Reuben Blumenthal

Meyer: Mr. Blumenthal, did you come to this country from Russia?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, I did.

Meyer: And where in Russia did you come from?
BLUMENTHAL: Romanika.

Meyer: Were you very small when you came to this country?
BLUMENTHAL: Two years old.

Meyer: So you don’t remember Russia. Where did you come to the United States?
BLUMENTHAL: To New York City.

Meyer: Did your whole family come together?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, my father and mother.

Meyer: Brothers and sisters?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I had none.

Meyer: So you were the oldest child in your family?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I was the fourth in the family. There were three girls before me, but they died in Russia.

Meyer: You lived in New York for a number of years?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, for 10 years.

Meyer: What kind of work did your father do in New York?
BLUMENTHAL: He was a watch repairer and watchmaker.

Meyer: Did you go to school in New York?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, I went to school in New York.

Meyer: Did you go to cheder in New York too?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, I went to cheder in New York.

Meyer: What made your family decide to move from New York?
BLUMENTHAL: Because of relatives here in Portland.

Meyer: They had already come here? Did you come on the train across the country?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, we came by boat from New York to New Orleans, and from New Orleans we came by train here.

Meyer: That must have been a long trip. Who met you when you came to Portland?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, the Nudelmans; my aunt, Eva Nudelman and David Nudelman, and my cousins. 

Meyer: They met you and where did you live when you first came?
BLUMENTHAL: When we first came, we lived in South Portland on Caruthers Street between First and Second.

Meyer: Were the Nudelmans living close by to you?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes. My aunt, Eva Nudelman, and my uncle David.

Meyer: What kind of work did your father do in Portland? 
BLUMENTHAL: My father didn’t come to Portland. He died in New York City in 1898.

Meyer: So you came with your mother?
BLUMENTHAL: A mother and a sister.

Meyer: What do you remember about South Portland when you came?
BLUMENTHAL: I remember the synagogues.

Meyer: Which synagogue did you belong to?
BLUMENTHAL: The Shaarie Torah, which was down on First Street. Then the Neveh Zedek on Sixth Street. And I was bar mitzvahed at the Ahavai Sholom on Sixth and Stark.

Meyer: What time of year was it?
BLUMENTHAL: My birthday was in January, but this was just before that. I think December. Rev Abramson was the rabbi.

Meyer: Did he help you to prepare for your Bar Mitzvah?
BLUMENTHAL: No, he didn’t have to.

Meyer: What school did you go to?
BLUMENTHAL: I went to Shattuck and then we moved to South Portland I went to Failing.

Meyer: Did you graduate from school?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I didn’t graduate.

Meyer: You went to work?
BLUMENTHAL: No, we moved. My mother re-married and we moved to Sellwood and I went to school there.

Meyer: Did you go to high school?
BLUMENTHAL: No. Then we moved from Sellwood and went to Albina, and my mother passed away and my father passed away.

Meyer: What was your stepfather’s name?
BLUMENTHAL: It was Blumenthal. 

Meyer: What was your original name?
BLUMENTHAL: My original name was Runyas.

Meyer: Did you start to work after you went to school, or what did you do?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, I started to work. I worked at Blumauer-Frank Drug Company. I was there quite a few years in the wholesale drug department.

Meyer: What other kinds of work did you do?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh, I worked in a drug store – the Lowrey-Davis Drug Company.

Meyer: Where was that?
BLUMENTHAL: At Third and Yamhill. He had several stores. This was the one I was in. I could always get a job. Then I went to work for Kilham Stationery Company. They were on Washington and Sixth.

Meyer: What do you remember? You were living away from South Portland. Did you keep coming back because of friends and relatives who lived there?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, because relatives were there, and the synagogues.

Meyer: When did you get married, Mr. Blumenthal?
BLUMENTHAL: I got married in 1919 after I came back from service in the First World War. 

Meyer: Did you serve in this country or did you go to Europe?
BLUMENTHAL: I went to Europe – to France – went over the top and all that.

Meyer: Then you came back and got married?
BLUMENTHAL: Then I came back and got married. I was engaged before I left, but I didn’t want to get married until I got back.

