NOVEMBER 2015
THE JEWISH LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR OREGON & SW WASHINGTON
CHARITABLE GIVING There's More Than One Way to Give
SENIORS
Elders Connect Through Travel, Learning, Fun
William Shatner Beams up to Portland’s Benefit for the Future
Guidance on your terms. Not someone else's.
From investing to retirement planning, you’ll get uncomplicated explanations from the investment professionals at your local Schwab branch. And the opportunity to take charge of your financial future. Stop by your local Schwab branch or visit Schwab.com.
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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 3
Inside
Features COVER STORY
October 2015/ Cheshvan-Kislev 5776 | Volume 4/Issue 8
12
14
JKids
William Shatner Beams Up to Portland….…………………………………………………14 Benefit for the future……………….……………………………………………………………16
UPFRONT Fetch pet foot at the Filling Station………………..………………………………………….8
BUSINESS Ins & Outs………………………………………….……………………………………………….10 Entrepreneurs renovate historic hotel………..…………………………………………….12
FOOD Chef’s Corner: Charity comes in many forms…...………………………………………..26 NW Nosh: Pastry chef coming to town …….…...………………………………………….28
IN THE NEWS Roseburg victim: Professor Larry Levine ..…………………………………………………48
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Time for Spilt Milk and comedy……………..………………………………………………..49 Jewish book celebration expands ……………………………………………………………51 Read a good book for Jewish Book Month……..………………………………………….52
ISRAEL Mourning Moti Kirshenbaum………………………………………………………………….56
Charitable Giving
20-25
Get creative with real estate gifts……………………………………………………………20 Coming soon: Women’s Giving Circle……………………………………………………….23 Portland joins global celebration…….……………………………………………………...24 Charitable Giving Advertiser Directory……………………………………………………..25
30-35
Teens say, “Next year in Jerusalem”…………..…………………………………………………31 Preschoolers get into yoga…..…………………………………………………………………….34
Seniors 36-47 Seniors & Students: Better together…………………………………………………………….36 Intergenerational Bend……………….…………………………………………………………….38 What can we learn from our seniors?…….……………………………………………………..39 Yes you can travel……………………….……………………………………………………………40 Reasons for hope in memory war…………………………………………………………………42 Everything Young at Heart …………………….…………………………………………………..44 Eugene care providers explore Jewish traditions..…………………………………………..46 Seniors Advertiser Directory……………………………………………………………………….47
JLiving Hillel grows in Corvallis.................………………………………………………………………58 Building an ark…………………….………………………………………………………………….60 FACES from recent events …….…………………………………………………………………...62 Previews of things to come …….…………………………………………………………………65 Calendar …….……………………….………………………………………………………………..66
Columns
26 Chef’s Corner by Lisa Glickman 28 NW Nosh by Kerry Politzer 55 Ask Helen 56 An Oregonian in Israel by Mylan Tanzer
COVER PHOTO: William Shatner. Photo by Rory Lewis
4 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
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Publishers Robert Philip and Cindy Saltzman Advertising and Editorial Director Cindy Saltzman Editor-In-Chief Deborah Moon Art Director Philip Nerat Copy Editor Susan Moon Social Media Editor Debra Rich Gettleman Webmaster Karl Knelson Columnists Lisa Glickman, Kerry Politzer, Helen Rosenau and Mylan Tanzer Contributing Writers Julie Diamnond, Lee Braymen-Cleary, Debbie Rose Libeskind, Joseph Lieberman, Liz Rabiner Lippoff and Polina Olsen How to reach us: Editorial: 503-892-7402 Advertising: 503-892-7403 Subscriptions: 503-892-7403 Publisher: Publisher@ojlife.com
Oregon Jewish Life 6680 SW Capitol Hwy. Portland, Oregon 97219 www.ojlife.com 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 constituteendorsement of products or services.
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 5
Jewish Federation of Greater Portland invites you to boldly go where no community has gone before . . . featuring
WILLIAMTSHATNER !
U O D L O S A BENEFIT T S O M AL
FOR
the Future
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
AT
7:00PM
Mittleman Jewish Community Center - 6651 SW Capitol Hwy RSVP today! www.jewishportland.org/shatner or 503.892.7413
$75 includes heavy hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, dancing, desserts, Shatner and more! Join us for this festive affair where you will have the opportunity to make your 2016 Annual Campaign gift.
®
THE STRENGTH OF A PEOPLE. THE POWER OF COMMUNITY.
6680 SW Capitol Highway | Portland, OR 97219 503.245.6219 | www.jewishportland.org
JewishPDX
6 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
We are an aging nation. The fastest-growing segment of our population is those 85 and older. Age is the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss in general. In fact, some memory loss is considered a normal part of aging.
Two research centers in Portland are engaged in clinical studies designed to help seniors at risk of Alzheimer’s slow the emergence of symptoms. Researchers from both centers also recommend lifestyle changes that can keep minds supple. Stay active, stay engaged. Research has shown that seniors who stay active both physically and socially keep their brains in shape as well as their bodies.
Our Senior section this month offers examples of people doing just that – along with ideas for how to stay active and engaged. Even if time has stolen some of your physical prowess, it doesn’t mean you have to stop. An octogenarian living at Rose Schnitzer Manor enjoys traveling the world so much that he has organized a trip to Israel next year for people who, like himself, have limited mobility. Two programs are bringing together seniors and youth for the benefit of both. Better Together is a two-year program that pairs seniors at Cedar Sinai Park with middle schoolers from Portland Jewish Academy to learn and grow together. Chabad in central Oregon is taking youth to a Bend retirement community about once a month to interact with seniors there. A research project based in Portland is seeking the wisdom of seniors. And for those who remain young at heart, a community-wide senior calendar offers ideas to keep folks engaged.
Our cover subject, William Shatner, is another stellar example of staying active and engaged. Acting is only part of his busy life, which also includes singing, riding motorcycles, and riding and showing horses. This month he returns to his Jewish roots when he shares tales of his career and his philanthropy during the Benefit for the Future. Philanthropy is the focus of our other special section this month. In our Charitable Giving section, we share tips for creative giving. Did you know that gifts of real estate can provide a donor with a current tax deduction, bypass of capital gains and even income?
The values of tzedakah and tikkun olam have driven us to improve and repair our community and world. Those values continue to drive us to find new ways to help. Check out the giving circle and global Giving Day that are coming to Portland. All in all, the future looks bright – both for our older years and for our future generations.
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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 7
Filling Station owner Laura Amiton gives Preston Sleeger’s yellow Labs, Sam and Moose, a biscuit and a pat.
Fetch your pet food on the fly
Story and photos by Deborah Moon
At The Filling Station, conveniently located a block off Hwy. 217, a cheerful attendant will fill your car and wash your windshield, the latter a nod to the bygone era of service that is evident elsewhere in this new business. Despite the name, customers come here not when their gas tank is empty, but when they need to restock supplies for their dogs, cats and other small pets. The Filling Station Pet Supplies offers a new twist on shopping for pet food – a pickup window so you don’t have to get out of your car. Whether people go through the drive-through or explore the 1,800 square feet of retail space, owner Laura Amiton aims to supply quality, service and convenience. “I know quality food and supplies from my other store,” says Laura, who also owns the Healthy Pets Northwest store on Alberta Street, one of four in Portland. “I’m replicating the products I sell at Healthy Pets Northwest.” The minimum requirements for the quality food she sells are no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, no by-products and
no corn, wheat or soy. “That was a new concept when Healthy Pets opened,” she says. “Now it’s mainstream. Big companies are now making that. Now I focus on smaller companies who make their own food.” Laura is hoping her innovation of a pickup window receives as good a reception as the high-quality pet food did. She got the idea one day when a woman pulled up in front of her Alberta Street store and dashed in saying her baby was sleeping and she needed to grab some dog food. “I said, ‘Go back out to your car and I’ll bring it,’ ” says Laura. “I thought, we are a chore for so many people. How can I make it easier?” So Laura hired Debbie Carter, a business coach she met at a business networking group. Debbie said the idea resonated with her, and she believed it would fill a need. So she had Laura do surveys and interviews with customers. Then Laura wrote and rewrote a business plan. With that in hand, she applied for financing from five financial institutions and received five offers. It
The Filling Station Pet Supplies
10115 SW Nimbus Ave., Suite 100 • Tigard, OR 97223 • 503-352-4269 • hello@tfspets.com • tfspets.com 8 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
took her several months to find a space with a drive-up window in a suitable location – “I wanted to be close to where people shop, live and work,” says Laura. Renovating the former credit union from office space into a retail setting that caters to both pets and their owners took another six months. The bright space features high display counters with carpet pads and durable toys to entertain dogs while their people explore the 3,500 products in stock. In addition to pet food, Laura stocks beds, collars, leashes, litter, toys, supplements, ID tags, grooming supplies … all the needs for cats, dogs or small pets such as hamsters. A tasting wall features an assortment of cat and dog food with a form to record the pet’s reaction. Employees record that information along with past purchases and other preferences to create a custom profile for each customer. For now, people who want to use the drive-through can call ahead if they know what they need. By the end of November, the store’s website will feature an online shopping cart so the order will be loaded on a cart ready to load into a customer’s car when they arrive. In addition to loading the food and supplies, Laura also offers dog biscuits to any canine passengers (with the owners’ permission of course) and washes the car windows. She can run a credit card at the car and either email or print a receipt. Laura says she knew early in life that she wanted to work on behalf of animals. She grew up attending services and Sunday
School at Congregation Beth Israel, where her parents were married. She worked at a veterinary hospital for eight years and was a pre-vet student at Oregon State University before “I changed my mind.” She went to work for the Oregon Humane Society and helped launch its first local adoption outreach at PetSmart. Taking dogs and cats out of the shelter into a public area results in high adoption rates, she explains. But with student loans to repay, she says she couldn’t afford to continue to work at the humane society. When her friend Julie Cantonwine, who created Healthy Pets Northwest, asked her if she would like to open another location of the popular store, Laura jumped at the chance. “She said most of her customers were travelling across town,” says Laura, noting that at the time Julie’s store was one of the few sources of natural pet food in town and people were willing to drive to Southeast Portland to get it. “I got very lucky with a solid base of Healthy Pets Northwest customers, who came from her store.” Laura opened the Healthy Pets store on Northeast Alberta Street in December 2004. A third Healthy Pets is located in Multnomah Village. There are now two stores in Southeast Portland.
The minimum requirements for the quality food she sells are no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, no by-products and no corn, wheat or soy.
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 9
Pointing the Way: The Art of the Torah Pointer
Surviving Remnants
Florence Saltzman: Painter + Printmaker
28 EBRUAr 15R,Y1-3p m MBERn:1Su5nd-ayF, No NOVEg Re be m ve ceptio Openin
1953 NW Kearney St., Portland, OR 97209 | 503-226-3600 | www.ojmche.org Tue-Thu 10:30am-4pm | Fri 10:30am-3pm | Sat-Sun noon-4pm
SONIA MARIE LEIKAM JOINS OJCF’S TEAM
Sonia Marie Leikam has joined the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation as its new collaborative giving coordinator. Leikam is an educator who most recently served as executive director of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center. A graduate of Lewis & Clark College (BA) and Portland State University (M.Ed), she also holds a certificate in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Georgetown University. A licensed teacher, she loves working directly with teens as well as giving educators the tools they need to have meaningful conversations. As the grandchild of a partisan in the French resistance, and a first generation American, she spent her youth traveling between the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern France. Bilingual and multicultural, her passion is building strong and diverse relationships across communities. This past year, Sonia Marie was a 2014 Carl Wilkens Fellow with a focus on raising awareness about genocide and human rights violations. She enthusiastically looks forward to this new opportunity to use her talents to take OJCYF to the next level and to launch the new J-Give PDX young adults giving circle. soniamariel@ojcf.org | ojcf.org
LORRAINE ROSE JOINS (W)HERE REAL ESTATE
Lorraine Rose has joined (w)here Real Estate as a principal broker. Lorraine was born in London, where she worked as assistant to the military attaché at the Israeli Embassy. She is the wife of Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Emeritus Emanuel Rose and mother of Congregation Shaarie Torah Rabbi Joshua Rose. After raising her four children, Lorraine became a Realtor, and is now a well-established principal broker. With her move to (w)here Real Estate, she will continue to share her expertise with her clients in her adopted city – Portland, the City of Roses. (W)here Real Estate’s primary focus is to provide clients exceptional customer service, creative marketing and knowledge of the city. Whether you need the name of a trusted lender or the best place to find great cup of coffee in your new neighborhood, (w)here brokers provide the ultimate buying and selling experience. As part of its focus on being part of the community, every broker at (w)here donates a portion of each sale to the (w)here charitable fund. 503-703-8666 | lorrainerosepdx@gmail.com | where-inc.com
RANDALL LAKEFISH APPOINTED GCC DISTRICT MANAGER
Global Club Card Services International has named Randall Lakefish the district manager of Greater Portland. GCC is a new public benefit corporation that offers members preferred pricing and VIP offerings at participating merchants and donates a large portion of membership dues to nonprofit organizations. Public benefit corporations represent a new wave of social entrepreneurship, a spirit ingrained in Randall whose family has been a part of the Portland Jewish community for more than a century. GCC is enrolling Portland-area businesses to join a national roster of merchant partners that include Macy’s, PetSmart, Best Buy and Walmart. Enrollment is free and GCC promotes its merchant partners on its website and social media. GCC merchant partner categories include restaurants, retail, entertainment, fitness, doctors and lawyers. GCC members realize increased purchasing power. Merchant partners benefit from free promotion and new business, and local nonprofit organizations receive contributions from people who might not otherwise donate. Ultimately, communities benefit from money made available by GCC and empowers consumers who support nonprofits, says Randall. rlakefish@globalclubcard.org | 503-432-8366 10 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 11
Although experienced in construction, Gabe Genauer says the Society Hotel was his most challenging project. Photo by Polina Olsen
Portland welcomes the Society Hotel By Polina Olsen
The Mariner’s Building at NW Third Avenue and Davis Street originally provided a rooming house for seamen and respite from the booze, gambling and other vices in Portland’s notorious downtown district. Built in 1881, by 1938 messages written on the walls included “The Frisco Kid stopped here ... headed South.” During the 1960s and ’70s, it became a dancehall and meeting place for the local Chinese community. Vacant and increasingly derelict from 1975 to 2015, the once lovely old building had one of the city’s few remaining cast-iron façades. Now Portlanders can welcome the Society Hotel, an entrepreneurial project that transformed a neglected Portland treasure into a state-of-the-art boutique accommodation. With the grand opening slated for Nov. 5, the combination hostel/hotel promises perfection for adventurous travelers of all ages with private rooms, bunk rooms, a rooftop garden, café, concierge service and uniquely crafted personal itineraries. “I was chatting with my brother-in-law about a new take on hostels in Chicago,” says general contractor Matt Siegel, one of
the four partners behind the new hotel. “We hatched this idea for Portland, a new vision for hospitality.” Matt met heating and cooling specialist Jonathan Cohen and his wife, Jessie Burke, during birthing classes at a midwife’s house some years before. Jon had a business relationship with Gabe Genauer, the founder of Groundswell Development. The four quickly formed a partnership, purchased property and got the project under way. This was in 2013. “We had certain parameters,” says Matt. “We wanted a building in the heart of Portland. The other key component was the development of community. By creating the right environment, we create a space for people to gather.” The partner’s sense of community includes strong ties to Jewish Portland. Matt, who arrived from Maryland 15 years ago, sends his children to camp at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Jonathan and Jessie’s children attend Hebrew school at Congregation Beth Israel, while Gabe studies Torah with Rabbi Chaim Wilhelm each week. Northeast Portland Chabad started its Hebrew school in Gabe’s basement. Although all the partners were experienced in the building
The Society Hotel: 203 NW Third Ave., Portland | 503-445-0444 | thesocietyhotel.com 12 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
trade, the Society Hotel project caught them off guard. “There’s a mind-blowing amount of structural work building a new building inside the old one,” says Gabe. “By leaps and bounds it’s the most challenging project I’ve taken on. More than a million pounds of concrete were added. Seismic upgrades were the most difficult. It took thousands of metal seismic hardware connections. Sometimes it was tenuous, like while we were reinforcing the foundation. This can bring on stress. We dealt with it cleanly and professionally. We have a common background, and our personal relationships are strong. It’s a nice unspoken camara-
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Partners Jessie Burke, Jonathan Cohen, Matt Siegel and Gabe Genauer on the Society Hotel rooftop garden. Photo by Polina Olsen
derie. We’ve celebrated Shabbat dinners together and will have many more.” The Society Hotel has 38 private rooms and a 24-bed bunk room. Private rooms with shared bath start at $75 per night, and suites with private facilities begin at about $135. Bunk room beds start at $35 per night and include a curtain for privacy, reading light, electric outlet and locker. The rooftop garden has a large seating area and gorgeous views over Old Town. The café features delectables from Posies Bakery (posiescafe.com) on North Denver Avenue, which partner Jessie Burke owns and operates. “Our front desk is a big concierge service,” Jon says. “Each attendant will be a trained Portland expert. We have a card catalog of favorite things to do in Portland categorized by genre, like natural experience, culinary and fun places around town.” After guests choose their cards, the concierge amalgamates them and prints out a custom itinerary, all of it accessible by public transportation or bicycle. And, every guest at the Society Hotel will see history wherever they turn, including the graceful original staircase, dark wainscoting and seven-foot high windows. Clothes, stoves, old newspapers, even roller skates excavated during the reconstruction are displayed. “A window was boarded up, and when we pulled back the boards, out fell a 1914 New York newspaper written in Ladino,” Gabe says. “The Oregon Jewish Museum used it for their exhibit on the Sephardic community. We’re framing it.”
