the first president of the museum,” says Judy Margles, says. “And even when they are Republicans, they are usually still the museum’s director. “We know how lucky we are that Alice good on social issues. Our group was united in its belief that it still volunteers for us.”

IS our Jewishness, whether we recognize it or not.”

She has, however, slowed down. “When I turned 80, I wasn’t feeling very well and went to see a doctor who’d known me for 10 years. He said, ‘Tell me what you’ve been doing the Whatever Alice undertakes, it’s done past week or two.’ So I told him, day by day. He said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you except that you’re 80 and you’re not with total commitment. Her attitude is acknowledging it. You need to slow down.’ ” ‘If there’s a problem, we have to solve So she has, but in typical Alice Meyer style. “Now, if I have three things to do, I try to just do two of them.” it.’ She’s always done it that way.”

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~ Rabbi Joshua Stampfer (Emeritus) Congregation Neveh Shalom

52 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

Liz Rabiner Lippoff is a marketing consultant, freelance writer and community volunteer. LizRL@rabiner.com

selling Your Home in a Hot seller’s Market Sunday, May 3, 1:30-3pm seniors Real estate specialist (sRes) alexis Halmy of Windermere stellar and Rachel Mohlere, Homeowners transition Management advisor, will tell you what you need to know about selling your home in today’s real estate market. learn everything from how to choose the right realtor and price your home, to preparing for the transition from home ownership to community living.

To RSVP call (503) 535-4004 or visit www.RoseSchnitzerManor.org.

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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 53

[SENIORS]

Instructor Madeline Denko-Carter

54 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

Instructor Virginia Belt

Dance for Parkinson’s Oregon

Photos by Deborah Moon

Dance, the art form, develops not only grace, musicality and coordination, but also muscle strength, flexibility, balance, gait and facial expression – making it a wonderful therapeutic exercise for those suffering the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease.

So, since 2012, those with Parkinson’s and their family members, friends and care partners have been invited to a free dance class held at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center at 1:30 pm Wednesdays.

Classes integrate movement from multiple dance forms, music of all styles and theater vocal games that stimulate and develop the mind, memory, body and voice.

Dance for Parkinson’s Oregon classes are modeled after the Dance for PD program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group. The weekly class is appropriate for anyone at any stage of the PD condition (students are able to use their wheelchairs or walkers during the entire class if needed), and no partner is necessary.

The Portland classes are taught by Madeleine Denko-Carter and Virginia Belt. Madeleine is a former professional modern dancer and a current choreographer, dance instructor and violin teacher. She was director of outreach at Oregon Ballet Theatre and a founding board member of the NW Dance Project. She earned an MFA in dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Also a former professional dancer, Virginia is now a choreographer, dance instructor and theater artist. She was a theater instructor at Willamette University and an arts administrator at Tygres Heart Shakespeare and Willamette University Theater Outreach.

In addition to the Wednesday classes at the MJCC, classes meet in east Portland and the Milwaukie area on Mondays, and on Saturdays in Vancouver. To find a class in your area, visit danceforparkinsons.org and click on “Find a Class.”

If you have any questions on local classes, contact the instructors at danceforparkinsonsoregon@gmail. com; or Virginia at 503-789-4575 or Madeleine at 971-263-2761.

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Leonard Nimoy, z’l, and Spock both outsiders

By Rich Geller

The sad passing of actor Leonard Nimoy, known as Star Trek’s Mr. Spock for nearly 50 years, has triggered an outpouring of emotions across the globe. As the ever-logical, half-Vulcan/ half-human science officer onboard the starship Enterprise, Nimoy brought a serene grace and dignity to the character of Mr. Spock. As the son of Yiddish-speaking, Ukrainian-Orthodox Jewish immigrants, raised in the largely Irish-Italian Catholic neighborhood of Boston’s West End, Nimoy could relate.

Much like Spock, he was often caught between two worlds.

“Live long and prosper,” was drawn from Nimoy’s early recollections from attending synagogue in Boston.

Focus Israel

Actor, director, author, poet, singer, songwriter and photographer, Nimoy truly was a Renaissance man. He also managed to bring his Judaism to the fore in both his personal and professional life and brought a Jewish ruach (spirit) to many of his roles. Mr. Spock’s iconic hand gesture, accompanied by the greeting “Live long and prosper,” was drawn from Nimoy’s early recollections from attending synagogue in Boston.

Nimoy recalled that on the High Holy Days the Kohanim (priests) would bless the congregation with hands raised and fingers splayed in such a manner as to form the Hebrew letter shin, the first letter in the Hebrew word Shaddai, which means almighty. As he recounted in his

This stained glass window with Jewish hand gesture adopted by Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan hand salute adorns the entry to Congregation Beth Israel’s Schnitzer Family Center.

memoir I Am Spock, “The special moment when the Kohanim blessed the assembly moved me deeply, for it possessed a great sense of magic and theatricality. I had heard that this indwelling Spirit of God was too powerful, too beautiful, too awesome for any mortal to look upon and survive, so I obediently covered my face with my hands. But of course, I had to peek.”

Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Portland and a dyed-in-the-wool Trekker, explains why he identified with the stoic first officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise from an early age. “The character of Spock was the ultimate outsider. It’s the story of the Jew, how he tried to navigate between two worlds. In portraying Mr. Spock, Nimoy drew on his Jewish experience of being an outsider. Growing up as a Jew in Houston in the 1960s, I too felt like an outsider. Knowing Nimoy was Jewish and incorporated Jewish symbols into Spock’s character helped me think I could navigate two worlds as well.”

Focusing on Tamar for Today

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By Polina Olsen

“Tamar at the Crossroads” features a woman disguised as a prostitute who seduces her father-in-law. Can this biblical tale of ancient intrigue speak to women today?

Through art, song, drama and discussion, this year’s Women’s Day of Jewish Learning hopes to help everyone learn more.

Held Sunday, April 26, 2015 from 10 am to 1:30 pm at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, the event includes bagels and shmears along with an array of experts from Portland’s creative community.

Many find the story of Tamar among the Bible’s most fascinating. It centers on the ancient practice of levirate marriage, in which a childless widow marries her dead husband’s brother in order to perpetuate the name of the deceased and assure her own place in the family. When Tamar’s husband dies, she marries his younger brother, who, in turn, also dies.

When Tamar’s father-in-law, Judah, blocks a marriage to his third son, she disguises herself as a prostitute and seduces Judah.

Tamar triumphs. Judah eventually acknowledges his paternity when she becomes pregnant. She gives birth to twins, one of whom is King David’s ancestor.

What was Tamar’s motivation? Was she virtuous by insisting on continuing the line? Why didn’t Judah recognize his daughter-in-law through her disguise? Do many of us remain unseen by those who know us best? “ ‘Tamar at the Crossroads’ is not cut and dry,” says Alicia Jo Rabins, the event’s keynote speaker. A poet, composer, performer and Torah scholar, Alicia’s manuscript, Divinity School, won the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize and will be published by Copper Canyon Press in September 2015. She also tours internationally with her band, Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk group that sings about the lives of biblical women.

“This story is dramatic, Shakespearean and shows reversal of

fortune,” Alicia says. “A widow is a classic biblical example of a powerless person in patriarchal society. Like life, the story is complicated. Tamar changes her destiny by using what she has at her disposal. I hope people at the Women’s Day of Jewish Learning leave feeling supported and bolstered in their own challenges. And I hope Tamar feels a little like a friend by the end of the day.”

After Alicia’s keynote address, breakout sessions will include dramatization with the Jewish Theatre Collaborative, art with an ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists representative, a writing workshop with Portland Jewish Academy teacher Harriet Wingard and a text session with Eve Levy, the director of women’s programs at Kollel. The day wraps up with a performance of Alicia’s music.

Tamar Wyte-Lake is part of the Women’s Day of Jewish Learning Committee. “We start planning the summer before, bringing together everyone to figure out the theme,” she says.

“Tamar is an interesting story that isn’t often discussed. We learn about women, the powers they have, the challenges facing the glass ceiling. It brings up issues about sexism and power that we deal with today. There is something for everyone – young and old, religious and non-affiliated.”

Register for the Women’s Day of Jewish Learning by visiting oregonjcc.org/womensday or calling 503-244-0111. Tickets, which include a light lunch, are $18 per person, or $10 with a student ID. Learn more about Alicia Jo Rabins at aliciajo.com or by reading “There’s a New Girl in Town,” Oregon Jewish Life, April 2013 (ojlife.com/2013/apr/features/theres-new-girltown).

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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 57

PORTLAND POET HEARS VOICES OF ISRAEL

By Deborah Moon

VOICESISRAEL.COM Voices was founded in August 1971: • to provide an outlet for writers of English poetry in Israel • to encourage new poets in their art • to promote international friendships through poetry

58 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

As a judge of the Voices Israel poetry competition, Portland poet and artist Willa Schneberg listened to the diverse voices of some 300 poets and also shared her own voice with the members of a group dedicated to English poetry in Israel.

Willa says through both the poems and homestays, she learned that “the diversity of how people experience being Jewish in Israel is unbelievable.”

One morning she awoke in the Jerusalem home of an Orthodox family, where she relished the opportunity as a secular spiritual person to “enter their life” and experience a kosher home in which they pray three times a day. That night she was hosted by a very secular Tel Aviv woman who took her out to dinner at a non-kosher restaurant on the Mediterranean. She spent another day in the mystical city of Tsfat, where she was able to “get a sense of the rhythm of their lives” as a “renewal oriented and mystically oriented people.” In Tsfat she also was able to visit a potter with whom she studied while living in Israel in 1987-88, when she was a social worker interacting with children from troubled homes and with profoundly retarded adults.