Meyer: Where were you married? 
BLUMENTHAL: I was married in the synagogue, Neveh Zedek. Rosencrantz was at that time the Cantor.

Meyer: What kind of work were you doing? Were you working for the stationery company when you came back from the service?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I went to work for a shoe store, and then I went into business for myself. In 1920, somewhere around there, I opened up a haberdashery store on 13th and Washington.

Meyer: What was the name of the store?
BLUMENTHAL: The name was The Washingtoggery.

Meyer: During this time did you have any association with the Neighborhood House?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I was a member of the B’nai B’rith, and that was about the association.

Meyer: Do you remember any special events at this time during these years of the 1920s after the war? 
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I didn’t do too much in the Neighborhood House, but in the B’nai B’rith at that time there were two lodges: The Theodore Herzl Lodge and The Portland Lodge. Two separate lodges. Mr. Ben Selling and David Solis Cohen made a proposition that both Lodges should join and get together as one lodge – the Theodore Herzl Lodge – which they did. The Mosessohns were there, you know. David Mosessohn, who put out the first [Jewish newspaper]. They called it the Jewish Tribune. It wasn’t the Review.

Meyer: Did you have something to do with this too?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I was just a member there.

Meyer: The Tribune was put out by the Lodge? Did it come out once a month or more often?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, it came out once a month.

Meyer: Tell me about the Rose City Lodge?
BLUMENTHAL: Well. I came into the Rose City Lodge in 1945.

Meyer: Did you help to found the Rose City Lodge?
BLUMENTHAL: No, the Rose City Lodge was founded before. Originally it was organized and the charter was given to them by Abraham, back East in Chicago. After two years, we decided that we should become independent, become our own local organization and not be affiliated with the B’rith Abraham. So we named it in the Rose City Lodge and that’s when it got started. I was a member there for two years and then I became its secretary.

Meyer: Was it just a burial society or more? 
BLUMENTHAL: No, it was the Rose City Mutual Benevolent Society. We gave sick benefits and we gave funeral expenses and endowments. There was a $300 endowment, $200 burial expenses. I was active in this from 1947 to l957.

Meyer: How did the Rose City Lodge raise its money?
BLUMENTHAL: Of course, we had our dues. So when the older people started to die off, we had assessments on the deaths, and then we ran the Yom Kippur dances. These dances were held at the Masonic Hall [in] the sunken ballroom there.

Meyer: This was your big fund raising?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, that was our big fund raising. Every year, the Yom Kippur Ball was the Rose City’s.

Meyer: Who were some of the other people who were active in this with you?
BLUMENTHAL: There was Mr. Boxer, Sam Freeman, and Louis Albert.

Meyer: They were active during the time you were the Secretary? Do you know who actually founded the Rose City Lodge?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I couldn’t quite give you the charter members, all of them. But Boxer was one of the charter members and Freeman was one and Aaron Popick and Gevurtz. That’s about all the names I can remember.

Meyer: Does the Rose City Lodge still exist today?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, it still exists today.

Meyer: I would like to go back a little bit. You said you were also active in the First Hebrew Benevolent Society. When were you active in this? 
BLUMENTHAL: Well, they were already organized. You mean what year?

Meyer: Tell me some of the things you did and who was active? 
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I was active there and I became Financial Secretary. Nemirovsky was President at that time and Mr. Director was on the board, and I was the financial secretary.

Meyer: What kinds of things did you do? How did you help people?
BLUMENTHAL: We were organized for the purpose – originally we organized as a Jewish organization called, “ach-nu-sos-ochim.” That is, ‘to help out strangers coming into Portland.’ They decided that when a stranger comes in, a Jewish stranger, we should give him a Kosher meal; we should give him a place to sleep, a day or two and so on. That’s how it got started.

Meyer: How did they find you? How did these people contact you?
BLUMENTHAL: They used to come to Mr. Director, into the store. We used to help him there. I was the Financial Secretary and Director was at that time Vice-President. Originally they used to come to Nemirovsky’s business on Front Street, a hardware store. He was the President and they used to go to him. But later on they came to Directors.

