Elizabeth Menashe

Frankel: Good afternoon. I would like you to begin by stating your full name, place and date of birth.
MENASHE: Elizabeth Menashe. I was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, a long time ago [laughs]. I don’t give dates.

Frankel: That’s no problem. Wonderful. Tell us about your early childhood. Who lived in your household, their names?
MENASHE: My mother and father were Jack and Ruth, and I had one brother and one sister, Jerry and Margie — Margaret.

Frankel: And last name?
MENASHE: My maiden name was McBride. We lived in Canada a couple of years. My parents moved to Spokane when I was around two, and then I grew up in Spokane. They moved to central Oregon, Bend, when I was still in high school. I went to Oregon State. It was one of the top three in the country for foods and nutrition, which was my major. I took my dietetic internship in Rochester, Minnesota, at the Mayo Clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital. Then I came to Portland and became a therapeutic dietician up at OHSU.

Frankel: Tell me a little bit about your family. When did they come to North America?
MENASHE: Probably part of the family was in the late 1700s, and another part, I’m not sure. My great-grandfather on my father’s side was one of the founders of the state of North Dakota. He was on the first legislature there and was one of the founders. He was an educator. I’m not sure when they came.

Frankel: And from where?
MENASHE: Most of my family is from Scotland, Ireland, Norway. England is in there too. British Isles, I guess, and Norway.

Frankel: Was it your grandfather or great-grandfather who was in the legislature?
MENASHE: My great-grandfather.

Frankel: So how did the family end up in Canada?
MENASHE: All of that family was from North Dakota, and my grandfather was the youngest of five or six boys. By the time it was time for him to go to college, the money wasn’t there. He heard about homesteading in Canada; he knew nothing about it [laughs], but he went up there and bought land.

Frankel: Where exactly was it?
MENASHE: In Saskatchewan. He bought land there to become a homesteader. Then my grandmother, his wife — the one he married later — when he was dating her, her father had five girls and one boy, and he wouldn’t allow any of his daughters to get married unless they had a profession. Kind of ahead of his time, I guess. He didn’t want any of his daughters to be reliant upon a man. So my grandmother was an accountant. They got married in North Dakota, but he wouldn’t allow her to move to Canada with her husband until he had a proper home with a foundation.

Frankel: How was he living until then?
MENASHE: He had a home, I guess, but maybe it didn’t have a foundation. I don’t know. I don’t know how long that took. That’s where my father was born. He was born in Canada of American citizens, and so he became a dual citizen. My mother also, her family had a farm in Saskatchewan, and they had a home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. They were Americans who farmed in Canada. When she was born in Canada, she also had American parents, so she was a dual citizen. When I was born, I was considered a Canadian citizen. 

Frankel: It goes after your mother? Or father?
MENASHE: If you’re born in Canada, you’re a Canadian citizen. So when I turned 21, I had to declare. I was a dual citizen actually, too, because my parents were American citizens. I had to declare, and of course I declared the United States because I didn’t know anything else. From two on, it was the US.

Frankel: Did you know your grandparents?
MENASHE: Yes, my grandfather passed away when I was six, so I knew him up until then. And I knew my grandmother. She died at 74.

Frankel: And those are your paternal grandparents?
MENASHE: Paternal. I did not know my maternal grandfather. He passed away when my mother was a teenager. But I knew her mother, my grandmother.

Frankel: Where was she from?
MENASHE: She was from Minnesota.

Frankel: Your grandfather who went to homesteading, did he make it? What did he do?
MENASHE: Yes, I guess they did very well. We visited them on the farm when I was a little girl, and I can remember my grandmother sending me out to feed the chickens — I knew nothing about feeding chickens — and they all came running at me because I had their feed. I just dropped it and ran. I was so frightened! I must have been four or five years old. All these chickens were coming at me, and I just had to get out of there. I couldn’t believe it. I thought they were going to eat me up. I really wasn’t much of a farm person [laughs]. Then one time we visited them, it was wintertime and there was snow. There was so much snow that we couldn’t get out, and we had to have horses drag our car out of there, and they covered it all in the newspapers. It was this big story that came out in the Spokesman Review in Spokane, and the Canadian papers and all. The horses were the best travel after all. 

Frankel: Was your family religious?
MENASHE: Not particularly. I grew up in a Presbyterian church. My brother and I used to walk to Sunday school. My mother would put our money for the plate that they passed in a little handkerchief and wrap it in my sleeve, and in my brother’s. We’d get to the corner, and my brother would say, “I’ll see you later.” And he would go up and spend his money at this little soda fountain, and I would go to Sunday school. Then they sent home my little report of perfect attendance, and my brother didn’t get one! My parents couldn’t understand, “They must have made a mistake.” And of course, I never told that he didn’t go. 

My whole life, I didn’t feel comfortable in that setting. I always had questions and doubts. When I was in college, they had religious week, and different speakers would come to the campus. Our sorority was sharing a speaker with a fraternity, and they came over. First of all, it was a rabbi, Rabbi Nodel from Portland, Oregon, Temple Beth Israel.

Frankel: Was that at OSU?
MENASHE: Yes, at Oregon State. He was supposed to go to dinner at the fraternity, and then they were to bring him to our house, but he showed up at our house. He sang the songs at the table; he had a wonderful voice, and he was just really nice. We had pork chops — and everybody was just horrified that that was our menu — and he ate them [laughs]. Afterwards, when the fraternity came over and we were sitting in the living room, he started taking about Judaism. I’m thinking, “Oh, my gosh. That sounds like me. That sounds like what I’ve been looking for. I think I’ve found my place.” Then he also said that anyone who wanted to come to Portland, to Temple Beth Israel to a service, they were welcome to come. And so I did. He asked if people had questions. One of the questions was, “Why did you eat that pork?” He said, “I’m a Reform Jew. We can eat whatever we want.” Which was really stunning to me, to everyone there. It was an interesting concept. We didn’t know of Reform. Then he explained about Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and so forth. 

