Geoff Nudelman

In the mid-1800s, Jewish immigrants looking for greener pastures and open skies headed west to Oregon, where they built the first mercantile businesses selling to newly arrived farmers, settlers and explorers. In the following decades, Jews would play a foundational role in the state’s development. “There’s no real appreciation in other parts of the country for how well developed the Jewish community is in Oregon,” says Rabbi Joshua Stampfer. He is one of the city’s longest-tenured rabbis and acts as a patriarch of Oregon’s contemporary...