Kesser News

ListServs

Kesser History

Albertsons Partner Card Update

Kesser History

Congregation Kesser Israel is an Orthodox shul in Portland, Oregon. Since its beginning in the heart of Portland's Jewish community, Kesser Israel has welcomed all to its traditional services, warm fellowship and joyous celebration of Judaism. Founded in 1912 by Eastern European immigrants, Kesser Israel is a close-knit Orthodox shul of approximately 75 families.

Meade Street shul artifacts recall old times

Reprinted by permission of the Portland Jewish Review.

By Sura Rubenstein

The Meade Street Shul has left the building. Kesser Israel's longtime home in Old South Portland has been sold, and the congregation is moving on—and back, in a way, to its spiritual home—in the heart of Portland's Jewish Community, near the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.

The sale closed at the end of February. Consecrated items—including our Yahrzeit plaques and the lions, Ten Commandments and the stained glass window from the Aron Kodesh—will be incorporated into our new building on Southwest Capitol Highway. And other treasured parts of our history also will be woven into our future.

The shul is much more than a building. And though Meade Street was our home, and much beloved, the heart and soul of Kesser Israel is its embrace of people, and the way it lives out its devotion to Torah

I grew up in the Meade Street Shul, and it was my privilege to have a part in saying good-bye to the building. Last December, we held an open house to honor the shul's history and to celebrate our future. During February, we cleared out closets, packed books and tallises, hanukkiahs and children's games, ark covers and Torah mantles.

The lives and times of those who had come before—especially their love of Torah and community—were palpable in things simple and ornate, large and small.

A small brown bag of cloves that provided spices for Havdallah, tiny American flag lapel pins from who knows what occasion, and a hand-drawn schematic of the sanctuary, in pencil on thick construction paper, numbering all the seats on the main floor and balcony.

In a small desk in a back room—applications for membership, printed in Yiddish. On a nearby shelf, a stationery box with tiny envelopes, each with names in Yiddish script, with smaller pieces of paper with dollar amounts for easy insertion. What was this? On Shabbat, when people made donations for receiving an aliyah, or on High Holy Days, when aliyahs or raising or dressing the Torah would be auctioned as a fund-raiser, the envelopes allowed the gabbai to keep track of who pledged what—without violating the proscription against writing.

Fragile, wonderful, sacred books, whose brittle pages had been consulted over the decades. One set of the Talmud, published in Vilna in the 1890s, originally donated to the Hevra Shas of Congregation Neveh Zedek in 1944 by J.L. Asher, in memory of his parents, Lazarus and Rachel Asher, and his wife, Eve. And another set, printed in Poland in 1922, that had been given to "Congregation Keshir Israel."

And several sets of books—perhaps given as bar mitzvah gifts—that had belonged to Samuel Brenner, who stamped his name a dozen times in each volume. Books that once belonged to Rabbi Philip Kleinman of Neveh Zedek; another stamped, in Yiddish, with the name of Rabbi Fain (who served several congregations, including Kesser, after his retirement from Shaarie Torah in 1949), and a Chumash with commentaries donated by Hannah Robison and her children.

Tefillin bags—one embroidered "1915." A large, old silk tallis, well-worn, with an elaborately embroidered neckband—who might it have belonged to? A brown velvet tallis bag with a yellow Magen David that looks as if it could be Army-issue. Who brought it to shul?

Memorial requests, printed in Yiddish: "To the President and Officers—Please say a (k)El Malei Rachamim for the following departed….. ," one submitted by Jennie Goodman of 590 Front St., another by Mrs. J. Bernstein, 251½ Hooker St.

Torah mantles and ark and table coverings—A gift from Mrs. Tzirl Gass in remembrance of the soul of her sister, Gitl; Mrs. Rivka Rogoway, Yehoshua Leib Rosenkrantz, Mrs. Chaya Schwartz, Shayna Rivka Kleinoff, Gitel Lax, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Portland Sick Benefits Association, and the Berlant, Kirshner and Brown families, among many others.

The inscription on Portland's Skidmore Fountain proclaims that "Good Citizens are the Riches of a City." Similarly, "Good people are the riches of a shul." Kesser Israel has never been wealthy financially, but we have been—and continue to be—incredibly enriched by the people of our community.

As we build for our future, we will be archiving, preserving and, as necessary, restoring the material artifacts of our legacy. But more than these items, more than the memories of shared simchas and sorrows, of sometimes transcendent davening and the incredible light that could fill the sanctuary, I believe that the greatest miracle is that the Meade Street Shul continues to live and thrive.

Its spirit and dedication to Torah will continue to be a source of blessing in its new home.