Miriam Boskowitz Aiken (front center) with her sisters Sarah, Sophie, and Mina Boskowitz.
Miriam Boskowitz Aiken
1886-1976
Miriam Aiken (nee Boskowitz), born July 3, 1886, was the second daughter of Sarah Bloch and Isaac Boskowitz. Her paternal grandparents came west from New York after the Civil War in search of opportunity and were among the first Jewish families to settle in Oregon. Miriam’s father ran a general store in Union, Oregon when she was born and then moved his family to LaGrande, Oregon to open the first general store there. They frequently traveled to Portland from their home in eastern Oregon to attend Congregation Beth Israel for the Jewish holidays. Feeling it would be better to be part of a larger Jewish community, the family eventually moved to Portland, where Miriam, her brother Anselm, and her sister Mina attended public high school. Both Miriam and her brother, Anselm, worked for Fleischner-Mayer, Co. as teenagers. When Miriam was 23, she met and married Frank Aiken, after which the couple moved to Omaha, Nebraska before eventually settling in Utah. Miriam returned to Portland after her husband’s death in 1972; she died in 1976.
Interview(S):
Miriam Boskowitz Aiken - 1974
Interviewer: Eve Rosenfeld
Date: July 22, 1974
Transcribed By: Mollie Blumenthal
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Aiken, your family was probably amongst the earliest of the Jewish families that had come to Oregon. What do you remember?
AIKEN: Well, I remember they lived any place they could get to live. My grandmother and grandfather found a place on Second Street. They had two little girls, Aunt Flora and Sarah Boskowitz (or rather she became Sarah Boskowitz). Then Grandpa came home one day and said to his wife, “Adeline, or Adelaide, there’s a new family come to town. He’s a very fine baker and she’s pregnant and they can’t find a place to live,” so Grandma said “well, as crowded as we are, you have them come here and live with us until after the baby is born probably they find same place.” I don’t know whether you ever remember hearing of Judge McGuinn, Henry McGuinn, well he was born there and they named that little boy Henry for Grandpa. They were very strong Catholics.
Rosenfeld: Do you have any idea of about when this was?
AIKEN: Well, that’s what I want to find out, because in the Bloch Bible you can go there and find out when my mother was born and that was in Montgomery, Alabama. Then when the war became so disagreeable…
Rosenfeld: Which war?
AIKEN: The Civil War – why, Grandpa wasn’t in favor of it and he picked up his family and went back to New York and they lived there with Grandma’s people until he decided to come west. So I think Grandma, my own Grandmother was about 76 or 77 when she died. I remember that very clearly and then Aunt Flora was born in New York and they came to San Francisco by what was called the —
Rosenfeld: Did they come around the Cape?
AIKEN: I think that’s what they did. They came around the Cape. They came to San Francisco and then, I presume, by boat up here – I don’t know, to Portland and grandma’s birth certificate was made out at Temple Emanuel… Frances in New York… Frances has it.
Rosenfeld: You mean wedding certificate.
AIKEN: Yes, wedding certificate and Francis has it.
Rosenfeld: It must be very old.
AIKEN: Surely.
Rosenfeld: Henry Bloch and his wife were married at Temple Emanuel. In what year, do you remember?
AIKEN: Oh no.
Rosenfeld: You don’t remember?
AIKEN: Look at the wedding certificate and that will tell you.
Rosenfeld: Were they married then in New York and then they went to Montgomery, Alabama?
AIKEN: Then they went to Montgomery, Alabama where he was interested in the wholesale grocery business and my grandmother’s name was that meant Adelaide…
Daughter: What was her maiden name, mama?
AIKEN: That’s what I’m trying…I know it just as well as… was it Fineberg? Fineberg, yes.
Rosenfeld: And they were married in New York and then they eventually during the war went back to New York and then what made them – or did they ever tell you, or did you ever hear – why they decided to come west?
AIKEN: That I couldn’t tell you. I suppose the opportunities were very good then, that must have been it.
Rosenfeld: And then they came from San Francisco to Portland.
AIKEN: And then my grandfather became quite prosperous.
Rosenfeld: What kind of business was he in?
AIKEN: Wholesale grocery business.
Rosenfeld: In Portland?
AIKEN: In Portland. Then he built a very comfortable home on Park and Burnside and they were married there. They had a very lovely wedding and Francis has my mother’s wedding dress and it’s really just lovely if you ever want to see it.
Rosenfeld: It would be very interesting to see. Your mother was married in that home on Park and Burnside?
Daughter: That’s where the telephone company has their big building now.
Rosenfeld: What was your mother’s name?
AIKEN: Sarah. Sarah Bloch.
Rosenfeld: And she married Henry.
AIKEN: She married Henry Bloch.
Daughter: No, Sarah was married to Isaac Boskowitz.
AIKEN: Sarah was married to Isaac Boskowitz and my father, at that time, had a very prosperous business in La Grande, Oregon.
Rosenfeld: Did he come to Portland then for a bride?
AIKEN: Well, I think my father was something like 32 when he married my mother and he must have had the thought of it, something like that.
Daughter: Weren’t they sort of distantly related?
AIKEN: Yes, about third cousins.
Rosenfeld: What kind of business was he in, in La Grande?
AIKEN: In La Grande he had a general store in what is now the old town. I mean what is now the new town was just a harem scarum – it had nothing attached to it and then later on my father had another business and he opened that up in Union which was, at that time, 17 miles from La Grande and now I think you can make it now, I think in about 11 minutes.
Daughter: By plane. I said maybe by plane.
Rosenfeld: How long did your father and mother live in La Grande?
AIKEN: Oh, I was born in La Grande. No, I was born in Union.
Rosenfeld: How many of your family – were any of your family born in La Grande?
AIKEN: I had two brothers that were born in La Grande.
Rosenfeld: Were they older brothers?
AIKEN: Oh, yes.
Rosenfeld: What were their names, Mrs. Aiken?
