Boris Dayyan (born Mosessohn)

Semler: Bo, you are really part of a family that figures so strongly in our history and I would like to ask you to sort of tell me in your own way what you remember about your family; what you remember about your grandparents, and your parents, names, maiden names and your family. Do you remember your grandparents? 
DAYYAN: Oh surely. I was born on Johnson Street in my grandparents’ home on November 4th, 1907 and we lived with them, for I think, about two years and then we moved to Irvington, but we were always a close family, so I do remember my grandparents very well. At the time the family moved east in 1918, after the death of my sister Zelda in 1916, at which time, as I said, we moved east in 1918 and I believe in 1919-1920, that they started the Jewish Tribune back east, and they had taken it from Portland.

Semler: Let’s go back and talk about – what were your grandparents’ names? 
DAYYAN: My grandparents’ names were Nehemiah and my grandmother’s name was Theresa and she had a brother and sister Betty Nissenson and her brother’s name was Yascha Nissenson, both living in Portland and my uncle Yascha died, my great uncle, died in 1915. 

Semler: Where did your grandmother and grandfather come from before they came to Portland?
Dayyan: I think that the last pulpit that grandpa had before Portland was in Oakland, Oakland, California, but I think I have this information at home and some written notes of my dad’s, which I’ll get a hold of and give you the exact information. 

Semler: Did your grandfather come here to take the pulpit at Neveh Zedek? 
DAYYAN: Yes, as I remember it yes. Now, do you want the whole background on him? 

Semler: Yes, I would like some. 
DAYYAN: Grandfather came over here in 1882 or 1883 because, even though he was an Orthodox Rabbi in those days he was considered a rebel in the ranks because they were too conservative for him, so he decided to come to this country. He also was a lawyer. 

Semler: Now, where was he from in Europe? 
DAYYAN: Odessa. My father was born in Ekaterinoslav. O.K. My grandfather had a letter of introduction from the Chief Rabbi (Herz) of England. Rabbi David DeSola Mendes, of the Portuguese synagogue in Philadelphia and it was through Dr. Mendes that he got his first pulpit; I think it was in Newark. And about a year later the family came over, my grandmother, my father and my uncle and from there he went to Dallas and from Dallas to Oakland and from Oakland to Portland and then he had the pulpit at the Sixth Street shul, whatever the name was. In 1903 they started the Jewish Tribune. Both my father and grandfather graduated from Oregon Law school, I don’t know what year, but in the same class. My dad was the youngest member of the class and my grandfather was the oldest. 

Semler: This was before your father was married? 
DAYYAN: Yes, it had to be. As I recall it, it must have been while they were in Oakland that he met, my eventual mother, because he knew her from the time she was eleven years old and they were married in 1905 and moved here. 

Semler: After your grandfather started the Tribune… 
DAYYAN: Actually the boys started it for him, because he retired from the pulpit and they wanted to get his tremendous Jewish knowledge on paper, Talmudic and so forth, but that’s how it all started, but it was in the law offices at the same time, it was at that time too, or was it just before, that my dad was publishing the Chamber of Commerce Bulletin at which time in 1902 or 1903, that my uncle was the assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. Oh, another thing that I just recalled. As I remember it, when my dad graduated from court law school, for how long I don’t, remember, he became an assistant D. A. and he also was a court reporter for the Journal, as was my uncle Mo. How long that lasted or exactly, I’m not sure. Was always very active, unlike me.

Let’s go back to the name. It is interesting why my name is Dayyan. My grandfather’s name was Nehemiah Mosseyovich Dayyan and when he came to this country and got his first papers out they fouled up the translation and they translated it from Mosseyavich into Mosessohn and dropped the Dayyan, so it became Mosessohn. I took the family name of Dayyan back in 1936, so that’s where the discrepancy comes in. 

Semler: That’s very interesting 
DAYYAN: I was going to say I’m not a bastard child. 

Semler: So your father had one brother? 
DAYYAN: One brother, oh yes they had a sister, I think she was a half-sister, I think my grandfather must have been married twice. Her name was Clara Tobler. She lived in Galveston, Texas, 

Semler: But your father and your uncle Moses both lived here? 
DAYYAN: Right. There was another Mosessohn family – related to one of the Lerners. My mother’s brother lived here and graduated law school here too. 

Semler: Did you have any members of your family still in this city? 
DAYYAN: No. The only family I have left here are a few first cousins, including Henry Morgan, 

Semler: I’m very fond of Henry Morgan; I wouldn’t mind him having a joke for me. 
DAYYAN: But that’s on my mother’s side. I’m the only one from the Mosessohn side, altogether. 

Semler: Did your family all leave at the same time, your father, his brother and your grandfather, 
DAYYAN: No, my uncle … now this must have been subsequent to my sister’s death, because it was a shock, it was a terrible shock and that’s why we eventually moved. As I recall, my uncle, Moe Mosessohn went back east [first]. A relative of ours, a cousin of my mother, a Sam Lerner who established the Lerner Shops – it was through his assistance that my uncle set up what was called the United Waist League, which was a manufacturer’s association of New York which later became the United Women’s Wear League. After his report came back, my dad decided to go back east and take the family and he became the head of what they call (or once called), Associated Dress Industries of America, which was an organization of all dress manufacturers. The entire industry, I think I recall reading, was a billion dollar industry and he was likened to Will Hays of the Motion Picture Industry, whom he knew very well. Also, they were very intelligent, smart men, both of them. Don’t forget, when my father lived in this part of the country, you couldn’t find a democrat under a rock. They were all republicans, but to play it safe, when my family moved east, my father maintained his republicanship and my uncle joined Tammany Hall, so they could slash it both ways. 

Semler: I think that’s funny. So your grandfather, your father and your uncle went east and they revived the Tribune? 
DAYYAN: They revived the Tribune and it died about – my dad died in 1930, when he was 48, just prior to his 49th birthday and it was just after the crash that everything fell apart. At that time my dad had had a heart condition for four years and eventually it caught up with him and with all the problems and everything. My uncle took it over and tried to keep the Tribune going, I think it was probably a year or two later that it was taken over by what was called the Hebrew Standard and for many years it carried the double title of the Hebrew Standard Jewish Tribune and eventually the Jewish Tribune was dropped. 

Semler: What happened to the Tribune here? Did it just cease to be? 
DAYYAN: We took it. Oh no, David Cohen wanted to keep the paper. He had worked for the folks. David E. Cohen, not David Solis Cohen. He worked for the folks for years on the Tribune and when we left he wanted to take the paper over. Now what happened I don’t recall, but I do think that in the back of the folks’ mind they were going to continue the paper back east, so they kept the name, but they gave Mr. Cohen all the rights and whatever, papers and files of the old Tribune and Mr. Cohen continued and he changed the name to The Scribe. 

Semler: There was also a paper before the Tribune called the American Hebrew News that was published here. 
DAYYAN: Yes, but I don’t know anything about it. 

Semler: That didn’t have anything to do with the Tribune? 
DAYYAN: I never heard of it. 

Semler: O.K. I was curious about that. You really were born and grew up here so you must have memories of Portland? 
DAYYAN: I left here in 1918 just before, let’s see, just before my 11th birthday. I do remember it was the year of the flu, a very serious flu epidemic, because I went back east with my parents and my grandparents stopped in Galveston to see my aunt. The folks didn’t get back East for another two to three months because of the Flu epidemic; they couldn’t travel. But eventually they came there. What I remember about Portland, it was very nice. I used to skate to school. 

Semler: Where did you go to school? 
DAYYAN: I went to Irvington up to the seventh grade and I was one of their brightest pupils according to the principal. I don’t believe it but that’s what he said. 

Semler: You know, I saw in reading that your father and your uncle were very active in a variety of things in the community; especially they seemed to be active in the Maccabee Lodge of the B’nai B’rith. 
DAYYAN: Now, this isn’t gospel, but I think I’m right. Both my father and uncle were extremely active. You name it and they were in it. But I think my father being the older brother, I think my uncle deferred to him in a sense, but among other things I know dad was the President of the B’nai B’rith here. In either 1915 or 1916 he was the District president; I think the District is #5 of the Pacific Coast. He was District grand president of the B’nai B’rith because I remember going to a convention in Oakland in either 1915 or 1916 and I also think, and I could be wrong, that both he and my uncle had something to do with the founding of the Anti-Defamation League. Now, if that’s not true I know they were very active in its beginning. My dad also became head of the Oddfellows. I think the only lodge that he wasn’t a member of (but he went through the chairs) was the Elks. You name it and he was in it. 

Semler: Was that common for that time? Were all his friends involved in these organizations? 
DAYYAN: No, that’s the way he was. He was a very intelligent, beautiful speaker. He loved that kind of life. I’m more like my mother; I don’t enjoy it. 

Semler: Tell me about your mother. What was your mother’s maiden name? 
DAYYAN: Well, she was a very beautiful woman and I resemble her. My mother’s name was Minnie Lerner. It subsequently became Monya. She had two sisters and a brother. The brother Ben Lerner, who lived in Portland, also graduated from Oregon Law School. What kind of work he did, I don’t recall. I know he married a woman by the name of Hortense Jacobs, and I believe the Jacobs family, in those years, was a very prominent Portland family, but what business they were in I don’t remember. 

Semler: Did they remain in Portland or did they leave? 
DAYYAN: No, they went back east and my aunt Hortense was a meshugina from way back and at the time – this is an anecdote for historical purposes, I don’t care if its published or not, but it’s still part of my family: when Hortense married my uncle Ben, her parents were so against it, they wouldn’t let them move in and they had to move in with us and I remember diapering their first child Stuart Lerner when I was nine years old, but they eventually moved back east. 

Semler: They lived with you? 
DAYYAN: For a while in Irvington. I remember this very well. Now, let’s see – the Lerner family lived in Alameda. The folks were married in Alameda in 1905, July 29th. I don’t recall what business my grandfather was in but if there is any connection to make it sound good, his brother was the father of all the Lerner family that established the Lerners stores, but I never see any of my relatives. I’m on the poor side of the family. 

Semler: Did your grandfather – I keep thinking about this – did your grandfather leave the city at the same time that your father did? 
DAYYAN: We all went back east. We went back two or three months, just before the folks. 

Semler: So there really was a period of around 13 years after he had retired from the Neveh Zedek that he was involved in the Tribune? 
DAYYAN: I would say it’s about that, yes. 

Semler: When you lived in Irvington in those early years, were there many other Jewish families there? 
Dayyan:  I remember one, that’s about all. 

Semler: Who do you remember? 
DAYYAN: His name was Cohn. I don’t remember his first name. Marvin Cohn? No, Melvin Cohn. 

Semler: Were you involved … at that time it seemed a large part of the Jewish community lived in South Portland. Were you involved in activities over there? 
DAYYAN: Anything that I know about South Portland … They used to have a kosher butcher over there. We had kept a kosher home because of my grandparents and the name was Nudelman, who later became Delman of shoe fame. I went to Heder in South Portland by streetcar. For two weeks then quit. That’s all I remember about South Portland.

Semler: So your friends were mostly non-Jewish? 
DAYYAN: I would say so, yes. 

Semler: How about your parents’ friends? The people they saw? 
Dayyan: Oh no, you mean the families here? Oh no. They were Jewish. All the families were Jewish, mostly. Of the children, the only ones that I really remember are the Lautersteins as they were our so-called back door neighbors. This was in Irvington. They lived on 17th Street and we lived on 18th Street back to back and we were very, very close. I honestly don’t remember too many other people. I remember the Swett family. Ted Swett. I believe he became crippled many, many years ago. And I remember a fellow Glickman. I even knew (slightly) Norton Simon when he was piddling around as a youngster. 

Semler: Was he a part of the Simon family here? 
DAYYAN: Oh yes, he was a very ugly kid, very backward, very bashful. He was ugly but he had a brain and the Midas touch. But I honestly don’t remember too many people other than the Lautersteins. Actually I only met Celine’s husband once. 

Semler: The other thing that I see is that you spent time around Seaview, Washington and Long Beach. It seems that that was very popular in those years. 
DAYYAN: Yes, we used to go to Seaview, Washington. How many years I don’t remember, but I do remember the summer of 1916 when we were in Seaview. We visited some relatives in Long Beach and that’s the time that my sister was drowned and I also remember the trip back with the body if you want to know that. 

Semler: It must have been awful. 
DAYYAN: But I remember that as if it happened yesterday. I really don’t remember how many years we went to Seaview, but it must have been quite a few. 

Semler: We did see one picture as early as 1907, but your family was there before you were born. 
DAYYAN: That was before, so we must have gone every year until 1916 then, according to that. 

Semler: Now your grandfather, before you were born, was the Rabbi at Neveh Zedek. Do you remember… I think the Lautersteins grandfather must have been… 
DAYYAN: Heller, Dr. Heller.

Semler: Remember after that. Do you remember him at all? 
DAYYAN: Oh, I remember him very well, oh yes, both he and Mrs. Heller, the mother. 

Semler: Did you attend that synagogue? 
DAYYAN: As a kid, honestly don’t remember, I do know, I think my grandfather went to Neveh Zedek and we want to Ahavai Sholom and I remember the Rabbi there was Abramson and I also remember that when my sister died she was buried at the Ahavai Shalom wherever that was, so it was Ahavai Sholom. But I was not in attendance very much, but that’s all I remember about that. I remember Dr. Abramson though – a tall thin man. 

Semler: But it really wasn’t a part of your life and the things that you did? 
DAYYAN: No, I was not involved, I am trying to figure out who my friends were, but as I said before, the only one’s that I remember very well were the Lauterstein family. My two friends, three friends in the block out on 18th Avenue was a Harvey Hunt, a Cabell Hunt, whose mother was a Brahmin. And a cute little chick by the name of Tiny Richards and she had an older sister by the name of Alice Richards. She became quite a well-known gal in town and married a very wealthy man. Who, I don’t know, but when I drove out here in 1923 from New York, I spent most of the summer with the Lautersteins at Seaside and I remember bumping into these two Richards gals there. 

Semler: Did you find Portland greatly changed? 
DAYYAN: At that time? I didn’t spend any time in Portland. I spent it out in Seaside, playing golf at Gearhart. 

Semler: Were there a large Jewish community who spent the summers down at the coast then? 
DAYYAN: I wouldn’t know that. There must have been because I recall there were a bunch of guys I used to chase around with that I had known, among them were the Swett boys, before his illness, but I don’t remember who the others were. They were there all summer so I’m sure they must have all had homes there. 

Semler: But you were a little boy when the Tribune was going on. 
DAYYAN: Oh I remember it; I remember it very well. 

Semler: Tell me what you remember about it? 
DAYYAN: I used to go around the office many times, watch my dad paste up the galleys. My grandfather pecking out his editorials on an old Oliver typewriter and I used to help them when was five, six, or seven years old in their rush to get the paper out. I used to glue the wrappers for the papers to get them out and I remember getting a check for $3.00 once on the Hibernia Bank and my dad took me by the hand to the cashier and got me my cash. I remember that. 

Semler: How long did you work for those $3.00? 
Dayyan: Oh, I did this off and on for years. 

Semler: Now, this paper was published in English, wasn’t it? 
DAYYAN: Oh yes, yes. 

Semler: And did everybody in the community get it? 
DAYYAN:  Mostly, oh, it was a nationwide thing. 

Semler:      Oh, didn’t realize that. 
DAYYAN: It had a national circulation. 

Semler: So when you moved to New York that wasn’t much of a problem? 
DAYYAN: Oh, it was known; it wasn’t a problem. As long as we are talking about it, the folks were very prominent, not only in the Jewish community but otherwise, so when they went back East they were known and my dad still stayed very active in public things and the details I can give you later on when I check my notes at home. He even became president of the B’nai B’rith Lodge in New York for one year. He was very, very active. I have a picture of him; I gave it to my daughter, a picture from Hoover and very prominent people. He knew them all. I met most of them, but primarily through his activities as the head of this very large organization and his Jewish activities. When I went to Michigan, I was a member of Phi Epsilon Pi and they made him an honorary member and shortly thereafter he helped found the Council fraternity, something or other, The Council of Christian and Jews or something between fraternities. I don’t remember what the title of that was. 

Semler: And this was around the 1920s? 
DAYYAN: Yes, because I went to school from ’24 to ’28. 

Semler: So your father was interested in both Jewish activities and other kind of activities? 
DAYYAN: Oh yes, always. He became Master of the Masonic Lodge. 

Semler: This is just for me, but were you happy when you moved east? Did you like that? 
DAYYAN: I don’t think I knew the difference at that time. 

Semler: Were your mother and father adjusted? 
DAYYAN: Well, I don’t think it – because all through the years, after I married Barbara in 1944, she used to talk about the house in Irvington to her, day after day, repeat and repeat. 

Semler:  So she found the community – – 
DAYYAN: I think she enjoyed it much better because she had a lot of friends. 

Semler: But she was a home person? 
DAYYAN: Very much so, very much so. I’m trying to think of the names of the families that we knew so well. 

Semler: Well you said to me that you knew David Solis Cohen. 
DAYYAN: I knew him and I don’t. I was a child. I knew he was a very prominent guy there. Oh, she was a member of the Board of the Consumptive Relief Society. It was in Denver. 

Semler: Was she involved with some things such as the Council of Jewish Women? 
DAYYAN: Oh yes, so was mother, come to think of it. Yes, definitely. 

Semler: Do you remember any of the things that they did? 
Dayyan: No, I don’t remember anything about it. 

Semler: I know that Paula Lauterstein was very involved with Hadassah. 
DAYYAN: Now, wait a minute. Hadassah hasn’t been around that long. 

Semler: Perhaps that was after you left. 
DAYYAN: After we moved back out here. See, I came back out here in 1939 to California and mother was living in San Francisco at the time and I was drafted and wound up at Fort Lewis, but I know she was very active in Hadassah In fact, a cousin of ours planted some trees in her memory in Israel somewhere; an orange grove. But frankly, I’ve never been active. I’ve never been that much interested. I’ve never liked crowds, although I was head of our boys scout troop chairman was for three years, but I was just never like my dad in that respect, but inside I’m a – –

DAYYAN: My grandfather knew Herzl. 

Semler: Really? 
DAYYAN: He died many – a long time ago.  Even Hillel. 

Semler: Your grandfather knew Hillel? I’ll bet that really was a dream of your family? 
DAYYAN: I don’t know if it was a dream for them, but they were for the State, let’s put it that way. Now whether they would have gone there, I don’t know. But they were for an Israeli State. Just how strongly they felt about it I don’t know. They were very good Zionists, but as I say, whether they would have ever gone there, I don’t know. 

Semler: When did your grandfather die? 
Dayyan: 1926. He was in school at that time. Dad died in 1930. 

Semler: How about your mother? 
DAYYAN: She died in 1958. 

Semler: She actually did live to see the State of Israel? 
DAYYAN: Oh yes. But I don’t… well she was all shook up when I married my shiksa wife over there, but she got used to it and they were very close. She’s quite a gal. She’s a better Jew than I am.

Semler: I think that sometimes happens. 
DAYYAN: I told you about the way we brought up our children. I really got to tell you so that it doesn’t sound so coarse. As I say, they couldn’t even get me to go to Sunday school. I went my senior year. We were members of a synagogue in New York. I was elected president of the class. I went two weeks and never went back, but I’ll tell you what happened. After the war our oldest son was born in 1942. I got friendly with a neighbor and they started a synagogue. I think it was Conservative and I was going to send David, our son David to the synagogue. But in those days, I was 38 years old when I got out of the army and I was too old to get a job in my old line, which at that time was advertising, public relations. So I was having a little tough going for awhile so as it worked out, I didn’t have enough money for the registration fee or whatever. I had made prior arrangements with the chairman of the registration committee. So I was to go there and register and all that. It was in the open, a bunch of tables outside and a bunch were yakking and a lot of noise, so I go up there to register my boy and they raised a stink about the money, and this guy is standing right there, so I finally said to hell with you and that was it, so I never sent anybody to a Jewish Sunday school. My wife took our children to a Presbyterian Sunday school for a while. We taught them Jewish history, something about the religion. My daughter’s close friends, one girl was a daughter of a Cantor, her other friend was a Catholic. She had a good interest in both, she went to both. The boys were never interested and they still are not anything and my daughter finally became a Catholic. She married a Catholic and a year later … and she’s happy, so what the hell am I going to do? I’m not going to shove that down anybody’s throat. In brief we taught our children the basics of the Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic religions. They had their free choice. 

Semler: Do you think there was any particular reason why you were so disinterested in Judaism or was that just how things were? 
DAYYAN: Just the way I am. 

Semler: There was nothing especially? 
DAYYAN: No, listen, I am very proud of my heritage. I’m very proud of being a Jew, but I just don’t have it inside to be active in it. Something like this: I love it, but I can never get involved. It just doesn’t mean that to me. I don’t know how to explain it or why, but I still say I’m a damned good Jew. I think one of the things, primarily is that I have never been taken for a Jew. Most of my life, in fact after I moved out here, I was drafted and finally wound up in Brooklyn. I became an officer and it was about a 15 or 20-minute walk between the apartment building and Fort Hamilton where I was stationed. In between was one of those typical Jewish districts with the kosher butcher and the soda store and the magazine store. They all thought she was the Jew in the family and that was an Irishman. They even talked Yiddish to her, but I really can’t explain it. I don’t try to hide it, but I can’t explain it, but I frankly don’t think I would be active in something else, I just don’t care for that certain thing. If I can be helpful in something, fine. 

Semler: But you never have been one to involve yourself in organizations? 
DAYYAN: No, I never cared. My dad would eat it up with a spoon but I just never cared for it. My mother was very Jewish too but she wasn’t particularly active, yes Hadassah, yes. Not too much. Most of our close friends in New York were all Jewish. 

Semler: But you did keep a kosher home and you were observant in the home if not outside it? 
DAYYAN: Until the grandparents died. Actually we kept a kosher home until my grandmother died. She died after my father. She never knew that he had died, but she had had a stroke and she was a nothing for about two years. We took care of her until she passed away in 1932 or 1933, somewhere around there. The thing about my grandfather, remember I told you, he was both a Rabbi and a lawyer in Russia. Somewhere along the line he was a little bit fed up with the intense Orthodoxy that he was being brought up in and apparently he rebelled against certain practices, 

Semler: And this was a less Orthodox congregation? 
DAYYAN: I don’t know. What was this? It was an Orthodox congregation wasn’t it? Neveh Zedek. 

Semler: Yes, but I think perhaps maybe some are more Orthodox in their practice. Maybe the east coast was more Orthodox than the west coast. 
DAYYAN: Possibly, I don’t know. 

Semler: Was he happy in his pulpit here? 
DAYYAN: Oh sure, as far as I know. He got tired and he wanted to write editorials; he couldn’t get it out in the synagogue. It had nothing to do with the services. In fact, I can’t find the papers, but I know this for a fact because it was told to me by my father he had traced us back to the Spanish Inquisition and to Don Isaac Abravanel who was the Chancellor of Exchequer to Queen Isabella. My wife was reading a Jewish history where it shows that Don Isaac had traced himself back to the House of David, so I am a member of the House of David, and I don’t mean the baseball team. 

Semler: That’s fascinating. 
DAYYAN: My grandfather had traced us back to him and he traced himself back to the House of David. 

Semler: So your family actually left Spain? 
DAYYAN: Sometime during the Inquisition and yet we are not considered Sephardic Jews. Well, there were too many hundreds of years between, I guess, because there were an awful lot of people who left Spain in those years. They all went in different directions. I could have been a Black Moroccan, a Sephardic Jew, who knows. 

Semler: You really never do know. 
DAYYAN: No I really do. It means an awful lot to me and I feel it in my guts, believe me, but getting active in it, no. 

Semler: This look into your history that your grandfather did, does it still exist? 
DAYYAN: I can’t find it. In fact, how in the devil did you get that picture? That’s how I know. I don’t know. I don’t know where it is. I know he spent years and years and years at it, but I’ll tell you something, my uncle was married to a bitch, (quote – unquote) and I think she has all of those and she couldn’t care less about the Mosessohn family and I can’t get any of it. 

Semler: This was your uncle Moe? 
DAYYAN: Yes, and she re-married later on, so I have no use for her whatsoever. Her father married my parents in Oakland. Her sister is the sweetest woman in the world. I just saw her recently. 

Semler: Does she still live in New York? 
DAYYAN: She lives in New York. She’s about 80 now, 79-80 years old. 

Semler: Was this Hortense Jacobs? 
DAYYAN: No, her name is Blanche Kaplan. Jacobs married my mother’s brother. 

Semler: But you feel that this Blanche may have part of your family history? 
DAYYAN: I wouldn’t even ask her for it. Chances are that she wouldn’t even know who I am anymore, because well, her sister doesn’t even like her, but I saw her sister recently in San Francisco, and her daughter was visiting her. And she had talked with her sister Blanche, “guess who I just talked to, Bo, Boris.” “Who’s he?” [laughing] I couldn’t care less, but I honestly think that she does. I’ll tell you something else that I found out from this Naomi, her sister, nee Kaplan. Grandpa, he had a lot of Hebrew books, my grandfather had, stacks, old Talmudic stuff and apparently, who did it I don’t know, established a library at Long Island University in New York and it exists today. I never heard of it until recently. 

Semler: Taking his books? 
DAYYAN: Yes, all that stuff. A Memorial library, so the next time I’m there I’ll find out what that’s all about. Believe me, just being here now, after having been away for so long, it kind of gets to me, the whole bit and I’ll probably start bawling one of these days, I’m not kidding you. – -An accent that you could cut with a knife, Nate Weinstein. I don’t know if his daughter still lives here or not, Flossie Weinstein, what her married name is I don’t know. Samuel Weinstein, I don’t know whether he was a cousin or a brother. Oh, wait a minute; there was Sam and Nate. They had a wholesale clothing business on Ankeny Street. I think they we two brothers and they had the business together. I’ll never forget when Nate came up with his new car. He had what they called at Premier. 

Semler: What’s a Premier? 
DAYYAN: It was an automobile. It had an automatic shift, a button shift on the thing. It never worked. Do you remember the Schwartz family? 

Semler: You don’t mean Nate Schwartz? 
DAYYAN: All right. He was married – the name was Schwartz [he means Joseph Swartz] – he was married to Jake Lauterstein’s sister, and he had a clothing store in Oregon City. I remember going out there. We had a Hudson. It had a flick switch on it and I drove. And this is 1923 when I drove off to New York. He eventually moved south and he became Mullen and Bluett which was a very large clothing chain down there. They eventually sold out. I don’t think they are alive anymore. But there is a relationship that I didn’t realize rust now and I’ll have to ask Felice about it. Mrs. Schwartz was their aunt. What the devil was his first name? Anyway, he was an uncle, I think, to the Nemerovsky family, but I don’t think the Nemerovskys and the Lautersteins were related. 

Semler: But you’re related to them. 
DAYYAN: I’m not related. 

Semler: Not to the Nemerovsky’s either? 
DAYYAN: No, no. 

Semler: But they had been friends of yours? 
DAYYAN: They lived about four doors away from us on Johnson Street. (Talking aside to various people). 

Semler: I would like to put on the tape. 
DAYYAN: You mean the un-Jewish part of the family? 

Semler: Yes. 
DAYYAN: Do you want me to say so? 

Semler: You may say so. I have this on. I would like to know where your family is now? 
DAYYAN: They’re all in Van Nuys [L.A]; two sons and a girl and four grandchildren. 

Semler: Would you like to tell me their names? 
DAYYAN: (Voices in the background) That’s Bridget. Her last name is Brennan, Irish. She is six. 

Semler: Now, this is your daughter. 
DAYYAN: (Talking in the background) O.K. That’s Annie, she’s four. That’s Colleen, she’s three, This is James Michael himself. He’s six months old. 

Semler: So she has three girls and a boy. 
DAYYAN: And they’re planning on one more, that’s that. But she is very happy and he is one of 10 children and the Brennan family, the parents, have 23 grandchildren. 

Semler: He comes from a very large family. How about your boys? 
DAYYAN: One’s a nice one and one’s a stinker. 

Semler: Are they both married? 
DAYYAN: No, and they don’t have any children that I know of. 

Semler: Do they all live in Los Angeles? 
DAYYAN: The oldest one still lives with us and he’s 35 years old, and he’s been a problem. No, he’s a very nice child but he’s had emotional problems for years. As smart as a whip and terrific in electronics. He’s had our garage fouled up with equipment for years, but he’s much better, he’s a nice kid, nothing wrong with him (he’s not a nut), but he’s had his problems. The other guy, not as nutty as this guy is, the other guy is sweet. Now Neal started working in the post office and put himself through college. He is an art major. He’s very good at it, just hasn’t had his father’s field. He works from 5am to 1pm, so during the day he does his art work. He hasn’t found his particular niche. He’ll be 31 in September. The sweetest guy you ever will want to meet. Originally you would say, to hell with it, when you graduate and get your art, go out and do art, but he would be a jerk to give up a $17,000 a year job, right? With seniority. So he still keeps his job and he does art work during the day, and he doesn’t have to starve to death doing it. Don’t worry about it. As I said, David is an electronic genius, but he’s fouled up and Leslie worked at the post office and helped herself through school. She met this guy. He’s a real nice guy. He’ll never get anywhere. How they manage to do what they do, with what he earns, but they get along great and they are very happy. She has a terrific family, so why complain. 

Semler: Is she your youngest child? 
DAYYAN: Yes, she’ll be 30 in November. 

Semler: And where was your wife from? From the east coast? 
DAYYAN: She really came from Kokomo. I met her in San Francisco. I’ll tell you, it’s a great thing. She was a manicurist, that’s how I met her in San Francisco when I came out in 1939 and we were married in 1941. And it killed my mother practically, but she is one of the nicest women, people you have ever known or met. The most understanding person I’ve ever known, honestly. 

Semler: And she told me she is a cartoonist? 
DAYYAN: No, she did cartoon painting. It has nothing to do with art, as she has no background whatsoever. The animation is done on paper, right? The stills are only the outline. They have to have the outline of the drawings; the painters get to make all the colors that we see on the TV tube, that’s what she does. She is very good at it, but she got involved. I had a heart attack about 20 years ago, a coronary, a very serious coronary in 1957 and my mother died in March of 1958, but had been in the television business and nothing went right. Let’s put it that way. As far as financially, I never was successful. I had good ideas but got in with the wrong people. In fact, I’m hoping to get involved in the motion picture production when I get back, something that I inherited from another cousin of mine. It’s something to do, if nothing else, because I retired about two and a half years ago, but anyway, I finally got out of that, sold insurance for a couple of years, which stinks, and finally said, to hell with it, I’m getting older, I’ve had a heart attack, why break my neck? I used ox up all the dough trying to make these things work. I wound up working for the state, in the employment office in California. I raised hell there too, in fact it drove me nuts, some of that bureaucratic crap, but they took it, they loved me. I raised hell. Oh, I applied for the job and I get a telegram at home, come down for an interview. This is in 1967. I’m in the hospital with a stroke. It only lasted about 24 hours, but I went to the V.A., for two weeks to the Veterans Hospital, but I had this stroke, instead of starting in September, I started in January, March, April. And April of 1968, after I had been there about three months, one of my senior supervisors takes me and reads me off. Oh, I used to drive her crazy. She was a very sick woman, unfortunately. All of a sudden I get this horrible pain in my leg and I thought I had a muscle cramp and I sweat it out for an hour. I walk around while she’s yakking. I didn’t know what she said, not that I would listen to her anyway. So one of the gals drives me to the corner near where I live, because I couldn’t drive. It took me 45 minutes from the corner to go k a block and a half, and I get home and nobody’s home. I said, well, I got a muscle cramp so I get in a warm, hot tub and look down and from here down it was as white as that paper and I said, oh, oh, no blood. That’s exactly what I said to myself and it was still hurting. Barbara finally came home. Neal came home, the youngest son, they drove me up to the V.A. Hospital and I had a thrombosis in my right leg. No circulation whatsoever. Within 24 hours it started to seep through so the pain had gone. Three weeks later they cut me open, roto-rootered the arteries, shoved them back in again and although I have pain all the time, I have difficulty in walking. I could have lost the leg fifteen years ago that’s the only thing they knew what to do, so anyway healthy. 

Semler: You look healthy. 
Dayyan: Yes, I’ll be 70 years old. I sure don’t act it, do I? 

Semler: And you don’t look it. No you don’t. 
DAYYAN: It’s wonderful. After I hit, well I just about was 60 when I had this, so I said, O.K. So every year since then I’ve been giving myself a birthday brunch on a Sunday closest to my birthday. I invite anywhere from 18 to 20 good friends of mine – on me – and I celebrate every year. What the hell, I could drop dead tomorrow, so let’s enjoy it. This is what happened. I had the heart attack, I had the stroke, I had this so this is what I do every year.

Lenway: Mr. Dayyan, the majority of our questions will be concerned with the Jewish Tribune. I was wondering, did all the Jews subscribe to the Jewish Tribune, or were there a select few that took the newspaper? 
DAYYAN: All the Jews where? 

Lenway: In Portland. 
DAYYAN: No, not any more than any other magazine. 

Lenway: Did the Jews that attended Temple Beth Israel subscribe to the Jewish Tribune more than the Jews that – 
DAYYAN: That I don’t know. It was a national magazine, actually, even in those days and I think eventually the circulation ran around 50- to 60,000, but that’s nationwide, so who knows? As I say, it’s just like any subscription magazine. It was a very well known magazine even in the early days here in Portland. 

Lenway: Did you ever talk to your grandfather about the specific goals of the Jewish Tribune, or what it tried to center upon? Was it Zionism or was it more social, or what did your grandfather try to bring out, or bring across to the Jewish community? 
DAYYAN: I think originally, basically, as far as my grandfather was concerned, he was extremely liberal, so as far as the policy went, along whatever lines, originally, I think it was established primarily, my grandfather’s editorials, as I recall, they were based upon Talmudic interpretations – a better understanding between Christians and Jews, social problems. Let me give you a little story here to clarify it just a small bit. I recall there was a small family restaurant downtown, somewhere around Fourth and Washington, somewhere around in there, called House’s Restaurant. Although we kept a kosher home because of my grandparents, he had no objections to what we ate on the outside and I remember, going as a child with my father and my grandfather used to go there on Fridays and he would eat fish or have them cook it in a certain way, you know, in butter, and eggs, but he would eat there and he would have lunch regularly with some minister in town and a priest and they would discuss things. So this was his motive, to establish better relationships, better understanding, to fight antisemitism. Naturally, when you get the information from the papers that I brought you he was a very intense Zionist, before Zionism existed, to build Zionism and to establish a homeland in Israel and this goes back a long, long time. 

Lenway: Did the importance of Christian-Jewish relationships change throughout the existence of the paper or did he start to lean more towards Zionism towards the thirties? 
DAYYAN: No. I don’t think there was any leanings at all. They were all important. 

Lenway: Do you remember the date when the paper left Portland and moved to New York? Was transferred to New York? 
DAYYAN: Well, it was about, somewhere in the fall of 1918. 

Lenway: And what was the reason behind this? 
DAYYAN: Why we left? Basically because of my sister’s death, which happened in July of 1916. 

Lenway: Now, as I understand it, you kept the name of the Jewish Tribune, correct? And you covered the Portland news? 
DAYYAN: The Portland News afterwards? 

Lenway: Also, 
DAYYAN: No, it was national. It was a national publication. In other words there wasn’t even one in New York publication, national, international Jewish newspaper. 

Lenway: David Cohen started The Scribe. How did this transaction take place? 
DAYYAN: I don’t know anything about the details. All I remember was that Mr. Cohen worked for my folks on The Jewish Tribune for years. What his capacity was I never knew. When he was leaving to go back east, apparently he wanted to take the paper over with the title, which my folks refused to give. They said, “No, we are going to re-establish it and you can have everything but the name of the paper. The subscription list, the contacts, whatever is necessary to start the publication, but not the name.” And that was it. 

Lenway: Was there any, to your recollection, basic difference between the Jewish Tribune and The Scribe? 
DAYYAN: I have no idea what The Scribe was, because as I understand it, Jonah Wise had his finger in it somewhere, so I imagine he wrote the editorials. What his editorial policies were, I have no idea. I think, but as I said I don’t know much about it, but I think it was a fairly localized paper. 

Lenway: You state that you and your family went to Seaview during the summers? Did the Jewish Tribune cover this sort of activity at the beaches during the summer time? 
DAYYAN: You mean, little social events? 

Lenway:  Yes, 
DAYYAN: They may have a few squibs here and there but there is nothing of too much importance as far as the paper is concerned. It wasn’t a social magazine, in other words. Social events, parties here and there, no. It was involved in much more important things. 

Lenway: Such as political events? 
DAYYAN: Political, you name it and they worked it up, because the only reason I can say this is because over the years it became a very well known publication and my family became very well known, and I would say primarily due to The Jewish Tribune, My Uncle Moe left, as I recall, he left Portland about a year before we did and established himself in New York and then something of a rather large nature arose where he thought my father would fit in and at that time we moved there and he became the head of the dress industry and re-established the Jewish Tribune. 

Lenway: It was called the Jewish Tribune or was there an extended title to it? 
DAYYAN: No, The Jewish Tribune. 

Lenway: Did your father have anything to do with the Hebrew Standard? 
DAYYAN: No. The only thing about the Hebrew Standard was, that when my father died, it was just after the Depression or the start of the depression and my Uncle tried to keep it going, but funds were very difficult to get in those days, as you can understand, in a financial sense, and it went out of business and it was sold to the Hebrew Standard, and then the Hebrew Standard, for a period of time, for how long a time, I don’t know, it was called the Hebrew Standard – The Jewish Tribune and later on the Jewish Tribune title was dropped. 

Lenway: As I understand it, your grandfather worked out of the Chamber of Commerce building? 
DAYYAN: Yes, he had offices there. The Jewish Tribune was published in the office. He also published The Chamber of Commerce bulletin, at least my father did. For how long I don’t recall. 

Lenway: Your grandfather, was he a member of the Knights of Pythias? 
DAYYAN: No, no, my father was. 

Lenway: Your father was. How many lodges of this type, if you can remember, was he a member of? 
DAYYAN: Let’s see… Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias, Elks, not too long before we left Portland. But primarily B’nai B’rith, and according to what I have here, he joined the Oregon Lodge in 1901, and became the president in 1903 and he was the Grand president of District #4 in 1917 and then when we moved east he affiliated with the Lodge of the B’nai B’rith, of which he became president in 1920-1922. Also, as I recall, I think, my dad and uncle were involved, I am sure they were involved, but whether they were responsible for, I don’t know, in the founding of the Anti-Defamation League, because I think, as I recall it, there was a very good friend, and whether or not he came from here originally, I don’t remember, because the main office is in Chicago and the administrative, the executive head of the Anti-Defamation League was Neufeld, his name was Dick Neufeld. As I say, I think they had something to do with the establishment of the Anti-Defamation League. I could be wrong. They were active in it and after my father left, my uncle continued with the activities. 

Lenway: I gather then, that this activity was more than just monetary donations? 
DAYYAN: Oh no, don’t know what – but no, this was active. This had nothing to do with donations, because this was part of their, part of this anti-Semitism, I suppose, basically, that was what it originally was established for, and through the Tribune they had a good arm to do good with it. 

Lenway: Was it common for people like your father and your uncle to not only join numerous Jewish clubs, but to also join clubs that really had no religious affiliations? 
DAYYAN: Oh, sure, such as Tammany Hall. 

Lenway: Which was? 
DAYYAN: Democratic, political, and dirty, but the interesting thing there was that the family when we were here was always Republicans, especially out in this part of the country, because in those years there weren’t any Democrats that I knew of and when we went back East, not necessarily for political purposes, but for purposes for connections with The Jewish Tribune and other activities, my Uncle joined Tammany Hall and my father remained a Republican so they had a view of both sides of the political fences as it pertained to politics, Jewishness, anti-Semitism and whatever. 

Lenway: In New York, when the Jewish Tribune was going on back there, it kept the same standards that it had out here? 
DAYYAN: You mean editorial standards? 

Lenway: Yes. 
DAYYAN: Yes, yes. 

Lenway: Besides editorial standards, what else did the newspaper include? Was it social? 
DAYYAN: Very little social, some social, but mainly, as I said before, it was inter-national Jewish affairs. They had dialogues with some of the best-known names in Jewish and Christian fields. In fact, I remember, I think his name was Bernstein and he was a fairly prominent man in Jewish – I don’t remember what, but he was a contributor for The Jewish Tribune for awhile and eventually became ambassador over to (what’s that little Balkan republic that’s so communist now?) It was connected with China rather than Russia. Anyway he was appointed ambassador. Anyway, it was a magazine about Jewish activities worldwide. They had contributors of both the Jewish and Christian faiths. Known people on various subjects. Primarily between the Jews and Christians and Jewish things, naturally. Primarily, of course. 

Lenway: When your grandfather first started the paper, were there any problems in Portland about starting a Jewish newspaper? 
DAYYAN: That I don’t recall. I think if was just as difficult to start a newspaper, period. 

Lenway: Do you mean that financially? 
DAYYAN: No – any publication it is difficult to start, no matter what it is. Even today. Your mortality rate for publications is just as high now as it ever was, but it was established in a small way and it grew. It was established in 1903. 

Lenway: Your grandfather and your father seemed to have been very involved in all sorts of Jewish organizations and non-Jewish organizations. Have you joined? 
DAYYAN: I’m not active in anything. I’ve just never been inclined that way. 

Lenway: Well, that’s about all the questions that I have for you. Thank you very much. 
DAYYAN: You’re welcome.