Elaine Lewis Weinstein

Prahl: I would like you to start by telling me your full name and where and when you were born. 
WEINSTEIN: That in itself is a story. My name in Elaine Weinstein. My maiden name was Lewis. I was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 24, 1935. However, my name on my birth certificate, on my original birth certificate was Esther Lippowitz. My family’s name was Lippowitz. My father was the youngest of a family of five boys and one girl. They came to New York when they came to America from near Odessa in Russia, Ukraine. I don’t know what year they came. Sometime in the 19 teens, I think. Two of my father’s brothers had left New York in the ‘20s and, believe it or not, driven across country on wooden roads.

Prahl: Wooden roads?
WEINSTEIN: Dirt roads also, but wooden. That is the story I have heard. When they came to America those brothers had come through Japan. They came somehow to Seattle. They were entrepreneurial spirits, which served them well (and not so well) later on in their lives. They went on to New York and I don’t have the full story due to several circumstances. There wasn’t a lot of sharing of information. I think there was almost an air of hierarchy in the family. 

Prahl: Of who should have the information?
WEINSTEIN: Who should be the big kahuna, who should be the macher.

Prahl: You mean between your father and his brothers?
WEINSTEIN: Well, yes. The older brothers had some kind of delusions of grandeur. Anyway, they left New York and came to the northwest. One uncle actually settled in Hoquiam in Washington which is near Aberdeen, Washington. My Uncle Harry came to Seattle and they prospered and they saw the possibilities. At that time my father and my uncle Joe had a successful make a living, nice make a living dry goods store in Manhattan. We lived in Brooklyn. There was my older brother and myself.

Prahl: What’s your brother’s name?
WEINSTEIN: It was Marvin Lewis but his name in Yiddish was Moishe Nuchum Lippowitz and we never let him forget it. We used to tease him and call him Moishe Nuchum, or Marvin Norman. Anyway, Uncle Harry and Uncle Alex kept writing from the northwest saying, “This is God’s country; come.” My dad and my uncle in New York had to travel by subway; the store was open late at night; they worked six days a week and it wasn’t the life they wanted for their family. So in 1936, I was one years old, we came across country. I don’t know exactly how we got to Seattle.

Prahl: Did they choose Seattle because Harry was there?
WEINSTEIN: Harry was there; he had been there for a few years and already settled in and made contacts with people in the community and so on and so forth. He had a feel for business. I know I am going on and on but you are just going to have to deal with it. [laughter] My uncle Sam, who was another brother, was like the patriarch of all the brothers. He remained in New York. He never moved to Seattle, never had children. Was married to Aunt Sonia. Uncle Sam fancied himself to be the patriarch and his word was law. His mother’s name was Esther and the family name in New York was Lippowitz. Sam shortened his name to Lippow [spells out]. When Harry and Jack came to Seattle they changed their name to Lewis. So when my parents came to Seattle there was no point in brothers having different names so my parents just had their name changed legally.

Prahl: What were your parents’ first names?
WEINSTEIN: Tessie, her maiden name was Bamberg, which was not her name. That was changed at Ellis Island, one of those stories. And my father’s name was Joseph. He was a very sweet man and he died very young. If you want, I will tell you that story. It is background to things that I think impacted my life. He had a stroke at age of 38. He was a very, very mellow man. Everyone loved him. He was very easy going, friendly, charming, handsome. For whatever reason he had a stroke. He died at 47. He had to stop working at 38 because he was incapacitated in those days; this was in the 1940s.

Prahl: Did he have a clothing store as well?
WEINSTEIN: No, he and his brothers decided to open a night club. A New York style night club right in the heart of downtown Seattle. It was called The Club Esquire. I still have a little piece of pottery with the logo that says Club Esquire. They were “big shots” from New York. They thought, “We will show these people here what real living is all about.” They wore tuxedos to work every night. It’s downtown on Sixth Avenue between Pike and Pine where the big Nike store is, kitty-corner to the Nordstrom’s Mother store. I mean they toughed it out. Seattle was still a little city then and they couldn’t make a go of it so about six months before the war started they gave up the night club. Of course once the war started there were naval bases; there were army bases; there was the Brimington Ship yards–the whole thing. So their timing wasn’t too good on that. They were entrepreneurs and they bought a company that was called The Home Beautifying Company and the Washington Lumber Company. It was a retail store in the south end of Seattle where the big football stadiums are, where the King Street train station. It was home remodeling. They would, in those days, use asphalt shingles on homes to modernize them to make them look like brick. There was a lumber yard as well, like you would see at Lowes or Home Depot now.

Prahl: Was it successful?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, it was very successful. Over the years it changed its focus and it stayed in the family. Until this day it is in the family.

Prahl: Did your mother work their too?
WEINSTEIN: No. My Mother did not work.

Prahl: So after your father couldn’t work anymore how did the family have an income?
WEINSTEIN: They had invested in properties. I don’t know how in the world they managed to accumulate, that is a considerable investment to buy or to build, they even built some apartment houses. They named the building’s after their daughters. There was the Ilene Court there was the Lola Apartments. They named things after their children. They were all partners. And then my dad got sick and he couldn’t work. They had him come in and he would be called, what they said, “an outside man.” He was really debilitated. His speech was slurred. My other uncle, who had been partners with my dad in the dry goods store in New York, he and his family had moved to Seattle a year to two after we did. So Uncle Joe and my dad, whose name was Joe as well.

Prahl: Brothers with the same name?
WEINSTEIN: No, brothers-in-law. They kept the Washington Lumber Company and The Home Beautifying Company. Uncle Joe bought out my father. But my parents had some property and the income was adequate.

Prahl: Tell me about your home life. What kind of home did you live in?
WEINSTEIN: I want to give you a little bit more about my uncles because it is a saga and it is a legend in Seattle. My Uncle Harry, who thought of himself as the macher, went into the Lewis Construction Company. He hit is big; he made a lot of money. But he had delusions of grandeur and he started projects with…. He borrowed money from a lot of people and build these fabulous things and paid the debt back. But he overextended himself. He was kind of, what is the word, very far sighted. I don’t know if you know where the Sorento Hotel is in Seattle. It is like a five-star hotel now. Well my Uncle Harry bought that building. It was a derelict building. It was on First Hill near where all the hospitals are. After my Aunt Elizabeth died he lived their trying to, he had the image of this becoming a five-star hotel. He was before his time and he lost that. 