This event marked Willa’s second opportunity to judge Voices Israel. The first time was 2004-5, when she was the only judge; this year she was the international judge along with two Israeli judges. She says all the winning poems have what Robert Frost described as “a fresh look and a fresh listen.”

The winning poems, which range from lyrical and mystical to the simple contentment of a Golan cowboy, will be published in the Voices Israel annual anthology. (See Willa’s descriptions of the three winners and 10 honorable mentions next page).

A clinical social worker in private practice, Willa is the winner of an Oregon Book Award and the author of five books of poetry. She says that the highlight of the trip was the opportunity to read from and talk about her latest collection, Rending the Garment, at a book party one of the Voices members hosted.

“Rending the Garment is about one Jewish family – mine,” explains Willa. “In Israel, I was able to use Yiddish terms that people knew. People deeply entered my work and understood what it was like for my family of first-generation Americans with Yiddish as their first language. People responded more profoundly (than at U.S. readings).”

While in Israel, Willa also presented two workshops: one focused on writing poetry inspired by the news and the other on writing the persona poem. She presented both workshops in Jerusalem and Tsfat so Voices members from different parts of the country could participate. Writing from the news was especially topical, since many of the entries in this year’s contest were reflections on last summer’s war in Gaza.

WILLA SCHNEBERG’S REMARKS: REUBEN ROSE AWARDS CEREMONY, TEL AVIV, JAN. 21, 2015 “Valpariso and Neruda,” the poem by Elizabeth Claverie, awarded first prize is deeply lyric and musical, a picture painted in words. It reveals the resonance of the simile. Hear Elizabeth’s fine craft in this fragment: faded and beaten, on a slant like old poets whose berets sit solid and secure, the words shared between them shore them against the buffeting wind.

Bill Freedman’s poem “What’s Played” is the second-prize winner. Starting with the title we enter a tour de force as the word “played” is displayed in all its myriad meanings and connotations. Lines spill onto the next with popular culture references. This list poem pulls out all the stops.

The third-prize winner is Gretti Izak. Her poem “on the bend of a rainbow” is a haunting lyric of great intensity. The reader is propelled into a mystical journey of grief, rage and redemption, which embraces the beloved and the divine.

Honorable Mentions: David Silverman’s “Midnight Cowboy” brings us into a Golan cowboy’s reality.

Through vivid imagery and specificity of detail, we experience the contentment this cowboy manifests.

Celia Merlin’s poem “Ozimandius Revisited” is an inspired re-entering of Shelley’s sonnet “Ozimandius.” It speaks of a fragmented, colossal sculpture of a “shattered visage” of a once prideful, ancient king, now sunk in the sand, all other remnants of his vast kingdom gone. Through evocative language, musical repetition and humor, the poet speaks for the everyman, who wishes for immortality. She concludes with the following lines: “like the flight of a leaf/ I am gone.”

will is unbowed” and from other perspectives encompassing the factual to the devastated.

“Once upon a time” by Rochelle Mass vividly tells the tale of gifts given by two grandmothers. Through carefully chosen details and specificity of language, we know these Old World women. The poem’s speaker, who loves them and their traditions, also knows herself, and says she will not “twist a live chicken over my head.”

Johnmichael Simon’s “Books I Never Opened” is a wistful narrative evoking time passing, passage from one life to another in a new country, a relationship unraveling and two books that contain ungranted wishes.

“Desperados,” the lyric poem by Judith R. Robinson, embraces promise and loss, the seasons of love and “downpours,” and how when life is lush we don’t want to see the signs of drought.

Next is Jane Seitel’s “Supplication & Elegy: Joseph Bones.” The lyric language soars in this poem of lamentation and prayer and reveals the promise of transcendence contained within the bones of Joseph.

Richard Shavei-Tzion’s poem “Hula Valley” is a sweeping homage to the majesty and primeval quality of the miracle which is the Hula Valley.

Shlomo Sher’s “Hoodie” takes on the difficult subject of the refugee, in this case an Eritrean who fled a despotic regime. The poet elegantly utilizes root and tree imagery to raise complex questions of who belongs and how to treat those who may not appear to be productive members of society living among us.

“Sparks of Light” by Yehudit Goldfarb is luminous and numinous and describes the literal and figurative – sparks of light that we glimpse for moments when we enter the realm of the sacred.

“Infinites” by Meier Weksler is a wrenching descent into a fatal condition and a journey of letting go, told from the point of view of the defiant speaker “whose

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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 59

CELEBRATE ISRAEL’S BIRTHDAY APRIL 22; COMMEMORATE THE FALLEN APRIL 21

Dancing has figured prominently in past Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.

