Recorded Events 2022

Listen to the Past, Stories from OJMCHE’s Oral History Collection: Vacations

Recorded November 30, 2022

Watch OJMCHE Archivist Alisha Babbstein, Curator of Collections Anne LeVant Prahl, and Director Judy Margles as they discuss their favorite oral history clips and tell stories about the community that created them. This time the focus is on vacations and we have selected some of our favorite fun tales of Jewish Oregonians’ vacations and misadventures.

A conversation on Harley Gaber’s monumental project DIE PLAGE

Recorded November 17, 2022

Watch as Guest Curator Melissa Yaverbaum moderates a conversation between Dan Epstein, Steve Rees, and Jock Reynolds as they explore Harley Gaber’s process and his life’s work. This installation is the first public showing of DIE PLAGE in more than 20 years and provides a fascinating glimpse into the artist, the work, and the questions that underlie it – from nationhood, to loyalty, propaganda, perpetrators, displacement, and the role of individuals in the course of history and the plagues of our times.

You can view the slide deck shown during this program here (note: this will download to your computer).

Oregon Jewish Voices 2022

Recorded October 18, 2022

You can watch the recording of Oregon Jewish Voices 2022 here. Started in 1999, and organized by writer Willa Schneberg, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2022 program, who span a range of genres including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and essays, shared selections from their work. The speakers from right to left: Bryna Goodman, Seth Lorinczi, Willa Schneberg, Michael Schein, and Vivienne Popperl.

Listen to the Past, Stories from OJMCHE’s Oral History Collection: High Holidays

Recorded September 21, 2022

Listen to OJMCHE Archivist Alisha Babbstein, Curator of Collections Anne LeVant Prahl, and Director Judy Margles as they discuss their favorite oral history clips and tell stories about the community that created them. They have selected some of our favorite High Holiday stories from our oral history collection to share with you—stories that showcase the many different meanings that these holidays have for Oregon Jews.

In Conversation, A Response to the Legacy of Judy Chicago (Live Stream)

Recorded July 12, 2022

This stimulating discussion focused on the legacy of Judy Chicago, a pioneering feminist Jewish artist who continues to make politically engaged art. Panelists include artists Sarah Horowitz and Shelley Jordon and art historian Sarah Diver, each of whom brought a unique political and cultural perspective to the conversation.

This program is in conjunction with OJMCHE’s current exhibition, Turning Inward, Judy Chicago, From the Collection of Jordan Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. This program has been generously supported by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Women’s Giving Circle.

Overturning Roe v. Wade and the Jewish Response (Live Stream)

Recorded June 30, 2022

Watch this conversation responding to the June 24 SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade through a Jewish lens. This conversation includes a panel of thoughtful and knowledgeable community members – writer Judith Arcana, Rabbi Rachel Joseph, and Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran. Note: This is one of our first hybrid events, where we are in person and streaming virtually. We are still adjusting our setup to give you the best experience.

Resources mentioned during the talk: In wake of Roe reversal, some American Jews see attack on religious liberty, Synagogue Sues Florida, Saying Abortion Restrictions Violate Religious Freedoms, The Torah of Reproductive Justice (Annotated Source Sheet), and The Janes on HBO.

WOMANHOUSE: Online Conversation with Bruce Guenther and Judy Margles

Recorded June 15, 2022

Watch this conversation with Bruce Guenther and Judy Margles where they discuss the film WOMANHOUSE in the context of Judy Chicago’s legacy in the annals of feminist art practice.

Tools of Survival: Tribal Education, Relationships, and Sovereignty in Oregon

Recorded April 21, 2022

Since the early 1800s, Native peoples in the place that became Oregon have used a variety of tools to resist genocide and cultural erasure. The U.S. government and the dominant culture have employed practices including land theft, violence, boarding schools, political and economic discrimination, and termination policy in repeated attempts to destroy tribes and their cultures. Because of the power of Native resistance, those attempts have failed. Today, tribes in Oregon are working to heal from the centuries of trauma while forming relationships with and educating non-Native organizations, students, and neighbors about the histories, cultures, and governments of their people. Watch the recording of this program where Lisa Watt and Brent Spencer discuss what Tribes have been forced to do to survive and how they are utilizing education, relationships, and sovereignty to maintain their cultures and benefit the broader community today.

Interrupting Violence: From the Holocaust to Modern Hate Groups

Recorded April 15, 2022

Cure Violence Global (CVG) and Parallel Networks (PN) each use public health models to interrupt and stop the spread of violence. Watch the recording of three experts as they discuss the health approach to preventing violence and how it is being applied in Portland to reduce extremist violence. Our speakers are Dr. Gary Slutkin, the founder and CEO of CVG, Ryan Lo’Ree, former right-wing extremist and PN’s Program Director and interventionist, and Daryl Davis, a PN Interventionist and blues musician who has walked hundreds of Klansmen out of the world of hate.

Restoring Culture to Combat Genocide: Rohingya Stories of Hope

Recorded April 14, 2022

The Rohingya of Burma have been called the most persecuted community on the globe. For decades, the Burmese military has sustained a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing the Rohingya through any means possible, including the stripping of rights – education, worship, livelihoods, citizenship, and more. Watch the recording of Rohingya activist Yasmin Ullah and Artolution executive director Max Frieder as they talk about the work that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are doing to restore culture through creative projects and finding stories of hope despite the obstacles and struggles the community faces.

Resisting Cultural Erasure in America: A conversation with Jennifer Fang and Barrett Holmes Pitner

Recorded April 7, 2022

Watch the recording of author Barrett Holmes Pitner and historian Jennifer Fang as they discuss ethnocide in America, and its particular impacts on Black and Chinese Americans, who have endured that erasure for generations. Pitner and Fang will discuss the personal lived consequences of existing within an ongoing erasure—and how to combat it.

Resisting the Global Threat of Fascism and Conspiracy Theory

Recorded March 30, 2022

Watch the recording of Talia Lavin, author of Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy and Shane Burley, author of Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse as they address the global threat of fascism and conspiracy theory. Lavin and Burley’s deep expertise helps us to better understand both the escalating culture of hate and the psychology of radicalization unfurled by white nationalist groups. 

To Live Is to Take Sides, Selections from the Memoir of Lee Schore

Recorded March 29, 2022

When her daughters were very young, Lee Schore spent months in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury. The trajectory of her life – from her youth in Atlantic City where the seeds of her activism took hold, through her years of dissidence resulting in that time in jail, and beyond, to a career forged in her sixties which took her to Bulgaria and Poland – is revealed in her memoir To Live is to Take Sides. Watch the recording of excerpts from the memoir read by members of her writing community: her friends, teachers, family, and fellow writers.

Edith and Kurt Leuchter: A Story of Love and Resilience

Recorded March 22, 2022

Watch as Deborah Stueber tells the story of her parents Edith and Kurt Leuchter. Edith was born in Bruchsal, Germany. Kurt was born in Vienna, Austria. They were both hidden children in France and saved by an organization called OSE, which translates to Children’s Aid Society, a Jewish underground organization that operated clandestinely during the war saving over 5,000 Jewish children. As hidden children, their paths crossed briefly in a French orphanage. This is just a part of their story, separately and together: surviving the Holocaust, fighting Nazis in the French Resistance, and making a new life in America.

Researching Family History

Recorded March 16, 2022

OJMCHE’s Archivist Alisha Babbstein moderated a discussion with Naomi Derner and Estelle Golden, who are both on the executive committee of the Next Generation group, on how to research and use source materials—family letters, journals, oral histories—along with genealogical tools to help empower families to trace their histories and add to the collective knowledge of our Jewish community. You can view the recording here.

Irma’s Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage

Recorded March 9, 2022

Following clues from her grandmother, Irma’s extraordinary memoirs, Catherine Ehrlich explores her outspoken grandparents’ influential lives at the crossroads of German and Jewish national movements. You can view the recording here.

Understanding the Crisis in Ukraine, A Conversation with Marat Grinberg

Recorded March 3, 2022

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has everyone confused and seeking more clarity. Watch the recording of Marat Grinberg, Associate Professor of Russian and Humanities at Reed College, discuss the situation, offering an up-to-date analysis, and answering audience questions.

Note: There were some internet connection issues during this conversation and while we tried to edit the bits out of the recording, there might still be a few audio hiccups here and there.

OJMCHE Pull Up A Chair Gala

Recorded February 20, 2022

We are so grateful to the entire OJMCHE community for showing up to support the museum and our mission. Together we raised vital funds that fuel the museum’s work. All donations support the museum and help create opportunities for our community to learn from one another. Because when we listen to each other—even when we disagree—we can connect more deeply. We extend heartfelt thanks to Jake Tapper, Boaz Frankel, our host, Alix Zimmermann, all our speakers, and – most important – all of you for being part of this inspiring evening. You can view the recording of our Annual Gala here.

Final Account: The Difference Between Transformative and Performative Accounting Post-Holocaust

Recorded February 16, 2022

Watch here as Amanda Byron Singer, Tamara Meyer, and Robbie Schaefer reflect on the film, Final Account, in light of their experiences in Germany this past November. Jewish Remembrance Week in Goertlitz focused on the importance of recognizing the vitality of Jewish life in Goerlitz prior to World War II, but lacked the accountability and transformation that many participants were hoping for. The nature of performative apology will be explored in contrast to a transformative apology, in terms of what constitutes a “final” accounting in the aftermath of atrocity.

The Use and Misuse of the Holocaust in American Life

Recorded January 26, 2022

The escalating use and misuse of Holocaust imagery and Nazi comparisons in contemporary political life and popular culture is a disturbing trend that is worrying, and dangerous. This phenomenon, on a scale unprecedented in American political culture, demands that we understand and engage those who politicize Holocaust memory. Is Holocaust memory uniquely susceptible to such abuse and distortion? Can we protect its accurate representation? Watch the recording of this discussion here.

Bearing Witness through Photography and Film

Recorded January 11, 2022

How can photography and film be utilized to raise awareness about atrocities? What is the role of the photographer or filmmaker in these situations, and what are their responsibilities to the communities whose stories they’re trying to lift up? Watch as this panel of photographers and filmmakers discuss these questions.

Arthur Szyk: The Art of Resistance

Recorded January 7, 2022

Watch this presentation on Arthur Szyk (1894-1951), an illuminator and caricaturist, who devoted his art to fighting bigotry, intolerance, and authoritarianism. He did this through a distinctively and explicitly Jewish lens, with attention to Jewish tradition and Jewish values of caring for one another and for all of society. Szyk spent the entirety of the Second World War illustrating – explicitly – the depravity of the Axis leaders. Through this work, Szyk exemplified the notion that art can be a catalyst for political and social change. His artwork opens our eyes to injustice. He shows us that art can be subversive, that it can cultivate political understanding, and that it can foster solidarity and commonality. And, perhaps most importantly, art teaches us that lives other than our own have value.