Meyer: And you would feed them, give them money and a place to stay. What other kinds of things did you do? Did you just help people like that or did you help other people in need?
BLUMENTHAL: No. When it came to a family, we used to help some and then we sent them to the Child and Family Service.

Meyer: Was this in the 1930s after the Depression that you did a lot of the work? Did you find that during the Depression you had a lot of people to take care of? And a lot of people on the move would find you?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, that’s right.

Meyer: Were you active in this for many more years? What about during the war, the Second World War?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I was there.

Meyer: Were there a lot of people who came looking for help then?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, after that.

Meyer: And it was the same thing? That basically you were helping people who just needed some food?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes. At first we sent them to Mrs. Hyman, who used to feed them.

Meyer: Where would they stay? Was there a rooming house where they would stay?
BLUMENTHAL: We would arrange in some hotel to give them a room, and sometime we would arrange with the Y.M.C.A. to give them a lodging for a day or two.

Meyer: These were mostly men you were helping?
BLUMENTHAL: Mostly. Sometimes women, too.

Meyer: Were there ever families?
BLUMENTHAL: Sometimes we would have a woman come in with a couple of children. Then we would send them to the Family Child Service after that.

Meyer: But you took care of them first. They found you and then you took care of them. What was the Jewish life like at that time do you think?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I think it was real Jewish.

Meyer: Why do you say that?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, we had kosher meat markets. Of course, the synagogues were all in South Portland, close by. And being that the people were immigrants, mostly all orthodox and religious, and they kept these things up.

Meyer: When you were married, you did live in South Portland? Did you live there for many years?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, we were on College Street when we got married.

Meyer: Your children were brought up in South Portland?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I only have one son.

Meyer: And what school did he go to?
BLUMENTHAL: He went to Irvington here. We already [moved]. When he was three years old, I built this house.

Meyer: What made you leave South Portland and come over here?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, all our relatives were down on 10th Street here – cousins [on] 10th [and] 11th.

Meyer: You lived in South Portland just a short time after you got married. What made you decide to move over in this area? 
BLUMENTHAL: Well, we had relatives living in this area, so we thought we would move out here.

Meyer: I see. And did you build this house, and you have been living here all this time, so that your son went to school here in this area? Was there a synagogue close by or did you go back? 
BLUMENTHAL: No, we went to the Neveh Zedek synagogue on the west side.

Meyer: But you decided to come over here and live here? What kind of work did you do at that time? You had your haberdashery? Do you remember during these years any special events in the Jewish community that were important? You were very involved in helping people during all this time.
BLUMENTHAL: Well, special events… Well, I already told you, the changes in the Lodges and so on.

Meyer: At that time, everybody lived close together. Do you think that the life was the same over here as it had been in South Portland, or was it different?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, we didn’t miss anything. Our butcher, we used kosher meat. Our butcher used to deliver us meat. The grocery store in South Portland used to deliver us at that time. So we had no problems.

Meyer: And your family and your friends were around and so you were fine? When did you go to work for Mr. Director?
BLUMENTHAL: Before the Depressions, in 1926, ‘27.

Meyer: Did you work for him for many years?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes.

Meyer: Your son went to school here. Did he go to college here in Oregon too? 
BLUMENTHAL: No, he went to Irvington School and then he went to Grant. He graduated Grant and then he went for a couple of years to Oregon College. Then he went to the Dental School here in Portland. I went to work for JM Karo Clothing Store on First and Morrison Street. Every Saturday night, because we worked all day Saturday, every Saturday night we used to arrange for hiking. So some of us got together, put on our hiking clothes [and] packs, and we took a train in Portland to Multnomah Falls. We got off at Multnomah Falls and we hiked up the trail to Larch Mountain. We used to use search lights, lanterns, because it was at night. We hiked all night in order to get there in the morning by sunrise to see the sunrise on top of Larch Mountain. It was very beautiful.

Meyer: Was this with some Jewish people too? 
BLUMENTHAL: Well, no… not necessarily it wasn’t Jewish people, because most of them were Jewish, with the exception of one family – George’s. At that time, George’s son used to sharpen knives. They’re still in business. The son used to hike with us and his wife. Then there was Pincus Horowitz; he wasn’t married then. Then there were the Faveluke girls and some other people. A fellow by the name of Karp. He’s not here any more.

