Mayor Neil E. Goldschmidt; of Portland, Oregon, who President Carter has nominated to be Secretary of transportation, has always been active in the Portland Jewish community. Rabbi Emanuel Rose, of Temple Beth Israel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency the Mayor is a “caring Jew” who is a member of his congregation along with his wife, Margaret. His son, Joshua, and daughter, Rebecca, attend the Reform congregation’s religious school.
The 39-year-old Goldschmidt, a fifth generation Oregonian, is a member of B’nai B’rith and a recipient of the annual award of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. He is also a member of many other Jewish organizations, according to Rose. Goldschmidt visited Israel last June as part of a Jewish National Fund mission, but according to the rabbi, he also spent some time on a kibbutz years ago.
Goldschmidt was first elected mayor in 1973 when at the age of 32 he was one of the nation’s youngest mayors. He has been credited for vast improvements in Portland in revitalizing the city’s neighborhoods, in the growth of the downtown and promotion of public transit. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of California at Berkeley Law School, he quit a Capitol Hill job in 1964 because of the Senate’s slow pace on civil rights legislation to help Charles Evers register rural Blacks in the South to vote. The Senate is scheduled to act on his nomination in September.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
