Mission and History

Our First Synagogue

CBI’s first Synagogue, located on SW Fifth and Oak streets, was built in 1859.

Our Second Home

Having outgrown the building, the congregation erected its second, larger synagogue in 1889 nearby on SW 12th and Main Streets. In 1923 this Synagogue was destroyed by fire.

Our Home for Nearly a Century

The present Temple, completed in 1928, is considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture in the Northwest and is designated on the National Register of Historic Places.

To meet the growing needs of the Congregation, the Sherman Education Center, opposite the Temple was built in 1948 and then expanded in 1994. This new space includes Blumauer Auditorium, Miller Room, Shemanski Chapel, our Preschool and Religious School offices, twenty classrooms, and our Women of Reform Judaism/Beth Israel Sisterhood Judaica Gift Shop. Harris Hall was acquired in 1957 to expand our Religious School.

In 1993, the Schnitzer Family Center was dedicated.  This newest facility houses the beautifully designed contemporary Pollin Chapel, Lipman Foyer, Goodman Hall, Robert P. Weil Administrative Offices and the Shirley & Herbert Semler Board Room.

The Holocaust Memorial Trust Scroll

Among Congregation Beth Israel’s Sifrei Torah is our Holocaust Memorial Trust Scroll, on permanent loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London. It has been in our care for over fifty years, and was meticulously and lovingly restored in 2019.

As a symbol that our Jewish children’s voices were not silenced, all CBI students read from this scroll on their B’nei Mitzvah.

This is what we know of its journey:

Origins
Our scroll is from the town of Taus-Domazlice, in Czechoslovakia. It is over 150 years old, as evident in the style of its script, the condition of its ink, its letter embellishments, type of parchment, and style of stitching for its sheets.

Second World War
During the Second World War, our scroll was among 1,564 Sifrei Torah looted from the synagogues of Bohemia, Morovia, and Slovakia: the Nazis intended these scrolls—along with gold and silver ornaments, vestments, and Jewish art and writing—to be part of an exhibition “of the works of an exterminated ethnographical group.”

Postwar: From Prague to London
After the German defeat, the Prague museum, where this collection had been stored, was taken into the care of the Czechoslovakian State. Under their leadership, the museum displayed the collection as witness to the devastation of the Jewish community and “as an enduring appeal to the conscience of humanity.” While the Sifrei Torah were maintained to the best of the museum’s ability, the state lacked the space, resources, and expertise to properly preserve them, and long term storage began to compound the damage done by Nazi handling.

The expertise necessary to care for the Sifrei Torah existed (and overtures to the Prague Museum were made from) on the western side of the Iron Curtain, but the Czech authorities were wary of these, and, conscious of the “sacred trust” involved in the endeavor, were unwilling to consider offers from those who might prove exploitative. In 1963, Atria, the Czech Communist government agency for cultural properties, approached London art dealer Eric Estorick about the scrolls. With the backing of a London philanthropist, the scrolls were expertly packed and transferred to the Westminster Synagogue in London on February 7, 1964. This process was by far the largest transfer of Sifrei Torah in known history.

First Restoration
Upon their arrival in London, each Torah Scroll was examined and classified by a group of expert Sofrim, identifying those in good condition, those beyond repair, and those that with effort could be successfully restored. Some scrolls remained in Westminster Synagogue as a permanent memorial. Others, particularly ones of historical import were given to museums.

The vast majority, including our own, through the efforts of Judge Gus J. Solomon and his wife, Elizabeth W. (Libby) Solomon, have been distributed to synagogues worldwide, to in the words of the Reverend Dr. Harold Reinhart, then Minister of the Westminster Synagogue, “find their places in the sacred Arks, to live and breathe again.”

Arrival in Portland
Through the efforts of Judge Gus Solomon and Elizabeth (Libby) Solomon Our Holocaust Memorial Trust Scroll arrived in Portland as a permanent loan to the congregation. It was formally dedicated and placed in our Ark at Shabbat Evening Services on Friday, May 10, 1968 as part of Congregation Beth Israel’s 110th anniversary, in the words of Rabbi Emanuel Rose in his announcement of its arrival, “testifying to our continuity as a living people.”

Second Restoration
In 2019, the CBI Community’s yearlong focus was on restoring the Holocaust Memorial Scroll; over the course of multiple visits from an expert Sofer, this scroll (and others in our collection) was painstakingly restored. Over the course of this process, community members were able to attend “Letter Fill In Events,” with education booths and activities, leading up to the unforgettable opportunity to join the Sofer in scribing a letter in the Torah.

Our Place in Portland History

CBI history is Portland history: early congregants included Aaron Meier of Meier and Frank fame and the father of future Oregon Governor Julius Meier. Jacob Mayer among others ran the enormous Fleischner, Mayer & Co., reputedly the largest dry-goods establishment west of the Mississippi.

Our eighth Senior Rabbi, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949), was a prominent US Jewish leader in the 1933-1945 period and, one of the most significant American Jewish leaders of the twentieth century. Rabbi Wise served Portland’s Congregation Beth Israel from 1900 to 1906. His Oregon sojourn laid the foundation for his career as a national champion of liberal Judaism and Zionism while profoundly shaping his congregation and Judaism in Oregon.  After leaving Portland, he became an early member of the national boards of the NAACP and the ACLU. CBI continues this work, involved in social action and activism on local levels through our connections with Lift Urban Portland (formerly Northwest Portland Ministries), our annual free and open to the public Oseran Lectures on issues of social justice, and in our education programming which includes an annual youth trip to the American south with a focus on Civil Rights, this year in conjunction with youth from the Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church.

Since 2007, CBI has collaborated with the African American communities in Portland (including Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church ) to present lectures and Shabbat services honoring the enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Over the past eleven years, speakers have featured prominent leaders in the Civil Rights Movement (such as the late Congressman John Lewis, activist and journalist Myrlie Evers-Williams, and founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson).

Our community is keenly aware that we are stewards of a rich history, and of our obligation to preserve and to honor it. Among the Torah scrolls in our Congregation is one from Eastern Europe rescued from the Holocaust. It is from this scroll that our students read from on the occasion of their B’nei Mitzvah, as a symbol that our children’s voices were not silenced.

Our Senior Rabbis

Congregation Beth Israel has had 18 Senior Rabbis in the last 150 years.

• Rev S.M. Laski (1859)
• Rev. Herman Bien (1860- 61)
• Rev. H. P. Bories (1861-63)
• Rabbi Julius Eckman (1863-66)
• Rabbi Isaac Schwab (1867-72)
• Rev. Moses May (1872-80)
• Rev. Alex Rosenspitz (1881-83)
• Rabbi Jacob Bloch (1884-1900)
• Rabbi Stephen S. Wise (1900-06)
• Rabbi Jonah B. Wise (1906-26)
• Rabbi Max Merritt, interim (1926)
• Rabbi Frederick A. Braun, interim (1927)
• Rabbi Henry J. Berkowitz (1928-49)
• Rabbi Irving I Hausman, interim (1945-49)
• Rabbi Saul B. Appelbaum, interim (1949-50)
• Rabbi Julius Nodel (1950 – 59)
• Rabbi Emanuel Rose (z”l) (1960-2006)
• Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana (2006-present)