Martha Horenstein Olshen

Magid: Where did your parents or grandparents come from? 
OLSHEN: My parents came from Russia. I understand it is a little city in the valley near Odessa. My grandparents also came from there on my father’s side, and my mother’s side. Do you want me to go on and tell you all about it or what?

Magid: Yes. 
OLSHEN: My father came from Russia in 1905 to the United States. He went to New York. He had cousins in Philadelphia that had come to the United States before him and they wanted him to stay in Philadelphia with them (Dr. Philip Horenstein and his brother Max Horenstein). My father stayed with them for a little while and then he thought he would like to come to the Northwest and so he came to Portland. He came by himself and he taught himself to read and write because years ago in Russia they tried to take the children away from the parents and put them in the army at an early age. They wouldn’t allow them schooling or anything. My father didn’t want to be in the army, like so many other Jews. So when he came here he taught himself to read and write and he took all types of jobs. He washed floors; he worked with stock work, such as in department stores and what not. He would do anything that was honest to earn a living. He saved money and brought my mother and two brothers, David and Isadore, to Portland. And he found a flat for rent in South Portland for them. I know my mother would tell me there were three flights of stairs she would have to climb and carry water just to do her cooking and bathe the children and the washing. They would scrimp and save as much as they could to bring other families out of Russia, which my father did. He taught himself how to barber because as a child, even in Russia, sometimes he would barber his brothers and his father. So when he came, after being in Portland for a while he would try to earn a living as a barber, now that he knew how to speak and write, arithmetic and what not. So he got a job. I think [it was] on SW Second and Madison and he worked there for quite awhile and saved until he was able to put a down payment on this barbershop. And he thought he would start the first barber college, which he did. He taught my young brothers, David and Isadore. After school they would come in and they would stand on a box because they couldn’t reach the customer and he would teach them also how to barber. 

Magid: What was the name of the school? 
OLSHEN: The name of the school I think was the Oregon Barber College. That was on the corner of Southwest Second and Madison. My father each year (I don’t know how often each year) would try to bring another family out of Russia. He brought his brothers and sister and their family. He brought my mother’s parents and her brothers and sisters. And he brought friends out of Russia. He thought that he would like to get a group together and form a club, sort of, and raise money to bring more people out of Russia. He formed the Braliver Relief Society. 

Magid: How did he get the name Braliver? What did that mean? 
OLSHEN: A lot of the people, friends that he heard of, had migrated to Braliver. So he thought that would be a good thing to try to get them out. The Braliver Relief Society is well known in Portland as more or less a social club more than really for the work that they had done. And actually they had every reason to socialize because they got together every month and whenever necessary to have their meetings and they would party afterwards. They were so elated with each family that they brought out of Russia. Sometimes the families would stay in New York, or Philadelphia or Chicago or Indianapolis. And some of them would come here to Portland. But the idea was to get them out of Russia because that’s what they wanted. As I say, he helped get these people jobs here in the city wherever he could. Then my father sold the Oregon Barber College and he moved to Fourth and Taylor and started a shop called the Army Goods Store, Herman’s Army Goods Store. He still kept up with the Braliver Relief Society. He became a member of all the other societies here in Portland, the Rose City Lodge. He became a member of all the synagogues and in 1912, I believe, there was a church on Meade Street. My father purchased that. 

Magid: Your father purchased it? 
OLSHEN: Yes, he purchased that and made that into a synagogue because, with all these people that they hoped to bring out of Russia, the synagogues that we already had were quite full. So they started Meade Street Shul. 

Magid: I was raised in there. 
OLSHEN: Yes, in fact there’s a picture that I gave your Aunt Gussie that my mother had among her belongings and in the background it said 1912. And they were sitting on the pulpit with some of these other men and your Aunt Gussie knows who these other men were. After that, my father, as I said, was still a member of the other synagogues. And they brought more people out of Russia. We have pictures that we have given to the Oregon Historical Society for the people that didn’t come here. Some of the names I think you’ll recognize: The Jacobsens, the Cohns, and quite a few others. I think Aunt Sarah could really tell you more who they were. My mother, her family’s name was Dardick. This is another thing that I forgot to tell you. My father’s name originally was Guler. His father was Dr. Moishe Guler. His Mother was Maita. Quite a few of his cousins had come to the States and as I said before, Dr. Max Horenstein. His name was Guler but changed his name to Horenstein and he said it might be easier for father to come to the States if he changed his name to Horenstein. Perhaps, I guess, he had sponsored father. I do not know. Evidently, you know, in order to get out of Russia, I think you had to have somebody in the States to sponsor you. So he changed his name to Horenstein and so everybody that he brought on my mother’s side of the family, he changed their name from Dardick to Horenstein. 