AIKEN: Abraham was my eldest brother and Frederick my younger brother. Then, my mother was so very kosher that she didn’t believe in keeping stores open on Shabbos. Oh yes, this was then when my father established his store in Union, so my father invited the whole family to come out and be with him and took Grandpa in business and Grandma wanted to introduce him into Shabbos keeping in Union. It didn’t go over in those towns because in those days that was the day that they all planned on coming to town to do their buying.
Daughter: That was your grandmother, not your mother.
AIKEN: Oh, no, not my mother.
Rosenfeld: So your grandmother had problems when she came to Union? When she realized that the store was open on Shabbos?
AIKEN: Well, she wouldn’t have it.
Rosenfeld: What did she do?
AIKEN: Well, my father gave in to her end. They didn’t do so well. Then my father moved to a little town called Summerville.
Rosenfeld: But, Mrs. Aiken, you were born while they lived in Union.
AIKEN: I was born while my sister Mina was riding. Born on July 3rd and my eldest son was born on July 3rd.
Daughter: Where was Aunt Mina born? Mother.
AIKEN: In Union.
Daughter: Uncle Ans was born in Union, too?
AIKEN: Yes, just the two boys were born in La Grande.
Daughter: And Abraham died, didn’t he, Mother?
AIKEN: My brother, yes.
Rosenfeld: Was he the eldest?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: And he died as a young child?
AIKEN: He died when he was 13. They sent to Walla Walla, which was a mecca for good doctors, but nothing saved him.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember anything about that typhoid epidemic?
AIKEN: I wasn’t born.
Rosenfeld: Oh, you weren’t born yet. That was even before you were born.
Daughter: There was quite a bit of difference in age.
Rosenfeld: Yes.
AIKEN: And then after, Summerville wasn’t a success.
Rosenfeld: You moved from Union to Summerville because the store didn’t do too well in Union?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: From your recollections, how old were you when you moved from Union?
AIKEN: Maybe I was sort of an infant.
Rosenfeld: Okay, I was wondering. But you would have been too young to know if there were other Jewish families besides your family.
AIKEN: The Levy family. Their grandson is now down here, what’s his name?
Daughter: Adolph Bloch.
AIKEN: Adolph Bloch. And the farmers, when they would all come to town on Saturday, they knew they could get a good meal at my mother’s or over at Union at Mrs. Levy.
Daughter: Did you go back to Union and live later, Mother, after Summerville?
Rosenfeld: What did your father then do in Summerville? The same kind of business?
AIKEN: Yes, he had sort of a grocery store, but it didn’t pan out successfully, so he came back to La Grande.
Rosenfeld: And how many years then you live in La Grande? Did you live in La Grande for much of your growing up years?
AIKEN: Yes. I lived in La Grande from the time I was two and a half years o1d until we moved down here and that was—
Rosenfeld: Were you a young woman?
AIKEN: No, I was still in high school, and my brother Anselm, when he had graduated, went to work for Fleischner-Mayer Co.
Rosenfeld: Where was that?
AIKEN: Down on between First and Second and Ash.
Rosenfeld: And that was here in Portland?
AIKEN: Where the fire station, the big fire station is.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember what it was like to grow up as a young Jewish girl, living in La Grande? Were there any other Jewish families?
AIKEN: Oh yes, there was. The Levys had their youngest daughter Edna. We were very good friends. We would go to each other’s towns. And there was [unintelligible] had a boy friend by the name of Wright, he was an awfully nice fellow. He was a fine young man. He had a drug store in La Grande.
Rosenfeld: This was another Jewish family?
Daughter: No. These were other Jewish families in La Grande?
Rosenfeld: Were there other Jewish families besides the Levys?
AIKEN: Oh yes, the Somers. They ran a hotel.
Rosenfeld: The Somers ran the hotel.
Daughter: And didn’t Dan Marx work for your father?
AIKEN: I’ll say. My father had, apparently, a very nice little home and an invitation to that was [unintelligible] and my father would rush home and say that the Indians were coming to town and for my mother to take the children and go down the basement.
Rosenfeld: This was in La Grande?
AIKEN: Yes. I can show you.
Rosenfeld: And were people fearful when the Indians came?
AIKEN: Oh, yes. Indeed, they were fearful.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember what Indians? Did this happen very often?
AIKEN: No, I only remember them telling about it.
Daughter: Mother, were there any other Jewish families in La Grande, besides the Somers and the Levys?
AIKEN: No, the Levys were never in La Grande. They were always in Union.
Daughter: I mean in that area, say, for instance–
AIKEN: No. Then Dan Marx finally went to San Francisco and got married and they lived a very unhappy life, very unhappy life. But she had beautiful diamonds.
Daughter: She should have — her husband was a jeweler.
AIKEN: And then Dan Marx – I don’t know she seemed to have be a very good cook right from the first and she baked, maybe a couple of pies and set them on the kitchen window to cool and she went to try and find them and they weren’t there—and my father’s clerks would come down and help themselves.
Rosenfeld: She must have been a good baker. Do you remember anything about the school that you attended in La Grande?
AIKEN: Yes, a sister school.
Rosenfeld: Was it a Catholic school?
AIKEN: Yes, I went to – and then my mother and Aunt Flora were sent to St. Mary’s Academy because there was so much [unintelligible] in those days here against in the public schools.
Rosenfeld: So they were sent to a private school to avoid that kind of antisemitism?
Daughter: Paradoxical – they were sent to a Catholic School.
Rosenfeld: And they were sent to a Catholic School to avoid it?
AIKEN: I went to the Catholic School for quite a while myself, and then my father, I can hear him tell the sisters: ”I don’t want any religion taught her. We have our own religion.” They were very nice.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember? Did the family miss having so few Jewish families living nearby?
AIKEN: No, I don’t believe they did, particularly. I couldn’t express any emotion one way or the other. I know they didn’t get along with the Jewish families.
Daughter: Who didn’t get along with the Jewish families?
AIKEN: The Blochs. Let’s see… and in Union too.
Daughter: That was because your grandmother, Adelaide, was so very strict right?
AIKEN: Yes, my mother was very liberal, very liberal.
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Aiken, how did your family get along with the non-Jewish people then?
AIKEN: Very well.