So I did go to Portland, and I heard him speak, and he was wonderful. I started getting books on Judaism and reading about Judaism. Then later, when I was in Rochester, Minnesota, for my internship, I talked one of the other interns into going to the synagogue with me there to observe and so forth. When I came to Portland to work, a friend of my husband’s [to-be] called him. He [her future husband] had just come back from California. He had a business in California and decided to come back to Portland. So his friend called him and said, “I’ve got just the girl for you.” It was a blind date. I met him on a blind date. 

Frankel: How did you know his friend?
MENASHE: His friend I had met when I was a bridesmaid in a wedding and he was one of the groomsmen. That’s how I met him, at a friend’s wedding. So that was the beginning of our courtship.

Frankel: Growing up, did you know any Jewish people?
MENASHE: Not really. If I did, I didn’t know that I did. There was one girl in my school I know who was. One time she was excused from something, and I asked her why she didn’t have to go, and she said, “Because I’m Jewish.” I thought, “Hmmmm.” 

Frankel: What was your family’s reaction to your interest?
MENASHE: It was interesting. When I told my parents that I was going to convert to Judaism, my mother put the newspaper in front of her face and said, “I don’t want to discuss it.” My father said, “Tell me more about it.” So I did. He said, “You’re an intelligent young woman. You have good judgment. I believe what you’re telling me, and if that’s what would make you happy, that’s what I want. I just want you to be happy.” That was my father. In control [laughs].

Frankel: Did your brother have any response?
MENASHE: No, not really. And my sister’s married to a Jewish man.

Frankel: Do you recall the first time you introduced Ruben to your family?
MENASHE: Yes. My mother was smitten right away [laughs]. And my dad liked him very much; they got along really well.

Frankel: Your parents were still living in North Dakota?
MENASHE: No, in Bend [Oregon], and they had a winter home in Arizona. They would go back and forth.

Frankel: What did your father do?
MENASHE: My father was in the oil business, Union Oil Company of California. He was an executive with them for most of my life. Then when I was in college, he had an opportunity to purchase something like a franchise,  a bulk plant where they deliver to service stations and all that. So he bought that, and he also dabbled in real estate and ran the Chamber of Commerce. He was kind of busy.

Frankel: Did your mother work outside of the home?
MENASHE: No, she didn’t. Homemaker.

Frankel: So you went to OSU and majored as a dietician?
MENASHE: Foods and nutrition. 

Frankel: What caused you to choose that profession?
MENASHE: I knew before going to college that’s what I wanted to do. I don’t know why I knew that.

Frankel: You described your first introduction of Ruben to your family. What about your introduction to Ruben’s family?
MENASHE: I went to dinner. First of all, his mother called me one day. I hadn’t met her, and she wanted to meet me for lunch. So we went to lunch, and she had all kinds of questions. We got along really well, and then they invited me to dinner at their home, his dad and mother and one brother. Oh, they were so warm and inviting and so friendly. It was a very nice experience. 

He [Ruben] has tens of hundreds of cousins [laughs]. Meeting family at different events, everyone was always so friendly. It was nice. I just made a point of remembering people’s names, keeping them straight, because so many had the same names. They had their Sephardic tradition. The first son’s named after the father’s father, so if you have four sons — there were five Jacks and four Sols and five Alberts. Just keeping everything straight. 

The complicated part is —  my mother-in-law’s maiden name was Menashe. So she was one Menashe family in Portland, and his father was a different Menashe family, and they don’t claim to be related to each other at all. In fact, when we were dating, he introduced me to a man he said was his uncle Sol Menashe. Then when the man left, I said, “So that was your father’s brother?” He said, “No, that was my mother’s brother.” I said, “But you said his name was Menashe.” He said, “Yes, my mother’s maiden name is Menashe.” I said, [inaudible]. I was just so worried [laughter]. He said, “Not at all. My brother and I are related to all of them.”

Frankel: Did you have any clue as to Sephardic, Ashkenazi?
MENASHE: Not until then. No, I did not know about that at all. In fact, one time I was wearing my engagement ring at work, and a patient of mine said, “You’re engaged!” I said, “Yes.” And he wanted to know to whom. I told him, and he said, “Oh, a nice Sephardic boy!” And I thought, “What is that?” I had to ask Ruben about it, and so then he explained it all to me. It was pretty interesting to hear. So then I read the book The Grandees, about Sephardic Jews. Anyway, I tried to educate myself. To this day, I know more of Ruben’s relatives’ names than he does. We can be at a function, and someone will come across the room with their arms open to him, “Ruben! Ruben!” And he goes to me, “Who is it?” “It’s your cousin Tillie from Seattle” [laughter]. 

Frankel: What about food-wise? Did Ruben grow up eating Sephardic food?
MENASHE: Yes.

Frankel: What did you end up doing?
MENASHE: And kosher food, until at one point he said his mother and his grandmother rebelled at the kosher butcher’s. 

Frankel: Here in Portland?
MENASHE: Yes. I guess he was a very mean man, and they decided they were no longer going to give him their business. 

Frankel: So they stopped being kosher?
MENASHE: They stopped buying kosher meat!

