Yesterday our community lost a true woman of valor. Alice Turtledove Meyer was a native Oregonian, born and raised in Portland. She lived a life of community building and fierce activism. Numerous organizations benefited from her tireless and dedicated volunteerism.
Perhaps – and unequivocally from our vantage point – Alice’s crowning achievement began in 1989 when she and Rabbi Joshua Stampfer worked together to found the Oregon Jewish Museum. Alice served as the first president and chaired numerous committees over the years. As a chair of the exhibition committee, Alice spearheaded the museum’s first major exhibition, “Echoes: A Century Survey,” the work of Arnold Mesches. Three years running, Alice chaired the Gala dinner and art auction. Alice was also active in the Oregon Jewish Historical Society and eventually served on the board of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center, which merged with the Oregon Jewish Museum in 2014. Alice’s consummate chairing of the committee overseeing the publication of Ellen Eisenberg’s landmark history of Oregon Jewry from 1950 to the present followed in 2016. Alice guided the committee through a complicated process to commission and oversee the writing of the manuscript. Before the pandemic, Alice volunteered at the museum with Eve Rosenfeld to work on the Beth Israel records in our archives.
Alice held a deep and profound commitment to social justice. This recollection from her oral history speaks to her formative influences:
“On a Sunday afternoon in May 1942 my father took me in our 1931 Whippet specifically to see the Japanese families interned at the Pacific International Exposition Center, on Marine Drive.
It was a bright and sunny day. We drove past slowly as I stared at the children hanging on to the wire fence, looking out at us. There were adults in the background, but I remember the children. I was 12 at the time.
My father stopped the car. He told me never to forget what I had just seen: our government had committed an injustice by imprisoning citizens of our country because they were Japanese. He said he would not live long enough to see America make amends but that we would, some day – he hoped during my lifetime. He died in 1972. President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, offering reparations and apology, in 1988.”
Visionary leadership, passionate and thoughtful political outlook, steadfast and intelligent values, and impressive editorial skills led Alice to apply herself to her priorities and then, almost invariably, to accomplish her objectives. The museum’s reading room bears Alice’s name. Given her curiosity and ceaseless intellectual fervor, it is especially fitting that her memory will shine brightly in a place of study where we expand our knowledge daily. Her dazzling and manifold contributions will be remembered and our fearless and dedicated Alice Turtledove Meyer will be dearly missed.