Magid: Is this the reason why we think that the one family is so large or were they all related? 
OLSHEN: They were related in some way. But my father’s side, as I said, his name was Guler and he changed, everyone on the paternal side was changed to Horenstein. But on my mother’s side, the maternal side, he changed their name to Horenstein in order to bring them out of Russia. But her maiden name was Dardick, and so therefore, my mother’s parents’ name was Jack Horenstein and Ethel Horenstein. 

Magid: So everybody’s name was Horenstein? 
OLSHEN: In the immediate family in order to bring them out of Russia. But all the other people, the other friends, maintained their same names. My father had opened Herman’s Men’s Store. He changed Herman’s Army good Store to Herman’s Men Store, and he had, I think, about 20 or 30 stores in Oregon and Washington. 

Magid: Oh, he went into clothing after he sold the barber school? 
OLSHEN: Yes, and his youngest brother, who he brought out of Russia, went directly to Vancouver, B.C. and remained there with his family. His oldest brother Hymie Labe remained in Russia and he had a son David and twin daughters who were pharmacists there. And in 1939, I believe it was, right after my father passed away, my brother David received word from the Red Cross, I believe in Russia, that my uncle and his son David were killed. But the pharmacists, the twin daughters are still in Russia. We don’t know where they are. They were not allowed to get in touch with us or we with them. 

Magid: Ever? 
OLSHEN: Well, that’s what I understand. My aunt Sarah tried to locate them when she was in Russia but it was impossible. 

Magid: Actually, how many brothers and sisters…? Can you kind of trace the family together? 
OLSHEN: My father also brought a sister Riva Jacobsen here with her family, her children. I think she lost her husband in Russia. He brought them here. The Jacobsen family is here. They inter-married, you know. They are known as the Weinsteins and Jacobsens. My own family, well, my brothers and sisters, were Isadore, who passed away in 1951. That was my oldest brother. And David, who is living, kenahora. Now and he is here with his family. He has two boys, a daughter and his wife. And there’s my sister Lee Arnstein and my brother-in-law Milt. And they have two sons. My sister Jean and her husband–they have two sons. My brother Earl and his wife–they have three sons. 

Magid: How many children altogether in your immediate family?
OLSHEN: I don’t know. I haven’t counted them anymore. And then my brother Max and his wife–they have three children, a boy and two girls. And, of course, there are great grandchildren. My mother passed away when she was 76, Mishka Horenstein. She was known as Mishka Horenstein. Her name was Mary. She passed away at 76, and I think she had about 16 grandchildren and I think about three great grandchildren, probably more than that I think more than three. 

Magid: Where in Portland did you live as a child? 
OLSHEN: As a child, I was born in 1921 in SW Third across the street from what was known as the Old People’s Home. Rabbi Fain lived there and then before I was a year old, my parents moved to 336 SW Sixth Street between Market and Clay. My brother Earl was born there, 

Magid: Was this considered the South Portland area? 
OLSHEN: No, this was Southwest, near the old Lincoln High School, just below the Heights. 

Magid: So you never lived in South Portland? 
OLSHEN: No, I never did. My brothers and sisters did. I recall some of the things that they have said, but I do know that mother told me that right after she came to the states, my father had rented this flat and that’s where they lived until they could earn enough money to better themselves and bring more people out of Russia and my mother, her father had a tailor shop in Russia and in those days they lived behind, the tailor shop, so she would help my grandmother bake the bread and tend to the household chores and then work with my grandfather in his tailor shop because some of the people who worked with my grandfather also made their home with my grandparents. So there was always a lot of household chores to do before you could even work in the tailor shop. When she came here she would take in some work as a seamstress to help a lot of the people that came here who couldn’t afford things. They would buy yardage and she would sew and help them cut and teach them how to do all sorts of things so that they could earn a living, besides take care of her family and of course, they opened up their home, too, to newcomers. They would come and stay with my parents and my mother would take care of their needs. My father would try to find work for them. 