Rosenfeld: Were they friendly and did they do social things back and forth.
AIKEN: Oh yes. Then there was a tailor came there. His name was Harris. He did make beautiful clothes. [Unintelligible] lavender suit that he used to wear on holidays. But they sort of deteriorated in a way.
Rosenfeld: Was that another Jewish family?
AIKEN: Yes.
Daughter: One of those sons, Mother, still hears from me. He lives in Redwood City, California.
Rosenfeld: The Parises had children then?
AIKEN: Oh yes, they had two sets of twins.
Daughter: Two sets of twins, four children.
AIKEN: Oh, they had more than that. Let’s see – there was Lou, the eldest. Then Abie, then Moses, and Barney, and a Sammy, I think it was. They had quite a crowd.
Rosenfeld: They had a large family. Did they move from La Grande before you did?
AIKEN: No. No.
Rosenfeld: They stayed after you moved away?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: Where did they come from? Did they come from Portland?
AIKEN: Who, the Harrises?
Rosenfeld: Would you know?
AIKEN: No. He was often known as the Polack. Did you ever hear that?
Rosenfeld: Yes, sure.
AIKEN: And then there were some other Jewish families, but they weren’t so nice. Lena Somers used to say to my mother, what was it, oh that she saw Miriam on the street… something about my bosoms, I forget what it was.
Daughter: You certainly didn’t take after your father.
AIKEN: I didn’t take after my father. They had a lot of domestic trouble. One of their daughters had married a man, I don’t know whether he died or she divorced him. I can’t remember that.
Rosenfeld: From your recollection, did the Jewish people in La Grande, the few that there were, did the families get together for Jewish holidays or anything?
AIKEN: No.
Rosenfeld: They really weren’t very compatible.
AIKEN: No, they weren’t.
Rosenfeld: Some of them were from Eastern Europe, apparently.
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: What brought your family back to Portland?
AIKEN: That’s when Ans, Anselm Boskowitz, my father, when he moved back to La Grande, had a grocery store for a while and that didn’t do. So he sold insurance on houses and stores, made a fair jab at that and then when we came back to Portland, I was in high school for a while. But I don’t know – it was so different than the Sister’s School that I had been brought up in that I couldn’t adjust myself very well and then I went to work for Fleischner-Mayer and Company and Ans would not work on Shabbos, so I could only work five days a week.
Rosenfeld: What kind of work did you do?
AIKEN: In different departments. One department, when the coats came in the Fall, I would model coats and other times… when an incident arose [that] I couldn’t stand, a Jewish man, Joe Friedenthal was his name, he would stand there for me to model coats and the swearing that went on got to be so disgusting that I went downstairs one day to Mr. Fleischner, and I said, “Mr. Fleischner, you have a daughter about my age and fortunately doesn’t have to go out to work, and if you knew the language that Joe Friedenthal uses before me, and while he would go back to his typist and that he would be as sweet as pie.” So Mr. Fleischner said to me, ”Miss Boskowitz” (and I never would allow any of them to use my first name, never), and he said, “when you go back to work tomorrow morning, you go up to the sample department.” Well, we had about 21 traveling men for the Fleischner-Mayer Co. and I was put into a department where they kept their samples fresh and looking nice. It was rather interesting. So that was that.
Rosenfeld: So you had yourself transferred away from it.
AIKEN: When I came home and Ans says, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I said, “When you wanted me to go to work so badly for Fleischner-Mayer I was entirely on my own. I went to him direct. I didn’t want to involve you. He had a reputation.” [Unintelligible] Now, for instance, Fleischner-Mayer had a department where they made overalls and certain things. Nobody could compete with Ans. [Unintelligible] sort of the finance man – what should I call him? Well anyway, he took down, oh, they had a huge place, they took down the money and they paid the help that worked in the sample department.
Rosenfeld: It must have been a large company.
AIKEN: Oh large, enormous.
Rosenfeld: Do you have any idea of how many people worked there?
AIKEN: Oh no. A lot of people.
Rosenfeld: Besides coats and uniforms, did you say overcoats?
AIKEN: Coats, when I was there.
Daughter: And Uncle Ferd, and Uncle Moses.
AIKEN: They were all born in Portland.
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Boskowitz (I am calling you Mrs. Boskowitz because we were talking about those early days). Mrs. Aiken, how many brothers and sisters did you have?
AIKEN: I had three brothers. The eldest one, Abraham, died before I was born so he’s buried in the Bloch plot.
Rosenfeld: Where?
AIKEN: In Beth Israel, and this is the Bloch plot, and down this way is the Boskowitz.
Rosenfeld: So the Bloch plot and the Boskowitz plot are almost adjacent.
AIKEN: Oh, I must tell you, my sister Mina had an earth burial, so when Beth Israel decided to buy or develop that part down below for a —
Rosenfeld: Mausoleum?
AIKEN: [No response]
Rosenfeld: Abraham died before you were born?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: And how many sisters?
AIKEN: I had one sister, Mina. Mina Boskowitz, you might remember her.
Rosenfeld: I do remember hearing of her. I thought there were two sisters.
AIKEN: A very brilliant woman. Well, then I’m going on a little further.
Rosenfeld: I guess I was asking you about the place that you worked and if it was a large company. And you said indeed it was. What kind of things did they make?
AIKEN: Everything.
Rosenfeld: Was in dry goods?
AIKEN: Dry goods, only dry goods. It was a very large firm. What was I going to say?
Rosenfeld: You worked there and what did your brother do there? What kind of work did he do?
AIKEN: Only one brother. That was Ans.
Daughter: He travelled didn’t he, Uncle Ans?
Rosenfeld: Was he a salesman?
AIKEN: Some of the time. He would get acquainted with everything in a store. (I was going to tell you). Then when I went to work for the Fleischner-Mayer Company, there were about four women. One woman, Mrs. Lawton, a very clever woman and Miss Gibson and myself and in the morning when we walked in there was Sanford Hirsch, one of the owner’s sons, a great big handsome kid and Sam Hirsch was a little smaller, but it didn’t [unintelligible].
