Oregon Exhibition Hall

1849: Jacob Goldsmith and Lewis May were the first Jewish settlers in Portland, Oregon. Bavarian-born Jews, they operated a general merchandise store on Front Avenue.

1853: The first Jewish woman in Oregon, Mrs. Caroline Weinshank, a widow, opened a boarding house in Portland for bachelors. Portland’s 1860 census show 84 Jews over the age of 16: 61 men and 23 women.

1855: Louis Blumauer, the first Jewish child born in Oregon, is born in Portland.

1856: The first Rosh Hashanah services in the Oregon Territory are held in the gold rush boomtown of Jacksonville. The community’s last services were held in 1883, after most of the pioneers had moved to San Francisco.

1856: The first Jewish organization is established in Oregon: Portland’s Mt. Sinai Cemetery Association. The first Jewish cemetery is located at the west end of Ross Island Bridge.

1858: Temple Beth Israel, the first Jewish congregation (Reform), is founded in Portland.

1869: Bernard Goldsmith becomes Portland’s first Jewish mayor. His successor, Phillip Wasserman, is Portland’s second Jewish mayor.