My Other Uncle, Alex, who was just a mazik, you would say in Yiddish, a little devil. He became a professional gambler. He was just overcome with the gambling fever. He ran card rooms; he was a bookie; he had a place out on Aurora Avenue in Seattle. He took me there once. He loved me and I just adored him because he was just like a bad boy. He would call me beautiful’ he’d say, “Hi Gorgeous! Get in the car! I’ll take you…” I’ve got some, you know they would give little strings of pearl or jewelry, like at the carnival if you throw the ball. So I went out there and walk into this club. It was called The Native Sons and Daughters Club. It was a bookie joint. I heard the announcer calling a horse race. There were men sitting there on phones. I mean it was something out of Damien Runyon. Uncle Alex, of course, his income was in cash because he couldn’t report his income. He made a ton of money. He probably didn’t pay off the police when he should have and the Feds came after him. Someone ratted on him. He went to prison. He went to McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary near Seattle, in Puget Sound, I think, for tax evasion. I think it was like six months. He said, “I’ll be back; I’m just going to summer camp.” He was just a rascal! I adored him. 

Prahl: Did your father get along with him?
WEINSTEIN: Oh yes. Everyone in the family was mad at him because he was such a bad boy, but you could not resist him. He had such a personality. He and my father in the 1940s used to come down to BB camp from Seattle to Men’s Camp. All of the Portland men adored Uncle Alex. One time he rode a horse into the mess hall. He was just that kind of guy, very colorful.

Prahl: Did Seattle not have something similar to Men’s Camp?
WEINSTEIN: Oh no. We didn’t even have a Jewish Community Center in those days.

Prahl: But there was a Jewish community?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, a very nice Jewish community. 
So here we started with one questions and I just keep going on and on. I think it is interesting stuff.

Prahl It is! It’s interesting to hear of all of these early immigrants to Seattle and what they were doing. I do want to hear what your home life was like. Include the uncles as well. What was daily life like in the family growing up in Seattle?
WEINSTEIN: We lived in a duplex when we arrived in Seattle. We lived upstairs and downstairs was my Uncle Joe and Aunt Sarah. They lived downstairs with their two daughters. We were really closest with them. Their last name was Gollombeck, Joe and Sarah Gollombeck. He was from Poland and she was, of course, from near Odessa with my father’s brothers. In my home life Sarah and Uncle Joe were always there for me if my parents had an appointment or were out. There was lots of sharing. My brother and I and my two Gollombeck cousins were brother and sisters.

Prahl: Did you eat meals together?
WEINSTEIN: No, not really. Occasionally and certainly for holidays. We did not observe a lot of ritual. We were Jewish, there was no question we were active at the Herzl Synagogue, a conservative Synagogue in Seattle.

Prahl: Do you know if the brothers had been raised more religious in Europe before they got here?
WEINSTEIN: Oh I am sure they were. I just don’t know a lot about the Russian life of my father’s family. I just haven’t been able to get much. 
We didn’t do Shabbat. We lit yartzeit candles. Yiddish was spoken in the house. Russian was spoke when they didn’t want kids to know what they were talking about.

Prahl: Would they talk to you in Yiddish?
WEINSTEIN: I could understand it; I couldn’t speak it. Now I have pidgin Yiddish. I couldn’t carry on a big conversation in Yiddish but I was used to Yiddish and I can kind of garner it. They wanted to Americanize and so they didn’t talk Yiddish outside of the home. It was in the home. My parents were not educated but my mother, who came to this country in 1910 from a little village in Ukraine (it was called Korescz [spells it out] it was probably part of Poland; that’s a Polish spelling. She always said she came from Russia. I don’t even know if my mother graduated high school. She resented it later in life because she said, “I always wanted to play the violin and they were offering violin lessons in my grade school but it cost $1 a month (or something) to rent the violin. Momma and Papa said a meidl daf nit ‘a girl doesn’t need that’.” So they were very old world traditional in that respect. 
My grandfather was a scholar. He didn’t work. He had very bad asthma, which was his out. My grandma worked like a dog.

Prahl: She supported the family?
WEINSTEIN: She supported the family. She had a herring stand on the Lower East Side. I remember visiting her one time. It was outside on a raised platform like a pallet outside the fish market. She had the barrel which was full of pickled herrings, whole herring, whole fish in a brine. She was out there in cold weather and someone would come and say, “Mrs. Bamberg, I want that herring.” So Grandma (and I called her Grandma I never called her Bubbe) would reach into this freezing brine and pick out the fish. Mrs. Cowen would say, “Oh no, no, Mrs. Bamberg. I want that other one.” So she would have to go in again. She was very kind hearted and she had to feed her family. She was patient and she was a lovely lovely woman. Charming woman. 

My grandfather had a temper. There was a legend in the family that one time when a woman would pull that trick on him when he was watching the stand…. Maybe Grandma was delivering; she used to cook food at home and deliver it to the manufacturing lofts. She would carry it like a coolie carries it, across her back. My mother told me she was pregnant and she would put this thing on her and she would pot roast beef tongues, put this contraption on (pregnant!), take the subway, climb up to the elevated, take the train to the manufacturing lofts, deliver lunch–because they used to give lunch to the workers and then she would come home. When my mother would tell that story she would always cry because it was so hard. My grandpa (also he was not zayde he was Grandpa. Maybe that was because we lived in the northwest and that was American). If a woman pulled that trick on him, “No Mr. Bamberg, I want that fish.” He would say, “Come and look a little closer.” She would look and he would take the lid of the barrel and hit her over the head with it. He was a feisty little guy. [laughs]

Prahl: It’s a good thing he didn’t work much.
WEINSTEIN: Exactly. That’s folklore. That’s stories, I’m telling you. I remember visiting my grandparents and family in New York when I was a little girl we took the train across country. My father went to see specialist doctors. Of course there were doctors in Seattle but you go to New York to see a specialist. I would get to sleep in my grandma and grandpa’s apartment down in the Lower East Side. I remember in the morning they had a comforter; it was called a feather bed. My grandpa would bring me a soft-boiled egg chopped up with a piece of challah (that was toasted chopped up with the egg and mooched up altogether). I tell you, Anne, I can still taste that egg. I felt just like a princess lying there. And he would talk to me. Imagine what it meant to him; we lived so far away. 

I am going to get back to [what I was saying earlier]. I’m sorry. You’re going to have to do some juggling when it is transcribed. I started telling you about my Uncle Sam, who was the patriarch. He stayed in New York and changed his name to Lippo. His mother’s name was Esther. He wanted me to be named Esther. He wanted to keep the family name regardless of the fact that our name was Lewis in Seattle. So he went to the department of birth registries and he just put Ester Lippowitz on my birth certificate.

Prahl: Even though he wasn’t your father?
WEINSTEIN: In spite of my mother and father’s desire to name me Elaine Lippowitz.