Rosenfeld: Were they brothers?
AIKEN: No, cousins, and they would stand there and size us up And of course, we never paid any attention to them. They were very good, Jewish young men.
Rosenfeld: What do you remember of when you moved back to Portland and you were working there?
AIKEN: I was in high school.
Rosenfeld: Oh, you were in high school. But when you went to work? Where did you live when you moved back to Portland? Where did the family move to?
AIKEN: We lived on Clay Street. I’ll tell you who had built the house, and I think she died. A jeweler…diamonds. Don’t you know who? Their daughter finally married… [unintelligible].
Daughter: I can’t think who that would be, Mama.
AIKEN: Well, maybe it will come to me. Oh, Friedlander. [They had] a very comfortable home on Clay Street.
Rosenfeld: Clay and what? Do you remember what other street?
AIKEN: It really was right on 15th Street.
Rosenfeld: 15th and Clay. And that was the house that you lived in?
AIKEN: Yes.
Daughter: How long did you live there?
AIKEN: Oh, let’s see, in September I was married and they moved to Clay Street.
Rosenfeld: To Flanders?
AIKEN: To Flanders.
Rosenfeld: So that from about the time that your family came back from La Grande until you were married, you lived in that house on 15th and Clay. When you said that the people who lived there before, that their daughter married below their standards or their social group —
AIKEN: My grandmother.
Rosenfeld: No, we were talking about the Friedlanders.
AIKEN: They had one son and he married into the Levy family and my brother belonged to that young Jewish group.
Rosenfeld: What kind or a group was that? What kind of a Jewish group was that?
AIKEN: Upper crust. I remember my father wanted to go to shul in the morning, which was then on 12th.
Daughter: The old temple Beth Israel? Let’s see, it was it near 13th and Main? Around there, wasn’t it?
AIKEN: I’ll never forget it. Mina and I were on what you would call….We decorated on Friday night. They have that now too, only it’s done by the board.
Daughter: The Altar Guild it was called.
AIKEN: And then when my grandfather wouldn’t allow us to marry.
Rosenfeld: To do what?
AIKEN: To marry.
Rosenfeld: Underneath, below your…?
AIKEN: Social position.
Rosenfeld: What constituted a proper social position in those days? Who did you have to be? What kind of a Jew?
AIKEN: Well then you see, when Grandma moved back to Portland, they couldn’t afford to live in the group that they lived with before they left. I can see Grandma. Yet when Mr. Blumauer and all came to call on her and she stood there, she had pure white hair, with a black net on her head and her dresses all had trains. Oh, they were very pretty.
Rosenfeld: What was then considered to be the social? Who were the social group?
AIKEN: If you had enough money.
Rosenfeld: It was money. And were there any other things that would…?
AIKEN: Well, I would say, they were not supposed to be any other than a German background.
Rosenfeld: German background was the other criteria. Did they consider themselves Americanized or did they still hold on to some of the practices they had known in Germany?
AIKEN: Just a few of them, not many.
Rosenfeld: Did they know each other from Germany? Who were the social leaders?
AIKEN: Hirsch, who was the ambassador to Turkey and he had married one of the…
Rosenfeld: When would this have been? Would you have any idea about what period he was the ambassador to Turkey?
AIKEN: Well, I may have been, say, I was 12 or 13 years.
Rosenfeld: By the turn of the century. Which Hirsch was that, Mrs. Aiken?
AIKEN: You’ve heard of Ella Hirsch, who donated a library, Ella and Clementine. Clementine gave…you know that lady I am so fond of…
Daughter: Anne Davis. Ruth Rosenfeld, you know. Eve’s mother-in-law. That’s Eve Rosenfeld who is talking to you. Her mother-in-law, Mrs. Goldsmith’s daughter.
AIKEN: Yes, along that branch. They had the financial background and German.
Rosenfeld: How did the Germans, as you remember back in those years, how did they view — what was their attitude towards the other Jews who came later, the Russian Jews?
Aiken: Well, even though we weren’t in that financial class at that time, we didn’t have any particular association, and then on New Years or Yom Kippur, some of the people from the other shuls would come to visit to Beth Israel and you could almost hear their…
Rosenfeld: They didn’t approve. Was there any contact at all that you can remember between the German Jews and the Russian Jews in Portland in those early years?
AIKEN: I couldn’t say that I had.
Daughter: You used to go up to the Neighborhood House and help.
AIKEN: I helped. That was my donation toward— I could see him yet, he was so pleased when I would go up there.
Rosenfeld: You used to go to the Neighborhood House?
AIKEN: You heard of Mrs. Altman, who died? She was a teacher and she… and her daughter married.
Daughter: Her daughter was Mrs. Robert L. Benson.
AIKEN: She worked in the office and finally they were married.
Rosenfeld: I guess I was asking you about the Neighborhood House. What are your early associations with Neighborhood House work?
AIKEN: We taught them to eat American style, you know. We always followed their likes and dislikes to have [unintelligible]. In those days, it was always Chinook salmon and then we had dances for them and they really enjoyed it very much.
Rosenfeld: Who planned these? Who did these at the Neighborhood House?
AIKEN: Mrs. Altman was one. She was a high school teacher and there was one other high school teacher, that taught German and she said: I want you all to hold up your handle you won’t get as long in German as those that never had it. I’ve never forgotten that.
Rosenfeld: So Mrs. Altman and a few others. Did they gather other people?
AIKEN: The Council of Jewish Women. They followed, it is quite like they are doing now, you know.
Rosenfeld: What kind of things then? Did they teach the people how to eat? The newcomers, how to eat properly?
AIKEN: Yes, they did and a few girls would take their turns.
Rosenfeld: What are some of the other things that you did at the Neighborhood House?
AIKEN: Oh, we taught them English and taught them carpentering and all sorts of things. They really gained a lot of knowledge up there. We were just beginning.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember back, how did you and the other young women like yourself who were there as the teachers and volunteers, how did you view those people, who used to come to the Neighborhood House?
AIKEN: Well, Mrs. Altman and my family were very close friends.