Frankel: Did Ruben insist that you cook Sephardic?
MENASHE: No, he didn’t. He’s really a gourmet. He likes all kinds of cuisines. But I’ve learned to make a lot of Sephardic things. Some of them are not as pretty as maybe they should be, but they taste good. 

Frankel: What was the most surprising thing becoming part of that family, Sephardic-specific, if there was any?
MENASHE: I don’t know that there were surprises. It was great; it was really nice.

Frankel: Did Ruben and his family have cultural traditions, customs that are different than the Ashkenazi families that you know?
MENASHE: I don’t think so. I think it’s mostly vocabulary and food. I don’t know that culturally — just different holidays they serve different food, but other than that, I don’t think so.

Frankel: Were they members of Temple Beth Israel?
MENASHE: No, they were members of Ahavath Achim, which is Sephardic.

Frankel: How active were they in the synagogue?
MENASHE: Fairly active. My husband would go with his dad. In fact, still on holidays, as long as his dad was alive, after Beth Israel services he would go over to Ahavath Achim and sit with his dad. Often our son would join him. One time when I took our son to one of his friend’s bar mitzvahs at Neveh Shalom — or Shaarie Torah, I’m not sure — they came around with the Torah, which they don’t do at Temple. Or they didn’t at that time, carry the Torah around. My son got up and kissed his tallit and touched the Torah, and I said, “How did you know to do that?” He said, “That’s what Papu does.” When he goes to the Sephardic synagogue with his grandfather.

Frankel: Did they speak Ladino?
MENASHE: Yes.

Frankel: Did you pick up any?
MENASHE: Yes. There are lots of words that I know. Sometimes they just pop out of Ruben. He’ll use one once in a while, and then he’ll go, “Where did that come from?” He spent a great deal of his time growing up with his grandparents.

Frankel: Where did Ruben’s grandparents live in Portland?
MENASHE: Fortuna was 18 months old when they came from Turkey. She was born in 1911, so it must have been in 1913 that they came. They came through Ellis Island. We’ve been to Ellis Island, checked it out. We do have the manifesto from the ship that they came on. 

Frankel: Did they come straight to Portland, or did they stay in New York?
MENASHE: No, they came straight to Portland. Her father had other brothers here in Portland. 

Frankel: Did they live in South Portland?
MENASHE: They lived in South Portland originally, and then they lived in the Alameda [neighborhood].

Frankel: When you got married, they were already in Alameda?
MENASHE: Right. 

Frankel: When you got married, where did you live?
MENASHE: We started out on NE 22nd Street, and then when our son was three, we moved here. We built the house and moved in. He was three and a half by the time we moved in. 

Frankel: Your son’s name?
MENASHE: Jack Ruben. He’s Jack, son of Ruben, and Ruben is Ruben Jack — Ruben, son of Jack. Gets boring [laughs].

Frankel: And your son Jack is named after whom?
MENASHE: After his grandfather Jack. Ruben’s dad is Jack Ruben, and my dad is Jack, so both grandfathers were happy to have Jack be Jack.

Frankel: Did you continue to have a close relationship with your parents after you got married?
MENASHE: Yes. 

Frankel: What did Ruben do when you met him?
MENASHE: Ruben had been in California. He had a construction business with a partner in California. They did that for two to three years, and then he decided he wanted to live in Portland, so he sold his half of the business and came to Portland and bought property here and started building homes and so forth. That’s what he was doing when I met him. He had been admitted to the Willamette Law School, but he was in ROTC in college, and so he had to go into the service first. When he came out of the service, while he was waiting to go to law school, his friend who had been like a brother to him in college called from California. They had always wanted to go into the restaurant business together, the two of them. His friend called and said, “We don’t have enough money to go in the restaurant business, but we can go into the building business.” So Ruben went to California and went into the building business with his friend and never made it to law school. He is so happy that he didn’t [laughs]. 

Frankel: His brother did?
MENASHE: His brother did, went to law school.

Frankel: What synagogue did you get married in?
MENASHE: Temple Beth Israel. Rabbi Rose converted me, and then we were married at Temple Beth Israel. Our son went to religious school all through at Temple — consecration and graduation and confirmation and all of that.

Frankel: There was no bar mitzvah yet?
MENASHE: Yes. He had a bar mitzvah at Temple. Then Rabbi Rose married him. 

Frankel: Your son?
MENASHE: Yes. They were also married at Temple. 

Frankel: Rabbi Nodel was gone by the time . . .?
MENASHE: Yes. He left when I was still in college, I think.

Frankel: Was it a long process to conversion?
MENASHE: Not very long. Not compared with what I’ve heard about different things today. I had told Rabbi Rose that I’d heard that the marriages, the weddings, at Temple were rather cold, and I didn’t want one of those.

Frankel: What did you mean by that?
MENASHE: I said I wanted a warm, family-type wedding. My mother-in-law complained that she’d been to weddings at Temple and they were very cold. He was kind of surprised to hear that, but he did a great job. He stepped up and was wonderful. I wished we’d had it recorded.

Frankel: Was there ever a question of getting married at Ahavath Achim?
MENASHE: No. We have a membership there only to support the family history and the ancestors and all, but they have divided men and women separately, and we just didn’t want that. On occasion, when we would go there for events, I’d be sitting in the back with the other women, and he’d be up front with his father and other men. All the women did was, they sat and chatted. They didn’t know what was going on or didn’t want to. No, we did not consider going there. And they didn’t have a religious school, and of course we wanted . . .

Frankel: And there was no rabbi.
MENASHE: You’re right. At that time it was a man from Seattle, Mr. Maimon. Was that the name?

Frankel: Yes. He was also the mohel who would . . . [do the circumcisions]
MENASHE: Yes.