Mitzvah Menorah Adopt-a-Family
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To volunteer, donate, or learn more, contact Carrie Kaufman at 503-226-7079, ext. 118 or ckaufman@jfcs-portland.org
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
Polina Olsen is a Portland freelance writer and author of several books on local history including Portland in the 1960s: Stories from the Counterculture. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 13
Cover
14 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
William Shatner boldly draws on past to benefit future Portland federation gets “Star Trek” star to offer first Jewish address in decades By Deborah Moon
He’s boldly explored a multitude of strange new worlds and civilizations, but the last time William Shatner formally appeared before a Jewish gathering was perhaps when he became a bar mitzvah in Montreal 71 years ago. So when Shatner appears at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Benefit for the Future Nov. 14, guests won’t be the only ones having a novel experience. While he speaks, sings and performs before countless audiences around the globe every year, this will be the first time he has spoken to a Jewish audience as a celebrity. “For several years early in my career, I didn’t speak too much about being Jewish,” said Shatner in a phone interview. “But Leonard (Nimoy, z’l) did.” While he didn’t speak publically about his Judaism during the 1966 to 1969 run of “Star Trek,” Shatner says he did talk to his fellow Jew on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. “It was amusing to us that two Jewish guys were prowling around the very ‘clean’ – non-ethnic spaceship,” says Shatner. “All ethnicities would have been ironed out and no one belonged to any specific group in (Gene) Roddenberry’s imagination. … Of course it didn’t make sense that the Russian was speaking with a Russian accent.” Shatner says Roddenberry’s desire “to show all parties in the world had long since become one” led to what was reportedly the first interracial kiss on a scripted TV show. On the Nov. 22, 1968, episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Capt. James T. Kirk kissed Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nicols). Since the 1970s Nicols has used her celebrity from the show as an ambassador for NASA to help recruit minority and female astronauts. Shatner, too, has parlayed his celebrity into raising awareness and funds for issues close to his heart. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 15
One of the advantages of being a captain is being able -WILLIAM SHATNER
Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Gala co-chairs Kathy Davis-Weiner and Michael Weiner are looking forward to meeting the real William Shatner at the Nov. 14 “Benefit for the Future.” The gala committee wanted someone with broad appeal as their special guest for this annual campaign event. “William Shatner appeals to every generation,” says Michael, noting all generations recognize Capt. Kirk, but younger generations also identify with him as the iconic Priceline.com “Negotiator” and his role as Denny Crane on “Boston Legal.” A Scotch bar will serve up the amber liquid to help recreate some of the atmosphere of Denny sitting on the patio with a cigar and glass of Scotch. “We want this to feel like a party and for people to be able to connect with him and have a dialogue,” says Kathy.
Benefit for the Future Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s 2016 Annual Campaign Gala
FEATURING: Celebrity guest William Shatner, complimentary cocktails, heavy hors d'oeuvres, dancing, desserts, live music by Pressure Point
WHEN: 7 pm, Saturday, Nov. 14
WHERE: Mittleman Jewish Community Center, 6651 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland
WHY: Since 1920 the JFGP has been at the heart of our community – uniting us, meeting critical needs and saving lives around the world. This bold community enterprise relies upon your support.
COST: $75 per person; $36 discounted tickets for guests age 35 and under OR first-time-ever Federation event attendees Cocktail attire is encouraged. Kosher dietary laws observed. Free valet parking
TICKETS: jewishportland.org/shatner 16 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it. A longtime owner and breeder of Quarter Horses and American Saddlebreds, nearly three decades ago he decided to rescue a California horse show that was due to be cancelled. Perhaps seeing the long life a cancelled TV show can enjoy (“Star Trek” celebrates its 50th anniversary next year) inspired him to seek out new life for the horse show. “I thought, ‘how difficult can it be to run a horse show and find a charity to benefit?’ ” Shatner says. “About the same time I saw a thalidomide child on a horse. She didn’t have arms; she held the reins in her toes. I decided to benefit that charity.” “I’ve been able to use the celebrity I’ve acquired to get sponsors to give money to many charities to benefit children,” he says. Over the decades, Shatner says the show has raised several million dollars for therapeutic riding programs for children with disabilities. Research shows children with physical, mental and emotional disabilities benefit from horseback riding, showing gains in areas as diverse as balance, muscle tone, hand-
eye coordination, self-esteem and communication. His wife, Elizabeth, who was a horse trainer and horse show judge before the two married, has launched her own charity, the All Glory Project, which brings those same benefits to veterans suffering from physical, mental or emotional wounds. In 2006-07 Shatner launched an effort to help therapeutic riding programs in Israel expand those therapeutic and other benefits to children throughout the region in a riding program through the Jewish National Fund. “I had ambitions of taking children from Jordan, Egypt, even Gaza, and busing them to riding centers that would take young children who hadn’t yet been inculcated into hate, and they would see the commonality of all humanity,” says Shatner. Shatner and his wife visited some of the 30 or so therapeutic riding centers in Israel, and a friend pledged $1 million to launch Shatner’s vision. But after the real estate crash the next year, that donation never materialized. Shatner says that while he was able to help raise some funds for the Israeli centers, his vision never came to
For several years early in my career, I didn’t speak too much about being Jewish. But Leonard (Nimoy, z’l) did.
Barry Greenberg, Jack Black, and William Shatner
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 17
fruition. “We got some money to the riding centers, but it never came off the way I hoped it would,” he says. Still, he did gain one lasting touchstone from the experience. He told Lifestyle Magazine after the visit, “I learned these words when I was in Israel: ‘sussim osim nissim’ – horses make miracles.” So he and Elizabeth continue to make miracles for U.S. children and veterans with disabilities by supporting therapeutic riding centers here at home. The couple owns many Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses and both have won many championships on Saddlebreds; they also compete, sometimes against each other, in reining horse events. His love for horses began as a teen in Montreal. In 1985, when he was again starring in a TV show, this time as detective T.J. Hooker, Shatner told the LA Times that his love for horses stretched back to his childhood: "I first got to
an episode of Star Trek, “It brought back all kinds of memories. “Leonard and I have almost similar backgrounds in terms of being Jewish,” says Shatner. “We talked about it.” When he directed the 1988 motion picture “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” Shatner says he had hoped to reflect the search for God in the film. But he says he discovered that the word God is an anathema to Hollywood, where they fear people will “feel slighted if it is not their God.” “One way or another, everyone is searching for God, whether God is money, philosophy, family or the variety of ways humans search for something beyond themselves,” he says. “I’d hoped to reflect that search in the film.” From directing that film, he does have an interesting story, which he says, “I may tell at the meeting (in Portland).” Of his upcoming appearance in Portland, he says, “A gentleman I know asked me to do it. I haven’t spoken really in front of
William and Elizabeth Shatner enjoy two of their horses. Elizabeth holds cards to judge horse shows for four breeds or disciplines. Before the couple married she held eight judging cards and trained horses professionally.
know horses when I was about 15, in a cheap, shabby, muddy stable near my home in Montreal. My parents became aware of my newfound love because of the way I smelled. I'd ride my bike to the stable three or four times a week, sandwiching these trips between football and acting.” His acting career also began in Canada. Roles on a radio drama of children’s fairy tales helped pay his college tuition at McGill University. Shatner says he has fond memories of his acting experiences at the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival. “I went on as an understudy for ‘Henry V,’ ” he says. “Nobody had learned the lines and I had. I went on with no rehearsal and did quite well. It was quite a triumph.” Shatner’s childhood in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighborhood of Montreal was steeped in Jewish tradition. He attended a Conservative synagogue and frequented Moishe’s Deli, which was down the street from his father’s clothing factory on St. Lawrence Street. His parents, Joseph and Anna (Garmaise) Shatner, were the children of Jewish immigrants from Austria, Poland, Hungary and the Ukraine. “Montreal in those years had some sentiment of anti-Semitism,” says Shatner. So years later, when Shatner and Nimoy dressed as Nazis in 18 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
the Jewish people. I thought it’s close by, so it’s convenient and it sounded good.” The gentleman who asked was Barry Greenberg, who worked with Shatner for many years on fan conventions such as Comic Con and has been a personal friend for about 15 years. When Greenberg lived in Los Angeles, he says he was one of a handful of people Shatner would invite over to watch football when he was home. Then Greenberg and his then-wife decided to move to Portland to raise their triplets. Now 5½ years old, the triplets attended The Gan Preschool for three years. In fact Greenberg persuaded Shatner to let him include a clip in a fundraising video for The Gan. In the video, Shatner makes fun of Elliott Gould’s mispronunciation of Oregon. “The Gan is an absolutely lovely preschool and my triplets loved it,” says Greenberg. Greenberg believes that many people experience a growing yiddishkeit as they age. He says he occasionally finds himself joking in a heavily accented old-man voice, and he’s seen his friend also express that. “I love the slightly yiddishkeit part of Bill,” says Greenberg. “Bill is such a lovely and approachable example of what a good Jewish guy can be. “Bill has been intensely in the public spotlight since 1966,”
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Adult Education & Programs
William Shatner as Capt. Kirk. Photo from Wikimedia Commons
adds Greenberg. “We are very fortunate to have him up here in Oregon.” Noting that at 63, he can’t keep up with his friend, who is two decades older and a few pounds heavier, Greenberg says, “The guy gets up on horses; he used to fly paragliders and airplanes. He rides motorcycles, he directs and he loves his singing engagements. It’s an insane amount of activity.” In addition to “Star Trek” and “T.J. Hooker,” Shatner also starred in seven Star Trek motion pictures, hosted the reality-based series “Rescue 911,” and starred as attorney Denny Crane in “The Practice” and its spinoff series “Boston Legal.” He also has a one-man show, “Shatner’s World,” which following a Broadway run is now a periodic traveling show. He also engages in plenty of horseplay as longtime spokesman for the online travel site Priceline.com. But while he may share some fun stories of his life as an actor, director, singer and philanthropist, Shatner says people who hear him at the Portland gala shouldn’t expect a message. “I don’t have messages,” he quips. “Guys who have messages send them by telegram – actually nowadays they Tweet them.” While Shatner may not tweet messages, his stories, both on and off screen, are rich in meaning.
Youth Education
Shabbat programs for all ages! Holiday & Communal Celebrations
Congregation Shaarie Torah
Save the ! e t a D Chanukkah Shabbat Dinner Celebration Friday, December 11, 6:30 p.m. Find out more about these and other events at:
shaarietorah.org, 503.226.6131 OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 19
Charitable
Get Creative! Charitable Gifts of Real Estate By Julie Diamond
When we think of year-end charitable giving, we usually think of giving cash and publicly traded stock. These make fantastic gifts for charitable purposes, but let’s get creative for a moment and think about other kinds of gifts, like real estate. Gifts of real estate can have a big impact; following are a couple of recent examples. Last August the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation sold two parcels of real estate that yielded more than $900,000 in charitable resources for our community. The donors who made these generous gifts of real estate now have the privilege of advising on the distribution of these funds for our community’s needs through their OJCF donor-advised funds. The foundation recently made a grant of $5 million, the largest grant in the history of OJCF, from the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Family Fund of OJCF for the benefit of the Cedar Sinai Park capital campaign. These funds were just part of the proceeds from the sale of the Park Tower building gifted to OJCF by Arlene Schnitzer and Jordan Schnitzer in 2013. This was the lead gift in the Cedar Sinai Park capital campaign, and the new building will be named the Harold Schnitzer Health
and Rehabilitation Care Center. Were these transactions fast and easy? No. Were they effective and creative charitable giving strategies? Yes. Charitable gifts of real estate can provide a donor with a current tax deduction, bypass of capital gains and, in some cases, income as well. These are potentially dramatic financial advantages along with the rewards of heartfelt charitable giving – in our tradition of tikkun olam (repairing the world). Following is a high-level overview of what you should consider regarding creative gifts of real estate.
What to Give
Commercial real estate, a second home, a condominium or land can all be used as charitable gifts. You can also make a gift of your own home and still receive a charitable tax deduction and remain in your home for life. This is known as a life estate reserved.
Appraisals and Valuation
In making a gift of real estate (of a value greater than $5,000), the donor is responsible for determining the value of the real
The Columbia Land Trust purchased this land along the Tualatin River from OJCF for preservation and restoration of the natural habitat. “It’s a wonderful outcome, and the work of two nonprofits together,” says OJCF Executive Director Julie Diamond.
20 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
estate by obtaining an independent qualified appraisal. This appraisal should consider all aspects of the property including title, market conditions and comparable sales. The appraisal must be made not earlier than 60 days before the date of the contribution, and before the filing of the tax return on which the deduction is first claimed. The donor must attach IRS Form 8283 to his or her tax return for the year in which the deduction for the gift is claimed.
Tax Deductions
Generally, the donor may obtain a charitable tax deduction for the full value of the real property. The AGI (adjusted gross income) limitation is usually limited to 30% of the donor’s adjusted gross income. The donor should avoid gifting mortgaged property because there can be negative income tax consequences including reduced or complete loss of deduction in certain cases. Always consult your accountant or financial advisor for guidance.
Gift Acceptance Policies
Every well-run nonprofit should have a gift acceptance policy. A professional real estate acceptance policy will outline for the donor all aspects for consideration of the gift in advance, such as required environmental studies, title review, zoning and more. As the donor, you’ll want to understand what expenses, if any, you may be responsible for as part of the gift and also after the acceptance of the gift has been completed. You should review the gift acceptance policy with a professional from the nonprofit early in your discussions about a gift of real estate. OJCF serves our community of donors and partner organizations in providing this expertise. Other large foundations and charitable financial institutions also have resources for the acceptance and sale of charitable gifts of real estate.
Many Charitable Options
Gifts of real estate can be used to establish income-producing entities such as a charitable remainder trust. The gift can be used to open a new donor-advised fund, a private family foundation or a supporting organization. Each of these has specific structures and all are subject to distinct IRS regulations. You can also make a legacy gift (bequest) of real estate and indicate in your will what you intend for the future use of the funds. You might use such a gift to honor a parent, create a permanent endowment for your synagogue, establish scholarships for Jewish overnight camping, support travel to Israel or whatever purpose you care about most deeply. You can also arrange to involve your children in the future distributions of the funds, if you choose. The right charitable gift of real estate can be extraordinary and transformational – for you, your family and your Jewish and general nonprofit community. Julie Diamond is the executive director of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation. OJCF is dedicated to creating, promoting and facilitating a culture of giving and serves as the guardian of permanent funds available to safeguard the quality of Jewish communal life in Oregon and SW Washington. The foundation is the legacy and endowment partner for 28 Jewish community organizations and the proud sponsor of the Life & Legacy program. OJCF does not provide tax or legal information. Always consult your professional advisors regarding your charitable giving. For more information, visit ojcf.org.
Israel’s terror victims come through Hadassah’s hospital doors every day. •American Richard L. was stabbed in the heart in a terrorist bus attack and remains in critical condition. • Odel B. had deep wounds in her neck when she arrived at the hospital, after her husband was stabbed to death in Jerusalem’s Old City. Her toddler son also had knife wounds. He is in serious condition after complicated surgery. The most difficult cases are rushed to Hadassah’s hospitals, world-renowned for trauma and a team of surgeons that don’t give up. They fight to save lives and stop the bleeding.
Help us#stopthebleeding To donate: 800.928.0685
hadassah.org/stopthebleeding
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. Hadassah is a registered trademark of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 21
22 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Women’s giving circle coming soon
The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland will launch a women’s giving circle as part of the national Amplifier Jewish Giving Circle Incubator program. Federation development professional Joanne Van Ness Menashe and 36 other community leaders across North America will soon launch giving circles in their own communities. Locally, Charlene Zidell has teamed up with Joanne to begin planning for a Women’s Jewish Giving Circle here in Portland. In early October they attended a powerful half day program focusing on women’s giving and creating impact with money sponsored by the Oregon Community Foundation. Joanne has been accepted into a national fundraising cohort Amplifier’s Jewish Giving Circle Incubator program, funded by the Natan Fund in New York. Joanne attended a national training session Oct. 18-19. In a giving circle members pool their charitable contributions and decide together where the pooled funds should go. Giving circles are becoming increasingly popular among younger and other previously underrepresented donors (e.g. women, racial and ethnic minorities). Giving circles are an ideal mechanism for people who want to engage with their philanthropy in a hands-on way, especially within a peer community. “Our plan is to start out with a teaching component on Intergenerational Philanthropy with a focus on growing Jewish philanthropists; with specific learning experiences for the younger members,” says Joanne. “The context will be giving
98,000 SQUARE MILES OF
Joanne Van Ness Menashe and Charlene Zidell, right, at an Oregon Community Foundation program on women’s giving.
through Jewish values with relevant lessons and discussions on the Jewish tradition/values of helping others and ‘giving to repair the world.’ We will also have examples and stories from our older generations about how their philanthropy has made a difference for Jewish causes.” For its first year, the women’s giving circle is expecting to focus on health and wellness. A possible theme is “Your Jewish Genes" with four weeks of education and teaching Jewish philanthropy and four weeks for teaching relevant health issues, reviewing current research, making site visits, etc. “We are constantly striving for new ways to excite and engage donors; this hands-on style, I believe, will appeal to our younger generations while giving our older donors an opportunity to share, teach and mentor,” says Joanne. Women of all ages interested in participating in the giving circle should contact Joanne at 503-892-3015 or joanne@ jewishportland.org or visit jewishportland.org/wp.