Rosenfeld: Well, how did you view the other people, the Russian Jews who used to come for the help, for the lessons and so forth?
AIKEN: I viewed them kindly. Why shouldn’t I?
Rosenfeld: Did any friendships develop?
AIKEN: No.
Rosenfeld: They really were of a different social group.
AIKEN: Certainly, there was a difference, but I enjoyed very much working with them.
Rosenfeld: You were doing this besides working, Mrs. Aiken. Were you working at that time?
AIKEN: That was before I started working. I don’t remember. Of course, we never went up there to do anything for them on Shabbos; it was usually Sunday.
Rosenfeld: Sunday evening was the night of activities?
AIKEN: We gave them something to look forward to.
Rosenfeld: I see.
AIKEN: My father would go along and he would be so pleased.
Rosenfeld: What else did the young German girls, Jewish girls like yourself, do for activities? Now, you worked later and you were a volunteer.
AIKEN: Some of the girls were of very wealthy families. They went to San Francisco and made interests for themselves.
Daughter: Who were your close friends when you were young, Mother, of that group? What were their names?
AIKEN: Well, Jessie Marcus, who died. Anne Wimper she was a [unintelligible]. They came down from Salem.
Rosenfeld: They were a Jewish family living in Salem?
AIKEN: Yes, their father was a shoemaker– a very clever shoemaker. Oh, I had quite a few non-Jewish associations.
Rosenfeld: You lived in that neighborhood, around 15th and Clay. Did many of your other Jewish friends or family live near you too?
AIKEN: Yes, the Rybkes were right next door to us and the Millers lived down a little ways on the other side.
Rosenfeld: What Millers’ was that?
AIKEN: He became a very active social —
Rosenfeld: Alex Miller?
AIKEN: Yes, his father and mother lived down there. Carrie Wolf, her father and mother lived right down.
Daughter: Now, which Carrie Wolf was that?
AIKEN: My Carrie.
Daughter: Your Carrie?
AIKEN: I think she was about five or six years old when she came to Portland.
Daughter: Is that the Carrie Wolf that lives at 2014 NW Glisan St. now? Not the Carrie Wolf that lived on 10th and Market?
AIKEN: I can’t remember. I can’t separate them right now.
Rosenfeld: There must have been, then, quite a few Jewish families living close by.
AIKEN: Oh yes, and the women who were non-Jewish. I don’t mean non-Jewish but who didn’t belong to Beth Israel, what was the name of that shul?
Daughter: Ahavai Sholom.
AIKEN: Ahavai Sholom, they had their (I think it was Tuesdays) they had their card games and they played for money and they had some evening games. My mother and father were out of it because they never cared to play cards.
Rosenfeld: Besides the card playing back and forth that some of them did, was their much socializing among the Jewish people in your neighborhood then?
AIKEN: In the neighborhood?
Rosenfeld: Yes, those people who lived close by to you.
AIKEN: Yes, they would call and their calls were returned.
Rosenfeld: Was a call a visit?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: Was it usually in the afternoon?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: And what happened in the evenings?
AIKEN: Oh yes, and then I must tell you; there was the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen in my life. Her name was… what was it? And Ans became very fond of her, not by demonstration, but with the family and the young folks. Ans belonged to the so-called upper crust and so one time she married Alan Miller’s grandson.
Daughter: Edith? Edith Miller?
AIKEN: Edith Miller. But anyway, Ans brought her to one of their young folks—why the hostess became very indignant and the parents of all [unintelligible]. But oh, was she a beautiful young woman and as accomplished as anyone you would ever want to know.
Rosenfeld: Why were they unhappy with her? Because she wasn’t of the right social group?
AIKEN: She didn’t have the right… She was from a well-to-do family but took more than that.
Rosenfeld: There were strong feelings then in terms of separation?
AIKEN: Yes, yes.
Rosenfeld: Who was in that group that your brother belonged to? Do you remember some of the people?
AIKEN: Well, I am trying to think of some of them. Alex Miller — Alex’s father ran a men’s store down on Third, as did their sons become doctors.
Rosenfeld: Selling?
Daughter: Oh, their sons became doctors, Rosenfeld? Who would that be, Mama?
Rosenfeld: Did anyone in your recollection, Mrs. Aiken, ever bridge the gap in those early years from the Russian families to the German families? Were they ever accepted?
AIKEN: Well, not with open arms that I can remember. And the two Rabbis, what was the name of the two Rabbis? One right after the other? Wise. Stephen Wise. His wife was maybe a third cousin of Boskowitz, there was some connection, and she came out to see Grandma. And she mentioned that she baked Stephen a lovely sponge cake, so that he could have it for dinner, and that cut her right off.
Daughter: Because she did it on Shabbos.
Rosenfeld: Oh, she mentioned she had been baking on Shabbos and your grandmother did not approve? So that although they belonged to Congregation Beth Israel, many of the people were still very observant.
AIKEN: I don’t know.
Rosenfeld: At least your grandmother was. In observing the Shabbos.
AIKEN: Yes, oh yes.
Daughter: And her daughters were very observant.
AIKEN: They had to be. My grandmother was a disciplinarian.
Rosenfeld: It sounds like she must have been.
Daughter: At least in terms of religion.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember, you said that you and your sister decorated the altar on Shabbos, for Shabbos?
AIKEN: For Shabbos.
Rosenfeld: With greens and flowers?
AIKEN: When Jonah was married, we still had the same… the same… the same caretaker.
Daughter: What did they call them?
Rosenfeld: Shamus?
AIKEN: Shamus. And he was so impressed with Judaism that he wished to be buried there when he died and he is buried. They gave his wife the privilege of being buried there beside him and she said no, she would be buried from her own.
Rosenfeld: That was the custodian or the Shamus who died – was he the one who died in the fire?
AIKEN: No. He was colored, wasn’t he?
Daughter: No, not the one you are thinking of. You’ve got him… Mr. Homes was there a long time, but Mr. Olsen —
AIKEN: Mr. Olsen. So when we put laces and loops of, oh, what’s that pretty green?
Rosenfeld: Ferns?