Photos by One Click Studio The community is invited to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day 5:308:30 pm, Wednesday, April 22, at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.

The free event features activities and games for all ages art, music and Israeli dancing. A delicious Israeli buffet will be available for $5 per plate from 5:30 to 7 pm.

While the buffet is open kids of all ages can explore a host of activities in the gym. The gym will be full of art and activities, including a bounce house, climbing Masada, face painting, photobooth, henna tattoos, and more.

Meanwhile adults are invited to explore an Israeli Market with some of the best products Israel has to offer. And Café Israeli will offer coffee, wine and beer.

From 7 to 8:30 pm, head for the ballroom for a rocking Israeli Dance Party with DJ Max Barenberg, Israeli dancers, light show and much more.

The evening before Yom Ha’atzmaut is the more somber Yom Hazikaron to honor those who have given their lives for the State of Israel. The commemoration will also be held at the MJCC beginning at 8 pm, April 21.

For more information on either program, contact MJCC Special Events Program Manager Laurie Fendel at 503-535-3617 or LFendel@OregonJCC.org.

FROM STARTUP NATION TO BRAIN NATION: ISRAEL’S BRAINTECH REWARDS RESEARCHERS BrainTech 2015, a global conference to explore ways in which brain technology will change the human landscape, was held in Tel Aviv March 11-12.

The conference was organized by Israel’s brain initiative, Israel Brain Technologies, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance Israel’s neurotechnology industry by accelerating neuro-innovation and fostering international collaboration.

President Shimon Peres, whose vision of turning Israel into a worldwide braintech hub – from “Startup Nation” to “Brain Nation” – inspired the creation of Israel Brain Technologies, laid out his vision for the future of brain technology during a “fireside chat” at the conference. “We have in Israel right now over a hundred companies that are dealing with the brain, we have brain faculties in every university,” said President Peres. “This is only the beginning. We are a startup in the brain.”

60 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

Two major neuroscience prizes were awarded during the BrainTech 2015 Conference. The prizes acknowledge the work of neuroscientists and mathematicians whose research advance our understanding of the human brain as well as solutions, treatments and cures for various brain-related ailments.

Dr. Ami Citri of Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences received the $100,000 Adelis Brain Research Award for outstanding work in the field of experiencedependent plasticity and its impact on diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders. The Citri lab develops unique multi-disciplinary approaches to studying the encoding of experiences in the brain and has developed a system to study the basis of selective attention, which was recognized by the Adelis Award. A main focus in the lab is to understand how the

experience of drugs of abuse are encoded in the brain and lead to addiction.

The $100,000 Mathematical Neuroscience Prize was awarded to Prof.

Nancy Kopell of Boston University for her work in mathematical analysis of the nervous system functions, and to Prof. Bard Ermentrout from the University of Pittsburgh for his classic work in mathematical biology.

Each received a $100,000 prize.

“Brain-related illness such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, brain trauma and others know no borders, and neither can their cures,” said IBL Chair Dr. Rafi Gidron. “By the same token, creativity, invention, innovation and imagination also know no borders and therefore, initiatives seeking the next big thing in brain technology should by definition be global endeavors.”

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FACES

WILLY WONKA EVENT – Neveh Shalom celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the Foundation School with a Willy Wonka themed Fundraising Spectacular. Pictured are Rabbi Daniel and Carol Isaak, and event chairs Dana and Jeremy Sacks. The crowd bid on silent and live auction items and enjoyed a hilarious show by the Improv All-Stars.

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MAAYAN GOES TO CAPITOL – Students from Maayan Torah Day School pose by the Seal of the State of Oregon in the Capitol Rotunda in Salem during a field trip March 10 to learn about state government. The students met with Sen. Elizabeth Steiner-Hayward, D-Portland, and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, sat in on a Senate session, took an official tour of the Capitol building, and were given a special tour of the Oregon Supreme Court building by Rick Haselton, chief judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Elisheva Spivak, seated, center, takes up the gavel in the Oregon Supreme Court courtroom, as Haselton, standing at right, looks on. The stop was part of a March 10 day-long tour of the Capitol and state government for Maayan Torah Day School students. Photos

by Sura Rubenstein

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FRIENDS BRUNCH – Mittleman Jewish Community Center Presidents Barry Benson and Bob Philip, right, flank Ethan Zohn, the guest speaker at the MJCC’s Friends of the Center Brunch Feb. 22. Ethan also visited with Gayle Schnitzer Romain and her daughter, Laura Rosencrantz, founder of Inpower Cancer Exercise Program. Ethan, winner of Survivor: Africa, spoke about his Jewish upbringing, his journey of winning Survivor: Africa and his true test of surviving cancer twice. He also talked about character, leadership, resiliency, service and how his challenges have become the source of his strength. MJCC inducted Steve and Jeff Rudolph into the Oregon Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and honored two students: Benjamin Barna and Johanna Cogen with the Harry Glickman Scholar Athlete Award. An edited version of Ethan Zohn’s speech is available at oregonjcc.org/brunch.