Magid: Do you remember any interesting, like human-interest stories that took place in your neighborhood when you were growing up?
OLSHEN: Well, no, not that I would recall. I know, in those days, they would always take the children with them to these meetings that they had, whether it was at the Center or the Neighborhood House, or if there was a Jewish opera or something that would come and in those days they always took their children. They never left them at home. We were always a part of that, you know Jewish culture and everything and with the meetings, the Bralivar meetings, I remember growing up with that. 

Magid: Can you tell us some stories concerning that? 
OLSHEN: Well, actually, it was really such a fun time for us, because there was always music involved after the meetings. The meetings were always so serious, you know, because there were so many families that wanted to come out and that was their fame, that was the reason that they started this group and they had speakers who would come. In fact, the last meeting that I remember as a child, a Dr. Schatz here in Portland, I think he was an eye doctor, I am not sure, he had come to this meeting that my father had. By the way, they met in the basement party room of my sister’s home, the last few meetings that I recall going to which was across the street from the old Jewish Community Center, and we would always have meetings at our home on SW Sixth, and meetings, I guess, at the synagogue… Wherever, but the last meetings that I recall were at my sister’s house on SW 13th. And the last meeting Dr. Schatz came and spoke about problems that they were having in Birobidzhanin, Russia. They were trying to get more people out so they held this meeting. And as I said, the meetings were very serious and very businesslike and right after the meetings would take place they would serve all these delicacies like, one called mamaliga, which was sort of a cereal that was cooked with a little bit of chicken fat for flavor and salads and pastries and what not. And they would have like hors d’oeuvres and they would drink. They would have music and they would dance all their Russian dances, and my oldest brother Iz played the piano. My brother David played the drums and they had (what do you call it?) like the Spanish people had, they would clap…

Magid: Castanets? 
OLSHEN: Castanets. They would keep time and they would sing these songs and they would dance and they just had more fun after each meeting. As I say, they had good reason to make merry, because of all the families they helped bring out and they always continued to do something for the Jewish people in Portland and wherever they wanted to settle. 

Magid: Is this organization still in existence? 
OLSHEN: No, it isn’t. Quite a few of those have passed on. The only ones that are remaining are the children of these people, and actually instead of the Bralivar Relief Society, they went into Jewish Welfare, you see, so we all became involved in Jewish Welfare which was the same idea I think as the Bralivar Relief Society, bringing more people out of Russia, and today we are trying to bring more people into Israel, wherever they want to settle. 

Magid: Can you speak about some of your schoolmates in your school days in Portland? 
OLSHEN: Well, now as far as my schooling, I went to Ladds School and when I got to Ladds School, they only had it up to the fourth grade. It was a very old building, where the Oregon Art Museum is today, and so after the fourth grade we had to go to Shattuck School. I went to Shattuck School and graduated from Shattuck School and went to Cleveland High School, which was known as Commerce High for a year and then transferred to Lincoln High School. Then I met my husband after he graduated pharmacy school and we were married. I married at 18 and my husband was 23 and we have four daughters: Jerri Pearlman–she is married to Leorard Pearlman; and then Jean Olshen in San Francisco–she works at the UC Hospital in the pharmacy department; and Andrea Maronstein–her husband just graduated pharmacy and she’s a teacher; then Heidi Alberton–married to James Alberton in San Francisco. And he works in a drug store. 

Magid: You were mentioning that so many of the Horenstein family went into the medical profession. Can you speak of all the ones that are in medicine? 
OLSHEN: Right. My cousin; my Uncle Joe, who my father brought over; his wife is Sarah Horenstein; and they have Clara Paige, who is a pharmacist and married to a pharmacist–Jack; and they have a daughter Rose (and I believe she majored in antiquities things.) The third daughter Ruth is a beautician and realtor. Marc, their son, is a doctor. And Velma, their youngest daughter, is a doctor. Gloria lives in San Francisco, out of Los Angeles, California and she’s married and has two boys and a girl. Her son is a dentist and I think the other one is a veterinarian. 

Magid: This is all one family? 
OLSHEN: Yes, and a cousin Millie, next to the youngest daughter, next to Velma has three sons and I believe they are in med school one or two of them are in med school. I think that’s about it. 

