The Jewish Oregon Story, 1950–2010 by Ellen Eisenberg

Abstract

OHQ vol. 118, no. 2 288 economic peer groups — and distant from the establishment politics of elite Jewish politicians — at important junctures patricians and immigrants drew together in what might be called a progressive Jewish politics. As the chapter 5 title suggests, “A Western Exception” documents why, unlike other western cities such as San Francisco, a strong anti-Zionist movement never emerged in Portland. Eisenberg points to the crucial role of Rabbi Stephen Wise, who served in Portland only briefly but left a deep imprint on communal sensibilities. The final chapter of the book explores Portland Jews’ relationship to the city’s racial minorities — Nikkei and African-Americans — arguing that “although Jewish Oregonians had a history of expressing support for civil rights in the abstract, negotiating local issues . . . continued to present challenges” (p. 215). Eisenberg’s vibrant prose draws in readers, and her authorial voice is not only persuasive but also evinces sympathy to her subjects. NATAN M. MEIR Portland State University THE JEWISH OREGON STORY, 1950–2010 by Ellen Eisenberg Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2016. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 336 pages. $24.95, paper. This detailed study of Jewish life and activities in Oregon focuses primarily on their experiences as an ethnic community in Portland where the vast majority of Jews in the state reside. The narrative takes the Jewish story from that of a small, fairly isolated group to its present position as an active and recognized force in Oregon society. Ellen Eisenberg traces how the community developed its local history and identity as a selfconscious social group in Portland. She gives particular attention to how women shifted their personal identities and actions from domestic to public spheres. Then she uses Jewish women’s ties to the non–sectarian League of Women Voters to demonstrate their shift to embracing the changes in the roles of middle-class American women during the past six decades. In Portland, the analysis posits two broad themes as changing the local social situation. First, it shows how the rising Black Power movement and calls for Black Nationalism pushed Jews and other liberals away from the broad national civil rights movement in the late 1960s. At the same time, but not necessarily related to that shift, an increase in young, collegeeducated Jews moved into the Pacific Northwest . This brought more secular people into the community, and by 2000, only one third of the Jews claimed to have any religious affiliation while nearly half of the community reported having only a cultural ethnic identity. This influx of outsiders nudged the staid, established ethnic leaders to shift their goals and tactics gradually in order to incorporate the newcomers. These two trends occurred while urban renewal destroyed most of the historic South Portland Jewish neighborhood. This forced the residents of that area to move into two other parts of the city, as they resettled in communities on the southwest and northwest sides of the city. As the renewal razed the long-established neighborhood, its citizens worked to gather and memorialize its history through reminiscences and interviews with long-time residents. The author uses much of this material to show how physical disruption of the traditional ethnic neighborhood and the increasing social changes brought a new acceptance of Jews in Portland. The author describes one phase in the story as looking outward and joining local reforms such as school desegregation, civic work with the League of Women Voters, and membership in formerly exclusively nonJewish clubs. Eisenberg then demonstrates that the 1967 Six Day War abruptly ended this move toward community involvement as the Israeli victory brought a wave of ethnic pride. The narrative notes that this event “came to represent a watershed in American Jewish history; in its wake Israel came to occupy the center of what it meant to be an American Jew” (p. 170). This brought a renewed interest in international ethnic matters, particularly the treatment of Soviet Jewry and 289 Reviews efforts to encourage and support immigration, which attracted many largely secular eastern European Jews less interested in religion than in social and economic opportunity to Portland. Throughout the narrative the author analyzes the Oregon Jewish experience clearly, and her data...