YES.
You fund The Trust. We, in turn, fund the artists, potters, rappers, acrobats and dreamers who make Oregon, Oregon. Learn how you can DOUBLE the impact of your favorite cultural donation for FREE at CulturalTrust.org
DONATE + DONATE = FUEL $ TO AN ORG $ TO THE TRUST OREGON AND GET THE CULTURE SAME $ BACK OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 23
Charitable
Portland joins global celebration of generosity
Volunteers will make phone calls and pack food on Giving Tuesday.
WHY DO WE GIVE?
“Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.” ~ Maimonides
GivingTuesday comes to Portland as the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland hosts a phone-a-thon and a volunteer activity on Dec. 1. We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. Now, we have #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. On Tuesday, Dec. 1, charities, families, businesses, community centers and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give. In Portland the #GivingTuesday Phone-a-thon will begin at 6 pm at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, 6680 SW Capitol Hwy. It will be an evening of philanthropy, gratitude and tzedakah. Volunteer “callers” will come together to help bring in the 2016 Annual Campaign. This phone-a-thon replaces Super Sunday, when federation volunteers have traditionally called past and potential donors. Volunteers will be part of #OregoniansGive, a statewide effort to raise $4,000,000 and part of the national #GivingTuesday network that is raising tens of millions of dollars worldwide. Volunteers can take a more hands-on approach by participating in a food sorting and packing project at the Oregon # Oregon Food Bank. Volunteers ages 6 and older are invited to sign up for this evening activity. Volunteers will work from 6 to 8:30 pm in the Perishable RePack Room of Oregon Food Bank West, 1870 NW 173rd Ave., Beaverton. To volunteer for these two GivingTuesday events go to: jewishportland.org/GivingTuesdayCallers or jewishportland. org/GivingTuesdayVolunteers (to help at the food bank).
“I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.” ~ Malala Yousafzai
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” ~ Winston Churchill
“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” ~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.
“The environment, after all, is where we all meet, “Deeds of giving are the very foundations of the world.” where we all have a mutual interest. It is one thing that ~ Mishna, Pirkei Avot 1:2 all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.” “If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act ~ Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States (1963–69) of abstinence is from injury to animals.” ~ Albert Einstein
24 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
CHARITABLE GIVING DIRECTORY HADASSAH, PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION Portland: 503-312-2530 Vancouver: 360-566-8188 pnwregion@hadassah.org hadassah.org/pnw Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is a volunteer organization that inspires a passion for and commitment to its partnership with the land and people of Israel. It enhances the health of people worldwide through its support of medical care and research at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. Hadassah empowers its members and supporters, as well as youth in Israel and America through opportunities for personal growth, education, advocacy and Jewish continuity.
JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PORTLAND 6680 SW Capitol Hwy. Portland, OR 97219 503-245-6219 jewishportland.org Since 1920, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has been your means of connecting with your community, discovering new ways to do good and giving back to those who came before you. By raising funds that support a
broad network of organizations and through innovative programming and initiatives, we are able to meet the ongoing needs of people at home, in Israel and around the world for today and for future generations.
OREGON CULTURAL TRUST 775 Summer St. NE, Ste. 200 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-0089 CulturalTrust.org 98,000 square miles of YES. Oregonians fund The Trust. We, in turn, fund the artists, potters, rappers, acrobats and dreamers who make Oregon, Oregon. Every year we disperse funds via our 1,400 cultural nonprofits, our 19 specially formed area coalitions and our five main partners. Learn how you can DOUBLE the impact of your favorite cultural donation for FREE at CulturalTrust.org.
OREGON JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION 1618 SW First Ave., Ste. 210 Portland, OR 97201 503-248-9328 ojcf.org OJCF is dedicated to creating, promoting and facilitating a culture of giving while serving as guardian of permanent
funds, safeguarding regional Jewish communal life. OJCF promotes strategic philanthropy offering charitable individuals philanthropic tools including donor advised funds, charitable gift annuities, planned gifts and trusts. In partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, OJCF directs the Life & Legacy initiative in Oregon to promote after-lifetime giving to build endowments for Jewish organizations and help assure Jewish tomorrows.
OREGON ZOO FOUNDATION 4001 SW Canyon Road Portland, OR 97221 503-220-5770 oregonzoo.org The zoo has been a treasured part of our community for more than 125 years. Over 1.5 million visitors connect with animals. Over 200,000 children and families participate in zoo education programs. Through the generosity of sponsors, donors and nearly 40,000 member households, the Oregon Zoo Foundation advances the zoo’s mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Since 1997, the foundation has contributed over $58 million to support the zoo.
This directory includes the charitable giving organizations advertisering in this issue of Oregon Jewish Life.
»We Believe
With your support, we can inspire future conservation leaders. Join the Oregon Zoo Foundation and make a promise to the generations after us:
oregonzoo.org/support-education OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 25
Food
CORNER It has been just over a year since my family and I moved back to Portland after being gone for nearly 12 years. Moving back to the area felt as comfortable and familiar as slipping into a favorite pair of jeans. This segue in our adventure-filled life was much easier than our past moves to cities unknown. Here, I already know my way around, we had already located a great neighborhood, and having family and friends close by has been a blessing for all of us. This last year meant we finally spent holidays with the ones we love instead of long distance via Skype or Facebook. We were able to pick up with our longtime friends just where we left off. All of us are a bit older, and most of our kids are all grown up. Many of us have been through marriages, divorces, births and deaths in the past decade. During happy or troubling times, it is reassuring to know that close friends and family are now not far away. Although our hometown has changed a bit since we left (don’t get me started about the traffic!), some things, miraculously, remain just the same. We have reconnected with the synagogue we left 12 years ago. This year during High Holidays our family sat in the exact same seat as always on the right side of the shul against the wall. The enchanting sound of the cantor’s voice, the timeless and exquisite stained glass surrounding the interior of the temple, and the rich beautiful sound of the organ continue to be just as magnificent as the first time I experienced them. It’s good to be home. This year I was called to join a group of very hard-working folks who generously united to coordinate the annual fundraiser for Congregation Beth Israel. As the committees were formed, as one might guess, I was asked to join the food committee. “Traditions” was the theme for this year’s fundraiser, and our group decided there is no greater tradition than a table full of delicious and familiar food that brings to mind family gatherings where the food is relaxed and approachable just like a trip to Nana’s house. Chopped liver, potato knish and a succulent braised brisket of beef were offered along with a buttery challah at every table and a crispy light Pavlova with berries for dessert. It was a magical evening made possible by a large group of people coming together for the good of the congregation. While these events rely on the generosity of donors, none of it is possible without the folks willing to give their time and talent to make them happen. Donating my time to help coordinate this event allowed me to make some great new friends, and reconnect with some old
CHARITY COMES IN MANY FORMS INCLUDING TASTY COMFORT FOOD By Lisa Glickman
Crispy Eggplant with Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Ricotta and Pesto
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. 26 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Bite-Sized Potato Knish
ones, too. Michelle Tonkin led the way as chair, coordinating everything from sponsorships to decorations. Her beautiful spirit, patience and flair made the event a monumental success. I would personally like to thank all the many skilled people who came together to benefit the membership of Congregation Beth Israel with the openhandedness of their time. Charity comes in many forms. While fundraising is important, the giving of a kind word, a thoughtful gesture or a sympathetic ear doesn’t cost a thing.
Crispy Eggplant with Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Ricotta and Pesto
This appetizer was served during cocktails at our fundraiser. Sliced Japanese eggplant is the perfect size to pop into your mouth while still balancing a drink in the other hand. Crispy panko breading, creamy ricotta cheese, oven-roasted sweet tomatoes and a small dollop of store-bought pesto come together for the perfect savory bite. 1 cup Japanese bread crumbs (panko) 2 medium Japanese eggplants, sliced into ½-inch rounds 12 small cherry tomatoes 2 eggs, lightly beaten ¼ cup olive oil ½ cup whole-milk ricotta ¼ cup store-bought pesto sauce Oven-dried tomatoes: Slice tomatoes in half vertically and place on a baking sheet sprayed lightly with nonstick spray. Sprinkle tomatoes with a bit of salt and a bit of sugar. Place in a 350º oven for 30-40 minutes until beginning to wrinkle and dry slightly. Remove from oven and set aside until ready to assemble appetizers. Place eggplant on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Sprinkle eggplant slices generously with kosher salt and allow to sit for 15-20 minutes. Eggplant will release water that will begin to bead on the surface. Place another paper towel on top of eggplant and gently blot water. Dip each eggplant slice in egg
and then into breadcrumbs. Heat olive oil to medium high in a large skillet. Fry eggplant slices until rich golden brown on both sides. Fry in batches, place on a baking sheet. Top each slice with a tomato half and a small spoonful of ricotta. The eggplant can be fried and then held at room temperature for up to two hours. When ready to serve, heat for 6-8 minutes in a 450 oven, then garnish with a dab of pesto and serve hot.
Bite-Sized Potato Knish
Bite-sized potato knish was a crowd favorite and represented our “Traditions” theme well. This is the perfect use for leftover mashed potatoes. Potatoes can be mixed with creative flavors such as caramelized onion, roasted garlic, smoked salmon or cheddar cheese. I mixed a little sweet potato into mine. The knish freeze beautifully and can be made in big batches, frozen in a single layer and then popped into zip-top bags. Place frozen knish straight from the freezer into the oven for a quick and delicious appetizer that can be ready in minutes. 1 sheet frozen puff pastry About 1½ cups mashed potatoes, your choice of flavorings 1 beaten egg Lightly flour a work surface and unfold pastry into thirds. Cut pastry along fold lines to create three pieces of pastry. Place one piece on work surface and set the other two to the side. Roll pastry to create a 4- by 10-inch rectangle. Place cold potatoes in fat rope shape along the long end of the pastry. Brush opposite end with egg. Gently roll up pastry over potatoes and press to seal. Use the back of your hand to “cut” log in half. Cut each half in half again, and then cut each piece in half again. Pinch ends of each knish together and brush with egg wash to close completely. Shape each knish into a round holding your left hand like an “OK” sign and gently pressing on the top and bottom with the other. Repeat with remaining pastry. Place on baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake in a 375º oven for 15-20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 27
NWNosh
Pastry Chef Paula Shoyer
Pastry chef’s culinary travels lead to Portland
By Kerry Politzer
Pastry chef Paula Shoyer originally intended to be a doctor or lawyer. “I always loved to bake my whole life,” she explains. “But it never crossed my mind that it would be a profession. No one said to go to culinary school. I went to college to be a doctor and ended up being a lawyer for six years. Then I lived in Europe, where I went and took a pastry course. The next thing I know, I have a catering business. It’s one of those stories where an opportunity presents itself.” These days, Paula juggles a busy schedule of baking, writing, public speaking and consulting. “I’m freelancing, making appearances for groups of 20-200, writing articles and doing consulting for food companies who want better kosher desserts. I really just love anything related to food,” she says. Paula’s culinary travels have taken her all over the world. Last year, she visited Israel to promote her third cookbook, The New 28 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Passover Menu. Sometimes she can be found in France, where she trained as a pastry chef and says, “I’ve written articles about kosher food and bakeries in Paris.” She has even traveled to Hong Kong to connect with the Jewish community. Soon Paula’s itinerary will bring her to Portland. On Dec. 2 at 7:30 pm, she will lead a special Hanukkah baking workshop for women in connection with the Portland Kollel women’s group Shine. When asked what she usually demonstrates at this type of event, she says, “I like to do a cake, a cookie, a pie or tart. I’ll do my open-faced galette tart, and for a cake I’ll do an almond and olive oil cake. I also try to make sure that the menu I choose touches on different levels of baking. I like to teach a lot of cooking and baking tips that people will be able to take home with them.” One of the challenges Paula most enjoys is optimizing the flavors and textures of dairy-free baked goods. She often uses a solid fat for cookies, while she is more likely to use vegetable or
canola oil in a cake. She finds inspiration in the many dairy-free ingredients at the market. “If I want to make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, I can make soy-based cream cheese. And there are so many wonderful milk substitutes … cashew, macadamia nut milk. Today it’s so much easier than it used to be.” Paula also likes to come up with recipes for gluten-free pastries. “A lot of people are doing gluten-free these days. I use ground almonds a lot as a substitute (for flour).” The chef isn’t afraid to experiment. “Sometimes I have to throw something in the garbage. But most of the time I’ll learn from it anyway.” For information on the Hanukkah baking event, contact Eve Levy at eve@portlandkollel.org or 720-315-4267. For tickets, visit eventbrite.com/e/the-kosher-baker-tickets-18802374408.
ALMOND AND OLIVE OIL CAKE
Serves 8 to 12 The use of olive oil in cakes dates back farther than the Hanukkah story itself. Olive oil was used in baked offerings at the Temple. This is a super easy teatime cake that reminds me of simple cakes I have eaten in Italy. If you are feeling decadent, serve this with whipped cream. ¾ cup (90g) sliced almonds (with or without skins) 1 cup (200g) sugar 3 large eggs ½ cup (120ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour ½ cup (60g) ground almonds 1½ teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon almond extract ½ teaspoon orange zest (from one orange) Spray oil containing flour Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Trace an 8-inch (20-cm) round pan on parchment paper and cut it out with scissors. Spray the oil and flour on the pan, press in the parchment circle; and spray the top of the parchment and sides of the pan. Sprinkle and spread the sliced almonds on the bottom of the pan to cover it. In a medium bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and olive oil for about one minute at medium speed until creamy. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt, almond extract and orange zest and beat until combined. Pour the mixture over the sliced nuts. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the sides. Turn the cake onto a wire rack and let it cool. Serve the cake almond side up. Store it covered at room temperature for up to four days or freeze for up to three months.
Kosher Baker Paula Shoyer in Portland
Baking demonstration: 7:30 pm, Dec. 2, at Bargreen Ellingson Test Kitchen, 3232 NW Industrial St. $36. VIP Package: 10 am-noon exclusive baking session with Paula Shoyer, autographed cookbook (includes 2 tickets to evening session). $180. eve@portlandkollel.org or 720-315-4267
BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND BRUNCH CATERING 503-227-NOSH (6674) www.bowerybagels.com
Indian & Middle Eastern Cuisine Hours: Tues – Thurs & Sun 5 - 9 Fri – Sat 5 - 10
ONLY WHOLE BAGELS ARE CERTIFIED KOSHER
503.231.0740 www.bombaycricketclubrestaurant.com 1925 SE Hawthorne Blvd • Portland, OR 97214 OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 29
Kids
& Teens too
A child-friendly resource for parents
Gabriola Island, BC Children Grades 2 – 11 Register online www.campmiriam.org
604.266.2825
camp.miriam@gmail.com
“Strong bonds of friendship, loving and accepting community, Jewish experience, connection to Israel.” – 2015 parent
“You learn in a fun way.”
– 13 year old camper
30 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
TJJ Advisor Simon Italiaander, left, stands at Masada near the Dead Sea with Oregonians (from left) Justin Bloom, Portland NCSY Director Doovie Jacoby, Ezra Bloom, Alden Davis, Kiara Miles, Isabel Dreyfus, Zoe Sirkin and Mai Texerman.
Portland teens urge peers to explore Israel Next year in Jerusalem
By Deborah Moon
Seven Portland teenagers had the time of their lives in Israel last summer. Now they are encouraging friends and classmates to sign up for next summer’s The Jerusalem Journey. Isabel (Izzy) Dreyfus says she promotes the trip “every chance I get. I'm already working on convincing one of my friends.” Mai Texerman is equally enthused: “I would encourage anyone to address me with any questions and try to find out more about this amazing trip.” Izzy, a junior at St. Mary’s Academy and a member of Havurah Shalom, learned about the trip when taking an SAT prep course through NCSY. “I applied because I knew that I wanted to deepen my involvement in the Jewish community, and ‘the best summer ever’ couldn't have sounded more fun! I was in for the adventure and the amazing opportunity.”
She says she was most surprised by “how small the country is, yet how vast it seemed at places like Masada or the Lebanon border.” Izzy says the trip had many amazing moments, but the experience that really resonated occurred in the Negev Desert when the group stayed in Bedouin tents. “I know it sounds cheesy, but it honestly changed me,” she says, explaining each teen was instructed “to walk far away from everyone around us and have a conversation with ourselves. … From that little conversation that I was so lucky to have with myself in such an amazing place, I came to the realization that at the end of the day, I'm the only one completely there for myself, and that's all I need to be happy in life.” Mai also calls the Negev stay a highlight of the trip. “I particularly liked staying the night in a Bedouin tent and singing around the campfire under the stars after a day of hiking.” OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 31
Mai, who also enjoyed meeting the most amazing people and exploring the land of Israel, is seriously thinking about making aliyah after high school. She says she had previously considered it, but the “sense of the community all throughout the land” has made her feel even stronger about moving there. This year the high schoolers were on a West Coast bus, but Oregon NCSY Director Meira Spivak hopes to recruit 40 Oregon teens to fill an entire bus next summer. “Can you imagine the effect on our city if we took 40 teens?” she asks, noting that a 2014 study showed 92% of past TJJ participants identify as being emotionally attached to Israel, and 86% say they believe it’s very important to raise kids as Jewish. The trip is nationally subsidized, bringing the cost for the onemonth program down to a maximum of $3,299 per person, but Meira has been fundraising to make the trip even more affordable for Oregon teens. So far she has received a grant to offer scholarships of $1,500 for the first 10 teens to register. “This trip is tailor-made for kids from public or non-Jewish private schools,” says Portland NCSY Director Doovie Jaco-
by, who accompanied the Portland teens on the trip. “On days we have something educational, like a visit to the Knesset, we always do a fun activity on the same day, like a hike or raft trip.” “It’s low-pressure Judaism in a fun, relaxing environment,” Meira adds. Doovie knew all of the teens from Jewish Student Unions in local high schools or Shabbatons organized by NCSY. But he says the trip created a real feeling of family among everyone in the group. “When you spend a month together, you really get to know someone.” He says everyone in the group now cares deeply about Israel, but he also saw a lot of personal growth in the teens, “not just Jewish growth.” The connections and growth were especially apparent on the day teams of teens built rafts to paddle onto the Kineret, says Doovie. For more information on next year’s TJJ, contact Meira at 503-757-3037 or meira@ncsy.org.