Prahl: How did he have the right to do that? [laughter]
WEINSTEIN: Chutzpah. That’s all it was and you didn’t fight with Uncle Sam. So that is what my birth certificate says. They had to change it legally in Seattle. My husband Sandy, when he gets to teasing me he’ll say, “You know, you are pretty short and blonde for an Esther Lippowitz.” He’ll call me Esther Lippowitz. 

Those are family stories, our family life we observed the holidays in a big way and all the brothers would put up saw horses and there would be 25 or 30. And my father and his brothers would get up and dance the Russian chazatzki on top of the tables. I have memories of that. It’s very emotional. Then there was always a curio cabinet in the corner with the treasures. They would keep a bottle of schnapps in the bottom of that. The only time I saw my parents drink was on yontif. The brothers would gather around and poor a shot and go, “l’chaim!” and drink the schnapps and put the bottle away and it was there until the next year. They just never drank. I have very very, vivid and fond memories.

Prahl: Were their other immigrants that they were friends with? Did they interact with a circle of people?
WEINSTEIN: There was a large circle of friends.

Prahl: Mostly friends from who had also come from Europe?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, but also people they met in Seattle. Not people they knew back east. At that time, this was in the ‘30s, most of the Jewish people in the country were immigrants were from the teens and the ‘20s. They had wonderful friends. They were good people and they were very nice people. I never heard my mother swear. I had an aunt who swore like a truck driver and my mother would give her a look. She would say, “Oh Tessie doesn’t like that language.” My mother came back with a retort. She would say, “That’s all right if you want that rolling around in your mouth.” (it was s-h-i-t) She said, “If you want that rolling around in your mouth you go ahead and say it.”
 
My mother was a pistol. She had a terrific sense of humor. As I said she did not graduate high school. She always quoted from Shakespeare. When she would see Sandy kissing me or being especially nice she would say, “May it be ever thus!” Or if I wanted to borrow some money she would say, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be for borrowing sharpens the blade of penury.” She was quoting from Shakespeare. She was a woman ahead of her time.

Prahl: What did she do with her time?
WEINSTEIN: Well, she was a housewife. With the house dresses from JC Penney with the sweetheart neckline and with an apron, always an apron on shabbos. She would cook a chicken soup. I remember her holding it up and making a cone out of newspaper and light it and hold the chicken up by its feet. And would burn the feathers off the chicken. You never heard of that? They would buy a kosher chicken, although they didn’t keep a kosher home. It was tradition kind of stuff. She would burn the feathers off.

Prahl: That must have smelled terrible.
WEINSTEIN: I don’t remember. To me it smelled Jewish. She would scrub the floors. She was very, very clean–very fastidious. On Thursday afternoon and she would scrub the floors for Shabbos and lay newspaper down on the floors over it to keep it clean. Then she would lift the paper up for the weekend. That kind of thing. That was stuff she learned from her mother.

Prahl: Was it just you and your brother in the house?
WEINSTEIN: Yes.

Prahl: So it was just the four of you living in the house together? Was it a suburban house or in the city?
WEINSTEIN: Yes four of us. It was, they bought the duplex. Do you know the Broadway District in Seattle? It was right there.

Prahl: There were lots of other Jewish families around you?
WEINSTEIN: No. The neighbors weren’t all Jewish. No it wasn’t like it had been in New York no. My aunt and uncle lived downstairs and some other aunts and uncles lived maybe about a mile away but it wasn’t what you would call “ghettoized.”

Prahl: I wonder what the social climate was like in Seattle when you were growing up, for Jews, was it something you were aware of everyday?
WEINSTEIN: I remember from grade school hearing remarks. I always stuck up for us and said, “Don’t say that!” Or, “I am Jewish and I resent that!” Big mouth. I remember a teacher trying to keep the class quiet said, “Be quiet students. You sound just like a Jewish Sunday school.” I was scared of her so of course I didn’t say anything then. I didn’t talk back to the teacher. But our life was the Jewish life. All of the friends and the entertaining. It was very, very nice. The ladies would wear long dresses when they got together in the evening. That was a New York custom.

Prahl: What did they get together to do?
WEINSTEIN: To have dinner and play cards. When we first came to Seattle, none of them had a lot of money. They would take a couple of cans of sardines at 5 cents a can and mash them up and add onions and put out crackers. They were always striving to be more sophisticated and more American; that was always a desire of my mother’s: to rise above the poverty and tough life she had as a young girl.

Prahl: What were her expectations for you? Did she expect that you would go to college?
WEINSTEIN: Oh yes. That was just a given. I never questioned that. And my brother was a brilliant student. It was always given that we would go. All of my cousins went to college. Some of them were better student than others. It was just a given. I wouldn’t call it pressure because it was something we wanted to do. There was a nice Jewish social life at the University of Washington.

Prahl: Before you get to the university life, without a Jewish community center what was the high school social life? 
WEINSTEIN: The Synagogue.  

Prahl: So your social life as far as Jewish friends was involved at the Synagogue?
WEINSTEIN: And gentile friends because the Temple in Seattle– that was my home away from home.

Prahl: That was a Reform temple?
WEINSTEIN: Reform temple, we were members of the Conservative synagogue. When we bought our house, which was also on Capitol Hill, my father was quite ill by then. He couldn’t drive us to Sunday school at the synagogue, which was more in the real Jewish neighborhood. So just for the sake of expedience we joined the Temple and became Reformed Jews. It was still Jewish. But my gentile friends… We had dances and mixers. We put on shows, we put on professional revues. There was a very famous Jewish composer and musician Samuel E Goldfarb. You can Google that name he was very famous as a Jewish…. He was the music director at De Hirsch in Seattle. At the risk of sounding very immodest, I had a very wonderful alto singing voice; I was a little bit of a Shirley Temple. And I loved to perform. I was pretty and had white gold curls. I was a little show-off, a starlet. I used to sing in the choir and we put on these skits and shows.

Prahl: Were they always Jewish themed shows or all kinds of shows?
WEINSTEIN: No they were musical revues like the Rockette Dancers. Mr. Goldfarb was a genius at music. I went to Temple every Saturday morning. The junior choir would sing in the Shabbat services. I know the Union Prayer Book backwards and forwards word for word, practically. They don’t use it here at Beth Israel anymore but they did since we’ve been members. Now they use new books. 

My gentile friends used to love to come to Temple because it was the happening place. That was our Jewish Community Center. There were no athletics there; there was no swimming pool. But it was the center. I went to Sunday school there and graduated.

Prahl: Your gentile friends were friends that you knew from the neighborhood or from school?  
WEINSTEIN: From school mainly. Good friends.

