Permanent OJM Collection

Dora Levine with her daughter, Esther, in front of
Levine's Fish Market, First Avenue, Portland, c. 1910.

OJM is the repository for objects, art, and archival materials for the whole region. As the only Jewish museum in the Pacific Northwest, our mission is to preserve, research, and exhibit the art and artifacts of the Jewish experience in this area. Although the museum has been in existence since 1989, we have only recently had adequate storage space to house a permanent collection. The collection has grown quickly and has already become an important resource for preserving our heritage.

The Aber Collection

Ita and Joshua Aber have donated several collections of Jewish artifacts to the museum over the past years. Among these are a collection of Jewish head coverings and a collection of silverwork jewelry from the mid-east.

Click on the icon below to browse the Aber Collection.

Art collectors Mira and Gustav Berger have bequeathed their extensive collection of Judaica to the museum and frequently gift pieces from that collection to us.

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The Miriam Cups

The Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Portland invited 20 Portland women to create original Miriam Cups for the first Women’s Seder in 1999. \

Click on the icon below to browse the Miriam Cup Collection.

The Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Portland invited Portland women to create original matzah covers for the second Women’s Seder in 2001.

Click on the icon below to browse the collection of Matzah Covers.

General Museum Collection

In addition to these large gifts from individual donors, the museum continues to collect objects of interest to the Jewish experience in the Northwest. Portraits of prominent Oregon Jews, art created by local Jewish artists, ephemera from family collections, and ritual objects are examples of treasures to be found in the OJM permanent collection.

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The museum owns and periodically exhibits a collection of photographs from the Yiddish Theater in New York City mounting productions of plays by Sholem Aleichem. Another series the museum has exhibited is a collection of photographs by Martin Levin of the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. Other pieces are displayed as often as space and content allow.

Anyone interested in donating artifacts, art or archival materials to the museum is kindly requested to contact the museum curator, Anne LeVant Prahl .

Aber Collection	Berger Collection	Miriam Cups	Matzah Covers	General Museum Collection