Portland teens Alden Davis and Mai Texerman enjoy a camel ride during last summer’s NCSY trip to Israel, The Jerusalem Journey.
32 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Portland teens, from left, Alden Davis, Ezra Bloom and Justin Bloom (who are not brothers) visit Rachel’s Tomb.
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 33
Kids & Teens too
Jewish preschoolers get into yoga By Deborah Moon
MJCC yoga Instructor Amy Bradford helps kids explore yoga poses.
By Deborah Moon
The practice of yoga is on the rise. More than 20 million adults reportedly practice yoga, and now even preschoolers are getting in on the myriad benefits of the activity. Yoga for the youngest set is offered in at least two Jewish Portland settings. The Mittleman Jewish Community Center offers several sessions of kids’ yoga during the year, and PJ Library and Congregation Shaarie Torah have teamed up to offer monthly Torah Yoga for toddlers and preschoolers accompanied by a parent. The free sessions meet the second Saturday of every month through May. According to the U.S. National Institute of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply and reduce stress. “Much like yoga for adults, kids’ yoga has been shown to help soothe and calm the mind,” says MJCC Health and Wellness Director Jennifer Harrington. “Like the rest of us, kids live in 34 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
a bustling busy world and yoga is one way to help counter that. Learning the techniques of yoga at a young age helps kids to feel empowered, giving them tools to relax and calm the mind.” Jennifer says one preschooler was a regular participant much of last year. Instructor Amy Bradford watched the child transform from being a restless kid when they first started to the participant who was most calm and collected after months of the yoga class. The latest session at MJCC began Oct. 27 and continues through Dec. 15. The class for kids ages 4 to 6 meets 3:454:15 pm Tuesdays. According to the program guide, the class is taught in a playful manner that blends asanas, music, breath work and magical mediations. “From a physical standpoint, yoga increases flexibility, strength and provides children with an overall body awareness,” adds Jennifer. At Shaarie Torah, the October session attracted 15 participants for a session focused on the story of Noah. Professional yoga instructor Rachel Stern engaged the toddlers and preschoolers in an interactive Noah’s Ark Shabbat-Our Animal Family. Kids had the opportunity to act out all the animals while
“From a physical standpoint, yoga increases flexibility, strength and provides children with an overall body awareness.” – Jennifer Harrington
“Torah Yoga adds another benefit of integrated learning,” says Rachel, who has taught yoga for nine years. “Participants remember the stories and themes more clearly because they have the connection to a physical action. … Adding physical actions to the Torah and holiday stories makes them more fun for kids to experience and a more easeful sense of connection to their bodies and their developing sense of spirituality.” For more information on the PJ Library program, contact Dorice at 503-226-6131, ext. 242, or education@shaarietorah. org. For information on the MJCC class, visit oregonjcc.org or call 503-244-0111.
appreciating the story! “It was amazing, and our Rachel Stern did magnificent work with the kids and parents,” says Shaarie Torah Education Director Dorice Horenstein. “They (kids) love animal poses, warrior poses and tree pose,” says Rachel. “These are things to which they can relate. Some kids enjoy the calmness and the breathing, as they learn how to calm themselves when they are upset.” Dorice says she came up with the idea for child/parent yoga two years ago as a way to bring young families to synagogue apart from using the regular hook of holidays, art and Shabbat, but rather using what parents would want to do to engage with their children. “Here is an opportunity for families to engage in exercise while learning about Jewish themes, participating in Kiddush, singing some prayers,” says Dorice. “It has been simply wonderful!” Sessions meet from 10:30 to noon at Congregation Shaarie Torah, 920 NW 25th Ave. Future sessions include Biblical Mishpacha, Nov. 14; Hanukkah, Dec. 12; Tu B’Shvat, Jan. 9; Joseph and his brothers, Feb. 13; Purim, March 12; Passover, April 9; and Israel Independence Day, May 14.
Rachel Stern leads Shaarie Torah preschoolers in yoga OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 35
seniors Seniors & Students – Better Together
Inside 36 Seniors & Students: Better Together 38 Intergenerational Bend 39 Seeking seniors' wisdom 40 See Israel in a scooter 42 Alzheimer's clinical trials 44 Everything Young at Heart 46 Eugene care providers explore Jewish traditions 47 Senior Advertisers
36 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Cedar Sinai Park has received a grant through Legacy Heritage Fund (legacyheritage.org) to provide the Better Together Shabbat Leadership Program, in partnership with Portland Jewish Academy. “We are excited about this opportunity,” says CSP Director of Spiritual Life Jemi Kostiner Mansfield. “Not only will it strengthen our partnership with Portland Jewish Academy, but the experience will deepen the multi-generational relationships between CSP residents and the students. PJA’s Jewish Studies program includes t’fillah (prayer) instruction. By seventh grade, students are able to lead both the shacharit (morning) and mincha (afternoon) services. Learning to lead Kabbalat Shabbat services is a natural addition to an already strong t’fillah program.” The two-year Better Together program will involve about 16 PJA seventh-graders paired with residents at CSP. Students and seniors will train to lead Kabbalat Shabbat services over eight monthly sessions. Classes will include prayer book literacy, text study, chanting instruction and practice, as well as time for the students and seniors to get to know each other. To cap off the year of study, the students and their senior learning partners will lead the Shabbat evening service on Friday, May 20, 2016, at Rose Schnitzer Manor. In the program’s second year, the now eighth-graders will mentor the seventh-grad-
Caring for People with Dementia Sunday, November 8, 1:30-3pm When A Cedar Sinai Park senior and a PJA student connect Photo by Eden Swartz Photography
a
person
with
dementia
discovers that their mental abilities are declining, they need reassurance and support. Their caregivers, friends
ers in preparation to lead services. “We were approached by the Legacy Heritage Fund as possible participants and applied for a grant last February,” says Elana Cohn-Rozansky, humanities teacher/service learning coordinator at PJA. We’ll be one of more than 20 communities. This is a concerted effort on their part to move forward with this type of intergenerational learning. The curriculum itself has been the work of PJA teachers Kim Schneiderman and Amy Katz. The goal is to get young people and seniors connecting and understanding each other. We hope the pairs will sign up and volunteer to lead future services.” Judy Ross moved to CSP from New York about a year ago to join her daughter, Bonni Goldberg, son-in-law and grandchild in Portland. “My daughter is active in the Jewish community, and she helped me rediscover my Jewish roots,” Judy says. “I started attending various services, but stopped because I didn’t understand the liturgy. I thought if I could understand what was being said, I’d probably go back to attending services. I want to pick up the language and songs so that I don’t just sit there; I don’t go in for spectator sports. It is delightful to work with a young person. The young people in Portland are special. They grow up volunteers and always want to do things. I’m excited about these kids. It gives me hope for the future.”
and family can help them retain their sense of identity and self-worth. Join
Michele
Meierotto,
Hospice
Consultant with Serenity Hospice, for a better understanding of effective approaches and interactions.
To RSVP call (503) 535-4004 or visit www.RoseSchnitzerManor.org.
INDEPENDENT LIVING • ASSISTED LIVING
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 37
seniors Intergenerational connections Emerson Root and her dad, Topher Root, make challah with the residents at Touchmark at Mt. Bachleor Village Retirement Community in Bend. Chabad of Central Oregon Kids for Kindness volunteer at Touchmark at Mt. Bachelor Village Retirement Community one Sunday afternoon most months from September through May. Children accompanied by a parent or caregiver join seniors for intergenerational activities such as crafts, baking and games. Located on 24.5 acres along the Deschutes River, Touchmark serves seniors in a continuum of care, including independent living, Support Suites, residential care, home care, and rest and recovery care. Remaining dates in 2015-16: Nov. 29, Jan. 3, Feb. 7, March 13 and May 22. For more information, contact Mimi Feldman at mimi@jewishbend. com.
are you starting to experience memory loss? is it affecting your ability to do normal activities?
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What can we learn from our seniors? The Science of People human behavior research lab in Portland is embarking on a massive experiment to learn the life lessons of seniors. Vanessa Van Edwards, author and behavioral investigator, runs experiments designed to find the hidden forces that drive our behavior. In her latest experiment she is working with seniors. Specifically, she is looking for patterns to find out what we can learn from the wisest among us. She asks participants aged 70 and older to share their life experiences in an online survey (scienceofpeople.com/life). Each participant is asked to go through a series of questions called the “Life Test.” The survey is comprised of 66 questions, covers a wide variety of topics and takes about 20 minutes to complete online. Participants are assessed on their general happiness levels and life satisfaction using the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. They are tested on social and emotional intelligence and are asked about life regrets and advice. Once 500 seniors complete the survey Van Edwards and her team will search for patterns. Van Edwards hopes to compare the results to the current academic research. For example, studies have found that extroverts are typically happier than introverts. Will this hold true with seniors? Studies have also found that most people have regrets from inaction (for example, not going to graduate school) rather than action (taking a trip). Will there be commonalities in the regrets of survey participants? Her previous book, Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I'm Grounded? published by Penguin’s Plume division, dealt with parent-teen communication. She plans to publish the results of her current research about those at the other end of life in a book coming out in 2016. Van Edwards was born and raised in Los Angeles and became a bat mitzvah at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. While attending Emory University, she ran the Jewish woman's group Neshama. She currently resides in Portland with her husband. Vanessa recently presented two programs at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center – one on the science of leadership and one on the science of communication. For more information, contact Vanessa at manager@scienceofpeople.com. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 39
Yes You Can!
seniors
Shelly Petcher prays at the Western Wall.
By Liz Rabiner Lippoff
Shelly Petcher, 80, can’t walk very far. He has a nifty chair in his apartment at the Rose Schnitzer Manor in Portland; not only is it comfy, his portable desk slides right up to it so he can go online, sort through his vast assortment of photos and keep in touch with friends. The chair even lifts him upright when he wants to stand. Shelly zips all around the manor on a motorized scooter so he can serve on committees and participate in the programming. He goes outside every day as well as out to shop and visit friends and family, as his scooter folds up and fits in a car trunk. He is also a globe trottin’, travellin’ man who just returned from two weeks in Japan, thank you very much. He and his wife (z’l) traveled a lot together, and when she passed away five years ago he decided that he just wasn’t ready to give that up despite being alone and being physically challenged. To his delight, he has found companies around the world that orga-
nize tours catering to people like himself who need extra help because they walk slowly or rely on a wheelchair or a scooter. Because he needs daily help with personal tasks, he also found Julian Andres, a certified nursing assistant who uses his time off from work to travel with Shelly as his aide and his companion. Together – in the last five years – they have gone to Alaska, the Baltic countries, Scandinavia and Russia, as well as on several cruises. They are going to New Orleans early this winter. “I like London because I love the theater, but I really like to go places that are not at all like home,” Shelly explains. “I love to experience new things and meet new people. I like to see their customs. I like to try new foods.” He and Julian eat everything put in front of them, even in Japan … except, he says, the sushi. “It’s the same thing we have here!” Why bother? Shelly maintains there is no place in the world that you cannot go if you plan ahead. (He has been to Mt. Fuji, for heaven’s sake, but it was so foggy he didn’t get to see it. A return trip? I wouldn’t be surprised.) Because many countries do not mandate
Israel Tour – Tailored to People with Mobility Impairment
April 29-May 11, 2016 Includes Tel Aviv, Caesarea National Park, Haifa, Sea of Galilee, Golan Heights, Tsfat, Upper Galilee, Wilderness of Judea, Masada, the Dead Sea, Petra, Eilat and the many delights of Jerusalem. For more details, call Shelly Petcher: 503-535-4264 40 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Julian Anders and Shelly explore Roman ruins in Israel.
that businesses accommodate people with disabilities as we do in the United States, Shelly suggests you arrange tours and transportation in advance if you use a wheelchair or a scooter. Some hotels are more accessible than others. Some cities are hilly and cobblestoned; some restaurants have stairs but no elevator. Clearly, however, these are not barriers to someone as determined as Shelly is, and he advises that none of us should let them stop us either. To that end, Shelly is inviting the community to join him on a spring 2016 trip to Israel designed to be a fun, educational and inspirational experience, both for those who need help getting around and those who can manage without assistance. It is a return trip for him: his first trip to Israel was last spring. “I was never interested in going to Israel until I moved to the Rose Schnitzer Manor. It sort of evolved: there is so much Yiddishkeit here that it made me want to go.” He found a company called Israel4All that specializes in tours for people with mobility issues. After a lot of back and forth with Eli Meiri, the owner of Israel4All, who is also its tour guide, Shelly figured it was a trip he could handle. Eli has a comfortable Mercedes bus that can accommodate up to 15 people, depending on how many of them have chairs or scooters. (Many able-bodied people also choose Eli’s tours.) The hotels are all four star, breakfast and dinner are provided every day, and they go just about everywhere. Eli himself is an interesting man and a superb tour guide. His style is to ask questions as well as provide answers, and he contributes both facts and insights into his tours. “He’s a sabra who served in the Israeli Army in the tank corps, now in his early 50s, and he speaks excellent English,” Shelly says. “He is accommodating and caring and is always there if you want to talk or need help.” Shelly had a fabulous time, and he urges anyone who has never been to Israel, especially those who thought it was beyond their capabilities, to consider the spring 2016 trip. “Here is a chance to see something and do something you didn’t think you could do,” he says. “Hey! I made it to the top of Masada!” Shelly clearly believes that you can, too. Liz Rabiner Lippoff is a marketing consultant, freelance writer and community volunteer. LizRL@rabiner.com
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seniors
Reasons for hope in battle for memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s disease. “If we can block amyloids, we could prevent the emergence of While the economic and emotional costs of Alzheimer’s symptoms,” says Kaye. disease are astronomical, two Portland researchers are optimistic Losk says the first amyloid-blocking studies of MCI patients that current research and lifestyle modifications may offer hope began in 2007; five years ago studies began into BACE inhibfor seniors facing memory loss. itors (beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme). “Over 56,000 Oregonians have Alzheimer's disease or a reBACE inhibitors should decrease the amount of 'bad' amyloid lated disorder,” writes Jeffrey Kaye, M.D, director of the Layton produced in the brain. “We are just now seeing a combination of Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease Center at OHSU, on the center’s stabilization of memory tests and lowering of amyloid on PET website (ohsu.edu/research/alzheimers). The Layton Center is scans.” one of 30 Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Both men encourage those with concerns of the National Institute on Aging. It is about their memory to have a checkup. participating in the A4 study for older “Just because someone has memory probindividuals (ages 65-85) who have normal lems, doesn’t mean they have Alzheimer’s,” says thinking and memory function, but who Kaye. “It’s important to get checked. Some may be at risk for developing Alzhei(causes of memory loss) are eminently treatmer's-related memory loss sometime in able.” the future. For instance, people with hypothyroid, B12 Meanwhile, other research studies deficiency, chronic infection or medication are targeting those with mild cognitive side effects can reclaim their memory through impairment (MCI). Memory Health treatment. Center at Summit Research Network is Losk notes that memory problems can also participating in these MCI studies, with seem worse when aging “collides with those Jeffrey Kaye, M.D. Scott Losk, Ph.D., serving as principal with lifelong ADD. investigator. “Stress and anxiety can cause memory ineffi“Our hope at this point is to achieve stabilization,” says Losk. ciencies, so it’s important to have an evaluation; some causes can “The focus of research on the MCI group is to catch people be reversed, or just the process of understanding can help people before dementia.” deal with it,” he says. Both the A4 and MCI clinical trials focus on individuals Regardless of whether memory loss is caused by Alzheimer’s whose brain scans reveal the buildup of amyloid plaque, which is or other factors, brain function can be improved with lifestyle believed to cause memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients. focus on diet, exercise and social connectivity, says Losk. The A4, or Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Kaye agrees: “We need to learn to manage (memory loss). Alzheimer’s study, began last year and is the first study to test With realization of symptoms, even if it’s not curable, people can whether a new investigational treatment can slow the memory learn to cope and maximize quality of life, and they can slow the By Deborah Moon
OHSU Layton: 503-494-6976 | ohsu.edu/research/alzheimers Memory Care Center: 503-228-2273 | SummitResearchNetwork.com 42 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Scott Losk, Ph.D.
decline by using (steps) … that are not expensive.” Kaye lists five areas for better brain health: Sleep – brains consolidate memories during sleep, so improving sleep hygiene is important. Physical activity – people who remain active have better brain function and less brain atrophy. Diet – consume unsaturated fats and omega 3 fats; red wine consumption in moderation can help brain health; include foods high in antioxidants such as fresh fruits, vegetables and grains. Remain socially engaged – people without social interactions do not do as well in maintaining cognitive function; do not sit alone at home. The current MCI and A4 studies are testing medicines to treat the pathology of Alzheimer’s rather than the symptoms. But prescription medicines already are available to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. “Alzheimer's disease is the most expensive disease in America, exceeding our nation's costs for cancer and heart disease,” says Kaye. “We really need to aggressively work on finding effective treatments and helping the millions of families affected today as well as in the future.” Losk notes that “The FDA is interested in fast-tracking any medicine that looks promising (to combat Alzheimer’s).” Coincidentally, both of the researchers interviewed for this article have surnames that their Jewish grandfathers shortened when they immigrated. “My great-grandfather came from the Ukraine; Losk was shortened from Tochelusfsky,” says Losk. “My grandparents raised three boys in Portland.” Losk was raised in Seattle and moved to Portland in 2005. When Kaye’s grandfather reached Ellis Island, emigrating from a town sometimes in Poland and sometimes in Russia, he shortened the long “ski” name to be more American. Kaye was raised in a kosher home in New Jersey, where he became a bar mitzvah. He has lived in Portland for about 25 years and belongs to the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. For information on enrolling in an Alzheimer’s clinical trial at Summit Research Network contact: 503-228-2273 or oregon@summitnetwork.com. OHSU’s Layton Center is enrolling participants in the A4 study. For more information, contact Allison Bianchi at 503-494-7615.