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D IS RELIGION GOOD? Rabbi Manis Friedman engaged the standing-room only crowd of 50 people who turned out for his talk, “Is religion good for the world?” The Feb. 18 talk was organized by Rabbi Menachem Rivkin, director of The Chabad Jewish Center of Hillsboro, where the talk was held.

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JEWGENE PURIM – On March 5 the Vet’s Club in Eugene transformed into a lavish masquerade mansion, and was a night full of mystique, joy and ornate Purim festivity. The party was the inaugural large-scale event hosted by JewGene, the newly formed 20s-30s group in Eugene. More than 50 graduate students and young professionals attended. Jewgene collected dozens of cans of food donated to Food for Lane County. For information on future JewGene events visit jewgene.org or email becca@oregonhillel.org.

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NY HAVDALLAH – Chabad Northeast Portland teens joined 1,300 Jewish teens from around the world during the Cteen International Shabbaton in New York City Feb. 27. From left are Navene Binder, Sam Salyuk, Rabbi Chaim Wilhelm and Noah Wendrow during the Havdallah in Times Square.

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SATURDAY MARCH 4 OPAL 28…

Benefit for Vestal School Playworks Program, enhancing childrens success by nurturing playing. Left to right: PTA members Amanda Reed, Kate Sage, Kerri Starns Weatherby, Laura Spidell, Principal Emily Glasgow, Opal Owner Margot Feves, Playworks Coach Molly Cunningham and PTA member Christine Spix.

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RECONSTRUCTIONIST PRESIDENTS – Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of the Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, visits with TBI President Nathan Philips. Rabbi Waxman visited Temple Beth Israel in Eugene as part of a Northwest tour.

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ISRAEL GAY YOUTH IN PORTLAND – Mandy Michaeli, co-director of Israel Gay Youth, and Zachary Cohen, development director of IGY address a group at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland offices. They were in Portland to attend a conference at the start of a U.S. speaking tour, which took them afterward to San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC. Last year the JFGP’s Overseas Special Projects Committee gave IGY a grant to support their project for educational outreach work to more peripheral sectors of Israeli society where gay rights and gay issues are not as developed.

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EMANUEL BEN-DAVID TELLS ISRAEL STORY

EUROPEAN BORDERLANDS MUSIC REVIVED

The vibrant folk music of the European Borderlands will be revived in a one-night performance at the Alberta Rose Theater on April 30 at 8 pm. “On an Overgrown Path: Dreamscapes, Dances and Love Stories of the European Borderlands” is a multimedia performance starring the Lyrical Strings Duo, the Agnieszka Laska Dancers and Chervona Bambino, Bambino.

The passionate, soulful Jewish, Gypsy and other European musical traditions knew no boundaries in the constantly changing European Borderlands. The program is inspired by Leos Janacek’s work of the same title, which draws from the folklore of his native Moravia. The evening begins with Andrei Temkin’s Chervona Bambino, Bambino trio, a Portland multi-ethnic ensemble that combines the influences and passions of klezmer, Gypsy, Russian, Ukrainian and Balkan musical traditions. Singer and guitarist Andrei Temkin, founder of Chervona, will be joined by Viorel Russo of the Oregon Symphony on viola and Jeff Holt of the Wanderlust Orchestra on upright bass.

The Lyrical Strings Duo, featuring classical guitarist Stephen Osserman and virtuoso violinist Lucia Conrad, Concertmaster of the Willamette Falls Symphony, will perform works of Janacek and his romantic-era predecessors and bring to life the vibrant folk and gypsy-inspired works. International multimedia performance artist and choreographer Agnieszka Laska has created dance pieces to accompany Lyrical Strings’ original arrangements.

The performance will be at the Alberta Rose Theater, 3000 NE Alberta St., Portland. Tickets are $25 general admission; $12 for youth, seniors or low-income.

LyricalStringsDuo.com | 503-719-6055

GESHER HOSTS TARGETED SEDERS

The Passover story is our people’s most important story. We live this story each year at this time, remembering the wisdom and empathy for justice that comes from being a stranger in a strange land. Passover teaches us that when times are hard, that they have gotten (and will get) better. For 25 years, Gesher’s rabbis have opened their home and welcomed singles and couples without children for Shabbat and holiday meals to foster connections and build positive Jewish memories.