Frankel: He would come down occasionally.
MENASHE: Right.

Frankel: Did you finish your studies before you got married?
MENASHE: Yes.

Frankel: Had you started working?
MENASHE: Yes, at OHSU, as a therapeutic dietitian.

Frankel: What exactly is that?
MENASHE: That’s the one who does special diets for diseases. One of the interesting things is that before I even knew Ruben, I met a patient of Dr. Menashe’s.

Frankel: Of Vic Menashe?
MENASHE: I was ordered to give diet instruction to this heart patient, a woman, not a child. I went in to give the diet instruction, and sitting with her was Tonette Menashe. I did not know her at the time. So anyway, I gave the woman — Mrs. Wasserman was her name, from back east somewhere, and she came through Dr. Starr, surgery — I gave the diet instruction and everything. Tonette . . .

Frankel: What is the diet instruction?
MENASHE: The kind of diet she would have to follow after the surgery. Tonette remembers to this day. She tells me about meeting me then, and they knew at the time that I was dating Ruben. But I didn’t know that she was a Menashe or anything. This was her friend. I hadn’t met Dr. Menashe; I’d just seen orders in his name. I asked Ruben about this, and he of course told me the relationship. So it was interesting.

Frankel: How long did you continue working?
MENASHE: I did not work after we were married. Unfortunately, my husband had the attitude that women don’t work, that he’s the provider. We were going to wait two years to have a child, and I was getting bored, and I thought, “Why should I wait?” Anyways, so I never did work. One time when Vic — Dr. Menashe — was the executive director of the CCD [Crippled Children’s Division] up at OHSU, we were at a family function, and Ruben said to him in front of me, “Elizabeth does all this volunteering everywhere but in her own field.” So the following Monday morning, I had a call from Dr. Menashe asking if I would come up there and be a volunteer in the nutrition department. So I did. The nutritionist who was in charge there had me doing various things, and then six months into this volunteer situation she took a leave of absence, and I’m thinking, “Wait a minute, this is not exactly volunteering, is it?” So at the end, when she came back after six months, I told her that I would not be returning the next year. I just felt that I should move on and do other things.

Frankel: And when you said that Ruben was the one who felt you should not work, do you thing that that was a Sephardic . . .?
MENASHE: I think partially, I do. I think that male macho kind of DNA . . .

Frankel: More so among Sephardic? Among your Sephardic friends who are married to Ashkenazi men, was it more common to have women working out [of the home]?
MENASHE: Not very many worked, no.

Frankel: You didn’t fight it though?
MENASHE: No, I didn’t. I tried in the beginning, but . . .

Frankel: You mentioned that Ruben said you were involved in volunteering in many areas. In what areas did you volunteer?
MENASHE: I have this whole list [laughs]. I was on the board of the National Council of Jewish Women. The board president at the time was Jean Rustin, Arnold’s first wife. She was terrific. She was just a wonderful person. She was like a mentor to me. So I was on that board, and then the National Council of Jewish Women had their 75th anniversary coming up, and a friend, Betty Brownstein, and I co-chaired it. We did a musical and we collaborated on the words, but we did all the Sesame Street music. Sesame Street was very popular at the time, and so we used it. We had a fortune-teller lady, and that was Lena Holzman. We had all these wonderful actresses in our performance, and that was a lot of fun. 

At that time, my son was in the first grade. I was taking braille at Temple — they taught braille. I had my braille machine, and Betty Brownstein had a little book about Louis Braille that was geared to that age group. So I took it to my son’s school and read the story of Louis Braille. I had my brailler with me, and my paper and everything. I’d have each child come up and tell their name, and I’d braille it. Then I’d have them close their eyes and feel it, see how their name felt. Coincidentally, when they were in the seventh grade, maybe sixth grade, a woman called me — a music teacher — from the school, thanking me for teaching the children about blind people. She said she couldn’t understand how the children were so sensitive to her blindness. She started asking them about it, and they said that Mrs. Menashe taught us about being blind.

Frankel: The music teacher was blind?
MENASHE: Yes. Then she asked me if I could get her music in braille, which I could. I said, “Yes, I will. I’ll do that.” That was a surprise call. She had a seeing-eye dog. It’s interesting how little things that you do in your life come back later and have an effect.

Frankel: What school did your son attend?
MENASHE: He went to Parkrose Shaver grade school, and we always said that when he graduates from high school we’re going to move. We’re still here. He keeps giving us a bad time.

Frankel: He wants you to move?
MENASHE: Yes. They live over in Healey Heights, above Portland Heights there — above Council Crest — and they’d like us to be more on the West Side. But my husband goes to work every day, and it’s close, and he said if we were over there he probably wouldn’t do it. I like him going to work every day [laughs]. I think it’s nice. Plus, it keeps him on his toes, mentally and everything.

Frankel: When you were involved with the National Council on Jewish Women, were they still working with the Neighborhood House?
MENASHE: Yes, we had meetings at the Neighborhood House.

Frankel: And what were the projects you were working on then, if you recall?
MENASHE: There was “ship-a-box,” it was called, where they sent items to Israel. I’m trying to remember what some others were. It’s hard to remember. 

Frankel: Were there still activities at the Neighborhood House?
MENASHE: Yes, there were. I’m not sure if they were Jewish activities though.

Frankel: For other immigrants?
MENASHE: Yes, I think so. Let’s see, there was that activity. In the olden days, Federation for solicitation. We would call and make appointments and go to people’s home.