TOGETHER WE ARE DOING AMAZING THINGS. Through your generosity, $18.3 million dollars have been raised; with just a little more needed to meet our goal. What is the result? We’ve broken ground on the new Harold Schnitzer Health & Rehabilitation Care Center. When it’s completed, 48 beautiful, longterm care residences will be available to our elders and a full remodel of the Robison Jewish Home will provide stateof-the-art, short-term rehabilitation and post-acute care. Thanks to you, our offering continues to grow with a progressive set of health and social services for every age.
WE’RE ALMOST THERE!
To make a gift, Call (503) 535-4422 or visit www.CedarSinaiPark.org/ CapitalCampaign. DIGNITY by DESIGN CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
CEDAR SINAI PARK FAMILY OF SERVICES ROSE SCHNITZER MANOR INDEPENDENT & ASSISTED LIVING • ADULT DAY SERVICES • SINAI IN-HOME CARE KEHILLAH HOUSE • ROBISON JEWISH HOME SKILLED NURSING/POST ACUTE CARE • JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN SERVICES (JFCS)
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 43
seniors
young at heart
YAH knitters: From left, Betsy Posner (with needlepoint), Barbara Hopfinger, Marge Congress and Nancy Keating gather for the weekly knitting group that meets at the Café at the J every Tuesday at 1 pm.
Tune into everything By Polina Olsen
When Mittleman Jewish Community Center Cultural Arts Manager Laurie Fendel and Congregation Neveh Shalom’s Program Director Jennifer Greenberg saw a need, they got together and took action. Again and again, senior members asked for activities tailored to them. Driving at night and heavy athletics were barriers to participation. Art, lectures and interesting discussions during the daytime were perfect. “It’s called Everything for the Young at Heart,” says Laurie about the newsletter she and Jennifer put together. “We realized we didn’t have to recreate the wheel. Jewish organizations already have senior programming, so why not create a list?” Now, seniors learn about activities all over the city by looking in just one place. Young at Heart partner organizations include the MJCC, Cedar Sinai Park, Congregation Beth Israel, Congregation Neveh Shalom, Congregation Shaarie Torah, GrapeVine, Havurah Shalom, Jewish Family & Child Service, Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. Every three months, they send Laurie information on upcoming events seniors would enjoy. Laurie and Jennifer consolidate the listings into the Young at Heart newsletter. Organizations include links to it on their websites 44 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
and newsletters and keep hard copies on easy-to-find tables in their lobbies. Young at Heart events have included everything from a lecture on the origins of American Mah Jongg to George Gershwin concerts and Nosh and Drash study. Everyone is invited to Tuesday afternoon knitting at the MJCC. Many events are free, all welcome everyone. “At its core, Young at Heart is an effort to consolidate all the amazing things that are senior-friendly in Portland into one source so that any senior looking for a connection to the Jewish community knows just where to go,” Jennifer says. “We have a core of fascinating folks over 70, and we want to make sure they have things to do. Young at Heart has sparked even more programming. A group of our seniors has launched a monthly 2 pm tea called Wondering Jews. On Nov. 17, author Philip Margolin is coming.” Like all Young at Heart events, the Wondering Jews monthly tea at Congregation Neveh Shalom is open to everyone. Find the Young at Heart newsletter on tables at the MJCC and partner organizations, and on member newsletters and websites. Contact Laurie Fendel at 503-244-0111, lfendel@oregonjcc.org, for more information.
founded on strong jewish values
Everything YAH Sample Calendar
A Night in Shanghai This multimedia presentation by author Nicole Mones details Jewish life in Shanghai before, during and after World War II. Mones’s novel, A Night in Shanghai, is one of the titles chosen for this year’s Portland Jewish Book Celebration: Many Stories, One Community. Choose a date!
• Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7 pm The Mirabella at 3550 SW Bond Ave. Free. Parking $3 at OHSU lot. Sponsored by MJCC and Congregation Beth Israel
• Wednesday, Nov. 4, 6:30-7:45 pm Hillsdale Library Pageturners, 1525 SW Sunset Blvd. Free.
• Thursday, Nov. 5, 6:30-8 pm Shute Branch of Hillsboro Library 775 SE 10th Ave., Hillsboro, 97123 Free.
Sunday, Nov. 8, 3 pm Jewish Community Orchestra Pieces by Beethoven, Bloch, Mussorgsky, Svensen and Sibelius. $10 adults, $8 seniors, $5 students. Children under 6 free. Tickets at the door. In partnership with the MJCC
Friday, Nov. 13, 6:30 pm
Kabbalat Shabbat and Dinner at Shaarie Torah Join us for our monthly Kabbalat Shabbat service and delicious dinner on the second Friday of each month at Congregation Shaarie Torah, 920 NW 25th Ave. Members: $18 adults, $15 child, $55 family; Nonmembers: $20 Adult, $18 child, $65 family RSVP: 503-226-6131
Sunday, Nov. 15, 10 am-4 pm Hanukkah Gift and Book Fair
Craft and fine artists will share their treasures. Latke lunch at Cafe at the J at MJCC. Live music. Free. Book Store sponsored by OJMCHE
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2 pm Wondering Jews
This month author Philip Margolin will speak at this monthly tea Congregation Neveh Shalom.
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 pm
Port of Last Resort: A film about Jews of Shanghai In OJMCHE Theater. Public: $10, OJMCHE members: $8. Sponsored by Institute of Judaic Studies, OJMCHE, Havurah Shalom.
maintain your independence,
where you live.
With four levels of customizable care, you and your loved ones will continue to enjoy the benefits of your home and community, while getting much needed support. Companionship, Homemaking, Hands-on Care, Medication and Nursing Services.
Ongoing Groups - Drop-ins Welcome Standard Goren-style Bridge
Wednesdays, 1 pm Cafe at the J (MJCC), Free. Hebrew for Lunch Tuesdays, noon Join Sylvia Frankel for a lively discussion in Hebrew. Purchase lunch or just enjoy the conversation. (Some conversational Hebrew required.) Cafe at the J Knit Together: Crafting Community Tuesdays, 1-2 pm Join a group of knitters in the MJCC lobby.
A local, licensed, non-profit, full-service comprehensive in-home care agency (503) 542-0088 a proud affiliate of cedar sinai park
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 45
seniors
Senior care providers learn to make Jewish clients comfortable By Debbie Rose Libeskind
Since taking her position as the social service coordinator for the Jewish Federation of Lane County in October 2013, Oriana Kahn Hurwit’s work has increasingly centered on the elder, senior and aging baby boomer populations in Eugene. During visits to senior care communities, she became aware of the need to develop educational programs targeting cultural competency for providers of senior care services. “Many of our Jewish elders have vastly different experiences
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from other West Coast seniors,” says Oriana. “Some are first- or second-generation immigrants who learned English as a second language. Many formerly lived in predominately Jewish areas of larger cities of the Midwest or East Coast, only coming in recent years to join their adult children here.” Oriana says that many are now in settings with only a small numbers of Jews in their social sphere. “Many have said they feel ‘alien’ here,” she adds. “Additionally, Jewish holidays are rarely marked and frequently overlooked in care communities. It’s not uncommon for our seniors to be surrounded by Christmas or Easter decorations covering the walls during those holidays, or for residents to be encouraged to attend Sunday church services.” To address this issue, Jewish Family Services hosted “Jewish Culture and Traditions,” an educational program followed by a bagel brunch on May 28. Twenty-four senior care providers attended, including staff from Senior and Disabled Services, inhome health care services, hospice workers and residential care communities. Oriana and federation volunteer Abby Gershenzon designed and presented the hour-long program. It included an introduction to the federation and a glance at Jewish history (from 1800s Europe until today). Oriana and Abby shared personal family stories to bring that history to life. An explanation of Yiddish and the role it played for many of Jewish elders was included, as well as highlights about kashrut, the lunar calendar and a Power Point presentation about Jewish holidays. Abby and Oriana also provided activities that care facilities can use to bring awareness and celebration to the whole community, whether Jewish or not. A representative from Temple Beth Israel’s Hevra Kadisha talked about Jewish end-of-life traditions. To conclude the program, a Jewish community member spoke about bringing her mother from New York City to live here. Since then several care community professionals who were unable to attend contacted the federation asking to be invited to future programs. Invitations were also extended to “take it on the road” and offer the presentation at three other venues, including the Senior Companion Program, part of the National Senior Service Corps. A future program is being planned, but no date has been set. Debbie Rose Libeskind is the secretary for the Jewish Federation of Lane County.
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Cedar Sinai Park provides residential and community-based care to our elders and adults with special needs, allowing them to live with comfort, independence and dignity in a manner and an environment based on Jewish values.
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OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 47
In theSENIOR news ADVERTISOR DIRECRoseburg UCC Shooting: Honoring a Jewish “Martyr to Teaching” By Joseph A. Lieberman
On Oct. 7, I traveled to Roseburg to attend the memorial service for Professor Larry Levine, who at 67 was the oldest person murdered during the Oct. 1 massacre at Umpqua Community College. I’d been invited by Larry’s sister, Joanne Press, in company with Eugene’s Or haGan Rabbi Jonathan Seidel, who presided over the event. Although Larry and his sister lived as secular Jews in separate states, at the end she felt a Jewish service was the right way to go. Joanne learned I’d authored a book in 2008 entitled SCHOOL SHOOTINGS – What Every Parent and Educator Needs to Know to Protect Our Children. In the book, I tried to provide answers to two urgent questions: “Why do they do it?” and “How can we stop them?” For Larry and his UCC students, those answers would come too late, but every mass killing leads to renewed calls to “do something to prevent this happening again.” Maybe this time …? But first there was a funeral to attend. UCC’s interim college president, Dr. Rita Cavin, could not begin speaking until her crying subsided – and she had another half dozen student funerals to attend that next week. Family members and friends spoke through unstoppable tears about the gentleness of this soft-spoken man who’d been cut down “at the pinnacle of his life,” as Joanne put it, referring to Larry’s joy in living in “his dream home” overlooking the North Umpqua River in nearby Glide, his love of fishing, gardening and other outdoor activities, and his happiness writing and teaching. One of Larry’s poetic passages, included in the memorial pamphlet, described being hesitant to jump into that cold river on a hot summer day: “As I gazed into the depths, I saw my shadow and rays of light emanating around my silhouette. The light danced to the rhythm of the breeze on the water; it was all in one and magical, and that was what I dove into.” But it was Rabbi Seidel who had the final word, and he spoke eloquently. He pointed out that Larry had died in the very classroom where he had inspired so many, and, “in a sense, became a martyr to teaching.” On the way down to Roseburg, the rabbi and I had talked about the views of Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin opposing any sort of gun controls, and we both disagreed with his stance. I feel the proliferation of battle-ready assault weapons is very much a part of the problem, and Rabbi Seidel saw gunlovers as engaging in a modern form of idol worship, cherishing an object that allows them to decide life or death. On the other hand, I applauded the sheriff ’s decision never to utter the killer’s name, and so to deny this mass murderer the kind of recognition he sought in social media postings admiring 48 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
how “nobodies” like himself could achieve global fame in a single day by committing atrocious acts of evil. Professor Larry Levine Rabbi Seidel pointed out that, in old Jewish tradition, the necessity to speak the name of an evil-doer must be accompanied by the exclamation “Yamach shemo!” (“May his name be blotted out from Heaven!”) while spitting on the ground, all in the same breath. That would certainly be impractical from a media standpoint, but it led me to another suggestion that I wish to seriously propose. Because I believe fame has become the prime motivator among school shooters, I’m now convinced that mass media is morally obligated to change the way it reports these incidents. Instead of incessantly broadcasting the killer’s photo and name, refer to them by assigning each school shooter and mass murderer a number, and use that number exclusively in the media. Yes, their names and photos could be searched out by those who felt compelled to do so, but withholding information is not the point. The objective is to avoid granting the killers’ wish for sensationalistic publicity, for we have seen that doing so clearly inspires others to repeat and surpass these horrifying crimes. Of course, setting this plan in motion would require an enormous amount of restraint and cooperation by media conglomerates bent on outdoing the competition, but it is far more plausible than expecting action on gun control or better funding for mental illness anytime soon. Numbering killers would cost nothing and potentially change everything. Consider: The incident at UCC represents the 264th mass shooting (defined as involving four or more gunshot victims excluding the shooters) in the United States this year, as counted by the Gun Violence Archive. It was the 45th school shooting in America in 2015, according to gun safety coalition Everytown. Thus, the UCC gunman could be referred to as Shooter 26445-15. The Northern Arizona University murderer on Oct. 9 would be Shooter 265-46-15, but the Texas Southern University killer that same day would be Shooter TX-47-15, substituting state initials for the first number because just two were shot in that incident (one dead, one wounded). The coding is not that complicated. Such a numbering system would serve to deny the shooter his quest for fame, and simultaneously remind the public of the human cost we are paying to preserve America’s love affair with guns and lack of treatment for the dangerously mentally ill. Does any would-be mass killer really want to be remembered only as Shooter Number 266-48-15? Instead, we should remember kind and innocent victims like Larry Levine, who inspired students, teaching about “the power of awe to transform” people. It’s sadly ironic that concerning his own life in Oregon, Larry recently observed, “Being here only gets better, the more here I become.”
Arts & Entertainment
Betsy Kauffman makes time for
Y D E M CO
Betsy Kauffman, left, and Joanie Quinn and are the down-to-earth comedy team Spilt Milk.
