Rosalie Horenstein Goodman, a native Portlander, was born to Mike and Sadie Horenstein on February 5, 1929. She had a sister, Lorraine Lippoff, who was four years older. Her parents were born in Russia and emigrated to America in 1912, first to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania then to Portland, Oregon to join other family members. Rosalie grew …
Read MoreBelle Bloom Gevurtz was born to Max Blum (Bloom) and Mary Nachamovitch in Taunton, Massachusetts on July 7, 1895. The family moved shortly thereafter to Waterbury, Connecticut before moving to San Francisco in 1906 where her father ran a shoe store. They survived the great earthquake but they lost their house and her father’s store. They …
Read MoreHilde Geisen was born to Robert and Frieda Geisenheimer on May 28, 1924 in Cologne, Germany. She lost most of her family when they were scattered and murdered in various concentration camps. Hilde herself was imprisoned as a teenager in Terezin, in Czechoslovakia. She made lifelong friends with an “adoptive mother” there, and traveled with her …
Read MoreFelice Lauterstein Driesen was born in Portland, Oregon on February 17, 1919 to a family that had been in Portland for several generations already. Her grandfather, Rabbi Henry Nathan Heller was born in Pressburg, Austria-Hungary from a family with a long rabbinical history. A trained musician, he attended the Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen under …
Read MoreBoris Dayyan (born Mossesohn) was born on November 4, 1907 on Johnson Street in Portland, Oregon. Boris was from a prominent local Jewish family. His grandfather, Nehemiah Mosseyavich Dayyan, immigrated to the United States from Odessa, Ukraine in 1882, and was a rabbi at Neveh Zedek. His father, David Mossesohn, was very active in the …
Read MoreFrances Schnitzer Bricker was born in Portland on August 6, 1909. Her family had immigrated from Russia around 1904. Her father Moishe Schnitzer worked as a junk man in Portland. It was the only job he could find that didn’t interfere with the Sabbath, to save enough money to send for Frances’s mother and her older …
Read MoreHelen Weinberg Blumenthal was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 5, 1923 to parents of Russian and Polish descent. She interrupted her studies to become a doctor to enter military service during the Second World War. She served as a Navy nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital near Washington, where she became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Helen …
Read MoreZelda Zeidman was born on July 15, 1921 in Portland, Oregon. Her father, Nathan Director was born in Chartorysk, Russia, the same village that the Schnitzers and the Rosenfelds came from. He met Zelda’s mother Annie Shapiro Director in Lodz, Poland, where he had fled from Chartorysk due to his involvement in the Jewish underground …
Read MoreEstelle Director Sholkoff was born in 1911 in a South Portland. Her parents, Anne Shapiro Director from Lodz, Poland and Nathan Director from Charterisk, Russia had immigrated in 1909, joining Nathan’s older brother Sam, who had arrived in 1905. Anne and Nathan played an important role in building the early Jewish Communal life in Portland. Their …
Read MoreBetty Lillian Rosenfeld (nee Coren), an only child, was born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 19, 1925 to Morris and Eva Weinstein. Her maternal and paternal grandparents had both emigrated from Russia, and Betty’s parents were first generation Americans. The family was moderately observant, and they belonged to Rabbi Abba Hillel’s temple in Cleveland. Betty attended …
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