Michael Falkenstein was born on September 2nd, 1938, in Frankfurt, Germany, as the third child of Gustav and Hedwig Falkenstein. He had two older sisters: Ruth and Ingeborg (deceased). His parents ran a textile business out of their home. After Kristallnacht, Mike’s father smuggled the family out of Germany via the Tran-Siberian Railway, ending up in …
Read MoreMarguerite Swett Dilsheimer was born on March 20, 1904. Marguerite’s family were Jewish pioneers in Oregon. Her mother, Julia Segal Swett had five sisters: Molly Segal, Bess Segal Bogen (Idaho), Esther Segal Goldman (Kansas City), Ann Segal, Evelyn Segal Savinar. Marguerite’s father, Isaac Swett was eight years old when their family arrived in Oregon. Isaac and …
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 MoreMoses (Scotty) Cohen was born on March 10, 1902 in Glasgow, Scotland. He immigrated to Portland in 1911 with his mother and siblings; his father came to Portland five years earlier. Scotty lived with his father, mother, five brothers and three sisters in a small apartment in South Portland. His family was very poor. Scotty’s father …
Read MoreJudge Anthony Casciato was born in South Portland on November 1, 1917. He was one of eight sons of an immigrant, Italian family. His father arrived in Portland in 1906. He had left economic hardships in Italy to work with a cousin in construction. The whole family lived in South Portland (he was one of …
Read MoreMilt Carl was born in Portland in 1925, the third of four surviving children of Russian immigrants. The children were: Sid, Bess, Milt and Eva (Walleston). They lived in South Portland at Third and College until the early 1930s, when they moved to Park and Jackson. His father owned a men’s clothing store. Milt worked as …
Read MoreBernard Brown was born in Viseul-de-Sus, Romania to a religious family. He had an older brother and three younger sisters. During the Second World War he was sent to several concentration and work camps and was the only member of his family to survive. He married his wife Libby after they both survived the camps. They …
Read MoreDr. Isidor Brill was born in Yaldemeresk, Poland on October 1, 1888. He emigrated to New York to join an older brother in 1903, and arrived in Portland in 1905 where he attended the Shattuck School for one year. In Poland, Isidor had no access to a public school education but did attend a Yeshiva in …
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 MoreReuben Blumenthal (born Runyas) was born January 1, 1891 in Romanika, Russia, and came to New York when he was two. His father worked as a watchmaker but died in New York in 1898. Reuben, his mother and sister, moved to Portland when Reuben was 12, because his aunt, uncle, and cousins, the Nudelmans, lived …
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