Community College. She has been a practitioner of “the laugh” ever since, no matter how many times she’s feared facing the Portlander Betsy Kauffman lives a life full of beliefs that she mic. puts into action on many stages. Verbal, highly accessible and honest, Betsy defines herself Calling herself “weirdly domestic,” this 55-year-old livewire as “a reasonably good Jew.” She belongs to Congregation Shir puts her beliefs into practice as a Jewish wife and mother of Tikvah. “I feel like a Jewish person. I attend Saturday services two boys, Gabriel and Zach. Domesticity dwindles as she heads about once a month. I go to the fall High Holy Days services. I to her workday at the nonprofit organization Energy Trust of volunteer. I like bagels and cream cheese, and I eat Chinese food Oregon, where her drive for tikkun olam takes over. at Christmas. Judaism is the lens I use to look at the world.” “We give money to homes and businesses that install renewJewish comedians Gary Gulman and Joan Rivers figure among able energy like solar,” says Betsy of Energy Trust. “It’s a great her biggest inspirations. job, and I’m lucky. I can take my values However, Judaism has not always been completely to work with me. I also have the pleasure comfortable for Betsy. “I grew up in Menomonee of working with committed, super smart, “I’ve always been Falls, WI. At that time it had a population of 35,000, creative and very nice people.” and my family was the only Jewish one in town until You might say Betsy’s life is full enough. amused by the world. my cousins came when I was in junior high. I wasn’t But this one-time radio news announcer hugely different, but I was different enough. I think undergoes another makeover by nightfall. Doing comedy is a the big takeaway is my understanding of what it is to No, she’s not Spiderwoman righting social be different.” wrongs, she becomes The Joker! And no, way to express my Thus she peppers many performances with not the gruesomely made-up, laughing insights into her heritage: “It was hard growing up monstrosity of films, but a scream – an thoughts about how with super curly hair. No one on TV looked like me. ethical, politically correct scream. Barbie dolls didn’t look like me. I think Mattel needs Under cover of darkness, Betsy fresilly it can all be. ” to come out with a Barbie for little Jewish girls: Bat quently musters up her chutzpah to bare Mitzvah Barbie with black, curly hair. She comes her principled, humorous soul at local –Betsy Kauffman with a nice dress she got at the Nordstrom half-year comedy clubs and Jewish fundraisers. She sale, with her boyfriend – Kosher Ken – and with her also performs at private functions with buddy – Shiksa Skipper.” custom-tailored material. Here’s another one: “If the Christmas story were a Jewish sto“I’ve always been amused by the world,” Betsy says about her ry, Mary would have told her mother that Joseph isn’t the father nocturnal adventures. “Doing comedy is a way to express my of her baby, and her mother would have said ‘Good! I never liked thoughts about how silly it can all be. I so enjoy making people him anyway.’ And after finding out that God was the father, she feel good and say ‘Yes, I’ve noticed that weird thing, too.’ Or ‘I’ve would have warned her daughter that ‘God better have a good also felt that way.’ ” day job because you can’t count on miracles.’ ” Betsy’s mobile face might lead you to believe she made a If Betsy’s mouth moves quickly, her audience soon learns her good clown as a child. But humorous art was not on her to-do ear is no slouch either. Jewish ha-ha’s resonate with a singular list then. “My mother is an artist and throughout my childhood Yiddish accent – the one belonging to her Czechoslovakian JewI was intimidated by that, by making art,” she recalls. But as an ish grandmother. Yes, that grandmother, the one who regularly adult she signed up for a stand-up comedy course at Portland and resolutely played cards for a penny a point with her friends. By Lee Braymen-Cleary
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 49
Arts & Entertainment Still another accent surfaces as Betsy whips out her Midwestern material – a highly convincing Midwest one. Judaism and the Midwest don’t completely dominate her inventory of jokes, though. Gags about family life often reign supreme. And no wonder. When Betsy placed an ad in Willamette Week’s “singles” section, stating clearly that any date would have to be funny, she ended up dating and ultimately marrying Jeffrey Betsy, whom our comedian calls “a very passionate, creative person. He’s great keyboard player and writer who reviews movies for blu-ray.com.” Keeping her maiden name Kauffman, instead of becoming Betsy Betsy, she nonetheless boasts her husband has given her some of her best lines ever. Betsy admits her family blesses her work. “My sons are both into computer science. They each built their own computers and love coding. Most of the time, I don’t know what they’re talking about. But they think what I’m doing is very cool – the only thing I do that’s very cool. And they are both so funny. I asked Zach once what he wanted to be when he gets older. ‘A trophy husband,’ he quipped. And then Jeff chimed in with ‘Yeah, just like me!’ ” Beyond her comfortable family support, Betsy finds more from other funny women. A number of years ago she met Joanie Quinn, another stand-up comic, who is a staunch Catholic and a wife and mother of four. Quinn, who has served as mistress of ceremonies for both the 2014 and 2015 Multnomah Days Pa-
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rade, laughs when she utters one of her standard jokes: “I have four kids from three different mothers.” (You can see adoption figuring into her family, yes?) They are fast friends now. Finding that some comedy clubs served up material these joke-smiths found too raunchy, they moved on to craft their own hilarity with Spilt Milk, a non-sleazy comedy act. O’Connor’s Vault at 7850 SW Capitol Highway in Multnomah Village is their spiritual performance home. Their fourth year began Sept. 16. Spilt Milk presents their brand of humor, but also that of other humorists who have auditioned to prove their work is funny and suitable. One recent guest comedian and regular who had the audience rolling in the aisles was writer Nikky Schulak. She read from her snappy work entitled My Midlife Thong Crisis. True, people under 21 aren’t allowed at O’Connor’s, though they probably know more about thongs than the rest of us. The club opens its doors early – at 5:30pm – so that guests can order dinner. The show itself begins at 7 pm and ends at a remarkably early 8:30 pm. This down-to-earth weekday schedule allows guests with kids to be home early, and as the Spilt Milk poster states: “We have kids, and we can’t stay up later than that.” In addition to September and October shows, Spilt Milk’s Fall 2015 schedule includes Nov. 18 and Dec. 8. Tickets: spiltmilkpdx.com.
“Superbly rendered. It’s hard not to get emotional.” –Jewish Telegraphic Agency
OFFICIAL SELECTION
“Extraordinary.” Screen Daily
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F I L M F E S T I VA L
BROOMSTICK John Biguenet
WINNER J E R U SA LEM F I L M F E ST I VA L
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directed by
Gemma Whelan
OCT 27 - NOV 22
, Y WOVEN “...TIGHTL ED AND IL TA E D LY RICH .” NJOYAesBCriLE tics’ Pick) FULLY Ees (LA Tim les –Los Ange
Tim
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Jewish book celebration expands The annual Portland Jewish Book Month celebration has been expanded this year to reach beyond one book and one month. Events stretch from Nov. 3 into next April, with most events occurring in November and March. Now in the fifth year with Marge Congress leading the effort, this year’s program theme is Many Stories, One Community: Portland Jewish Book Celebration. Last month we detailed the events occurring in early November so people could plan ahead and perhaps read the book that was the focus of the early events: Night in Shanghai, a historical novel about the black jazz musicians who found freedom from racism in 1930s’ Shanghai, to which Europe’s Jews were also fleeing. The celebration begins the first week of November when Portland gets a visit from Nicole Mones, author of Night in Shanghai. From 7 to 8:30, Nov. 3, Nicole will be at the Mirabella Tower, 3550 SW Bond Ave., for a program sponsored by Congregation Beth Israel and the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. The next night she will be at the Hillsdale Library, 1525 SW Sunset Blvd., for a Pageturners Author Visit from 6:30 to 7:45 pm. Her Portland visit concludes Nov. 5 with an educational, multimedia presentation of China during the Holocaust. Nicole will be at the Shute Park Library (Community Room), 775 SE 10th Ave., Hillsboro, from 6:30 to 8 pm for this program presented by the Hillsboro Community Senior Center and Hillsboro Public Library. The celebration’s jazz theme continues the next week when the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education screens the film “Frank's Song,” which is about Frank Wesley, a local Holocaust survivor and jazz musician. The film will be shown in OJMCHE’s cinema (1953 NW Kearney St., Portland) at 7 pm, Nov. 12. Cost is $10; OJMCHE members, $8; or students, $5. Jazz is also in the air in December when Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Congregation Neveh Shalom present Jazz in Shanghai. Larry Nobori and his jazz group will play the pre-World War swing music of the 1930s at the Dec. 3 program at the MJCC from 2 to 3:30 pm. Following the performance, Larry will discuss the music in relation to Night in Shanghai. Tickets are $10. Shanghai is also the focus of the 7 pm, Nov. 17, presentation of “The Port of Last Resort: Zuflucht in Shanghai.” The film presents "the little-known story of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai presented through the recollections of four former refugees." The screening will be followed by an intimate conversation around experiences in Shanghai, focused on local survivors. The program will be in the OJMCHE theater and is co-sponsored by OJMCHE, Institute for Judaic Studies and Havurah Shalom. Tickets are $10 general; $8 OJMCHE, IJS and Havurah Shalom members; and $5 for students.
9, 2016. Based on Chaim Potok’s novel Davita’s Harp, the play brings readers and audience members to the gritty landscape of New York City during the turbulent 1920s and ’30s. In the stormy melting pot that was New York City in the ’30s, a young girl comes of age and finds her voice. Ilana Davita’s mother was Jewish – but chose atheism and communism. Her father was Episcopalian – but chose atheism and communism. With guidance from a missionary nurse aunt, a mystical story-writing “uncle” and Orthodox cousins, Ilana discovers who she is and who she will choose to be. On Nov. 15 from 10:30 am to noon, the women of Kesser Israel and Ahavath Achim host a tea and discussion of Davita's Harp. The women’s tea will be at Congregation Kesser Israel, 6698 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland.
Following are the book programs planned for 2016. Davita’s Harp bookchat is set 7 pm, Jan. 25, in the chapel at Portland Jewish Academy, 6651 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland. Gloria Borg-Olds will lead the book discussion presented by JTC and the MJCC. Eight Hundred Grapes’ author Laura Dave will discuss her heartbreaking, funny, and deeply evocative novel about love, marriage, family and wine at 7 pm, March 3 at the MJCC. Author Sherre Hirsch will talk about her book, Thresholds, at 7 pm, March 8, at the MJCC. Explore how to thrive through life’s transitions to live a fearlessly and regret-free-life. Author Laura Nicole Diamond will share Shelter Us: A Novel at 7 pm, March 15 at the MJCC. The book’s title is taken from the Hashkiveinu prayer and suggests that Judaism’s power is not in providing firm answers, but rather in guiding us how to act while we are alive. Another book talk on Davita's Harp is scheduled for 7 pm, March 15 at Congregation Neveh Shalom, 2900 SW Peaceful Lane, Portland. Meet others and connect over good literature with facilitated, in-depth discussion with a friendly, open group. The stage version of Davita's Harp will be March 19-April 9 at Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., Portland. For times and fees, visit jewishtheatrecollaborative.org. A special performance of Davita’s Harp is slated for 7:30 pm, March 30. The performance will be followed by discussion for teens/adults presented by The Jewish Theatre Collaborative & Havurah Shalom. Also slated in March is a talk on War Correspondents: How they affect the world's view of combat. Details will be announced when available. 503-260-6667 | oregonjcc.org
The other November program is a precursor to the Jewish Theatre Collaborative’s Page2Stage production of Davita’s Harp, March 19-April OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 51
Check out these new books during
Jewish Book Month Compiled by Polina Olsen
The Devil in Jerusalem
by Naomi Ragen St. Martin’s Press, 2015, Hardcover, 310 pages, $29.99.
When two children are brought into Hadassah Hospital with shocking injuries, Detective Bina Tzedek is contacted. The children’s mother, an ultra-orthodox American émigré refuses to answer questions. As Tzedek investigates, the disturbing story of how a charismatic and psychopathic cult leader has taken over people’s lives begins to unfold. Written by the internationally best-selling author of nine novels including The Tenth Song, and based on a true story, The Devil in Jerusalem brings intrigue, intensity and betrayal into Ragen’s portrait of how predators can turn people seeking holiness into tragic victims.
The War Reporter
by Martin Fletcher Thomas Dunne Books, 2015, Hardcover, 306 pages, $25.99.
Single Handed
by Daniel M. Cohen Berkley Publishing Group, 2015, hardcover, 448 pages, $27.95.
When President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Tibor Rubin in 2005, the ceremony was long overdue. The only Holocaust survivor to receive America’s highest military distinction, Tibor’s valor in battle and Chinese military camp prisoner experience qualified him for the medal in 1954, but the paperwork was never filed. Filmmaker, journalist, and film critic Daniel M. Cohen’s riveting war memoir brings Rubin’s inspiring story to the public for the first time. Beginning with his early life in Hungary and years at the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp, Cohen show how inventiveness, bravery, and concern for others saved Rubin and the many others he helped.
Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel
National Jewish Book Award winner and by Dan Ephron well-known TV news correspondent, MarW.W. Norton & Company, tin Fletcher’s new novel traces a journalist’s 2015, hardcover, 336 pages, mission to document the atrocities of Bos$27.95. nian war criminal Ratko Mladic. Protected A chilling reminder of how an by shadowy figures that have prevented assassin’s bullet can alter the course of his arrest for a decade, Mladic turns his history, Dan Ephron’s book documents henchmen full force on the journalist and the two years leading up to Yitzak the beautiful interpreter that he loves. Rabin’s assassination from the eyes of both Rabin and his killer, 25-year-old Drawing on his own experience as a war reporter in Bosnia and Sarajelaw student Yigal Amir. It shows that while the world’s admiration of vo, Fletcher brings authentic and chilling realism to his novel. Called “An Rabin included a Nobel Peace Prize, his policies deepened the internal Engrossing if unsettling thriller … a page-turner” by Publishers Weekly, The divide between left and right and galvanized Israel’s Jewish extremists. War Reporter depicts the life-and-death realities of war correspondents.
52 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
New books by Oregon authors Compiled by Polina Olsen
Embracing a Western Identity: Jewish Oregonians, 1849-1950
by Ellen Eisenberg Oregon State University Press, 2012, paperback, 292 pages, $24.95.
Music Soothes the Soul
by Matthew Bernstein Waldorf Publishing, 2015, hardcover, $29.95.
Willamette University American History Professor Ellen Eisenberg first of her two-volume project on The Jews of Oregon traces the Jewish experience from its mid-19th century pioneer beginnings to its strong ethnic neighborhoods 100 years later. Through six well-crafted essays: Pioneers and Native Sons; Go West, Young Mensch: Composition of a Community; The Heart of the Community: Neighborhood House; A Jewish Vote?Class, Ethnicity, and Politics; A Western Exception: Zionism and Anti-Zionism; and The Color of Community, she challenges the traditional view that the authentic Jewish experience in American stems from New York.
Based on his popular weekly Oregon Music News column, Matthew Bernstein’s new book brings the personal stories of 70 musicians, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs to life as they discuss how music impacts their lives. Learn how Chaka Khan and Dave Wakeling got their start, and how nonprofits like Guitars Not Guns help at-risk youth. Tom Lauderdale of Pink Martini talks about his adoption and the influence of greats like Ray Charles and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. “Matthew brings to life the personal insights and experiences an amazing collection of artists have shared,” writes Lynn Robinson, the executive director of The Fender Music Foundation. “Taking this journey… will open your eyes to why music matters.”
Nothing is Promised
by Marjorie E. Belson 2014, paperback, 191 pages, $12.99. From her terrifying diagnosis of breast cancer, though a bilateral mastectomy, Portlander Marjorie E. Belson chronicles the joy of survival amid a series of enveloping catastrophes. Just one month after her surgery, 9/11 devastates New York, where she then lives, and her son is deployed to the Persian Gulf. Still, Marjorie prevails finding joy, meaning and deepening relationships. “Her memoir,” says reviewer Daniel R. Foitl, MD, “… was inspiring from page one.”
Between You and Me
by Scott Nadelson Engine Books, 2015, paperback, 256 pages, $15.95. Oregon Book Award winner Scott Nadelson’s latest novel shows how the urban middle-age bachelor Paul Haberman’s life reshapes after his marriage to an attractive suburbanite. Progressing chapter to chapter in two-year increments, the book begins at a Passover Seder hosted by Paul’s cousin in New Jersey. Here, he meets divorcee Cynthia, who is far sexier than anyone the 23-year-old typically dates. Through weekly trips to the movies, bar mitzvahs, Jewish federation galas and Hadassah meetings, Between You and Me is entertaining and moving as it shows how family relationships evolve over time. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 53
Arts & Entertainment
Gabriel Kahane joins Brooklyn Rider for Portland concert L.A. Philharmonic, using my grandmother’s Portland’5 Presents and Chamber Mudiaries as a basis for my own text.” sic Northwest present the game-changing The quartet, whom the New York Times string quartet Brooklyn Rider with Gabripraised for “its consistent refinement, el Kahane in Portland on Nov. 16 in The globe-spanning stylistic range, and do-itNewmark Theatre. yourself gumption,” will perform selections Hailed as “the future of chamber from Kahane’s “Come on all you Ghosts” for music” (Strings), Brooklyn Rider performs string quartet and voice and “Bradbury Studeclectic repertoire in arresting perfories,” his recent essay for string quartet based mances that have attracted legions of fans on the song “Bradbury (304 Broadway),” and and rave reviews from classical, world, Brooklyn Rider selections from his much-lauded 2014 Sony and rock critics alike. The brilliant young release, “The Ambassador.” Also included are singer-songwriter and composer Gabriel selections from the Brooklyn Rider album Almanac of its eclecKahane (who appeared at CMNW in 2013) meets the dynamic tic repertoire and Schubert’s great Rosamunde Quartet. string quartet Brooklyn Rider for a night of deeply absorbing In its 45th season, Chamber Music Northwest serves thoumusic. sands of people in Oregon and SW Washington with exceptionGabriel has written commissioned works for the Kronos Quartet and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he spoke about al chamber music through 100 events annually. Portland’5 Centers for the Arts includes the Keller Auditothe later commission last year in an interview with the Jewish rium, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and Antoinette Hatfield Independent: “I definitely identify as Jewish, maybe more culturally and philosophically than religiously. … My grandmother, Hall, comprising the Newmark Theatre, Dolores Winningstad Theatre, and Brunish Theatre. All are public facilities owned by and all of her immediate family, fled the Nazis in 1939 and settled in Los Angeles. The story of her flight by boat was the the City of Portland. For more information visit portland5.com or cmnw.org. impulse for my piece Orinoco Sketches, which I wrote for the
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Ask
A Nosh of Jewish Wisdom:
Truth wears a halo. Last minute request puts wedding officiant on the spot Dear Helen:
Many years ago I got a lay certification to perform weddings. The first few I performed were for my own children; then for children of friends; then for peers who remarried. Happily, a career as a teacher and an avocation as a poet make me well qualified to perform a meaningful wedding. I’ve performed a dozen by now and charge a very modest fee. Many are for couples in mixed marriages, who do not want either partner’s religion to dominate, but like the idea of a spiritual event with elements from both and lots of universal thoughts and imagery. I meet with the couple several times before we come to a final decision about the actual words. This weekend, just before the ceremony began, the mother of the bride came to me and pressed a paper in my hand, saying, “This is my daughter’s favorite prayer. Please read it in the ceremony.” And then she walked away. Let’s just say that my ceremonies do not include “Jesus Our Lord” as a key element as this request did. There was no time to talk to the bride, so I omitted the prayer, as we had not agreed to it. The mother, who was ostensibly paying me, was very rude at the reception and said meanly “That’ll cost you your fee!” I did not mention it to the couple, but the wife sent me an apology and a check. What can I do to avoid this in the future? Officiant
Dear Officiant:
You can add two elements to your planning process. While you are meeting with the future marrieds, tell them this story as an example of things that can “go wrong and mar your happy day.” Say you do not want to disappoint anyone, but that you do what you do very intentionally to avoid religious observance, in part because you are not an officially certified representative of any religion, and in part because it's not who you are, what you do, or what you think they are looking for. Show them examples of ceremonies you have performed, and, menu-like, allow them to help craft the ceremony in a way that pleases all of you. If they want to include religious references, you can choose to decline the honor or agree to officiate. Follow up with an agreement that specifies what they have agreed to in the service, and with a list of things you commit to doing and also will not agree to do. Include a handout for them to share with their close family about the tone of the service and your collective understanding that because various traditions will be represented, nothing that feels exclusionary will be in the service. Suggest that family members can say whatever they want in the toasting that will be part of the reception. My guess is that the future marrieds will insulate you from these relatives. You might also consider collecting your fee before the ceremony.