Meyer: And you used to do this quite often?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh yes, every week. We hiked all night. We got to the top of Larch Mountain. We used spread our blankets and take a nap. Then we got up and had something to eat. Then in the afternoon started down back again. 

Meyer: Isn’t that wonderful. That’s really early pioneering. 
BLUMENTHAL: My stepfather, Mr. Blumenthal, he had no children. So when he married my mother and when we started school he went along and they asked him the name. He gave them the name Blumenthal, so it remained Blumenthal.

Meyer: How did you meet your wife, Mr. Blumenthal?
BLUMENTHAL: I stayed at their house?

Meyer: In other words, her family was a friend of yours?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, we were cousins.

Meyer: This was after your stepfather and mother had died? You moved back to South Portland. Did your sister move back with you?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, my sister was living with my Aunt Nudelman – the David Nudelman.

Meyer: And you lived at the Stearns house?
BLUMENTHAL: I lived part of the time at the Overbecks and then I moved into the Sterns.

Meyer: During this time you weren’t at all active in any of the groups at the Neighborhood House – you were just busy working? What were some of your happiest memories of your days in Portland – your younger days? What were some of the happiest memories?
BLUMENTHAL: Before marriage or what?

Meyer: No, not necessarily. Whenever.
BLUMENTHAL: Married was the happiest days. Coming back from the war was the happiest days.

Meyer: What about the Jewish life in Portland? Do you have any happy memories or special memories of that?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, I used to find very interesting the B’nai B’rith meetings. I used to go there quite often.

Meyer: Did they used to have special events at the B’nai B’rith?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, they used to have special events and very hot elections.

Meyer: Were you involved in those too?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I wasn’t involved, but I was there watching them. At that time, Ben Selling was running for president of the B’nai B’rith, and there were the Weinsteins. Eddie Weinbaum was Secretary, and we used to try to get members. Several people were running for office and there was quite excitement at election.

Meyer: What kind of things did the B’nai B’rith Lodge do? Did they have speakers? Or, what was some of the activities?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, they used to have banquets.

Meyer: With special speakers, too?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, they used to have speakers at different times. Shemanski was president there at one time. Ben Selling, a few others.

Meyer: Were there other special happy things that stand out?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I don’t know … when my son was born.

Meyer: Of course. You lived in the Irvington District, but when they decided that they were going to start the Urban Renewal in South Portland, how did you feel about that?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I didn’t feel anything, because most of us had already left there. There weren’t many Jewish people left–just a few who had their property. They were well taken care of. But the only thing is (we had already moved out) but the only thing was traveling back to the synagogue and so on. That’s all.

Meyer: That presents a problem?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, because everything was in walking distance at that time.

Meyer: When you look back over the years, how do you feel about being a Jew living in Oregon?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, when I first come here, Portland was not very Jewish. They had no Hebrew school. They didn’t teach anything to the youngsters. The only thing we had our Jewish living is because of the old timers, the immigrants that came in. They kept it up.

Meyer: Were they the ones who organized the schools?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes.

Meyer: So over the years how do you feel about the way Jewish life has developed in Portland?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh, I think it has developed all right.

Meyer: Do you think it’s a more Jewish place today?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I don’t think so.

Meyer: You don’t think so? Even with the Jewish Community Center, the Hebrew School, and the synagogues?
BLUMENTHAL: Here it is supposed to be a Jewish city; there are Jewish people here, [but] we have no Jewish butcher shop and there isn’t a Jewish restaurant here.

Meyer: So some of the basics of the Jewish life of the early days are gone.
BLUMENTHAL: In South Portland, many were junk peddlers and they wanted a Jewish organization to get together. They got this offer from the B’nai Avram to organize, with a sick benefit plan, so they accepted it. That’s what they wanted. That was the need. The B’nai B’rith was already there, so they organized one for themselves.

Meyer: You were active and instrumental in some of these early self-help organizations. Were you also instrumental in the Jewish Family and Child Services beginnings?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, through my work with the Jewish Benevolent Society, I came into the Family and Child Service.