Prahl: Were you allowed to date non-Jewish boys?
WEINSTEIN: It was very discouraged. I remember once, and I felt so guilty. My grandma was living with us by that time; my father was dead. My grandma, Grandma Bamberg, my mother’s mother, was very diplomatic. She would never chide me for anything. She would never scold me. She was wonderful. There was a look. She knew there was this one boy and I liked him. I thought he was really cute. She didn’t like it at all and I just felt so uncomfortable. 

Prahl: How about Marvin? Was he allowed to date non-Jewish girls?
WEINSTEIN: Well Marvin was very independent. When he was… let’s see my father’s funeral was the day Marvin graduated from high school. So he had to miss his senior prom. At that time, he dated Jewish girls. He was in a couple of Jewish high school boy fraternities. He was amazing. My mother-in-law, when my brother died, said, “He was too good to live.”  And he was very handsome.

Prahl: Did he die young also?
WEINSTEIN: He was a mountaineer. Imagine: a Jewish boy in high school going mountaineering. He was a fabulous skier, a rock climber, a boy scout, a camper. He smoked a pipe and wore a tweed sports coat with leather patches on the elbows. He was a real intellectual, as well, very smart and sensitive and a real outstanding person. My girlfriends were all in love with him. They always died to come to our house for dinner just to look at him.

Prahl: What was the age difference between you?
WEINSTEIN: Four years almost to the day; he was four years older. He started at the University of Washington (and don’t forget that his father had just died). Everyone in his family kept saying, “Marvin, now you’re the man of the family.” You know. Other family members would say, “Why do you climb mountains? It’s dangerous. Your mother loses sleep over it. You’ve got to think of your mother.” It was this old world kind of guilt trip. He was very independent and when he started at the university he majored in forestry. 

He loved the outdoors. He graduated in forestry. Then he went to graduate school and got a master’s degree in psychology. He worked as a mental health worker at the State Hospital in the state of Wyoming. He married a woman that was not Jewish and it was very difficult for my mother. At that time Jewish women looked at you with a mixture of scorn and pity. But mother was always behind her children; she supported them, though it was not at all easy for her. My sister-in-law was a very nice woman. She was mad about Marvin. He had met her skiing.

Prahl: Do you have a feeling he moved to Wyoming to escape the family pressure of having to be the man of the family?
WEINSTEIN: Well, that is a thought. He has gotten this job. He was married and that might be one more reason: just to get away from all that pressure. He was in his early 20s and probably still growing up and having a rebellious spirit. Plus his intellect…. He would read…. You couldn’t imagine. I have some of his books at home; they are wonderful. 

At the age of 28, apparently, he wanted to study medicine. He was married; he had two little girls. He made a proposition to my mother who had the money and she agreed. She said, “If I have to scrub floors… If my children want to be educated, I will do anything.” It was always encouraged. He still had a year or two at premed all the science classes, the chemistry and all of that. He finally got accepted to the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver. At that time, Sandy and I had moved to Denver for business. Sandy had a job there. So, here was my brother and sister-in-law living in Denver going to medical school and Sandy and I were there. Our first son was there. Then we moved back to Portland after a few years. 

Marvin had his internship at the University of Washington Medical School Hospital. It had just been built in Seattle. He got a residency at the County Hospital, which was quite a coup. That is where you would learn everything you would need to learn. They lived in a housing project because he wasn’t making maybe a $100 a month and my mother’s resources weren’t infinite. She helped as much as she could but Margie, my sister-in-law baby sat children. By that time, they had three little girls. They said, “We’ll live on love.” As I said, they were both skiers. Once every couple of years a group of their skiing friends from all over the country that they had known over the years had a reunion in Sun Valley. They went to Sun Valley. This was in February and in May he was going to start his practice. He had a partner. He had been offered a position at the Mason Clinic in Seattle, which is the ultimate: a small private hospital very cha cha. He turned it down. He wanted to practice medicine the way he wasted to. He was an OBGYN. He said mother, “I am going to call you the moment I deliver my first baby.”  

Coming home from Sun Valley, his partner and his wife were in the car with Margie and Marvin. And Marvin was killed in a car accident. He died. He was 37 years old. It was like the end of the world. None of us thought we could ever take another breath. My mother kept saying, “He was the jewel in my crown.” It’s a very, very sad story. 

Prahl: How did his wife and the children manage? 
WEINSTEIN: God bless my husband. He was in the insurance business. We could ill afford it. Sandy had taken out a life insurance policy for Marvin and paid the premium for him so that his little girls would be protected. So she collected…

Prahl: So he was thinking ahead?
WEINSTEIN: He was so kind hearted. That was not unusual for Sandy. And we couldn’t afford it. I didn’t even know that he had done that. He just thought that he had to do something to help those girls. His wife was alcoholic. It ran in her family. It was very well under control but after Marvin died she just lost it. She married another man. A nice man. And then he died. She had several jobs but she lost them because of her drinking and eventually she died an alcoholic. We became surrogate parents to her three little girls. To this day we are like their parents. They live in Seattle. So that is the story. I am taking a long time to tell this.

Prahl: No, it is a very important story to tell. It is a life-changing event.
WEINSTEIN: Absolutely. He wanted to help people. He had this great thirst for knowledge. I adored him. I think that kind of helped me to focus on a lot of things that I have done.

Prahl: Now I want to go back to high school with you. You were in high school in the ‘50s. What did you imagine for yourself? What were the prospects for a first generation American girl growing up in Seattle?
WEINSTEIN: Yes. I wanted to grow up to be a Jewish housewife with children. I wanted to be a good Jewish woman and a good Jewish mother. But modern.

Prahl: Is that what your friends were thinking for themselves?
WEINSTEIN: That was the ‘50s! It was ‘Leave it to Beaver’. I was 19 when I married and I had two years of college.

Prahl: Did you go to the University of Washington?
WEINSTEIN: Yes.

Prahl: And you met Sandy there?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, and that was what I always hoped for. I had come from a really disruptive family life because of my father’s health. He was so incapacitated for a few years at the end.

Prahl: But you had the great role model of you mother being the wife that she was and the mother that she was.   
WEINSTEIN: Strong. She and I were very close. That is what I wanted and I got it.

Prahl: When you married at 19 did you finish school or did you leave school?
WEINSTEIN: No. I didn’t. I eventually finished but I got my degree in my 40s at Portland State University in psychology. We moved to Portland in 1958; that is a long time ago.

Prahl: Did you already have one son? What is his name?
WEINSTEIN: One son. Jerry. He is married to a woman from the Philippines. They have one son David. That is our one grandchild. He is 22.