Frankel: Oh, a lot of pressure.
MENASHE: Yes. So I did that. That’s how it started out. Then I just got more and more involved with the Federation. I was on the Sisterhood board at Temple, did lots of things with Sisterhood, and then I became president of Sisterhood. I was on the board of the Western Region of Women of Reform Judaism and became fourth or fifth vice president, and worked my way up to first vice president, which meant you would be president. Unfortunately, the woman who was president when I was first vice president, she and I did not get along at all. And I thought, two years of that, plus then I would be president and she would be the immediate past president. I thought, “I can’t put myself through that,” so I resigned. She was from Palo Alto. Most of the women on that board were from California. Everyone was so upset with me, including Rabbi Rose. He liked having someone on that board. Then I went on the National Women of Reform Judaism board. We’d have our meetings in New York. That was for about six years. Sometimes we’d meet at HUC, Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Then I was on that executive board as well, so those were really very good experiences.

Frankel: What kind of programs or projects did you work on as a member of the national board?
MENASHE: On the national board, I think they were more into money to support scholarships for rabbis, and trying to get Reform Judaism into Israel. There was a project that several of us wanted the Sisterhood to work on, which would have been great. It had to do with education. I was really pushing for that. Teaching parenting from first grade on, only they don’t know its parenting. It would be just done to the age level, so by the time young people become parents — many of them were in the tenth or 11th grade or whatever — they’d know how to be a parent and we’d hopefully, eventually do away with abuse of children in this country. In fact, I even called Ron Wyden later. I had Bob Packwood on board, so I called Ron Wyden and said, “If I get the Women of Reform Judaism and the National Council of Jewish Women — we’re talking a couple of hundred thousand women here — on board for this national educational project to help prevent child abuse, would you buy in?” He said, “Absolutely, just let me know.” But it never happened. I was so disappointed. I kept pushing, pushing, and it always seemed like there was some other reason they couldn’t do it. I don’t know why. But I think it would have been a powerful group to get that many women involved. 

Frankel: When you said you started working with the Federation, who was then the director?
MENASHE: Charlie Schiffman. I first was in the women’s division. Maybe it wasn’t Charlie then; he might have come a little bit later. There was a temporary person, I think. So with women’s division, I became Campaign chair. Then I went on the Federation board and co-chaired a few things there and chaired different parts of campaign, and then became Campaign chair. Jeff Farber was going to be the new president of Federation, but he was with Bank of America and they transferred him to San Francisco. So we were in a nominating committee meeting, Charlie and Steve Rosenberg, and they said, “Liz, why don’t you become president?” I said, “No way! I’ve got my blinders on. I’m totally focused on Campaign. I’ve got all my people in place. Everything’s about Campaign. I’m not looking at the big picture.” And Charlie said, “Liz, you would be the first woman president in 75 years.” I thought, “I’d better think about this because if I say no, will another woman be asked?” So of course then I had to say yes, and since then there have only been two other women. But at least it started.

Frankel: Amazing. It took 75 years. Did Ruben go along with all the . . .?
MENASHE: [Laughs]

Frankel: So how long did you serve as president of Federation?
MENASHE: Two years. It’s a two-year term.

Frankel: What were the important topics at the time?
MENASHE: One of the things that we wanted to do was to arrange for teenagers to go to Israel,  the Teen Israel Experience, and through Federation we could provide scholarship money, have a separate category for that. Then we thought that maybe we should run it by the Board of Rabbis. We went to Rabbi Rose first, who was adamantly opposed because they didn’t belong to his synagogue. I said, “Rabbi, many of these children’s parents can’t afford to belong to any synagogue. At least they would have the Jewish exposure, the experience of going to Israel, and they’d know who they are.” But he didn’t want any part of it. That took up maybe six months of our time, meeting with the Board and Rabbis and trying to get this through the board. Rabbi Geller became my advocate, and he would then talk with the board about how we could all work it out. Fortunately, it happened, and it’s still going on today, which is good. Everyone’s on board, and its not territorial. Rabbi Rose was very territorial about everything. 

That was one of the things we were working on at the time. I’m trying to think of what some of the others were besides increasing Campaign. The needs of the community are so much greater than the money that could be raised. It’s a shame. It’s very expensive to be Jewish. Mark Blattner is doing a nice job of trying to work out something where young couples who can’t afford to belong to a synagogue and can’t afford other things can perhaps pay one fee and then be allowed. He’s talking to different synagogues now to see if they could come to services and that kind of thing. So hopefully something like that will work out. 

Frankel: Working with Federation, did you go on Federation trips, or had you been to Israel before then?
MENASHE: No. The only Federation trips I went on were the UJA [United Jewish Appeal] conferences. We went to Israel on our own. Ruben doesn’t like to travel in groups, so we went while there was a Federation trip in Israel so we could join them at the Knesset or whatever. Wonderful things were happening, and we’d just step right in with our group and do that. It worked out nicely. We had a terrific guide. He was tall, wiry, silver hair, and his name was Yematsi Dayan. And I said, “Dayan? Are you related to Moshe Dayan?” He said, “No, Moshe is related to me!” OK. 

Frankel: Was your son on that trip too?
MENASHE: No, he wasn’t. He hasn’t been to Israel. That would be nice.

Frankel: What was your first experience going to Israel?
MENASHE: It was a wonderful experience. We did as much as we could. We had the guide, and we went everywhere, and we joined the group, and it was totally amazing. I think one of the really amazing things to me was the antiquity, the age of everything. It was just overwhelming. The museum. Lots of parts. We were in the museum one day and came out after hours. There weren’t any cabs around, so we ran and jumped on a bus. No one was friendly; no one would look or smile. All of a sudden, it dawned on us, “What are we doing on a bus? We don’t even know what we are doing here on a bus.” So we got off. They had just blown up a bus . . .