AIKEN: No, it wasn’t ferns. But he came over and objected to that. He said he wouldn’t want anything that had a….
Daughter: That was when Jonah Wise got married?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: You decorated. Your alter group – was this a group of girls? Was there a group of young girls of the Temple?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: So you and your sister belonged to that and do you remember any of the other people, the young women?
AIKEN: Well, I can’t remember.
Rosenfeld: Besides decorating for Temple, what were some of the other activities? Were there any other activities?
AIKEN: For this group? Oh, I don’t know. I can’t remember. We had a rabbi by the name of Bloch. Did you ever hear of him? Julius Bloch?
Rosenfeld: He was no relation to you?
AIKEN: Oh, no.
Rosenfeld: What are your recollections of Stephen Wise?
AIKEN: Wonderful. Wonderful. When I went back to New York to visit, or Massachusetts one time for Henry, and when I came back to New York, it was on Friday evening and it was when, I believe, the population wasn’t very kind towards Jewish activities. And I called him and I said: Dr. Wise, I don’t know whether you remember me, but I am a sister of Mina Boskowitz and Anselm Boskowitz, and my father was Isaac Boskowitz. And he said, “Do you mean do I remember the lady with the lovely red hair?” And I told him that I sort of planned on coming back here so that I could hear him on Friday night. Well, they had to have sort-of a sneak in cellar operation. He told me where it was and I got on the bus and after shul. He told me to wait downstairs and he wanted to know how I liked it and I said, “Quite well. But I still love the Beth Israel type of conversation of sermons.” He was trying out something new. He was always a speculator in religion.
Rosenfeld: Did he try out new things here in Portland too?
AIKEN: I don’t remember that distinctly, but I knew…
Rosenfeld: We had talked about some of the activities that were available at Temple Beth Israel. Now, there were a group of young girls that you told us about who were involved with the Altar Society. Were there any other activities that you can remember?
AIKEN: No, I can’t remember any. I really can’t.
Rosenfeld: Did your family attend services regularly?
AIKEN: Always.
Rosenfeld: Always Beth Israel? Did your father attend services with any regularity?
AIKEN: Well, we enjoyed on going on Sabbath morning and Friday nights.
Rosenfeld: Did any of the children go with him?
AIKEN: I went with him a great deal, and my sister. Her work sort of took her to the office on Saturday morning, at least as I remember. He was a very devout Jew. I mean, in this way. Oh well, when we lived in La Grande… (you don’t have to put this down. This is politics, why he was elected).
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Aiken, you say he was elected city treasurer in La Grande?
AIKEN: In La Grande, and then when it was time for re-election, why this young fellow had come to work for so-called rich people of the town and he said, “We’ll not have a Jew elected!” We want [the] same younger man, so they [had] the man who ran the First National Bank in La Grande.” His name was Church. And when my father heard that he felt it was a lot of rishus [malice, antisemitism], which it was probably, so [someone, unknown] called my father to come over and he said, “Isaac, you will run and we’ll show them what a Jew and what an old timer can do!” And he was unanimously elected the city treasurer of La Grande.
Rosenfeld: Was that before the turn of the century?
AIKEN: Well, that was… I couldn’t say. I was about twelve or thirteen years old at that time. I am 88 years old now.
Rosenfeld: Well, it would have been rather close. Which would make me think, Mrs. Aiken, that at least your father as a Jew was accepted up to the point where he was city treasurer.
Aiken: Oh yes, he loved his Jewish heritage.
Rosenfeld: How long, do you have any idea, was he able – how long he filled that position as City Treasurer? Was it a year or longer?
Aiken: This was when he ran for re-election. This was when that fellow said, “We’ll see what we’ll do.” The old timer and the Jew.
Rosenfeld: So it was more than one term.
AIKEN: Yes, this was the second term.
Rosenfeld: That’s very interesting. What made your family decide to move back to Portland from La Grande?
AIKEN: Well, what will I say? I really don’t know. Mina was capable of good positions and they just came, that is all. I couldn’t tell you the why or whereof.
Rosenfeld: One wonders, if as children, as Jewish families had children who were growing older, that they would want them to come back to Portland where there was more Jewish families.
AIKEN: Probably.
Rosenfeld: This may not have been so. So you left La Grande and returned to Portland when you were in your mid high school years?
AIKEN: Yes, I had been going to Sisters School nearly all my life.
Rosenfeld: Did you attend school at all in Portland?
AIKEN: High school? Maybe for a term or two. I was very unhappy with the Portland schools.
Rosenfeld: Was it a public school?
AIKEN: It was a public school. It was on 14th and Morrison and Alder, on the square in there where the high school was.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember what that school was called?
AIKEN: Portland High School. That’s all I remember.
Rosenfeld: Why were you unhappy with it?
AIKEN: Because my father wanted me to take German and I don’t know. From a little child I resented German. I had that resentment and I just couldn’t come through with any interest in taking it. And this is one thing that Mrs. Altman said afterwards, when we raised our hands as to what course we, wanted to take. “I want to tell you that you would think that because you came from a German background that it will be easier for you.” she said, “I want to tell you that it will be harder.”
Rosenfeld: She didn’t give you too much encouragement.
AIKEN: Not at all. But she sure did love my mother’s…
Rosenfeld: Was Mrs. Altman a teacher?
AIKEN: She was one of the teachers.
Rosenfeld: Was she Jewish?
AIKEN: Oh yes, yes.
Rosenfeld: Do you recall?
Aiken: I’ll tell you who was her daughter. She married Dr. Benson.
Rosenfeld: I remember that name. So, Mrs. Altman was one of the Jewish teachers. Were there any other Jewish teachers that you may have recalled?
AIKEN: There may have been. I don’t remember.
Rosenfeld: Were there many Jewish students?
AIKEN: Oh, yes. Portland had quite a fair size Jewish community.
Rosenfeld: And there were other Jewish students. You said you were not there too long, and then finally managed to go to work.
AIKEN: Maybe a year or two after that. I became very much interested in the new population that was coming to Portland.
Rosenfeld: And where were they from?