This year Gesher has three seders: A community seder for all ages at 5:30 pm, April 3; a seder for families with young children at 5 pm, April 4; and a singles and couples seder at 5:30 pm, April 10.

Gesher will celebrate the theatrical journey of Passover in the context of a year encumbered with painful memories: Ferguson, New York, Gaza, ISIS, Paris… We will feast in the dramatic encampment inside the Red Sea, and we will talk about our journey out of Egypt – but we will also take aim at what it means to celebrate miracles of resilience and transformation in the 21st century. To paraphrase an adage of David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, if you are Jewish and you don’t believe in miracles, you aren’t a realist.

The Singles and Couples Seder, will be on the last night of Passover, at 6:30 pm, April 10, at Gesher – A Bridge Home. The evening will include artistic expression – including opportunities for guests to dramatize parts of the Passover journey – as well as questions and discussion. Join Gesher’s rabbis, Rabbi Laurie Rutenberg and Rabbi Gary Schoenberg for a sumptuous, home-made Kosher-for-Passover feast, featuring “Shikker Rebbe” wine made and bottled by Rabbi Gary. Suggested donation for all seders is: adults, $36; children 4-12, $15; teens and students, $22. RSVP necessary: 503-246-5070, ourjewishhome.org or gesher@comcast.net

64 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

On three Sunday afternoons – 2-3 pm, April 5 and 12 and May 3 – Emanuel BenDavid will examine the characteristics of the “typical” Israeli, and by extension the country at large. Through a broad review of the recent history (last 100 years or so) of the Jews in Israel and elsewhere, he will discuss the driving forces and origins of who Israelis are and how they came to be that way. The story will also be tightly connected to Emanuel and his family’s personal experience. Once the foundation is established, he will present some of Israel’s economic and technological successes.

Rabbi David Zaslow says, “Emanuel Ben-David is an inspiring teacher. He not only knows what he’s talking about, but he delivers his talks with grace and humor!”

Ben-David was born in Haifa, Israel, almost 60 years ago. He is a graduate in mechanical engineering at the prestigious Technion University in Haifa. He served his mandatory military service as a naval officer. He was involved in defense and technology more than 40 years. Emanuel lived in Israel until May 2014, retired recently from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and lives in Ashland with his American-Israeli wife.

Havurah Shir Hadash is located at 185 N. Mountain Ave. in Ashland. Free. 541-4887716 | havurahshirhadash.org

REVISIT BOOKS WE GREW UP WITH APRIL 23

Laugh, cry and cringe over memories of raging hormones and awkward adolescences when we revisit the fiction that defined young adulthood for so many of us, including classics by Jewish authors Judy Blume, Norma Klein, Francine Pascal and Paula Danziger as well as the beloved “All-of-a-Kind Family” series with two special guests.

Lizzie Skurnick is the editor-in-chief of Lizzie Skurnick Books, which reissues classic young adult fiction for the new era. She’s the author of Shelf Discovery, a memoir about teen reading, and That Should Be a Word, a collection of wordplay from her The New York Times magazine column.

Joanna Miller is a writer, producer and the cofounder of “Blumesday,” an annual, live tribute to Judy Blume that has been featured in publications around the country.

This free event, “The Awkward Page: A Rowdy Evening Devoted to the Books That Helped Us Grow Up,” will be 7-9 pm, April 23, at Mittleman Jewish Community Center, 6651 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland. 503-244-0126

MORE PASSOVER SEDERS April 3 Hillsboro Community Passover Seder Experience. 7:30 pm at 111 NE Porto Way, Hillsboro. The Four Cups from the finest wines and grape juice; delicious Pesach meal; handmade Shmura matzah; and Haggadah translated. Adult $36, child (3-13) $25. Register: chabadhillsboro@gmail.com or 503-747-5363

April 4 Kol Ami Community Seder. 6 pm at Congregation Kol Ami, 7800 NE 119th St., Vancouver, WA. Nonmember adults $45.50. For more information: admin@ jewishvancouverusa.org. To register: http://bit.ly/1DCluHq Beit Haverim seder. Check in 5:30, seder begins 6 pm at Celebrate Conference Center, 15555 Bangy Road #100, Lake Oswego. Cost: Nonmember: adult (13+) $45, child (6-12) $20; member: adult $35, child $15; child 5 and under free.