Magid: So most of the doctors came from your Uncle Joe. 
OLSHEN: Yes, today. No, my brothers and sisters–we didn’t go into medicine. Actually it was my father, Uncle Joe, and his oldest brother, Hymie Labe, the daughters, and then cousins, my father’s cousins. His uncles and cousins back east, Dr. Philip Horenstein. We haven’t really, we are working on having a family tree, and we know that we have other cousins in the States, but due to the fact that a lot of this you know, you don’t undertake until I guess you are married yourself and realize what family is, so I know my cousin Dr. Marc was going to try to make family tree along with me, together we were going to try and see what we could find.

Magid: This a little bit of a broad question, but I can go into specifics, first of all, what sort of activities stand out in your memory as being very important to your life? If you want me to break that down I can. 
OLSHEN: Do you mean, what I gained from my parents would you say? 

Magid: Your social activities, your religious observance. 
OLSHEN: Well, now my husband. 

Magid: Education… 
OLSHEN: My parents weren’t really religious. When they came here they weren’t Orthodox. But my father tried to… I mean he respected the Orthodoxy and always, I recall as a child, he would say if it was clean it was kosher, you know, but my father always stressed the importance of honesty and the importance of having a good name. That’s what he always strived to have himself, which he always had. And he always wanted his children to live by that too. So when my parents did come here and he had a hand in setting up the synagogue, and even though we were not Orthodox we still maintained Judaism with the holidays and the Kashruth. We were not strictly kosher. We didn’t have milchics with our fleyshics, but we weren’t strictly kosher. Whereas I did marry my husband who was born and raised strictly kosher and Orthodox and I have kept a kosher home. We have the separate sets of dishes and everything. I myself do not keep kosher out of the home, but my husband does and our daughters keep the holidays but they do not keep kathruth and they are not Orthodox. I would say we are more Conservative. We belong to the Shaarie Torah synagogue here in Portland and belong to the Jewish Community Center. 

Throughout our marriage I have done work with all of the groups of the city. I was active with Hadassah and B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Community Center, the synagogues. I mean that was my life too. I mean I have tried to do something in that way, just as my father had tried to do with Judaism, in bringing the Jewish people out so that they could maintain their Judaism here in the states. I do recall my father saying that in Russia even his grandfathers who were doctors and would try to treat their patients in other cities, would try to take medication with them, to give to the patients and they would have to have these prescriptions OKed by the authorities and, as I said, their homes and everything were taken away from them. They also had a trying time trying to get medication for their patients because they were downgraded and looked down upon by the authorities and wouldn’t even be recognized as doctors. I was told that that was one big reason too why so many of our Jewish people wanted to flee because they couldn’t be Jewish.

Magid: We were talking about the situation then. How are things different today? What has changed in Portland? 
OLSHEN: Well, each generation has changed Portland. Now my generation and our children’s generation are very much like our parents–my parents before me. We are all still working towards Judaism and being able to live in the United States, and we still have the same interests. In Portland the groups are larger now. The organizations are larger. With the B’nai B’rith and the Anti-Defamation League have made quite a few good gains and our children can become involved, even at an early age, in life much earlier than I was able to. I think that’s good and important. Portland has grown, of course, into a larger city now and most of our people are not just centralized in South Portland. We’re throughout Portland. It’s a little harder to get to one another, but we’re not where we could go across the street to talk to our Jewish neighbors as we did years ago, because I have no Jewish neighbors. I still live out in the northeast area. 

Magid: My family is there. 
OLSHEN: Your family are one of the few remaining, whereas the other have moved. They have moved southwest or southeast. 

Magid: Is there any reason why you stayed northeast? 
OLSHEN: When we first got married we lived in Southwest Portland near Shattuck School there. We lived in a flat there on SW Clifton Street and as we had more children it became too small for us. We moved out to the northeast area. My husband’s family, his brothers had moved out there so we moved out there. We’ve been there now, we’ve been northeast now for 35 years and our children have grown and are married and they live southwest. Our other daughter lives in San Francisco and our home is getting too large for us. We do have our grandchildren come and stay with us from time to time. And my mother had lived with us, had made her home with us throughout the years and with my mother no longer here and my daughters married and away from home, we’ve got a big five bedroom, five bath house. It is just too big for me to take care of, and actually we don’t need it, so we will be looking for something soon, Southwest, something near the Center. I would like to be in a smaller home where I could still have room to have our grandchildren. 