Frankel: What year was that, do you recall?
MENASHE: I don’t recall what year. But the lightbulb went on at some point, and we looked at each other and said, “What are we doing?” It’s not like being here and you just jump on a bus somewhere and go. To live that way day-in and day-out. We thought that many people were rude, but I can see why, when you’re living in those circumstances 24/7. Ruben had a first cousin in Israel, in Tel Aviv. He [the cousin] had a friend who was the interpreter. He only spoke Hebrew, Ladino, and French. Our Ladino was not that good. We could speak Spanish, but he couldn’t do that. So he had this interpreter. Then Ruben’s father had three sisters who went to Israel with their mother, from Turkey. By the time we got there was just one sister, one auntie, left. We met with her, and she was just adorable.

Frankel: Had Ruben ever met her?
MENASHE: Never met her. She was just wonderful, pinching his cheeks. She couldn’t get enough of him.

Frankel: Were you able to communicate with her?
MENASHE: We could. The cousin and his interpreter left us with her, but we spoke enough Ladino that we could get along with her. She told us in Ladino that she was disappointed in Ruben’s brother, who had been there before, because he couldn’t speak and understand her like we could. We probably weren’t understanding her that well, but it was nice. We had a good time.

Frankel: She has children, so you have cousins . . .?
MENASHE: She didn’t. The sister who had the son had passed away. He was a professional army person, and his interpreter carried a gun. We were in shock. He took us to Caesarea, where he had build a home for his mother. She passed away before he finished the house. He said we could come there and stay anytime. But in the meantime, just a few years later, he sold it. He never married and didn’t have children. Caesarea, like Caesar. All those Roman battles.

Frankel: A beautiful place. Were there other organizations you joined or volunteered for?
MENASHE: Yes. I was on the board of the March of Dimes for several years. My friend Carol Danish is the one who was on the board and then got me on. People apply to the March of Dimes for grants. Outside In, various people. The Providence Child Center wanted a grant for special wheelchairs for children because all the children there have to have specially-made wheelchairs, so we went to tour it to see if they deserved the grant. I was so impressed. We all came away saying, “They’ve got to have it.” Then about a year later, Ed Finn, who was a member of Temple, called me. He was on the board of the Providence Child Center. He called to see if I’d like a tour and be interested in joining the board after the tour. I said, “I don’t need the tour; I’ve had the tour. I’m interested. Yes, I’ll do it.” So I joined that board, and I’m still on it 30 years later. When I first joined the board, it was run by nuns. The night that I became inducted onto their board was during Passover. Sister Catherine was the one in charge of the Child Center at the time. She came up and whispered in my ear that there wasn’t anything there I couldn’t eat. She was very tuned in. Every board meeting starts with a reflection. Nothing has ever been religious. It’s always been ecumenical, or a poem, or some kind of . . .

I was a docent at the art museum for 27 years, and I would do “suitcase tours” out to the schools. One of my tours was at the Juvenile Detention Home. They were teenagers. They were 15, 16, 17, right in that age group. I had to go through two locked doors accompanied by a guard, and I thought, “What am I getting myself into?” They were charming, charming. And they’d been prepared. They asked good questions; they were tuned in. The object of the suitcase tour is for them to handle art. It can be passed around, and we talk about it, and they can handle it. They were wonderful; it was a terrific experience. I didn’t know to expect anything like that at all.

Frankel: What type of art were you carrying in the suitcase?
MENASHE: Some were small sculpture pieces, some were prints, some were actual paintings. It was just a variety of things that they would see if they came to the art museum.

Frankel: Did you do it more than once?
MENASHE: Not to JDH [Juvenile Detention Home]. I did go to the Parry Center for children who have emotional problems. It was a lockdown room. When I went in the room, the door was locked when I was in with the students. There was a teacher there. We passed the objects there. I did two in that same building, and another teacher wouldn’t allow me to pass anything. She didn’t want the children touching anything. I don’t know if she thought they might get agitated or something. I have no idea.

Frankel: How far would you travel?
MENASHE: All over the city, in the Portland area. All the schools. My favorite school was Edwards grade school. It was a private little school. It was a 12-month school over in Southeast Portland. A lot of the children were children of Reed College professors, and they were very bright and very attentive. Wonderful questions, well behaved. That was nice. Not all the experiences were nice, but it was at that school.

Frankel: You’re no longer being a docent at the art museum?
MENASHE: No, I’m not.

Frankel: So what remaining organizations are you still involved in today?
MENASHE: I’m on the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation Board. The other day I was trying to clear out some things from my den. I came across my original handbook for the board of trustees for the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, and I realized it’s 20 years old already! I’ve been on the board 20 years. As I told Julie [Diamond], “Julie, I have a handbook here. I think you’d like to see it” [laughs]. I told her it was from when I was first on the board. I said, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” Because in those first board meetings I can remember that the numbers didn’t add up, and I’d have to call them on it. These are CPAs etcetera, and I’d say, “Wait a minute, this column doesn’t add up.” Anyways, it’s so well run today, and Julie is just terrific.

Frankel: It wasn’t Julie. She hasn’t been there that many years.
MENASHE: No, it was long ago. It was Rick Zurow. Then after Rick was John Moss, and then Julie. I’ve been there for all of them.

Frankel: You’re on that board and still with the Federation?
MENASHE: I’m not on the Federation board. I’m just on the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation board. For Federation, I’m co-chairing Life and Legacy, and I’m also on the National Women’s Philanthropy board through the Jewish Federations of North America. That’s where I’m going Sunday. We have a board retreat in New York for two and a half days starting Monday. Under Lion of Judah, I’ve been a recipient of the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award.