Meyer: Were you ever on the Board of the Family and Child Service?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, I am on the Board. In fact they still send me literature and they want me to come to the meetings.

Meyer: What happened to the monies from the Benevolent Association?
BLUMENTHAL: We turned it all over to the Family Service.

Meyer: Was there a special purpose when you turned over the money, to do something special with it?
BLUMENTHAL: No, outside of the money that we donated to the Robbins Scholarship Fund. Outside of that, we gave it to the Jewish Family Service. They should carry on whatever is necessary, with the people in, and they said they would. We had some government bonds and we had quite a bit of cash and we tuned it all over to them.

Meyer: So you really helped to bridge the gap from one kind of service into another, so that the Family and Child Service can carry on that kind of work?
BLUMENTHAL: That’s right.

Meyer: We were talking a few minutes ago about how you feel as a Jew living in Oregon today and you told me that you thought that [Jewish] life is pretty dispersed. How do you feel about the Center and all? Do you think that Jewish life is active around the Center?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh yes, I think the Jewish people are very active now. I believe so.

Meyer: So you really have seen the changes from one kind of a smaller community into a larger common. But you feel that Jewish life is still active in the larger community?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh, yes. Still active.

Meyer: Mr. Blumenthal, how did the Rose City Lodge get its cemetery?
BLUMENTHAL: Congregation Neveh Zedek had a mortgage, and they had to pay it off, so they decided to raise money. They offered the Rose City Lodge part of the cemetery – the Neveh Zedek cemetery to the Rose City Lodge – for the sum of $500. The Rose City Lodge bought the land paid them the $500, and that’s how they happen to have a cemetery. It is combined with the Neveh Zedek. They are both together. It is divided: one side is the Rose City and the other side is the Neveh Zedek. The Rose City Lodge has been paying the Neveh Zedek for the upkeep of the entire cemetery.

Meyer: When was this done, do you remember?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh, it was done about 40 years ago or more. Pretty close to 50 years. It was called the Neveh Zedek Talmud Torah.

Meyer: This was when you first came to Portland?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes. The reason they called it the Talmud Torah was because they used to have a school where they used to teach children, just like a Hebrew School, but they used to teach a few pupils there. Mosessohn used to instruct them. There were about 10 or 15 used to come there and that’s how it was called Talmud Torah.

Meyer: When was Ahavai Sholom formed? When you came? Or just the Neveh Zedek?
BLUMENTHAL: The Ahavai Sholom was there before, I think. Neveh Zedek – that was a church there at one time they bought that and started the Neveh Zedek. Of course, the Shaarie Torah was already there, on First Street, and the Ahavai Sholom originally was on Sixth and Stark Street. I was Bar Mitzvah there, you know, and Reverend Abramson was there. Later on they built the Park Street location.
 
Meyer: Who were the people active in Neveh Zedek?
BLUMENTHAL: Oh, yes. The Nemirovskys, the Ostroffs, the Weiders, some of the Nudelmans, the Shanks. You know, Shank who used to own half of South Portland. They were all members there.

Meyer: Is this during the 1920s that they were active in Neveh Zedek?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes. We came to Portland in 1903 and they were there. You take Welder and Shank and a few others there, they started the old people’s home on Third and College Street at that time.

Meyer: Did you have anything to do with that?
BLUMENTHAL: No. I was, at that time, too young. I was working.

Meyer: Over the years, were you active at all in the Robison Home?
BLUMENTHAL: No, I never held any office.

Meyer: Do you think, Mr. Blumenthal, that it is important for us to teach our Jewish heritage of helping people?
BLUMENTHAL: Absolutely. Absolutely necessary.

Meyer: You think that’s one of the basics of our heritage?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, that’s right.

Meyer: You certainly have set an example in the kinds of things that you have done.
BLUMENTHAL: There’s a lot of children now that don’t know very much about it, either.

Meyer: You think it’s important. I think the purpose of this Oral History Project is to provide the information for our children so that they will know what life was like at that time.
BLUMENTHAL: They’ve got a better life now than we had.

Meyer: You think it’s an easier life? Is that what you mean, that it’s easier?
BLUMENTHAL: Yes, yes.