Harry Gevurtz was born in Portland on January 8, 1897 to Isaac and Cecelia Gerson Gevurtz. His parents met in Oregon and were married by Rabbi Jacob Bloch at Temple Beth Israel in 1986. He had two brothers: Louis and Milton. He also had twin sisters: Lillian (Brandt) and Fanny (Crohn). He went to Ladd Elementary School, Lincoln High …
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 MoreSadie Cohen Geller was born in Stolin, Russia (now Belarus) in the year 1900. She recalls very little about the Old Country – only that her grandfather was a grain dealer – because her family relocated to New York in 1908. Her father had arrived a few years prior, and Sadie subsequently came to join him …
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 MoreMorris Galen was born in 1927 in Portland, Oregon to Isaac and Ruth Galen. His father arrived at Ellis Island with his family on September 3, 1907 from Kamenicz, Russia and came to Portland by train through Canada. The family name in Russia had been Matiches. It was changed at Ellis Island to Goldstein and Morrie …
Read MoreJack Fruchtengarten was born on August 28th, 1924 in Opole Lubaelski, Poland. He was one of five children in an observant family in a small town. He was educated through seventh grade there, and also sent to cheder for a Jewish education. But after the Nazis invaded Poland Jack and his brother were told to run. …
Read MoreBazil Freedman was born in Cape Town, South Africa on February 6, 1942 to Michael and Bessie Freedman. He grew up in a religious household in the suburbs of Cape Town, attending private schools and afternoon cheder. Bazil’s father died when he was 11 years old and his mother remarried when he was 18. He received …
Read MoreGeorge Fendel was born on August 29, 1942 in Portland, Oregon to Joseph and Gladys (Lieberman) Fendel. The family lived in Grant Park. George and his older sister Betty Lynn (Menashe) and younger brother Michael Richard attended Fernwood Grade School and Grant High School. Their father co-owned Standard TV and Appliance in SE Portland and their …
Read MoreIn 1916, Bernice met Henry Feldman in New York when she was 19. They subsequently married and moved to Portland. Henry’s parents were born in Germany and settled in Portland when they immigrated to the United States. He had four siblings, all of whom lived in Portland: Joseph, Henry, Gus and Elise (who married Herbert …
Read MoreBob Epstein was born on April 17, 1940 in Philadelphia, where his father had a dry cleaning store. He was raised in a Modern Orthodox synagogue there. He met his wife Mimi at Penn State University and joined the Navy immediately out of school. After his military service he attended the University of Pennsylvania School of …
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