Magid: What has changed in the neighborhood in the past years? 
OLSHEN: In the neighborhood? In northeast? 

Magid: Where you lived when you were growing up? 
OLSHEN: When I was growing up? Well, actually when I was growing up, as I say, my parents, before I was a year old, moved to Southwest Portland and there weren’t any Jewish families around us. Oh my Uncle Joe and his family lived up on Southwest Park Street, where the Lincoln High School, and actually they were the closest family to us and then I had an Uncle Abe and Aunt Anna Horenstein, who lived near the Neveh Zedek Synagogue on Sixth Street, Southwest Sixth. So they were actually the closest Jewish family that lived in my area. When I grew up I would either meet with Jewish boys and girls as I say at the Neighborhood House from time to time or the Center or through other children of the families that my father brought out of Russia, the Bralivers. We more or less grew up together, all of us. There was also the Rotenberg family, and quite a few.

Magid: Where did these people move to when they left that basic neighborhood? 
OLSHEN: Well, when people left South Portland they either moved northeast or southwest. I think most of them did. 

Magid: What about the community organizations. How have they changed? 
OLSHEN: Well, they’ve gotten larger. 

Magid: The Neighborhood House. Can you speak about the Neighborhood House? 
OLSHEN: The Neighborhood House, most of the members, when they moved away from South Portland, I don’t know what percentage still keep their membership up there, but most of them had gone to the Jewish Community Center, which was on SW 13th, but I do know that our parents were members of both and so as children we had a chance to go back to South Portland, to the Neighborhood House and also…

Magid: And the synagogues? 
OLSHEN: The Shaarie Torah was still on SW First and Meade Street Shul was still there and Neveh Zedek was still on Sixth Street and then the Synagogue on Park Street, the Neveh Shalom used to be on Park Street. My father being a member in all those, sometimes if we couldn’t get to the one on Meade Street or First Street, we would go to services at the Neveh Zedek or Neveh Shalom.

Magid: What about the libraries, and the hospitals and the schools?
OLSHEN: They had this one library in South Portland but we naturally went to the one that was closest to our home. When I was attending Ladd School I would go to the one on SW Tenth because that wasn’t too far away from Ladd School. And I would go there many a times on my way home or on a Saturday sometimes if I wanted to do some reading I would go there. However they had library books too at the Jewish Community Center. There were always books to read. 

Magid: How did the Depression affect your way of life in Portland or South Portland? 
OLSHEN: My parents, of course, were always hard working people and we knew that and we knew that they never deprived us of anything. But we were never demanding children and we would always have some type of chore to do. If we didn’t help mother at home, we always helped father in the store after school or on Saturdays and so actually knowing how hard our parents worked we weren’t spendthrifts. We were very satisfied and happy with what our parents were able to give us. 

Magid: Do you remember the conditions in the neighborhood, in the city during the Depression? 
OLSHEN: Well, I do know then that there were families that didn’t have any means of food clothing or shelter, but of course we were sort of used to that, knowing about that type of life, because our parents were always denying themselves certain things in order to save money for these other families that they brought out. That was their main purpose and they would deny themselves things in order to do this sort of thing. So with neighbors who were deprived or didn’t have anything, it wasn’t new to us. We always knew there was a need, for food, shelter and clothing for somebody. 

Magid: Did the neighborhood change at all because of the Depression? 
OLSHEN: No, not really, I don’t think. I don’t think that there was really anyone that was spoiled. People were kind of used to that sort of thing. Being that I didn’t live in a Jewish neighborhood, it didn’t make any difference whether you were Jew or Gentile. We were all going through the same thing. 