RSVP: https://bhsmjc.ejoinme.org/?tabid=670097 Havurah Shalom community seder. 6 pm, 825 NW 18th Ave., Portland. $30/ adult; $20/child 6-12; free for children 5 and under. RSVP at https://hav. ejoinme.org/?tabid=350016

April 4 Shaarie Torah presents Let My People Go! A handson family experience (for families with children ages 2-8). Experience the Exodus as you touch, smell, taste, hear, read and dance. 5-7 pm, 920 NW 25th Ave., Portland. $18 per family. RSVP: shaarietorah. org, 503-226-6131 or info@shaarietorah.org Shaarie Torah presents a second night seder. Rabbi Joshua Rose will lead a journey of the Exodus through food, story and prayer. Recommended for ages 9 and older. Sign in 6:30, seder begins 7:15 pm, 920 NW 25th Ave., Portland. Cost TBA. RSVP: shaarietorah.org, 503-226-6131 or info@ shaarietorah.org Ashland’s Havurah Synagogue 30th annual Passover seder. 5:30 pm at Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N Mountain Ave. in Ashland. Rabbi David Zaslow will lead the music-filled, thoughtprovoking evening. The ritual dinner is catered by Karen Caird of Creative Celebrations. Adult $40, children 13 and under $22. RSVP required: 541488-7716 or havurahshirhadash.org

April 10 Last night community seder in Astoria. 6 pm in the Fellowship Hall of the Peace Lutheran Church at Exchange and 12th in Astoria. The lower Columbia region is forming a congregation, Beit Salmon, and is fundraising to bring Hebrew Union College rabbinic student Abram Goodstein for the summer. Seder is $20 per adult; children free. RSVP required: Call Allie Evans at 503-869-6743

April 11 Jewish Community of Central Oregon Passover Seder. Doors open at 3:30 pm, seder begins at 4 pm sharp at Congregation Shalom Bayit, 21555 Modoc Lane, Bend. Dinner provided by Tate and Tate Catering (salad, kosher chicken, vegetables, soup, gefilte fish, dessert and coffee) Adults: $28 (13 and older), Child: $12 (5-12 yrs.), Maximum family: $80. RSVP: Alice Huskey at ahuskey46@gmail.com or 541-815-4912 Women’s Passover Potluck Seder in Ashland. Rabbi Sue Morningstar, Devorah Zaslow and Cyrise Beatty Schachter lead the annual women’s seder at 5:30 pm at Ashland’s Havurah Synagogue. Special guests the Rev. Norma Nakai Burton and Prema Mayi. Celebrate liberation, springtime, rebirth and the power of joining forces as women to create a Sukkat Shalom, a canopy of peace, in the world.

Adults, $22, full-time students and women under 18, $12. Pre-register: 541-488-7716

OREGON JEWISH LIFE | APRIL 2015 65

CALENDAR Through April 11 The Ministry of Special Cases. ThursdaysSaturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2 pm at Miracle Theatre, 525 Se Stark St. $30 General Admission, $20 Students. For tickets and more information jewishtheatrecollaborative.org or 503-512-0582

Through April 14 Anne Frank: A History for Today exhibit at OJMCHE. OJMCHE also offers a public exhibit tour on Sundays at 1 pm and a public talk by a member of our Holocaust Speakers’ Bureau at 2:30 pm (no speaker April 5). On April 12, Phil Mandel (on behalf of Alter Wiener) and author Trudy Ludwig will read from her children’s book Gifts From the Enemy based on Wiener’s story.

April 1 See “Singing In The Rain” on MJCC’s big screen 2:30 pm. Free.

April 3-11 Passover begins at sunset April 3. See seders pages 64-65

April 9 Sundae Cycles: Passover. Morgan St Theater celebrates the Jewish holiday of Passover with a dessert flight drawing inspiration from this foodfocused holiday. Doors open at 8 pm, dessert from 8:30-10 pm. $30 includes tea or coffee. info@morgansttheater.com

April 12 Jewish Community Orchestra with music of Mendelsohn, Magnard and Berlioz. 3 pm at MJCC. $10 adults, $8 seniors, $5 students, children under 6 free. Tickets at the door. 503-244-0111

April 15 Yom Hashoah: Portland’s Jewish community will come together to hear personal stories from survivors, reflect on the meaning of remembrance for the next generation, and commemorate the 6 million with music and prayer. 7 pm at Congregation Beth Israel. Info: 503-226-6131, rabbirose@shaarietorah.org

April 16 Free talk by Greil Marcus, renowned rock critic and author of the essay that inspired new musical “Soul Harmony.” Noon in the Brunish Theater. See page 18

April 16-May 3 “Soul Harmony: The Story of Deborah Chestler, Sonny Till and the Orioles.” See page 18

April 17 OJCYF is accepting grant applications. Deadline to apply is April 17. Call Tara Siegman 503-248-9328 or ojcf.org/youth-foundation 66 APRIL 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE

April 18

April 25

Chair Affair. See page 28

Israeli Band, Infected Mushroom peforms at 7 pm at The Crystal Ballroom1332 W. Burnside, Portland, OR 97209, 503-225-004718 and over $20 - $30 advance. Presented By: USC Events. crystal@ mcmenamins.com

B’nai B’rith Camp Bash. Wiskey & chocolate tasting 5:30 pm at the Exchange Ballroom, Portland. showard@bbcamp.org or 503-345-9464

April 19 Let’s Celebrate Spring. Spring Open House 1-4 pm at Rose Schnitzer Manor. Music, refreshments and tours. RSVP by April 12: 503-535-4004 or RoseSchnitzerManor.org J-Serve International Day of Jewish Youth Service.