AIKEN: Russia. I became very much interested in them. We had a great deal of social life for them and then we had carpenters and they could learn the carpentry trade. There were lots of things.
Rosenfeld: Where did this take place? Where did these activities take place for them?
AIKEN: Down on First and Second Streets.
Rosenfeld: Was that the Neighborhood House?
AIKEN: Oh, it was called that afterwards, a long, long time afterwards.
Rosenfeld: Afterwards. Were these activities – did these activities take place in that same area though, what was later to be the Neighborhood House?
AIKEN: Oh, yes.
Rosenfeld: Oh, there was a, building before the Neighborhood House. There was a building there before the Neighborhood House.
AIKEN: Oh, there were these old store buildings – empty.
Rosenfeld: You said you were very interested in the newcomers. Do you recall? Was your interest shared by a lot of other people? A lot of the other German Jewish people? Were they as enthusiastic or pleased about all these newcomers that were coming to Portland?
AIKEN: Well I am sure that they were. The Council of Jewish Women, our family, my mother, Mina, were all members. It was really quite interesting.
Rosenfeld: Ms. Aiken, do you recall, did you ever hear of any resentment about all these foreigners, these Jewish foreigners who were coming, by other Jewish people? Was there any resentment?
AIKEN: Oh, I don’t think there was. Not that I was aware of. I don’t remember. I couldn’t say.
Rosenfeld: But I think you told us before that you spent a great deal of time working with the newcomers.
AIKEN: Yes, it was quite interesting. My father, as it was after the dinner hour, would go up with me to their location.
Rosenfeld: And you said there were carpenters who taught them the trade.
AIKEN: Oh yes, we paid them. I can’t remember their names, but it was an interesting outlet for many people.
Rosenfeld: Some of the other things that went on at that place, which was later to become The Neighborhood House – you told us you taught these people how to eat, these Jewish newcomers, sewing classes.
AIKEN: They didn’t always use their fork in the right hand or their knife. There were several of the males. I remember that so well, especially on salmon, you know, which was so much more reasonable than it is now.
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Aiken, was the purpose of serving the meals, was it to teach them table manners?
AIKEN: Yes, it was really.
Rosenfeld: Or was it also to feed them?
AIKEN: No. It was social abilities. [We] brought them there for social abilities.
Rosenfeld: I think we were talking before about….You were telling us that your father attended services very regularly and you very often went with him on the Shabbos morning. Were there many other people who also attended?
AIKEN: No, not too many.
Rosenfeld: When you mean not too many, how many? Two or three dozen?
AIKEN: Two services, a couple of dozens. Gradually they became more interested in coming. I don’t know the why or the wherefore. I can’t very well recollect.
Rosenfeld: Were there women as well as men who attended those services?
Aiken: Well, it seems to me women. I can’t remember that easily.
Rosenfeld: Do you remember who the rabbi was when you started going as a young girl with your father?
AIKEN: I think that must have been Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.
Rosenfeld: Was there somebody before that, Rabbi Bloch, who had the same name as….
AIKEN: Yes. Rabbi Bloch, but he wasn’t too active and creative.
Rosenfeld: He wasn’t as creative as Rabbi Wise?
AIKEN: No.
Rosenfeld: Rabbi Bloch was not related to your family was he?
AIKEN: No.
Rosenfeld: No relation?
AIKEN: No relation that I know of.
Daughter: Mama, why don’t you tell about his daughter, who sang in the choir?
Rosenfeld: Rabbi Bloch’s daughter?
AIKEN: Didn’t I tell you about that?
Rosenfeld: I guess I don’t remember.
AIKEN: Well she was sent to Europe for finishing her lovely gift.
Rosenfeld: Which was her voice?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: This is Rabbi Bloch’s daughter?
AIKEN: Yes. This had all been accomplished for her and as I say, you can hear Mrs. Bloch say, “And when my Rose sings – Jesus, lover of my soul.”
Rosenfeld: Where did she say that?
AIKEN: In the congregational service.
Rosenfeld: She sang at the church on Sundays, I presume, and at the synagogue on the Shabbos.
AIKEN: Not on Shabbos morning.
Rosenfeld: Friday night?
AIKEN: Friday night.
Rosenfeld: Friday night. I understand. So that the Rabbi’s daughter sang in both choirs. That’s interesting. Then he left and he was followed by Rabbi Stephen Wise.
AIKEN: Yes. Stephen was there. Who were the two Wises?
Daughter: Jonah Wise came somewhat later.
AIKEN: Yes, so he came after Stephen.
Rosenfeld: And what are your recollections of Stephen Wise?
AIKEN: Well, to my mind they were perfect. Everybody, really, it was wonderful the way the congregation would really fill up pretty well when Stephen was there. And Jonah had his attributes too.
Rosenfeld: Stephen Wise, was he a really fine orator?
AIKEN: Oh yes. He was the essence or brilliance. Wonderful.
Rosenfeld: Did he have a good delivery?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: What did he look like, Mrs. Aiken?
AIKEN: Haven’t you seen pictures of him?
Rosenfeld: I don’t think so. What did he look like? Was he an attractive man?
AIKEN: Oh, very handsome.
Daughter: How old was he when he came here mother? Do you know?
AIKEN: Well, I think he must have been in his early 40s. I can’t remember that.
Rosenfeld: He was a fairly young man?
AIKEN: Yes, but not as young as Jonah was.
Rosenfeld: When Stephen came to Portland he was already married.
AIKEN: No, he wasn’t. He married after.
Rosenfeld: Oh, Stephen married after
AIKEN: After he came to Portland, yes. He went back and married a New York woman. I told you, don’t you remember? She was some distant relation to Grandmother’s family. She was older than her husband, older than Stephen.
Rosenfeld: Was she as capable a woman as he was? Was she quite a capable woman too?
AIKEN: She was capable yes, but really I don’t think anybody could have been as capable as he was.
Rosenfeld: He [is] really a legend in our Portland community anyway.
Daughter: Did he have children?
AIKEN: Yes, I think one of the first children was born here, I believe, and I never have seen such a resemblance between father and son as there was between those two. It was remarkable. What was the second Jewish church here?
