Finally I've found a chance to scan and post some of the photos I've been shooting for the past 8 weeks for an upcoming exhibit at the Oregon Jewish Museum entitled "The Shape of Time." Here is a
link to the museum's website about the show.
Basically, the show is and exploration of Portland Jewish History by 6 different Portland photographers, each of us looking at photos from the museums archives and then going out to shoot based on our own inspiration. From what I hear each of us is doing something a little different. One photographer is focusing on cemeteries. Another is making tin-types by taking pictures old photographs from the museum's archive.
What I have been doing is wandering places that were once the sites of Portland Jewish history -- trying to photograph as if I am a ghost, or an very old man come back to find what remains of my memory. Pretty impossible stuff (especially since I have no memories of Portland's Jewish past).
I will post a few photos today, and more in the coming days - -there are still some photos I am waiting to get releases for --- because I photographed at a local Waldorf school that was once "The Neighborhood House" -- a place that served the Jewish community in SW Portland in the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's -- it is now a elementary school -- so I need to get permission from the parents to show the images with the children.
So here are some of the photos. I will need to narrow these all down to about 5 to print for the exhibit, so if you have any comments of what are your favorites, based on my goal, please let me know.
This first one above is of Mory -- he is a Persian Jewler -- I went wandering through this really old building in downtown Portland (Willamette Bldg, on SW Third Ave) that is the home to about a couple dozen jewlers -- looking for someone who could tell me about Portland's Jewish history, hoping to find a link to a Jewish jewler in the past. Mory was the oldest guy I could find -- he's not Jewish -- actually Muslim -- but he talked to me about days gone by for hours -- told me stories about many Portland Jews he had done business with over the years, and about his own history as an emigrant from Iran, coming to New York City first, then moving out to Portland in the 50's to find a better life. (this is a very similar story to that of the Ashkenazi migration to Portland in the earlier in 20th century -- most all came thru NYC and Ellis Island, and then moved out west to Portland in search of better opportunity.)
Mory also told me a long story about a young Jewish man he had counseled years ago, a Jewish student at Reed College who was from New York City, who was in love with a young Gentile woman from Portland, on how to win his parents approval for his decison to marry the woman, have a child with her, and raise it here in Portland. It was a beautiful story about how he told the young man to take his parents (after convincing them to come out to Portland to meet his bride and child) to show them all the beautiful natural spots in Oregon -- to the Columbia River Gorge and to Bagby hot springs and up to the top of Mt. Hood -- and then to cook them home cooked meals every night with all the delicious foods that are grown here. The parents were so impressed with how happy their son was, and what a good home their grandchild had, that they not only gave their approval for the marriage, but also decided to move out to Portland to be near their son's family, and enjoy the "better lifestyle." The story brought tears to my eyes.
Mory said it really doesn't matter what religion people are brought up with, or believe in, but rather "...it's what you do for other people that counts."
Most of the Eastern European Jews who emmigrated to Porland in the early 20th Century settled in SW Portland. The neighborhood thrived until the late 50's or early 60's, when it was torn down as part of the city's first urban renewal plan. There were many synagogues and Kosher deli's and bakeries and schools and a place called the Neighnborhood house, which was like a community center for the neighborhood.
Above, and below are a few shots I shot in the neighborhood as it appears now.
these first couple above and the one that is just below are just below the Naito Pkwy, and just above Interstate 5 and the Ross Island bridge. This would be the southern-most end of the old Portland Jewish shtetl -- now, as you can see, grassy highway medians and overgrown blackberry bushes -- home to more than few homeless individuals. (in case you can't make it out, the two shots above show a homeless person's tent and boots as the sun rises early one morning).
Congregation Kesser Israel was founded in 1916 and built their synagogue on the corner of SW 2nd Ave and Meade Street. the building still stands, but is now houses the Christian "Church of all Nations" congregation. They gave me permission to photograph there one recent Sunday morning. Here are three shots. The first in the main chapel before the service. The second shot is of church elders praying up in the tower room of the building before the service. The last of these is a painting I found in a back room off the main chapel of Armageddon.
And the last bunch for today, a few random shots from around SW Portland. This first one is a man I bumped into down by an old Greyound terminal on Corbett Avenue.
This next shot below is of him walking away from me, north towards downtown, past the old terminal (he asked me if I knew how to get to downtown from there -- he said he had already walked all the way from Beaverton -- a very long way -- very strange...);
the next shot below is a couple of homeless men (I guess) pushing a shopping cart full of junk across SW First Avenue, I'm shooting through the windshield of my truck;
And the next below is the shipping and receiving door on the side of an old buisiness on the northeast corner of Arthur St. and First Avenue;
and last of this bunch is a road sign showing the intersection of Baker and Water St. -- this would be on the Northern bank of the old Marquam Gulch as it ran down to the Willamette (there was a gulch that ran from the west hills of Portland thru the middle of the Jewish neighborhood, down to the river; many Jews lived along it).
Oh, I have to post one more today, sorry, but this is too good to pass up! -- this was shot on Saturday -- Halloween -- the first year of what is supposed to become an annual tradition for a group of Portlanders -- to play soccer in Halloween costumes at Duniway Park. This is just to west of what was the heart of the old Jewish neighborhood, in an area that used to be the Marquam Gulch (if I'm reading my maps and geography correct).