Frankel: Is that a national award?
MENASHE: Yes. For the March of Dimes, I was one of the recipients of the White Rose Award for outstanding women in Oregon. When I was younger, I was on the Metropolitan Youth Commission. At the time, there were all the alienated youth who were hippies who hung out in Lair Hill Park, and Mayor Terry Schrunk didn’t know how to deal with them, so he came to the Metropolitan Youth Commission. He wanted to put together a group of people to study the problem and report to him and tell him what he could do, and so they picked mostly younger people from our commission, of which I was one. Then he picked other people: Bob Walsh, Neil Goldschmidt, and some others. We were all in this committee together. Neil was on that, and he became so — we finally called it the “Alienated Mayor’s Committee on Youth” because Mayor Schrunk was so difficult to work with. We could see it was going to be really difficult to get these two together. It took quite a bit of time working on that and trying to resolve it. That’s when Neil decided that he was going to be mayor, because he didn’t like how the mayor handled things. That’s when he ran for mayor. Little did I know what was going on when he [Schrunk] was mayor. That was so disheartening, upsetting, shocking. He belonged in jail.

Frankel: Did you come up with a solution?
MENASHE: We came up with some solutions that I think were helpful. Whether the mayor wanted to follow up with them or not was another thing. Some of it he tried to do. Neighbors were complaining about them being in the park, and all that was going on; it was a difficult time. Also, as a representative on the Metropolitan Youth Commission, we felt that children who are in Children’s Services needed a lawyer or representative in court, because the Children Services Division had their own lawyers, the parents had their lawyer, but the children had no one. At first I went to the county commissioners, and they said that if I could get the district attorney to buy in — so then I went to the district attorney, who was George Van Hoomissen, and he said they couldn’t afford it, but if I could get the county commissioners to give him the money to do it. So I was back and forth with that for a long time; I felt like I was being used. Then I thought that if I could get someone two mornings a week, that would be the foot in the door, and they could see the need, and then maybe it would happen. But it didn’t ever happen. 

Then years later, CASA [Court Appointed Special Advocates] happened. I thought I would like to be a CASA, so I went to a CASA meeting and learned all about it and came home. I was all excited and told Ruben I was going to do that. He didn’t like the idea; he thought I’d be bringing all the children home, which I would have. So then some friends of mine and I — there were about six of us — formed a group and called ourselves “Voices for Children.” We raised funds for CASA. Our first auction was 25 years ago. Rena Tonkin was on that committee as well. We called it “It’s a jungle out there for children,” and the whole theme was a jungle theme. We had this auction, and we did that for five years. We kept bringing in younger women, and the auction still goes on. This year, the 25th year, they honored us, the founders of Voices for Children, at their auction. They gave us this nice glass award piece that was etched. This year they raised, I think it was $780,000, so they really came a long way. That was fun. Pat Welch was the board president this year. 

Let’s see what else. Cystic fibrosis. I was on a committee to raise funds for cystic fibrosis. We put together a lot of events, and we called it “New Ball in Town.” We’d have it combined with a tennis event. All the tennis pros in town bought in, and they would come and you’d bid to see which pro your pro for the tournament would be. Plus we’d have auction items and so forth. So that was good, another children’s organization.

I was also on the board of YWCA [Young Women’s Christian Association]. A friend of mine was president at the time. She asked me to join the board, and I said, “Why would I join the board of the YWCA, Young Women’s Christian Association?” And she said, “Oh, no. We just call ourselves the YW now. We’re very diverse.” She gave me this whole pitch about what they do for women and children, and the shelters and everything. So I said, “OK. I’ll go on that board.” 

So I went on the board, and I did co-chair a couple of functions there, but while I was on that board, the Community Transitional School was formed. They started there at the YW building. One day, Sheryl, the superintendent of this little school, came to the board and requested funds to buy alarm clocks for the kids. I was shocked. She said, “The parents have no reason to get up, and these children need to be ready for our little bus that comes around to pick them up. Whether they’re in a car, in a van, in a shelter, wherever they are, we need to pick them up on time, and so they need these alarm clocks.” I thought I must have had my head in the sand to not realize that these people have no time schedule. They get fed breakfast at school, lunch, and an after-school snack. It was the most stable thing in their lives, to go to this school. Now they have their own building on NE Killingsworth. I’ve been over there a couple of times now.

Frankel: That’s separate from the Y now?
MENASHE: Separate from the Y. They have their own building and raise funds and have the children there.

Frankel: Are you still on their board? 
MENASHE: Of the Y? No. I just stayed on that two terms. One of the things they asked me to do was to educate the board how to solicit funds. So I took my Federation hat and put it on and went there. I had an easel and had a little show. I made a presentation. It was dead silence. At the end, I asked, “Are there any questions?” Because there should be lots of questions. No one had any questions. And I thought, “Oh, it was just a big flop.” Then this one woman stood up and just started clapping and said, “Never have I ever learned so much about how to solicit funds.” 

Frankel: They were just stunned.
MENASHE: I guess that was it. And then the others started clapping too. I said, “You’re not asking for money for yourself. You have to believe in what you are doing.”

Frankel: Shirley Tanzer used to say that.
MENASHE: Oh, really? Well, it’s true.

Frankel: You learn a lot of skills as a volunteer.
MENASHE: Yes. 