Helen
Dear Helen:
A friend wants to visit, but only with her dog, who sheds. The last time she visited I had an office, but now I work out of my home. I’m not allergic, but my clients may be. I am not enthused about dog hair everywhere. I'd like to see her, but haven’t been able to convince her to leave the pooch at home, “because he’s a companion animal.” She’s always had high anxiety but yikes! Where to draw the line? Grinch?
Dear Grinch:
You have the right to say “No.” Or “Let’s Skype more!” She likely won’t be happy with anything but “Yes.” So agree to something that makes you both happy. Meet in the middle for a fun weekend in a place that welcomes pets. You're probably better off in a rustic or coastal setting where you can schmooze and stroll while the dog explores. But there are lots of happy city dogs and dog parks. Good friends communicate honestly. Work it out and be happy together. Helen claims to have black belts in schmoozing, problemsolving 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/
When Experience Matters JOE MENASHE
Managing Principal Broker Serving Portland Metro area buyers and sellers for 23 years
503-784-1855
JoeMenashe@RealtyTrust.com
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 55
An Oregonian in Israel
Mourning Moti Kirshenbaum By Mylan Tanzer
One day after his 76th birthday, the dean of Israeli satire, Moti Kirshenbaum, died suddenly of a heart attack. This column is dedicated to him – not only for his groundbreaking role in introducing political satire into Israeli society and creating Israeli television, but for his long, exceptional and diverse career that became, as one of his many colleagues wrote, “the script of the drama that is Israel over the last 45 years.” Satirists who serve as co-hosts/analysts of daily and often controversial news analysis programs are rarely figures of universal popularity, especially in a country as polarized as Israel. Moti filled that role from 2003 until the day he died, literally minutes before he was to go on the air for his weekly radio sports segment (sports was one of Moti’s passions). Yet in the hours and days following his shocking death at his home in the small coastal community of Mikhmoret, a consensus about Moti emerged. Eulogies, including those from the prime minister and president, competed for completely justified superlatives. The sadness of people from all social, ethnic and political segments of society was absolutely authentic. Moti had that extra ingredient that despite his cynicism and criticism, which spared no one, turned him into someone whom absolutely everyone seemed to love. Columnist Ben Caspit described this love: “(Moti) … had a kind of nonchalant Israeli familiarity that made him the ultimate sachbak” (Hebrew slang taken from an Arabic word literally meaning your friend, and used to express someone who displays camaraderie, chumminess, folksiness, etc.). He was a sachbak even though in his essence, he was a biting satirist, an outspoken journalist and a sometimes rough around the edges, always no-holds-barred commentator. In my opinion, he was the Israeli hybrid of Norman Lear, Lorne Michaels, Edward R. Murrow and Woody Allen, with a bit of Michael Palin of Monty Python fame rolled in. Moti was born in 1939 in Kfar Saba to Polish immigrants, who were able to acquire British mandate immigration certificates to enter British-controlled, pre-state Israel. He claimed the foundations of his sharp social and political insights came from his childhood. He described his hardworking father, who peddled shoes, as someone whose entire life consisted of buying goods for a little and selling them for a little more in order to survive. He graduated from the Pardes Hanna Agricultural High School and served in the IDF Nahal unit’s parachute brigade. He went to Los Angeles in 1963 to attend UCLA’s School of Film and Television and work as a stringer for the Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper. As he became known through his parttime writing, he was asked to return to Israel before completing his studies to help establish the Israel Broadcasting Authority, 56 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
which was the first Israeli television channel. He quickly became one of the most important and influential correspondents and editors at the fledgling station, creating and producing many of the first IBA documentary films. The Yom Kippur War caught him on sabbatical in New York. Like tens of thousands of others, he boarded the first plane back. Hours after landing he was in the Golan Heights with a cameraman filing some of the most dramatic, daring and heart-wrenching footage gathered throughout the war. His ability to translate the trauma into reports that a shocked and stunned nation could absorb prompted the director-general of the IBA to ask him to become chief editor of the nightly news, which was in complete disarray due to the war. After rehabilitating the department and creating a dynamic and modern news operation, Moti began the phase in his career that built his persona. His creative abilities allowed him to channel the trauma of the war and his massive disillusionment into the creation of “Nikui Rosh” (literally translated as “a head cleaning”), the first satirical program ever produced in Israel. First broadcast in 1974, the series immediately generated immense interest and controversy. Prior to “Nikui Rosh,” mainstream dissent against the government line – whether political, social or cultural – simply did not happen. Our leaders were considered almost infallible, and any critique was considered to be motivated by personal or political interests. The aftermath of the war shattered that illusion. As the writer, creator and director of the show, he gathered a young and fairly anonymous group of actors including Rivka Michaeli, Tuvia Tzafrir, Dubi Gal and the late Sefi Rivlin, who rode the success of the program to become some of the most popular stars of Israeli entertainment for decades to come. His “Saturday Night Live” type of format of sketches radically and permanently changed Israeli humor. The program filled the void created by the dissonance between the government line and post-war reality. As pre-war ideas were shattered, the different dialogue of “Nikui Rosh” achieved an impact far beyond simply a fresh, entertaining and humorous weekly show. Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and others openly criticized the program, cementing its iconic status. Since IBA was the only television channel at that time, anything broadcast on the channel was seen by virtually the entire population. (A program like this funded, produced and broadcast on state-owned TV is a sign of Israel’s true democratic nature, and a freedom I hope will not be limited in the future.) In 1976 “Nikui Rosh” won the Israel Award for television, cinema and radio, the highest honor given for such a program. The program enabled Moti to express his sharp wit and tongue through his ability to construct short and ironic moments that contained everything that is good and bad here. He had a unique insight and talent to conceive and implement a concise satirical vision far more significant than the pompous political statements
that previously dominated the public domain. Feeling that the program had achieved its aim, Moti moved on. Throughout the ’80s he continued working at the IBA while also continuing to work independently on other projects. His weekly IBA segments were humorous, poignant and precise diagnoses of the country, its diverse people, unexpected landscape and surprising wildlife (nature was another of his passions). His Friday night news program was the most highly watched of the week. In 1993 Moti was asked by the late Shulamit Aloni, who was then education minister with responsibility for the IBA, to return as director-general. The IBA had become a bloated stateowned bureaucracy and was once again in disarray. It was unable to compete following the introduction of rival commercial Channel Two and Cable TV in 1991. It was at this time, during my tenure as CEO of the Sports Channel, that I met Moti for the first time. Meetings with him were memorable. His booming voice, complete lack of formality, professional insights and love of sports – but mostly his dry, understated, self-deprecating sense of humor – had us holding our sides. He made it a pleasure to travel to Jerusalem and enter the obsolete and somewhat depressing labyrinth of the IBA building. In 1997 Kirshenbaum’s IBA tenure ended. He continued to write, produce and direct. With the establishment of the new commercial Channel 10 in 2003, Moti and IBA veteran Yaron London, a talented and intellectually brilliant presenter and writer, launched the daily news analysis program aptly titled, “London and Kirshenbaum.” These two respected village elders, who complemented each other completely, gave a perfect platform for those who already knew and loved Moti and for a whole new generation to be exposed to his gifts. Over the years, I occasionally saw Moti, but I felt like I was in constant contact with him because wherever I was – in the office, at home, travelling – I always made it a point to watch the program, either live at 6 pm, the repeat at midnight or on-demand on my computer. It gave me a true, direct and witty understanding not only of the day’s news, but of our situation in general, which no matter how bad, Moti knew how to convey in a warm, informal, non-patronizing and of course humorous way. He allowed you to get the perspective necessary to be able to sleep at night, just like a father tries to not to hide reality from his children, but who packages it in a way that gives perspective and hope. If you understand any Hebrew, it is worth viewing segments from the program on YouTube to see how zany, offthe-wall, brash and facetious two 70+ presenters can be, while still offering an in-depth and very serious news show. Without a doubt, “London and Kirshenbaum” was the closest thing Israel had to Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” The contrast between London’s animated, emotional antics and Kirshenbaum’s stoic, sphinx-like posturing was the mainstay of the program. Channel 10’s political correspondent Nadav Perry, who regularly appeared on the show, called his tribute to Moti “A Song of Praise to Sanity.” He wrote, “Moti had seen it all. The young ‘kids’ in the studio would get all excited about the latest coalition crisis or statement by Iran’s supreme leader. Yaron would scream or get angry at the latest scandal or of the insensitivity and stupidity of the government, and Moti was just there. His left hand perched on the handle of his chair, watching from the side, his eyes half open. When the drama would reach its peak, everyone would look over at Moti who would summarize everything in one short and ironic sentence that would cause everyone to crack up and
would be the only thing that anyone would remember from the item.” In addition to the program, Moti owned a production company with his three sons and continued to produce award-winning documentaries, travelling the globe to remote locations such as Antarctica, South Sudan and the Caucuses to portray these locations in the unique way only he could. He travelled throughout Africa to produce a series of wildlife documentaries about some of the most intriguing and endangered species of wildlife. Ben Caspit described the unique angle that Moti brought to his wildlife documentaries: “Moti’s love of wildlife thrilled me each time anew. His ability to humanize a zebra, or a gnu or a gorilla, to crack a joke in its presence, was wondrous.” At the time of his death, Moti was in the production process of a new documentary filmed in South America. Of all the sad and mournful eulogies, the two that resonated most deeply were from his loving grandchildren and his sidekick, Yaron London, who said, “I have never had a relationship with anyone like I had with Moti. I will never have a relationship for the rest of my life like I had with Moti. We knew what each other was thinking, we could complete the sentences of the other. The dynamic, both on-screen and off-screen continued to grow from day-to-day. I feel blessed to have had such a relationship, but I feel lost without it. I have lost my brother. It hurts. I am alone.” More than anyone, London knew what made Moti tick: “He loved his people, his country, its nature and although he was not evil, he showed no mercy to those who tarnished the beauty of Israel and what it should be… In these moments, the humorous banter in the studio comes back to my mind. The PA’s would joke that they better know how to administer emergency care in case one of us croaks in the studio, or how the younger talent would ask us when we were planning on vacating the presenters chairs. Moti would answer, that we will never retire while we are at the top. We will only leave on a stretcher.” Just like loved ones who die suddenly and create an overwhelming vacuum, Moti Kirshenbaum left this world while he was a daily part of my life, until the last moment of his life. He was the ultimate storyteller of Israeli society. His satirical sense of humor and intellectual courage also made him one of the main pillars of Israeli journalism. No matter how bad the situation or the event, as long as Moti was around and commenting on events, things seemed to be under control. You could depend on Moti, but he left without saying goodbye. I have no doubt that is precisely the way he wanted it. He died doing what he loved, entertaining and educating us in his own special way. He was the last person who would have willingly retired. He wouldn’t have been able to stand all of the praise. He is sorely missed.
Mylan Tanzer is a Portland native who moved to Israel in 1981. He was the founding CEO of the first Israeli cable and satellite sports channel. Since 2005, he has launched, managed and consulted for channels and companies in Israel and Europe. Tanzer lives in Tel Aviv with his wife and five children. He can be reached at mylantanz@gmail.com. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 57
g n i Liv
Inside
58 Growing strong at OSU 60 Building an Ark 62 FACES 63: David Fuks has gone fishin’ 65 Previews 66 Calendar
58 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Hillel grows strong at OSU Last year the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland provided a start-up three-year grant of $30,000 to help launch Hillel at Oregon State University. Under the professional leadership of Oregon Hillel Foundation Executive Director Andy Gitelson and his team at Oregon Hillel, the program has quickly gotten off the ground. “Given that we are able to provide a staff member on campus one day a week we are thrilled beyond words with the growth that we have seen in connecting Jewish students and building Jewish student life at the University of Oregon over the past year,” says Andy. The following letter from OSU Hillel Student President Leah Chasin (Class of 2018) explains the dramatic growth of the Hillel at OSU: One year ago, as I walked around Oregon State University’s Beaver Community Fair, I desperately searched for a club or organization I could call home – specifically a place for Jewish students to get together, since that was something I was familiar with. There was no table set up for such group. At the end of the fair I hadn't found any clubs that really grabbed my interests and felt I would never find my niche. However I did my research and found out that Hillel existed and was rebuilding and I jumped in wholeheartedly. A year later, I found myself once again at the welcoming Beaver Community Fair, but this time I was standing there with Hillel. I loved meeting all the new people and inviting them to our events later that week. By far the highlight of that day was when a faculty member came up to the table and in shock said, "I've been here for three years! Where have you guys been all this time?" He could not be happier to see a Jewish student organization making a name for itself on the quad. From carpooling down to Eugene to celebrate Yom Kippur services to a hysterical bagel brunch in a gorgeous room on campus that I had no clue existed before, to our own personal portable sukkah on the quad (and enjoying “pizza in the hut,”) our welcome week has been full of opportunities for us to learn,
OSU Hillel participants invite students into their sukkah.
laugh and grow together as a Jewish community on campus. I cannot thank the people who made this all possible enough, from the student volunteers who helped build (and move!) the sukkah and Tim Stover of the Westminster House, to the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for supplying the funds to make this all possible. I can't forget the Oregon Hillel Foundation staff – Amanda Weiss, Andy Gitelson and Becca Marx – for realizing how important it was for Oregon State Jewish students to have a home away from home. And most of all, a huge thank you and welcome to all of the students who have joined us thus far this year. In the last school year, we engaged over 50 students at Oregon State University and created a goal to double that number this year through events and one-on-one interactions. Amazingly, we’ve already engaged over 50 students in our first week! So our goal has increased: we plan to engage 150 students by June 2016. I have loved meeting everyone so far and cannot wait to meet so many more Jewish students looking for a Jewish home away from home on campus! Plans now call for a full-time staff in Corvallis by the fall of 2017. “To be able to cultivate Jewish student leaders like Leah is at the core of Oregon Hillel's mission and it is why having a formal Hillel presence at Oregon State University is critical,” says Andy. For more information on OSU Hillel, contact Oregon Hillel Foundation Executive Director Andy Gitelson at andy@oregonhillel.org or 541-343-8920 ext. 101.
OSU students enjoy a bagel brunch hosted by Hillel during OSU’s welcome week.
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 59
J Living
Building an Ark
Lenny Hoffman, left, and Rabbvi Dov Bialo with the new ark
Handmade Torah ark connects generations and Jewish history
By Polina Olsen
When Lenny Hoffman moved to the Westmoreland neighborhood, Southeast Portland Chabad (jewishreed.com) near Reed College was a natural. Raised in an Orthodox home, he quickly became the shul’s shammos. He wanted to donate something special that blended simplicity, family and Judaism. A talented artist and cabinet maker, he decided to build and donate a Torah ark. Chabad installed the ark before the New Year. “My father was born in the Ukraine shtetl, Apshitza, and he passed away in 2010,” Lenny says. “He was a Holocaust survivor and fought with the partisans in Budapest. I hadn’t done anything to honor him, yet. I’d seen photos of wonderful wooden shuls in Europe and fell in love with the roof of the synagogue in Wolpa, Poland. I decided to model the crown of the Torah ark 60 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
after it.” Lenny has built furniture since his teenage years in New Mexico. He trained as a cabinet maker in the New Mexican tradition, which he says mixes crudeness and elegance. He also worked as a film light designer for Stargate Universe for 30 years, and he enjoys sculpture. His websites lennyhoffman.com and rusticmodernpdx.com display furniture as well as jewelry and Judaica. Lenny and his family moved to Portland in 2011. Now semiretired, he concentrates on his custom furniture design business while his wife, Regina Scharf, works with a United Nations program on sustainable banking. They have one 8-year-old who attends Duniway Elementary and two adult children. “We wanted to live someplace where it rained,” he says. “We’d been living in the desert for three decades. I wanted trees, a garden and the youthful arts community. And, there’s such wonderful wood here. I’ve made custom tables, a pie safe, benches and beamed buffets. I did this interesting table. The
gentleman had a long section of deck from an old ship. I designed oxbow legs out of heavy timbers.” The wood’s age and grain are central to the ark Lenny built for Chabad. The Rebuilding Center (rebuildingcenter.org) on North Mississippi Avenue donated most of the Douglas fir, which had once been in turn-of-the century Portland houses. He harvested the black walnut, maple and oak that he used for the crown from downed trees that he milled himself. He strove for simplicity and no ornamentation except for some carving in the crown section. “I worked on it for almost two years,” Lenny says. “The lumber was from trees that may have been alive when the Baal Shem Tov founded Hassidism more than 200 years ago. I preferred boards with nail and pencil marks, in reverence to
those who worked on this wood long ago.” Rabbi Dov Bialo of Southeast Portland Chabad is thrilled with the beautiful new Torah ark. “Lenny’s craftsmanship is awe inspiring,” he says. “The ark is one-of-a-kind and brings together many elements: honor, talent, local culture, history and, of course, the power of giving to the community. It brings honor to the shul. “We all know what we feel like when we dress up for a special occasion. Well, when you look at the ark you know something special is going on in this space. Most of all, Lenny donated the hundreds of hours he spent crafting the ark to his local Chabad House. It is an extraordinary thing to use one’s G-d given talents as a way to give back to the community.”
OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 61
J Living
FACES & PLACES
OPENING NIGHT –Tommy J & Sally Director Andrea White, center, and her grandmother Irene Etlinger enjoy the play’s opening night with Joanne Van Ness Menashe, director of intergroup outreach for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland. Above left, Joanne visits with actors Sarah McGregor and Marcus M. Mauldin (far right) and PassinArt Artistic Director Jerry Foster. The play continues through Nov. 8. Tickets for this powerful play tackling racial tensions are still available at passinart.net.
TALKBACK – Following the Oct. 17 performance of Tommy J & Sally, the audience participated in a talkback featuring, from left MRG Foundation Executive Director Sharon Gary-Smith, Director Andrea White, Sarah McGregor (Sally), Marcus M. Mauldin (Tommy J), Past chair of Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Community Relations Committee Sherry Fishman and Retired Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Silver. SUKKAH PARKWAYS – Mayor Charlie Hale visits Rabbi Eve Posen at Neveh Shalom’s sukkah-themed booth at Sunday Parkways. To raise issues of homelessness in Portland, the sukkah was decorated with questions forcing us to stop and remember how fortunate we are to only live in a temporary structure for eight days while others in our city must do it for much longer.
BIKING INTO NEW YEAR – Children throw birdseed into the Willamette River during Congregation Neveh Shalom’s eastside bike ride and Tashlich event, in which the sins of the previous year are symbolically cast into running water to be carried away. 62 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
SISTERS – Portlander Barb Lovre, left, joins her sister singer/songwriter Carole King, who was in town for a performance in September.
TRADITIONS – The Congregation Beth Israel choir (with Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, left, and Ron Silver in foreground) entertain attendees at the congregation’s Oct. 10 Traditions Fundraiser at the Benson Hotel. Traditions co-chairs Brad and Michelle Tonkin and Marcy Tonkin join CBI Engagement Coordinator Marisa Reby at the event.
FACES & PLACES
David Fuks has “Gone Fishing” A standing room only crowd turned out Oct. 8 for “An Evening Celebrating David Fuks” as he started his retirement after serving as CEO of Cedar Sinai Park for almost 18 years. Standing beside David, CSP Trustee Michael Feves said when he and his mother Sadie Feves, z”l, heard David in 1999 talk about all he hoped CSP could become, they thought he was nuts. But all the service and living options David spoke of have come to pass, so Michael told David, “Your mother would be proud of yo and my mother Sadie would be very proud of you.” Other speakers included CSP Board President Lance Steinberg, new CSP CEO Sandra Simon (who read a note from Jewish Federation of Greater Portland President Marc Blattner), CSP Community Life Director Kathy Walls and CSP Board President-elect Liz Rabiner Lippoff. David shows off a gift of fishing gear, which he plans to make ample use of in his retirement (at least when he’s not busy consulting or accepting stand-up comedy engagements). The MJCC ballroom erupted in applause as David accepted the gift. Jewish Theatre Collaborative actors Brian Burger and Sara Fay Goldman (along with Sam Mowry, not pictured) present the radio play “Voice of Cod,” adapted from the story by David Fuks. Both that performance and David’s encore presentation, in which he read another of his short stories, had the audience roaring with laughter as they admired yet another skill of this multi-talented man. Before and after the presentations, people lined up to congratulate, thank and hug David. David assured everyone he has no intention of leaving Portland and plans to remain engaged with the local Jewish community as a volunteer.
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PREVIEWS
MUSEUM HAS BUSY NOVEMBER SCHEDULE The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education has a very busy November planned. For more information on any of the November programs, visit ojmche.org.
Nov. 1, 1-2:30 pm: Sunday Speaker Deb Mrowka is the first of four Sunday speakers at OJMCHE during the winter months of 2015-2016. Sunday speakers are all members of OJMCHE's Holocaust Speakers' Bureau and each talk includes time afterwards to ask the speaker questions. Other speakers include Anneke Bloomfield (Dec. 6), Miriam Greenstein (Feb. 7) and Evie Banko (March 6). Deb Mrowka travels regularly to share the story of her mother, Eline Hoekstra Dresden. Eline is sometimes able to attend these presentations to offer commentary and answer questions. Eline Hoekstra Dresden was born in 1923, the youngest of four Jewish children, in The Hague, The Netherlands; two years later her family moved to Utrecht, The Netherlands. In 1939 her family took in two Jewish children whose parents had sent them away from Germany for safekeeping among strangers. After the invasion of The Netherlands, German authorities forced these two sisters to leave Eline’s family and return to the Jewish orphanage, from which they were deported to Auschwitz and murdered. Free with museum admission.
Nov. 3, 7:30 pm: Jewish Voices In 1999 OJMCHE established Jewish Voices, an annual event with readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The six writers in the 2015 program span a range of genres including fiction, science fiction, poetry and memoir. This year’s featured writers are: Bruce Barton is the author of The Book of Baruchio, poems inspired by Jewish prayer circle and study group. Upcoming books include Completion Before Perfection: Collected Poems 2000-2010 and a collection of his original short sayings. David D. Levine is the author of Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016) and over 50 science fiction and fantasy stories. His story “Tk'Tk'Tk" won the Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Sturgeon. Alicia Jo Rabins is a poet, composer, musician and Torah scholar. Her book, Divinity School, won the 2015 American Poetry Review/ Honickman First Book Prize and is published by APR/Copper Canyon. Willa Schneberg has authored five poetry collections, including In the Margins of the World, awarded the Oregon Book Award, and the letterpress chapbook The Books of Esther, produced in conjunction with her 2012 OJMCHE exhibition. Amy Schutzer is an award-winning poet and fiction writer. Her first novel, Undertow, was published by Calyx Books in 2000. Her second novel, Spheres of Disturbance, was published in spring 2014 by Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, and was a finalist for an Oregon Book Award. Debra Gordon Zaslow of Ashland is an acclaimed storyteller and author of Bringing Bubbe Home, a Memoir of Letting Go Through Love and Death. She runs a maggid training program with her husband, Rabbi David Zaslow. Ticket Info: General: $10; OJMCHE members: $8; students: $5.
Nov. 8, 1-4 pm: Confronting Extremism: The State of Hate Today Join OJMCHE for our Fall Symposium, a film screening of the 2014 film, “HATE,” followed by a conversation with the director and other guest speakers. This program will be at Portland State University CampusHoffmann Hall, 1833 SW 11th Ave.
Special guest is Nadav Eyal, acclaimed Israeli journalist and director of HATE, a documentary dramatically depicting the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The screening will be followed by a discussion with local panelists reflecting on the challenges posed by racism, extremism, hate groups and hate speech in our community. Panelists include Miriam Greenstein, Jo Ann Hardesty, Kayse Jama, Erious Johnson Jr., Natan Meir, Lorry I. Lokey, Judith Mowry, Steven Wasserstrom, Moe and Izetta Tonkon. OJMCHE is joined by 22 organizations sponsoring this program. Howard and Wendy Liebreich provided generous underwriting. No person will be turned away for inability to pay. Ticket Info: General: $20; educators and students with ID: $8.
Nov. 12, 7 pm: Frank's Song “Frank's Song,” a documentary film by David Bee tells the story of Frank Wesley, who began playing saxophone at the age of 70. Learning the jazz melodies of his youth in the 1930s and 40's made him happy and soon he was playing them on his porch, sharing these songs with his bustling neighborhood in Portland. Ticket Info: General: $10; OJMCHE members: $8; students: $5.
Nov. 15, 1-3 pm: Opening Reception Reception for two new exhibits opening at the museum. Pointing the Way: The Art of the Torah Pointer and Surviving Remnants
Nov. 15-Feb. 28, 2016 Pointing the Way: The Art of the Torah Pointer. The Barr Foundation has assembled a remarkable collection of antique and contemporary Torah pointers, known by the Hebrew word yad, literally “hand” in English. Created by artists from different ages and cultures and of diverse materials including wood, precious metals, jewels, ceramics and paper, these yads chronicle the timeless, universal aesthetic guide in reading the Torah.
Surviving Remnants: Photography by Elizabeth Collings of Damaged Crimean Torah Scrolls In 1990 members of a medical delegation from Willamette University returned from a visit to the Crimean city of Simferopol with two large paper sacks filled with fragments of Torah scrolls. Simferopol had been the center of Jewish life in Crimea for centuries. In 1941 the Nazis captured Simferopol. Members of the medical delegation brought the Torah scrolls to Congregation Beth Israel in Portland. Deemed beyond repair, the scrolls were scheduled to be buried in the synagogue cemetery, in accordance with Jewish tradition. Before the burial, photographer Elizabeth Collings worked with educator Jan Rabinowitch to trace their history and document their condition. In the spring of 1995 Beth Israel religious school children buried most of the scrolls in a small memorial garden in the Beth Israel cemetery.
Nov. 17, 7 pm: The Port of Last Resort: Zuflucht in Shanghai The Port of Last Resort: Zuflucht in Shanghai is the little-known story of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai presented through the recollections of four former refugees, and a collage of evocative materials: personal and published writings, relief reports, secret documents, rare home movies, photographs, newsreels and propaganda films. After the film we will hold a conversation around experiences in Shanghai, focused on local survivors and their descendants. The museum will also feature a small display of artifacts related to Jewish life in Shanghai. This film is presented as part of Portland Jewish Book Celebration: Many Stories, One Community and is sponsored with the Institute for Judaic Studies and Havurah Shalom. Ticket Info: Public: $10; OJMCHE, IJS and Havurah members: $8; students: $5. OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 65
NOVEMBER CALENDAR Through Nov. 8
Nov. 2-3
Tommy J & Sally, a two-character play exploring racial tensions. 7:30 pm Fridays and Saturdays, 3 pm Sundays. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstae, Portland. Tickets $25. passinart. net or 503-235-8079
“Aflame – An Album of Jewish Radicalism.” Staged reading at 7:30 pm at the Milagro Theatre. First program for this season’s Jewish Theatre Collaborative Page2Stage exploration of Davita’s Harp. Jewishtheatrecollaborative.org
Cuba Libre. At Artists Repertory Theatre. Artistsrep.org
Nov. 3
Through November Jewish Book Celebration. See page 51
Jewish Meditation Circle. Noon-1 pm every Tuesday. We’ll start with a brief teaching and/or song, and then sit together in silence. We’ll end with brief optional hevruta (Jewish study) sharing. Led by Deborah Eisenbach-Budner and community members. 503-2484662, ext. 5
OJMCHE events. See page 65
Nov. 2 Willa Schneberg will be readings with editor Carolyn L. Wright and Oregon contributors Barbara Drake, Barbara LaMorticella and Penelope Scambly Schott from the anthology Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace. 7 pm at Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Portland. broadwaybooks.net/event/ raising-lilly-ledbetter-women-poets-occupy-workspace
Jewish Voices. See page 64
Nov. 4 Portland Jewish Academy Open House. Interested families invited to see our school and our students in action. 10 am tours in early childhood, lower and middle
school. Details, call Director of Admission Inge Hoogerhuis, 503244-0126
Nov. 5 Readings from Raising Lilly Ledbetter. (see details under Nov. 2 listing). 7 pm at Mother's Foucault's Bookshop, 523 SE Morrison, Portland. Talmud class each Thursday at 7:30 pm at Congregation Shaarie Torah, 920 NW 25th Ave., Portland. Free. 503-226-6131
Nov 8 Jewish Community Orchestra performs at the MJCC at 3 pm. One of the pieces to be performed is "Trois Poemes Juifs" by Jewish composer Earnest Bloch. 503244-0111 In honor of Jewish Book Month, come celebrate Books and Bagels in our beautiful PJA library. For ages 3 to 8. Sponsored by MJCC, PJ Library, PJA. 12:30-2pm at PJA, 6651 SW Capitol Hwy.,Portland. Free. 503-244-0111 Caring for People with Dementia. 1:30-3 pm at Rose Schnitzer Manor. RSVP: 503-535-4004 or roseschnitzermanor.org
Nov. 13 FILM: What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy. Begins today at Living Room Theaters, 341 SW 10th, Portland. 971-222-2010
Nov. 14 William Shatner in a Benefit for the Future. See page 14 A New Spiritual Voice Through Music with Rabbi Andrew Hahn, the “Kirtan Rabbi.” Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N Mountain, Ashland. 541-535-3562 or email us at info@ stclairevents.com
Nov. 15
FIND YOUR PLACE
A community for learning and exploring. Robust and welcoming adult study at every level of know-how.
Riverdale High School open house at 9727 SW Terwilliger Blvd., Portland. 503-262-4847 or riverdaleschool.com Workshop: Deepening Your Experience of Kirtan with Rabbi Andrew Hahn, the “Kirtan Rabbi.” 10 am-1 pm at Temple Emek Shalom, 1800 E Main, Ashland. 541-535-3562 or email us at info@stclairevents.com
Nov. 16 Gabriel Kahane and Brooklyin Rider concert. See page 54 66 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
Nov. 18 Spilt Milk comedy show. See page 49
Nov. 19 Shalom Sensations for Babies introduces you and your baby to a world of rich and varied sensory experiences. 2:15-3:15 pm at Maayan Torah Day School, 2900 SW Peaceful Lane Portland. Limited space available. efischer@ maayanpdx.org
Nov. 20 “Rosenwald” opens in Portland on at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave. Julius Rosenwald never finished high school but rose to become the president of Sears. Influenced by the writings of the educator Booker T. Washington, this Jewish philanthropist joined forces with African American communities during the Jim Crow South to build over 5,300 schools during the early part of the 20th century. For showtimes, visit cinema21.com A Little Shabbat presented by Congregation Shaarie Torah and PJ Library. Appropriate for families with children in preschool, 2 years and older. 5-6:30 pm third Friday of the Month. 503-226-6131
Nov. 22 Thanksgiving Food Boxes: Assembly and delivery. To volunteer, donate or learn more, contact Carrie Kaufman at Jewish Family and Child Service, 503-226-7079, ext. 118 or ckaufman@jfcs-portland.org
Nov 30 A Night with Shoshana Bean - The Institute for Judaic Studies and Congregation Neveh Shalom announce the second of the “Fruit of the Vine” series, highlighting accomplished talent and scholars who were brought up in our very community. 7 pm at Congregation Neveh Shalom. Broadway acclaimed singer, actress and songwriter Shoshanah Bean, best known for playing Elphaba in the musical Wicked, will be speaking about her career path. 503-2468831
Dec. 1 GivingTuesday. Jewish Federation of Greater Portland hosts a phonea-thon at the MJCC and a volunteer activity at the Oregon Food Bank. See page 24
L U X U RY E L E VAT E D peArl DisTriCT
% 85 SOL D
The Cosmopolitan 28 stories of bold, modernistic brushstrokes.
southwest view of the Cosmopolitan
Prices range from
$424,000 to $3,000,000+ now selling • showroom open 10-5 m-f, 11-5 s-s or by appointment
1130 NW 10th at Northrup • Portland, Oregon 503.227.2000 • cosmopolitanpearl.com OREGON JEWISH LIFE | NOVEMBER 2015 67
strategic thinking about wealth Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management has been helping ultra-high net worth individuals, their families and foundations plan for and grow their wealth for decades. Based in New York City, the Family Wealth Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management is a specialized team of interdisciplinary strategic advisors providing a full range of family office services to meet the complex needs of the UHNW marketplace. These services include financial & investment planning, estate & family succession planning, philanthropic advisory and administrative services. The Family Wealth Group is headed by Robert Stolar, a Managing Director and Private Wealth Advisor. Drawing on three decades of investment & financial planning experience, Robert has earned various distinctions within the wealth advisory community, including recognition by Barron’s as one of the top 100 advisors in the country for 2015. Robert Stolar
Managing Director Private Wealth Advisor 522 Fifth Avenue, 10th Floor New York, NY 10036 212-296-6704 robert.stolar@morganstanley.com Source: Barron’s “Top 100 Financial Advisors,” April 20, 2015. Barron’s “Top 100 Financial Advisors” bases its ratings on qualitative criteria: professionals with a minimum of seven years of financial services experience, acceptable compliance records, client retention reports, customer satisfaction, and more. Finwancial Advisors are quantitatively rated based on varying types of revenues and assets advised by the financial professional, with weightings associated for each. Because individual client portfolio performance varies and is typically unaudited, this rating focuses on customer satisfaction and quality of advice. The rating may not be representative of any one client’s experience because it reflects a sample of all of the experiences of the Financial Advisor’s clients. The rating is not indicative of the Financial Advisor’s future performance. Neither Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC nor its Financial Advisors or Private Wealth Advisors pays a fee to Barron’s in exchange for the rating. Barron’s is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company, L.P. All rights reserved. © 2015 Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, a division of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC. Member SIPC. CRC1179133 04/15 8225582 PWM001 04/15 68 NOVEMBER 2015 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE