This trail tells the story of the first immigrant generation, who arrived from about 1880, through the 1921 U.S. Emergency Quota Act that radically restricted new immigration, and into the 1930s. This first generation of Jewish immigrants lived and worshiped in the East End area around India and Hampshire Streets, between Commercial Street and Cumberland Avenue. Over time, and as we see at 23 Hampshire Street—Shelling and Wise Residence (Stop E05), many progressed from being tenants in multi-family housing units to being the owner-landlords of multi-family houses. They gradually moved “up the hill” into the Munjoy Hill area, as we see at 80 Vesper Street—Shur Family Residence (Stop E06). Commerce shifted to Middle and Fore Streets; for more on that, see the Middle & Fore Street Businesses Trail.
First generation immigrant Jews lived in a lively and diverse neighborhood. According to the Portland Directory, by 1917, there were some seventy churches and synagogues in the city, many of them in the East End and Bayside neighborhoods. They represented immigrants from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Armenia, Eastern Europe, China, Ireland, Italy. There was also a small but established free African-American community that had been in Portland from the early 19th century. Their Abyssinian Meeting House, built between 1828 and 1831 and located at 73-75 Newbury Street, was on the same street that housed the Shaarey Tphiloh Synagogue nearly a century later (Stop E04). Jews interacted daily and for decades with this immigrant community, living on the same streets—and often in the same buildings—as co-tenants and landlords, going to public school, and generally doing business with each other.
Most of this generation spoke Yiddish at home, practiced traditional Judaism and attended synagogue weekly or, in the case of the men, daily. Most kept kosher homes. The nine stops of this section feature two synagogues – but more than that were operating and closed or merged in this timeframe. Community needs for kosher food, ritual burial, supporting community members in need, and the Jewish education of their children (see Stop E04) were met through the synagogues and its leaders. By the 1920s, this extended to the establishment of charitable organizations. The Portland Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women provided educational, social services and immigrant services - and stepped up to help immigrants from Eastern Europe who were quarantined on House Island outside Portland Harbor (see Stop E07). The Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YWHA) was founded principally to raise money for a Jewish orphanage and subsequently for the Jewish Home for Aged (Stop E09). And a new synagogue was established for Jews wanting to practice more modern forms of Judaism (Stop E02).
In the 1930s, the first generation of Jewish Portlanders faced new challenges from within and without; for more detail, see the Downtown Trail. Their bold response included building markers such as the Jacob Cousins post and Jewish War Veterans Memorials (Stop E08) to celebrate the community and its contributions to broader society.
Family mattered, as did hometown origins. Ties endured across and within generations with siblings, cousins, in-laws and friends. Children went to public school (Stop E03), where classes were in English, and attended supplementary Hebrew School. They often stayed in their parents’ home until they married. Women helped their husbands, brothers, sons, and in-laws to run family businesses. They helped run a retail business and/or managed tenants in a multi-family unit, sometimes as owner-occupiers. Widows frequently continued to run these businesses, often for decades. Children often helped in the business, and many took over from their parents, at least for one generation. Families who became economically successful often did so because they could draw on those reliable and trusted networks of extended family. Family ties carried over into the commercial area, as we will see in the Middle & Fore Street Businesses Trail.