Frankel: Having lived now in Portland and in the Jewish community for so long, what changes have you noticed within the Jewish community?
MENASHE: It used to be very small, or we thought it was small. Many people knew each other and were very much related to each other. Now it’s very diverse — all age groups, all fields — and of course, it’s much larger than we ever realized, just from that survey that was done. If the survey’s correct, there’s probably even more than that, with how many unaffiliated there are. It was a little bit difficult in the beginning to make friends, and I’ve heard that from other people who move here. I don’t know if it is that way today.

Frankel: Even though you were married to someone with such a big family.
MENASHE: Right. My husband was a known entity. When he was in high school, he was famous. He was this big football star, all-city, all-state, MVP, student body president and so forth. So he knew a lot of people, and even with that I could sense that it wasn’t as easy as I hope it is today. Another thing for Jewish people in our community — I don’t know about Portland before the state of Israel because I wasn’t here, but Ruben tells me there’s this 360-degree turnaround since the state of Israel. The acceptance level is so much greater.

Frankel: And the support for Israel?
MENASHE: Yes. 

Frankel: Growing up, he didn’t feel that it was there?
MENASHE: No, he didn’t. Growing up, he felt antisemitism that he doesn’t feel overtly now. He felt it overtly growing up, but since the state of Israel he has not. Let’s see what other things about Portland have changed. A lot of businesses have changed. There used to be a lot of Jewish businesses that aren’t here now. 

Frankel: How do you explain that?
MENASHE: I don’t know how to explain that. When did you come to Portland?

Frankel: In ’77. We lived in Eugene for five years earlier.
MENASHE: And before that?

Frankel: New York, Israel. Who were the movers and shakers early on?
MENASHE: Always the Schnitzers. The Zells used to be. A lot of Temple people. Harold Pollin. A lot of things happened around those people. They made things happen.

Frankel: And the professionals — rabbis, or Federation or the institutions? Did they get along?
MENASHE: I know that Rabbi Rose from Temple was very territorial, as I’ve said. He did not particularly get along with Federation. He’d rather the money came to Temple than went anyplace else. At the time, there were just three major synagogues and rabbis: Rabbi Geller, Rabbi Stampfer, Rabbi Rose. Of course, Rabbi Stampfer was doing all kinds of wonderful things in the community and forming all kinds of organizations and not territorial at all. Very welcoming and open. Rabbi Geller, too, was amazingly catholic in his outlook, I thought. Very inclusive. They were always the three that the TV stations went to, to speak for the community.

Frankel: So fast forward to 2016. How has that that changed, and who are the movers and shakers today?
MENASHE: I don’t know. Today I suppose it’s agency execs. Like David Fuks when he was at Cedar Sinai, and Julie at the Foundation, and Judy [Margles] at the Museum [OJMCHE], and Mark at Federation. I think they all get along pretty well. I think they see the big picture and what’s best for the whole community, and not just their organization. 

I know when I was president of Federation, that’s when we decided to put a grant out there, a $50,000 grant for different agencies to collaborate and come up with a project that would benefit them both — or three, or however many — then apply for the grant. At one of the executive meetings where all of the board presidents and the agency executive directors meet — we’d meet biweekly — I said, “We could apply for the grant too, we as the agency group, as we represent everyone.” And they said, “How could we apply?” I said, “Think about it. What if we wanted a grant writer for the community to write grants for all of us? Wouldn’t that be great?” And they go, “Ohhh! Liz, what else could we do?” I said, “No, don’t ask me. You talk to each other, and you come up with plans that you think would work.” 

Everyone at that time was more interested in getting the money for their own agency than in thinking in terms of the whole community. I was just trying to make them think of the whole community, of being inclusive, and what could be done. I don’t think we ever ended up with — maybe a couple of them for Jewish education went together, but they didn’t get the grant. The grants went elsewhere. But still it was a good process for them to think about sharing.

Frankel: People nowadays are so concerned about the younger generation not joining synagogues, not joining other Jewish organizations. How do you envision the future of Portland and the Jewish community?
MENASHE: That worries me because I believe it, and I believe the studies that have been done. That’s one of the reasons I became involved and became one of the founders of the Portland PJ Library. I was thinking that I would have loved to have the PJ library when I was raising Jack. What a great way for people to learn about their background if one of their parents isn’t Jewish and the other doesn’t care. The children can at least be reading the books or have the books read to them, and the non-Jewish parent who’s reading the book is learning at the same time, in an easy, non-intimidating way. I think that program is going to help for the future. 

I’m also involved in helping raise funds for Moishe House. The young people after college, before marriage, are transitional. Their jobs may take them from city to city. How do they meet other young Jewish people? They can do it through Moishe House. All kinds of fun programs at Moishe House, not necessarily Jewishly-oriented. They might have a bike ride to a pub, or whatever they’re doing. But they will check coats for a Robison Home event or get involved Jewishly. I’ve had that discussion with them about showing themselves in the Jewish community and giving back somehow, whether it’s that way or not. So I think that’s good. They meet each other, they marry each other, and they are not marrying non-Jewish people. Or they still might, but at least they have a better opportunity. I think there are some things that are helpful. 

I like Birthright Israel. Good program. The Teen Israel Experience. I don’t think it’s necessary to belong to a synagogue to have the Teen Israel Experience because it’s expensive to belong to synagogues, and a lot of people cannot afford all the costs that they have and do that too. Camp scholarships are wonderful for Jewish overnight camps. I think that’s very helpful. So maybe there is hope beyond what the Pew Report says.

Frankel: Wonderful. Is there anything else you’d like to add that we didn’t cover?
MENASHE: I don’t think so. I feel like I’ve done all the talking. I don’t know anything about your experiences.

Frankel: Well, this is about you.
MENASHE: OK.

Frankel: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
MENASHE: You’re welcome.