Prahl: Is he Jewish?
WEINSTEIN: He considered himself mixed. He has an Asian face but his name is David Weinstein. He says he is Jewish and his mother is Catholic. They celebrate both. It’s a modern story. He is very much like my brother. And my son Jerry idolized my brother. Jerry is very much like Marvin. He is very reserved. Sandy is more outgoing. Sandy is, I can say this out loud, as fine as gold. His character–he is the ultimate, the kindness, most wonderful man and Jerry is that way too. All three of my children are like that. They are really good people. I am very proud to say that.

Prahl: Well I think you did your job.
WEINSTEIN: Yes, thank you. I did eventually graduate from college. High school was fun. I was very active. I was on the school newspaper and the yearbook.

Prahl: You said that your brother was in a few Jewish fraternities. Were you in Jewish sororities?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, I was in a couple of them.

Prahl: Did they have the same names as the ones down in Portland? What were their names?
WEINSTEIN: No, I can’t remember the names of them. Two of them. When I went to the University I joined the Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish sorority.

Prahl: Did you live there?
WEINSTEIN: For one quarter just to see what it was like but I hated it.

Prahl: Did you live in the dorms?
WEINSTEIN: No at home. We lived about 20 minutes from the campus.

Prahl: How did you meet Sandy?
WEINSTEIN: I used to come to Portland. I had a lot of girlfriends I had met at BB Camp when I was a little girl. We kept up our friendships and I would come to Portland when I was in high school. They would have a lot of parties and we would go on dates. It was just high school stuff. I made friends with some guys that went to University of Oregon and one of them came up to Seattle. There was a big formal dance at the Sammy house was having. I went out to coffee with him one night. We were strictly platonic friends. I had a girlfriend who didn’t have a date for this big formal dance. So I asked which of the guys in the house didn’t have dates. He said well, “Sandy Weinstein.” I said, “What?” He was to die for. He was so cute. Then, I said kiddingly, “You tell him anytime he wants a date I would love to go out with him.” That was not like me. I wasn’t usually that forward socially but he was a dreamboat. This guy told Sandy, “Elaine Lewis is really hot for you.” So Sandy called me. Stanley Samuels and Eugene Huppin, he is big in Jewish stuff. He lived in Spokane and lives in Seattle now. Stan and Eugene were both in law school and their law fraternity was having a party at the Rainer Brewery on Rainer Avenue in Seattle. They told Sandy, “Why don’t you come?” And to get a date. He wasn’t a law student; he was a business major. So, Sandy called me. That was right after that guy had told him. We never went out with anyone else again. We just fell in love.

Prahl: See if you hadn’t said something to that boy it would have never happened.
WEINSTEIN: No it never would have happened. He grew up in Salem and never taken out Jewish girls. Although, he was raised in a Jewish household. Merritt Lynn teases Sandy because Merritt grew up in Salem also. Merritt says when Sandy Weinstein graduated from Salem High he was given the “Jewish Student Award.” There is lots of shtik in my story. Some might think of it as inconsequential or silly but to me it gives a human quality. It’s like telling stories of old south Portland and going to Mosler’s Bakery. I never did any of that. I never did any of that I grew up in Seattle. Those stories make things come to life. Jerry is our oldest and he is going to be 58. Marty is, next month, going to be 56 and Roberta is 54 in April.

Prahl: Where in Portland did you raise them?
WEINSTEIN: We first moved to Portland with just Jerry. We rented a little apartment on 32st and SE Stark. Then we bought our first house a half a block from Wilson High School in Wilson Park. It was six years old and we bought it from the original owners. We lived there for six years then we bought our house that we raised our family in. We lived there for 32 years. That was on Mainfet Drive, right up where the Chart Hill restaurant is near Terwilliger Blvd.

Prahl: What high school did they go to?
WEINSTEIN: Wilson High School was right near home. All three of them went to University of Oregon. The boys finished there but Roberta transferred and went to Columbia in New York and graduated and finished there. She came back to Portland. They are really nice.

Prahl: How did their Jewish upbringing compare to yours?
WEINSTEIN: Theirs was more structured. We were Beth Israel members. I was much more active at Temple, especially in the Sisterhood. I did a lot of stuff. In fact, I have a script I wrote for a fashion show I am going to bring in. It was pretty good. There are a lot of names in your archives that participated in that.

Prahl: They all three went to the Sunday School?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, and they went through Confirmation and if I’m not mistaken they were all bar mitzvahs. Roberta had a bat mitzvah with the group bat mitzvah class. They all graduated too and they hated Sunday School.

Prahl: Well everyone does.
WEINSTEIN: The boys had their buddies. We called them the “Jewish Mafia” because it was Mark Goodman and Bradley Gevurtz and Joey and Michael Delman. They were all contemporaries and they used to terrorize the teachers at Hebrew school and at Temple. I could tell you stories. Despite that, they did what was expected of them and that was that. 

Prahl: Did all the boys end up being a part of the Jewish community as adults?
WEINSTEIN: Marty has, he lives here. He goes to Temple with friends. He isn’t married. Jerry married Bhing they have not affiliated. They do observe; they light candles and celebrate holidays. Roberta was a member of Temple but resigned as a protest because they wouldn’t allow her to pay single dues. She had to pay family dues. She said, “I am single.” Those were the rules. It was a long time ago. One woman who was the membership chair was a member of a family who is more than willing to exist at the financial grace of her family. She said to Roberta, “Why don’t you just ask your family for the money?” She came to call on Roberta to encourage her to remain. Roberta said, “I don’t do that. I’m employed; I support myself. And I would never think of asking my parents.” After one thing or another she became disenchanted with the whole thing. She dropped out. But she’s Jewish, very Jewish. She has a lot of friends who are not. She has a good life. She has nice career.

Prahl: Let’s go back to the move from Denver to Portland as a young woman. What was it like integrating into a new community?
WEINSTEIN: It was like coming home. I had known a lot of people; they were college buddies of ours. A lot of the Oregon guys and girls came up to the University of Washington because it was more than a Jewish sorority.

Prahl: You didn’t feel like an outsider?
WEINSTEIN: No we just moved right in. If we had to move to Seattle at any time we could have accomplished the same thing. Our lifelong friends are in Seattle. In fact, we are going up next month for a 60th anniversary of friends; we were in each other’s weddings.

Prahl: You described your mothers circle of friends with the parties and the long dresses and the sardines. What were your parties like?
WEINSTEIN: They were dances. We had printed dance programs. They were held in public places– not in peoples’ homes but at Temple or at a dance place. In those days you went out dancing. We went to movies. I don’t remember ever being taken out to dinner on a date. But, as I said I was 19. I wasn’t a real sophisticated dater. You didn’t take someone out to dinner like you do now. You went out to night clubs to dance and order a Tom Collins. I had fake a ID and we would dance. The dancers were the guys who I wanted to go out with.