Daughter: Ahavai Sholom.
Rosenfeld: There was quite a rishushness [malice] between the two synagogues?
AIKEN: At least between the people and I think the Rabbis too. As far as I am concerned, Beth Israel didn’t have any reason to have rishush towards anybody. They were always —
Rosenfeld: What do you mean they didn’t have any reason?
AIKEN: I mean we never had rishush against the Rabbis of Ahavai Sholom. They had no reason.
Rosenfeld: But there was, between the two congregations. Did the people mix at all then? Did the people from Ahavai Sholom have any–?
AIKEN: Not particularly. Not too many did they socially mix.
Rosenfeld: Was there a feeling that they had come to America later and therefore they weren’t quite on their social —
AIKEN: I couldn’t tell you that.
Rosenfeld: But there just wasn’t very much mixing.
Daughter: Did all the German Jews go to Beth Israel, Mother, or did any of them ever go to Ahavai Sholom?
AIKEN: Well, nobody that I… yes, some of went to Ahavai Sholom. Yes, some of them.
Rosenfeld: How about when the first Jews from what we call ”South Portland” came to Beth Israel. Was that when you were still here or did that happen later?
AIKEN: That must have happened later. As their finance grew, sometimes they were interested in Beth Israel.
Rosenfeld: Were they welcome at Beth Israel, even if they could afford it?
AIKEN: I think to a certain extent. Maybe with one arm, but not with both.
Rosenfeld: Oh, it was not a warm welcome?
AIKEN: No.
Rosenfeld: That’s interesting. When Rabbi Stephen Wise left Portland to go to New York, do you have any recollections of any of the Rabbis [who] came later?
AIKEN: Jonah came.
Rosenfeld: Jonah came. I think there was someone in between.
AIKEN: Maybe so. But I personally don’t remember.
Rosenfeld: What are your recollections of Jonah Wise?
AIKEN: Very pleasant.
Rosenfeld: He came as a younger man.
AIKEN: Oh yes.
Rosenfeld: Was Stephen Wise a hard person to follow, for a rabbi?
AIKEN: Well, I would say so here, but maybe not in New York. The congregation he had in New York, he said to me “And how did you enjoy the congregation tonight?” I said, ‘’Not as much as I did when you were in Portland.” For instance, when they came in, instead of coming in, he sort of led the congregation. More like an Episcopalian instead of… you couldn’t have told one from the other hardly.
Rosenfeld: I think you told us in the other, in the earlier interview that he was an experimenter.
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: I am sure he must have been.
AIKEN: He was a brilliant man. He prophesied many things that came true with Congregation Beth Israel.
Rosenfeld: Like what? Do you remember anything?
AIKEN: Well, that I can’t say definitely.
Rosenfeld: But he was farsighted.
AIKEN: Yes, he was sort of a prophet.
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Aiken, when were you married?
AIKEN: I was married…
Rosenfeld: Was it after World War One?
Daughter: You were married before World War One. What year were you and Daddy married?
AIKEN: I had just turned 23.
Daughter: And you are 88.
Rosenfeld: Mrs. Aiken, you were married, you said, when you were 23?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: On the 10th of July, when you were 23 years old. Then did you move from Portland? Where did you go to?
AIKEN: Yes. We lived in Omaha.
Rosenfeld: Omaha, Nebraska. We have talked about where your family lived and you said that they lived on 15th and Clay.
AIKEN: 16th.
Rosenfeld: 16th and Clay, and that part of your — was it your sister that moved to Johnson Street?
AIKEN: That was when they moved to Johnson Street, a long time after. I had two boys —
Daughter: That was her Great Auntie. Her aunties that moved there.
Rosenfeld: Your Aunties moved to Johnson Street.
AIKEN: My Aunt and Uncle Mose.
Rosenfeld: And he lived with them and they moved from where you were living in that area around Clay Street over to Johnson Street?
AIKEN: Yes. They moved from there over to where the Feldman’s. It was on that little street that connected Ella.
Rosenfeld: Ella was the street. Was that in Northwest Portland?
AIKEN: Yes.
Rosenfeld: I don’t think I know where that street is now.
AIKEN: Well it’s been, I’ll tell you where it is… one of them. He had a score of stores, Fred…
Daughter: Fred Meyer?
AIKEN: Fred Meyer, yes.
Rosenfeld: Oh, it was where that store was – in that area, Trinity Place, or one of those. Were there other Jewish people who lived there, besides the Feldman’s that you mentioned?
AIKEN: There may have been on the… that’s the only Jewish family I can remember.
Daughter: Didn’t the Rybkes live around there?
AIKEN: They lived where we lived on Clay Street until their father died and they moved over on– was it Kearney? And the doctor who became a doctor, he built a home for his mother and Florence and they lived there.
Rosenfeld: Were there a lot of Jewish people by then who had moved to northwest Portland? Was it a popular area?
AIKEN: I couldn’t say just how many. I couldn’t speculate on that.
Daughter: Didn’t the Feldman’s live up near the Aunties? Henry and Joe Feldman?
AIKEN: They rented from the Feldman’s.
Daughter: Yes, but I mean after they moved to Johnson Street, didn’t the Feldman’s live up above the Aunties on Johnson?
AIKEN: One of the brothers, I guess was married.
Daughter: Where did Uncle Ans and Grandma live?
AIKEN: After I married they moved to [a place] up on Johnson Street. Wasn’t it Johnson?
Daughter: Flanders.
AIKEN: Flanders, oh yes.
Rosenfeld: Were there any of the people who, I believe they called them either the Russian or Polish Jews, who belonged to Ahavai Sholom? Did they also live in Northwest Portland?
AIKEN: Oh well, I don’t know. I couldn’t say on the spur of the moment. Did I tell you when Grandma and Grandpa Bloch first came to Portland there were no places for residency? You lived where you could get rooms or anything, so Grandma and Grandpa came and had these two little girls, Flora and Sarah, and my grandfather came home one evening and he said: “You know, some people have just moved to Portland. There was a woman who was pregnant…”