Magid: What about World War Two? What happened in your life? 
OLSHEN: My father passed away in 1939 and when my husband did graduate from school there was still a depression. It was very difficult for him to get a job. He couldn’t get a job as a pharmacist, so he washed bottles for a bottling company until he was able to get a job as a pharmacist. Then we had a child in 1941, when the war was on, during World War Two. She was a breach birth and I lost her. I became pregnant in 1942 with our oldest daughter and the war was still on. My brothers were in the service and my cousins were in the service, and my nephews were in the service; just everybody was in it, in one way or the other. My husband was fortunate; he wasn’t taken. He did have this Irving Street drug store up on NW 23rd and Irving, and as quite a few of the doctors said they still needed some doctors here in the city and some pharmacists here in the city. You know, they couldn’t send them all away to the war, so I was fortunate in that way. I was also fortunate that my brothers, nephews, cousins came home. One cousin was a prisoner, but he did come home. One of my brothers was in Saipan in Okinawa and he came home thank goodness, and my nephew was in the Navy and my other cousins were in the Navy or Army and they all came home, thank goodness. Some of their friends weren’t so lucky. We lost some of them. There was a Mr. Labby, an elderly man that I remember as a child, from the SW First Street Shul that we called it, the Shaarie Torah. And when my brothers and other Jewish boys from the synagogue were called into the service, he gave them each a little mezuzah and he said to them (God rest his soul, a very brilliant man), “I want you to bring this back to me.” And of course, when these boys did come back, he was no longer here, but he wanted them to carry this mezuzah with them and to be with them wherever they were. That mezuzah would bring them back and it did. It was a nice way of thinking. He was a dear man. 

Magid: What about the Urban Renewal project how did that change the city? What effect did it have on the people living in that area? 
OLSHEN: I think that most of our Jewish people left South Portland by the time of the Urban Renewal. Just a few had chosen to remain there. I think the parents of the last generation, people of my parent’s generation, the elderly, had chosen to remain there. My husband’s parents had remained there and I think a few of his friends’ parents remained there. My husband had lived on SW Gibbs Street when I had married him in 1939 and his mother passed away. I believe it was 1942 or 1943. And after that, his father moved to SW Sixth Street, from SW Gibbs Street and so I think when that happened in 1945 when he moved, I think there were very few remaining Jewish families there. 

Magid: When you look back, how do you feel as a Jew living in Oregon? 
OLSHEN: Well, when I look back, I feel that I really have a right to be here. I feel that I am just part of Oregon, through my parents and through my years of marriage here, growing up here and through having our children and grandchildren, I feel very much a part of Oregon. I feel I was very fortunate to have the opportunity of living in the United States and living in Portland, whereas my parents had to flee Russia. I feel that not only throughout the years of growing up where we are dedicated to Judaism, but dedicated to all types of people and all types of life to do what we can for humanity, not just for the Jews, but everybody as a human being and that we all have a right to be a human being, to make our way in life, like my father would say, in an honest way. My father was quite a philosopher. He also did many things that were unknown to us until the day that he passed away, such as helping families here in the city. You know, even after he brought them here out of Russia, helping them out and getting them jobs and everything, he helped families if ever they needed any money for instance, and he would give it to them and he would say, “I will lend this to you.” And they were very humble. Some of them didn’t know if they would ever be able to repay him, but they would feel better if they could make out a paper saying that they had borrowed this money from my father. So my father did, so that they wouldn’t lose their feeling. He didn’t want them to feel that they were indebted to him; he wanted them to feel that they were still a human being even though they were borrowing money and may never be able to repay it. So he let them sign the paper, make out a paper that they had borrowed this and he would put it away in his safe at the store. He had a huge safe that reached the ceiling to the floor, you know, one of these old things. He had many things in there of importance. And he told them that if ever they felt that they could pay him, fine, if they couldn’t it was all right, but he had hoped that some day in their lifetime they would be able to help other people, by doing what he was doing. So he kept these papers in his safe and once in a while someone would walk in and hand my brother some money, a check I think it was, and my brother would put it in the safe and he wouldn’t know anything about it and when my father was at the sanitarium. And, of course, the doctors told us he didn’t have long to live, my brother confronted my father with it and didn’t know what it was all about. My father said he had loaned these people money and he was hoping that they in turn would help somebody else. He said, “Anything you do with your heart, you don’t talk about it, you just do it, you know, because it’s a part of you.” And he had my brother tear up all the checks. When my father passed away, over his coffin, there were Jewish families, I didn’t know who they were, and they were crying over my father’s coffin, mumbling about the help that he had given them. They were so grateful to him and so indebted to him. But that’s another thing I remember. He said, “Anything you do with your heart, you don’t talk about it, you just do it.” And I think quite a few of those people in their own way are helping other people, Jew or Gentile. 

Magid: Thank you very much.