Prahl: Where did you learn how to dance?
WEINSTEIN: I took dancing lessons, voice lessons, dramatic lessons, piano lessons. I was a little Jewish girl of parents who didn’t have all those things.

Prahl: Did you provide all of those things to your kids as well?
WEINSTEIN: I tried. Marty took drum lessons. Jerry took piano lessons. We had a piano in the house. Roberta took piano and maybe dancing. Our kids were athletic and their focus was on athletics. Roberta was quiet a wonderful gymnast.

Prahl: Were you involved in their athletics at all?
WEINSTEIN: Oh yes. Sandy coached little league. We participated, we went to every gymnastics match she participated in. We went to all the baseball games. We were friends with all of his teammates. We were like a Jewish all-American family. The children were at the Jewish Community Center every single day, six days a week. They took part in the BBYO and all the activities.

Prahl: Did they move from the old Center to the new Center?
WEINSTEIN: I don’t know. They probably did. Sandy was involved in the fundraising to fund the new building. That was really exciting busy times.

Prahl: Let’s talk about a little of your volunteer work that you have mentioned with the kids sports and the Synagogues but what were your major time focuses?
WEINSTEIN: When I was much younger I was very active at Temple Sisterhood. I co-hosted the annual rummage sale. It was a fundraiser for Sisterhood. I was program chairman for the Sisterhood. Which meant being behind the scenes but making all the wheels roll smoothly. I took a lot of adult education classes. I studied and became certified by the Library Congress. I’m a Brailleist; I learned that at Temple. I did the text books for Portland schools. I’ve lost that skill but it is like riding a bike; I could do it again. When my brother died I lost a lot of… I was trying to get along. I didn’t continue with that. I taught braille to a young woman who was blinded in a car accident. Do you know where R.I.O. used to be? It was just up the street from here. Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon? It is kitty corner from the Cafe Nell it is now a shelter but it used to be the Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon. This young woman had been in a car accident. She was almost quadriplegic and she was blinded. They called our blind comity at Sisterhood and asked if someone would have the time to teach her. I know this sounds really corny but I am going to tell you, the date of this woman’s car accident was the date my brother was killed. So I saw that as it was meant. I spent almost a year and went a couple of mornings a week. She was limited because she had brain damage from that accident. I would help her along and got to a certain point. Then she was transferred out of the rehab place and I lost track of her. We became close and she told me a story. At that time she was living with her sister and brother-and-law. She had confided in me that her brother-in-law had sexually abused her. I went to this social worker at the Center and she took over. There has been a lot of drama. I became very active in the Counsel of Jewish women. All of my girlfriends; you know them.

Prahl: What kind of activities did you do with them?
WEINSTEIN: Whatever they asked me to do. I never wanted to be an officer though they wanted me to.

Prahl: What programs did you do?
WEINSTEIN: I am trying to remember. I did programing. You know? I cannot remember.

Prahl: That is all right. Was it CASA?
WEINSTEIN:No, CASA wasn’t around then. It was before then. I remember one time we had a regional conference here. Joan Leibriech was co-chair with maybe Shirley Rackner. We were all friends and I did whatever they asked me to do. A lot of funny stories involved. 

I know what I did. Whoever was president at the time got a call from the State of Oregon. They have these examining boards for different professions. There was an opening coming up for the board of psychologists examiners. This was when Bob Straub was governor. They were going to different social service organizations who might want to nominate someone. Carol Chestler was president of counsel then. Carol nominated me. I had a degree in psychology and I had a lot of personal experience with mental health issues. So I was chosen and appointed. My mother heard that I was going to be on a state board. I was a public member. That was mandated by the legislator; there had to be a public member. My mother took the train down from Seattle and we drove down to Salem and stood in the chambers of the Governor. Do you know who Len Bergstein is? He was working for Bob Straub at that time and he was what they called the appointments director. Not the Governor’s social appointments but his appointee’s. Leonard Bergstein, my mother is sitting there kvelling, and I am standing there. I raise my hand and take the oath. I couldn’t have given my mother a more perfect gift.

Prahl: You have a very supportive mother.
WEINSTEIN: She came as a six-year-old child. She ran away from the Czar. She was like, “God bless America.” When she did her income taxes, she would kiss the envelope before she put it in the mailbox.

Prahl: When did she become a citizen?
WEINSTEIN: Not until after I was married. When she married my father it was too late for the wife to become [a citizen]. My father had become a default citizen. They were married in the late ‘20s. Mother didn’t feel qualified to study and pass the exam. My dad got sick and that was put back. I remember her studying and coming and telling me she had become a citizen. It was really wonderful. It meant so much to her.

Prahl: Was your family politically active? Did you hear conversations at the dinner table about politics?
WEINSTEIN: President Roosevelt. That was it. I remember the war. They didn’t know the bad things that were done. Maybe for political expediency; I don’t know. They never mentioned that. It was just that he was a wonderful man. There was no question that they were Democrats.

Prahl: Were they Zionists?
WEINSTEIN: Not ardent. Shirley Rackner has told me that when the state of Israel was declared they danced in the streets.

Prahl: Her family did?
WEINSTEIN: Yes, she was from Minneapolis. It was more of a Jewish community there.

Prahl: You don’t remember that happening in Seattle?
WEINSTEIN: I don’t remember my family. That was 1948. I was married in 1955. They supported it but they were not activists. There were some women, especially in Seattle, who were scholars. They were very ardent Zionists and my mother would say, “Oh Rose Trieger–does she have a brain! Oh, she is a brilliant woman!” I think mother was intimidated. She would go to every Hadassah meeting that was held. She was very active in Hadassah but not in a scholarly manner. She wasn’t educated. She was self-conscious. They weren’t politically active other than supporting.

Prahl: How about you in your younger days?
WEINSTEIN: I belonged to Young Judaea. Yes, I was active in Jewish things in high school.

Prahl: In your married life were you and Sandy politically active?
WEINSTEIN: We were very ardent Democrats; that was not an issue. Not a question of it. We have been ardent Democrats for all the right reasons I think. Roberta our daughter is a Democrat and a feminist. She is a woman of her time.

Prahl: And you are a woman of your time.
WEINSTEIN: Well, I had one foot in both worlds.

Prahl: What prompted you to go and get you degree when you were older?
WEINSTEIN: A lot of my girlfriends were doing it and they were starting careers. I hadn’t worked.

Prahl: Did you want to work?
WEINSTEIN: Yes. At first I went to work at OHSU for a program. I was secretary for nurses who wanted to get an advanced RN for cancer care in oncology. It was called Oregon Nurses Cancer Education Program.

Prahl: Were your children already outside of the house when you did that?
WEINSTEIN: Yes. It was on a federal grant money that this program existed. We held classes and nurses from all over the state would come. Part of my job was handling all the logistics for the classes and techs and logistics of putting all the classes together. Then, the money dried out. The nurses that I worked with, the executive nurses ran this program, we became very close friends. They got on the staff at OSHU also in cancer nursing not bedside. They were administrative cancer nurses. They took me with them. I worked there for a couple of years. Then, do you know the same Susan Tolle? She is a physician who, about 25 or 26 years ago germinated the idea of what is called the POLST program: Physician Ordered Life Saving, I don’t remember the T meaning. [Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment] It is a national registry for people in very serious, maybe end of life times. You register with POLST. And she started it.

Prahl: The patients registered for it?
WEINSTEIN: Yes. Susan Tolle started that and I was her secretary. Now it is registered in 40 to 45 states in the country. She travels all over the world lecturing. 

Prahl: Tell me how the patient benefits from this registry. 
WEINSTEIN: I will give you an example and it involves my darling grandson who is about to graduate from college. My son, his father, is a scientist with Kaiser in Berkeley. He works in a lab. David really adores his father and always has been interested in something in a field of medicine. He does say that he isn’t interested in going to medical school, which is probably a wise choice, now-a-days. David is certified nationally as an EMT, an emergency medical tech. He would like to go to physicians assistant school or to become a paramedic. This summer he has a job driving an ambulance and treating patients in the ambulance on their way to the hospital. We were there last week for a family reunion and I asked David, “Tell me what you do in the ambulance.” David said, “Well the first thing we do is check to see if they have a POLST.”

Prahl: Did you tell him about your involvement?
WEINSTEIN: He didn’t know. I told him, “David, did you know I was the secretary to the woman who came up with the idea?” I told him to Google her name. Plus she is Roberta’s physician. She has a small private practice. It blew him away. It’s just bashert. I can’t help it. You may have noticed, I am fairly emotional. I like to look for symbolism in everything. It enhances the value I get from experiences as if I can make a connection to someone. I almost try consciously to do that.

Prahl: I am curious about this group of women friends, many of whom didn’t finish college, got married and were at home with very small children. All of you were intellectually able to do so many other things than raise children. What did you do for intellectual stimulation? How did you keep yourselves sane?
WEINSTEIN: Book clubs. I didn’t have a car until my third child was born. So I was at home. My in-laws gave me their old Chevrolet when they bought a new car. I was just a mom. I baked cookies every day.

Prahl: Not intellectually stimulating but delicious.
WEINSTEIN: Yes. I was involved in the children’s preschool. At that time, I was involved in Temple Sisterhood. I have always been a reader. 

Prahl: Tell me about your book club. How did it get started?
WEINSTEIN: I will tell you the names and the people. It was Rose Rustin, Joan Leibriech, Evelyn Maizels, Sharon Tarlow, Carol Chestler, and now Susan Wapnick is a member, and Shirley Rackner. These are the women. We have always been close friends. We are all of a mind politically. We talk a lot. We have a Shabbat group and there are other members in it too. We just organized it and has been for about 20 years. We had it last Friday night at Sharon Tarlow’s house. We sit around the table we talk about issues. We don’t talk about cloths. God knows there are enough issues now.

Prahl: How did this potluck Shabbat get started?
WEINSTEIN: Some of the women in the group were a little more traditional. Cookie and Merrit Yoelin used to be in it. Berta and Jay Delman used to but we lost several members. Arnold Rustin is gone. They were more traditional and much more observant. The Rackner’s especially.

Prahl: Were the children young when it started?
WEINSTEIN: No they were teenagers or in college.

Prahl: Did they come too? Or was it just for adults?
WEINSTEIN: No it was just the adults. It probably was because the children were definitely college age. We are all good cooks and we take assignments.

Prahl: Does it alternate homes?
WEINSTEIN: Yes. We talk about politics and books. We pick books for our book club. Each person chooses a book and if it meets approval then… and we go for everything from Stephen King to Tolstoy.

Prahl: So the Shabbat potluck is couples and the book club is just women?
WEINSTEIN: Right.

Prahl: How often do you meet?
WEINSTEIN: The book club every month and the Shabbat club almost every month. Sandy and I are gone in the winter so we don’t take part in those things for about five months. I read the books and sometimes I send them my two cents.

Prahl: Are you the only ones that are gone?
WEINSTEIN: For that length of time yes. A lot of the people do a fair amount of traveling but it is for two or three weeks.

Prahl: Tell me about the desert and how you began to go down there and how that became half your year?
WEINSTEIN: I never dreamed I would have a home in California. About 30 years ago, Sandy’s parents used to go for two months to Palm Springs. When they retired, they had a men’s store in Salem; they had worked very hard. They didn’t travel luxuriously but they loved going there for the sunshine and had a circle of friends; it was very nice. We came to visit them once and some of our friends said, “We’re going to go. Why don’t you come with us?” So we would go for two weeks or ten days. We would drive down. When Sandy was 55 he had made a success of his business and he said, “I would like to take a month every year and go to Palm Springs.” Which we did! We rented in Palm Springs, we rented in Palm Desert; it was five or six different places. We would rent five or six years in a row with one place. Then Sandy took up golf again. He hadn’t played in about 20 years because it was during the time our children were growing up. It is an all-day proposition playing golf so he gave that up. He started playing golf again because the children were grown. We thought maybe we would buy a condo and spend more time down there. That is how it happened. And that was 20 years ago.

Prahl: You look forward to it every year?
WEINSTEIN: I am looking forward to it less and less because it is like moving twice a year. It is like moving a house.

Prahl: Do you have activities that you do that are different down there?
WEINSTEIN: It is very social but it is a different kind of social. It is not as stimulating down there. I went to osher classes. Osher is an adult education curriculum. Everything from flower arranging to international economics, newspapers, movies, foreign films; it was a wonderful organization. I went there for several years and took almost every class that they offered. But then I was a burned down on that. Quite frankly, Sandy is more limited now. He uses a walker and a cane. He had to give up golf several years ago. I gave it up but I didn’t care. He is home more and not as active and always afraid of falling.

Prahl: Does he look forward to going down to California?
WEINSTEIN: He loves it! He loves the weather and we have some wonderful friends down there. What I am saying is I really don’t know how much longer we are going to go be able to go. We may sell the house. It’s a big upkeep to take care of details. We might even sell the house and rent for three months.

Prahl: There is no question about being there instead of here permanently?
WEINSTEIN: Never in a million years. It is a 120 degrees there. No way. There is not enough stimulation. You can go berserk by February.