Jewish youth grades 6-12 can fulfill the Jewish values of tzedakah and tikkun olam. jewishportland. org/jserve

April 20 Learn about the Southwest Corridor Plan and key issues in South Portland, Hillsdale and corridorwide and where high capacity tunnel alignments are being considered in the corridor. Attend a public meeting and learn more about the project. 6 pm at Multnomah Arts Center. Other public meetings: swcorridorplan.org.

Maestro Yaacov Bergman leads an innovative presentation of All American music at Lewis & Clark College featuring rock violinist and composer Aaron Meyer and selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story. 7:30 pm at Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lewis & Clark College, Portland. Repeats 3 pm, April 26.

503-771-3250 portlandchamberorchestra.org Women’s Day of Jewish Learning: Tamar at the Crossroads MJCC, speaker: Alicia Jo Rabins poet,composer, performer, Torah scholar.

See page 27

April 28 A Woman’s Series: Women and Image Looking Good at Any Age Jen Robinson owner of Switch talks about creating you own style. 7-8:30 pm. $12 (MJCC member discount $8) register: oregonjcc.org/ registration. Sponsored by MJCC & JFGP

April 21

April 28-May 24

Yom Hazikaron Remembrance Commemoration. 8 pm at the MJCC. Coordinator Oshra Rapaport says this year’s event is dedicated to the soldiers that fell during the war of last summer. Free. 503-244-0111

4000 Miles. See page 16

Poetry writing class with Rabbi David Zaslow. Sevensession class continues April 28, May 5, 12, 19, 26, June 2, 7-8:30 pm at Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N Mountain Ave., Ashland. Rabbi Zaslow is the recipient of the 1988 American Book Award for educational materials. $20 per session before April 7 and $22 thereafter. Preregister: 541-488-7716 havurahshirhadash.org Verses from a Cataclysm: New Translations of Boris Slutsky, Jewish Soviet Soldier Poet. Bilingual reading and discussion by Marat Grinberg and Judith Pulman. 7 pm at OJMCHE. Cosponsored by Congregation Shir Tikvah. OJMCHE members: Free.

Judith.pulman@gmail.com

April 29 Aliyah kindergarten and new family visit. Parents and children are invited to check out our learning program at Neveh Shalom. 4:30-5:30 pm. Free.

RSVP: mberwin@nevehshalom.org A Portrait of George Gershwin. George Fendel, jazz historian and radio DJ, will tell the tales and play the tunes of Gershwin. 2:30 pm at the MJCC. Free.

503-244-0111

April 30 Flying into the Future: A Celebration of Teen Philanthropy, annual benefit dinner for OJCYF. 5:308:30 pm at MJCC. $54 per adult/$36 per youth (OJCYF members, alumni, students). ojcf.org

May 2-3

April 22

Storytelling festival. See page 19

Yom Ha’atzmaut. See page 60

May 3

April 23

A Magical Evening of Wonder and Delight. 5 pm at Congregation Kol Ami, 7800 NE 119th St., Vancouver, WA. Magic, raffles, silent auction and buffet dinner. $60 until April 15, then $75. RSVP or info: ckolami.ejoinme.org/magic

Institute for Judaic Studies annual meeting. 6 pm in Birnbach Hall at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

Includes The Roscoe C. Nelson Jr. Memorial lecture by Reed College Professor Dana Katz on “Venetian Ghettoscapes.” Light supper. $25. info@ portlandjudaicstudies.org

April 24 PDX Live! JR. 5:30 pm at Congregation Neveh Shalom. Kabbalat Shabbat service for young families with children 0-8 followed by Shabbat dinner. $20 per family. RSVP: tinyurl.com/pdxlivejr2 The North Coast Shabbat Group holds its monthly services March-October. Avrel Nudelman leads April services at 8 pm at the Bob Chisholm Senior Center, 1225 Ave. A in Seaside. Bev Eastern, 503244-7060

ADDING EVENTS: To obtain a password to enter event on our online calendar, go to the bottom right of our home page and under “Quick Links,” click on Calendar Access Request.

OJMCHE is the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education at 1953 NW Kearney, Portland. 503-226-3600, ojmche.org MJCC is the Mittleman Jewish Community Center at 6651 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland. 503-244-0111, oregonjcc.org

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JOB INFORMATION 8174818/ 603249935

PROJ. NO.:

TRIM SIZE:

SPECIFICATIONS 7.375" × 9.938"

NOTES