Portland Plans New Community Center

(News Letter from Portland)

The meeting of representatives of all the Jewish agencies under the Portland Community Chest, held on February 6, revealed the fact that the dominant project which should get priority over all other undertakings in Portland is the establishment of an adequate community center building to supplant the present B’nai B’rith Center, which has outgrown its facilities.

The B’nai B’rith Center was established fifteen years ago as a Jewish community center and has reached the position of leadership among all the centers west of Omaha. It maintains an executive director, an assistant for women’s activities, a full time athletic staff, including directors of the gymnasium and swimming departments, a musical director and a dramatic coach.

Every important Jewish organization in the city meets here and because of the demands on it, it is totally inadequate for its purpose. Recently, a survey indicating that the Jewish boys and girls are found enlisted in the various non-Jewish recreational agencies in the city, has brought the problem to the forefront.

TO HAVE NEW CENTER

The hopes of the leaders of the B’nai B’rith Center are to construct a $250,000 building. Among the leading citizens connected with the center are Ben Selling, president: Z. Sweet, grand president of District No. 4. I. O. B. B. Joseph Shemanski, Alex Weinstein, Alex E. Miller, A. Rosenstein, and A. Boskowitz.

The drive for funds for the nonlocal chest is now under way. The plan of limiting the maximum subscription to $100 and trying to bring in a larger number of subscribers has not proved very successful. The drive has been extended beyond the date set for its completion. Two-thirds of the money has been collected. The drive is under the direction of Arthur Eppstein. Ben Selling. Alex Miller. Roscoe Nelson, Ignatz Lowengart and Joseph Shemanski.

Although the 350,000 population of Portland includes only 10.000 Jews, one-tenth of the collection of the Portland Community Chest goes to Jewish agencies. Because so large a portion of the Chest proceeds are given to Jewish community organizations, an effort has been made to bring the Jewish community to a full realization of their obligation to the Chest.

The basket ball team of the Portland Chapter of Aleph Zadik Aleph has just returned from Oakland, Cal., where they participated in the Far Western A. Z. A. toamament consisting of athletics, debating, and oratory. Six cities were represented. This marked the first effort in the history of the Coast to establish close relations among the Jewish youth of the Coast regions. Seventy-five boys were in attendance at Oakland.

The University of Washington Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, which is composed largely of Portland boys, again leads all the fraternities on the campus in scholarship. This marks the third time within the period of a year and a half that the Jewish fraternity has led. Not only has this fraternity been outstanding in scholarship but it has also contributed prominent athletes to the University of Washington teams. The outstanding players on the U. of W. basketball team are Milton Berenson and Stanley Jaloff. The former is the outstanding star on the squad and is mentioned prominently as a contender for Pacific Coast all-star honors.

The efforts made for years to organize the Jewish boys on the University of Oregon campus has finally culminated in a fraternity known as Delta Epsilon.

PORTLAND JEWS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO MUSIC

The contributions of the Jews to the development of music in the city of Portland have been outstanding. Jacques Gershkowitz is the director of the Portland Junior Symphony Orchestra, which has been acclaimed by the National Federation of Musicians as an organization without parallel in the United States.

All efforts made in Portland to stop the showing of “The King of Kings” proved to be ineffectual. In the preview before the Board of Censors, certain objectionable features, such as the portion dealing with the high priest fingering the coins and the long trip to the cross, all of which were feared might incite and inflame the prejudices of the motion picture audiences, were ordered removed by the censors. On appeal, however, to the City Council, the action of the censors was overruled. The picture as orignally filmed was presented at the municipal auditorium but proved from a financial standpoint to be a decided failure, as it has been in many cities on the Coast.