Prahl: I’m not sure if I got a full answer to a question I asked earlier. What did you do with your social life when you were younger, just married in Portland?
WEINSTEIN: We had a lot of friends as I told you. The children were very little so the men would stay home at night and the women would get together and I learned how to play Mah Jongg.

Prahl: So the men and women would party separately?
WEINSTEIN: Occasionally but usually we would have couples. We would get a babysitter and get together in the evening after dinner. We didn’t go out to dinner none of us could afford to go out to dinner. Once a year we would go out when the Huskies would play the Ducks when there was a football game. Otherwise, no I am telling you, we never went out for dinner.

Prahl: So you would have dinner at somebody’s home?
WEINSTEIN: No we would have dinner at our own home. Then, the sitter would come. Then we would get together at friends’ houses and we would visit.

Prahl: Did you play cards like your parents did?
WEINSTEIN: No I don’t remember playing cards. Then around 11:00 pm we’d serve food. Of course we could eat then; we were young and we were skinny. We would put out casseroles and salads and dessert and have a dinner. Then we would go home and take the babysitter home. Usually it was one of the teenagers from the neighborhood. .50 cents an hour or .60 cents an hour if after midnight. I never got babysitters during the day; I was home, which was very limiting. Like most of my friends. I didn’t have a car and also I didn’t have a mother-in-law who lived here or my family to babysit for me. I had three little children. I had three of them in four years so I was home. I didn’t even think I was sacrificing anything because it was what I wanted to do.

Prahl: Did you use your public library?
WEINSTEIN: Oh yes, the Hillsdale Library. I used to take all the children to the library. I would even take Jerry and take the bus downtown. I would walk into Hillsdale and take the bus with the stroller just to get out. It was a pretty insulated world. We had a lot of friends. To this day we have lots of friends of all ages. I have close friends that are 15 years younger and 15 to 20 years older for different reasons. Some friends, the four of us are friends, the men and the women. Others are more separate which is normal and fine. We have a very full life.

Prahl: It must have been nice: in the absence of having family you would have these strong friend groups.
WEINSTEIN: Right.

Prahl: Can you talk about the changes you have seen over time in Portland?
WEINSTEIN: I can talk about one thing in particular about I have been trumpeting about and do not like what I see happening as far as development. It is not Portland anymore. Even five years ago it was just right. With all the high rise condo towers that are being build and obstructing the sky and dehumanizing life. Also, being conducted by out of town developers. It’s not local money but there is plenty of money locally. The word has gotten out about Portland being a very desirable city, which is good. I like the transit and all of that but I do not like way the city is growing. I see the same thing is happening that happened in Seattle.

Prahl: Which is what?
WEINSTEIN: Traffic, congestion, attitude, too many bike riders that are disrespectful, and Portland was a nice, civil community. It had its faults and I am not idealizing it. That is one thing I really don’t like. 

I think it is a good thing what has happened to our Jewish community. In the sense that there is more variety. There are more options. There are too many synagogues. It is very expensive to be Jewish. A lot of people don’t participate because they can’t afford to. A young family can’t put out 2000, 3000, or 4000 dollars a year, for heaven sake. 

I think it is fine. I don’t believe in a lot of the gun regulations but I still pay my taxes. I have issues with certain agencies and organizations that the Jewish community help to sponsor and support. But that is part of a democracy and there is a lot of politics involved.

I co-chaired the Women’s Division one year for the Federation. I didn’t mention that. Anita Reinhorn and I did that.

Prahl: Were you involved in other ways in Federation too?
WEINSTEIN: Oh yes, for a long time. Then I would get burned out. Sandy and I are more secular Jews. We are more interested in social issues then Jewish issues. Not that they are mutually exclusive.

Prahl: Do you find a way to be active in those issues?
WEINSTEIN: Oh yes. We contribute to Lift Urban Portland, Neighborhood House, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Folk time which is an off shoot of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. It is like day program for severely disabled adults.

Prahl: Is it a national thing?
WEINSTEIN: It started in Portland. It is based on a concept of pure support. The people who are employed there are, well you will always be a patient. It has gotten a lot of national recognition. It seems to be a movement. There is a lot of training involved.  I was also a co-chair at Reed College.

Prahl: How did you get involved at Reed College?
WEINSTEIN: Renee Holzman was president of the Women’s Committee at the time and we were very close friends. She asked me if I would like to share the program. It was a series of lectures that they don’t have anymore. The Women’s Committee dissolved because there were so many women with careers that they didn’t have the time. They are still an organization it just isn’t active. Ironically about five years after I chaired the lecture series, my daughter chaired the lecture series. She did a bang up job. She got Ann Curry from the Today Show, Linda Wertheimer from NPR…. And it was that caliber. She convinced them to come to Portland and we paid transportation and the Heathman put them up. There was no honorarium so most of these people wanted to come to see what the northwest was all about. The two men that wrote Avenue Q came; it was exciting. She did a terrific job. That is an overview of my involvement. At one time it was very Jewish then it became more secular and now it is not necessarily secular but more social service. 

Prahl: I think we covered everything unless you think there is something we left out?
WEINSTEIN: I don’t know. I went on and on about my father’s family, my uncles but those are good stories.

Prahl: You can tell more stories about your own family if you want but if they don’t come to mind you don’t have to.
WEINSTEIN: I think I gave you a background of they all graduated college and they were interested in athletics and finished religious school. They had a lot of Jewish friends and were very active in Beth Israel Youth and BBO. They all went to BB camp and I went as a little girl.

Prahl: Was it very common for Seattle kids to go to BB?
WEINSTEIN: Not very many.

Prahl: Did your parents send you because it was the closest Jewish camp they could find?
WEINSTEIN: My girlfriends, who were neighbors, went. My father had gone to the camp before I had gone there. I used to leave my sleeping bag for him because girls’ camp was before men’s. There was no co-ed camping. My father just loved camp.

Prahl: It sounds like men’s camp was really remarkable. The men that have gone there have only good things to say about it.
WEINSTEIN: It was. Even when he was in poor health he managed. They had a medical staff there and would take care of them.

Prahl: Did your brother go to BB camp too?
WEINSTEIN: He went to Boy Scout camp. Camp Parsons on Hood Canal in Washington. But my girlfriends went. It was $18.00 a week. Which was a lot of money. Mickey Hirschberg was the camp director. She smoked incessantly and she was tough. I loved her. I went to Brownie camp in Seattle. It was on Mercer Island. You needed a visa, practically. This was in the ‘40s. Mercer Island was the wilderness. It was really scary. 

Prahl: I think I will stop us here.
WEINSTEIN: Well this was fun. My family is sick to death of hearing all my stories.

Prahl: We will never get sick of it, thank you so much for telling them.
WEINSTEIN: Thank you so much, you are wonderful.