Traveling Trunk - Sample Month
The Oregon Jewish Museum’s Traveling Trunk, “A Year in the Life: The Oregon Jewish Immigrant Experience,” contains a comprehensive teacher’s guide, 6 activities, student curriculum, and more than 30 objects, 25 images, and 10 historical documents separated into themes by month.
Teacher’s Guide – Table of Contents
Excerpts from the November curriculum:
Teacher’s Guide
Student Curriculum
November Box Contents
Activity
Teacher’s Guide – Table of Contents
- How To Use Your “Museum in a Suitcase”
- Teacher narrative: Background information
- Judaism
- The Oregon Story
- Early Arrivals
- Occupations
- Fitting In
- Religious Life
- Immigrant Life
- Preliminary Activities
- Immigration Stories
- Transportation: How To Get Here From There
- Central Activities
- Travel
- Arrival
- Adaptation
- Assimilation
- Teacher Narrative: Month-By-Month Guide To Curriculum
- October. Theme: Travel and Arrival
- November. Theme: Peddling in Portland
- December. Theme: Food: Nourishing Tradition
- January. Theme: Sabbath at Home
- February. Theme: A Year of Festivals
- March. Theme: Civic Rights
- April. Theme: Education: Looking Forward, Looking Back
- May. Theme: Building Community
- June. Theme: Celebration of New Beginnings
- July. Theme: Helping Out and Fitting In
- August. Theme: Exploring Oregon
- September. Theme: Giving Thanks
- Vocabulary
- Family Immigration Story Interview (worksheet)
- Family Immigration Story (worksheet)
- Travel Activity Postcard (worksheet)
- Arrival Activity Mapping (worksheet)
[top of page]
TEACHER'S GUIDE - NOVEMBER
Theme: Peddling in Portland
Take-away lesson: Many Jewish immigrants to Oregon became peddlers.
Background notes: Many Jewish immigrants to Oregon began as peddlers. Peddling served as a starting point–a way to learn English and save some money. Young men traveled throughout the state hawking dry goods, second-hand clothing, cooking tools, jewelry, sewing notions and scrap metal. Peddling scrap metal–a marginal operation at best–was a both risky and innovative enterprise. Few believed that fortunes could be made in the scrap business and some assumed Jews collected junk simply because they had limited job options. While this was in some respects true, Jews were also attracted to junking for it’s flexibility, informality, and ease of startup. Their ability to be successful–and in some cases wildly successful–affirmed a belief in America as the land of golden opportunity.
Jewish immigrants were especially drawn to the flexibility of peddling and the freedom to set their own hours. This was especially pressing in light of the standard 6-day workweek that required most shop employees to work on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.
“At one point my father worked for a furniture finishing place… but it became troublesome because he wouldn’t work on the Sabbath… the only way that he could observe the Sabbath was by junking.” Francis Bricker
Resources:
Books: “Potato Man” by M. McDonald.
“A Peddler’s Dream,” by Janice Shefelman.
Activity: Arrival. (Alternately, after “December.”)
[top of page]
Student Curriculum – November
When he gets to Portland, Chaim moves in with his cousin, Sam, and his family. Sam lives in South Portland, a neighborhood where many of the city’s Jews live. The neighborhood is vibrant and thriving – there are homes, shops, libraries, theatres, schools, community centers, and synagogues (Jewish churches) – and its lively atmosphere reminds Chaim of Luboml. Sam lives in a wooden apartment house with his wife and son, Malkie and Joseph, and his brother, Harold.
Sam paid to bring his brother Harold over from Poland four years ago. Both of them now make their living as peddlers, selling goods door to door. Sam has saved some money and is going to rent a small store and sell clothes. Sam offers to sell Chaim his peddling cart. Chaim eagerly agrees.
Many Jewish immigrants to Oregon started out as peddlers. Young men traveled throughout the state selling items such as dry goods, second-hand clothing, cooking tools, jewelry, sewing supplies and scrap metal. Peddling offered a starting point for a newcomer–a way to learn English and save some money. A peddler doesn’t have to pay rent for a shop, fill out a job application, or even speak English. He walks the streets, showing people his wares and negotiating prices. If he can’t afford a cart, he can carry his wares in a pack.
Peddlers also provided a valuable service in growing west coast communities. In places where there weren’t many stores, peddlers sold small items that settlers needed. In Chaim’s time, people couldn’t always go out and buy new things. Instead, they used items for as long as they could, fixing holes or replacing parts that were broken. Peddlers helped recycle things like buttons and metal that could be used over and over again.
Items:
Peddler’s license
Utensils and metal items for sale
Photographs of Portland, (South Portland) circa 1900
- SW 1st Avenue & Caruthers
- SW 3rd Avenue & Arthur
Photographs of peddlers
-Portland Dairy Peddler
- Nudelman Cart
- Stein Cart
Student Questions
If you had a cousin coming to Portland from very far away, what is the first thing you would show them when they arrived? What would you want then to know about Portland and America?
- What English words would Chaim need to learn for his new job?
- What kind of job would you try to do if you were new to a country and did not speak the language?
. . I had no money to buy a horse or wagon so I started in the junk business [in Astoria] and was my own horse and wagon. I bought old sacks, brass and copper, old iron and bottles, and carried them on my back till I got as much as I could carry. - Sam Schnitzer
[My father] did what most immigrants do…. He got himself a horse and he got himself a wagon, and he went out and he had native intelligence enough to know that when he bought something for ten cents and he sold it for fifteen cents, he made five cents. - Manley Labby
[top of page]
November Box Contents
Peddler’s license
Utensils and metal items for sale
Photographs of Portland, (South Portland) circa 1900
- SW 1st Avenue & Caruthers
- SW 3rd Avenue & Arthur
Photographs of peddlers
-Portland Dairy Peddler
- Nudelman Cart
- Stein Cart
[top of page]
Activity - Arrival
To be completed after reading about the months of November or December. Alternately, can be completed at the end of the curriculum, after Chaim’s trip to Baker City.
Arrival is the second stage of the immigration process. The United States is a very large country and the many immigrants who came to the United States found their way to every corner of it. Why did people choose one particular city, state, or region? Sometimes they were looking for an opportunity like jobs or open land. Often, immigrants went where a friend, relative, neighbor, or business contact had already settled. Why do you think they would have done this?
Activity: Jews who came to Oregon settled all over the state. Using a historical map of Oregon, find the cities and towns where Jewish immigrants made their homes.
At the back of this guide is a worksheet of a state map labeled with dots, each of which shows the location of a city or town where Jewish families immigrated. Using the grid and your list of towns, label each of the dots.
Do you notice anything about the patterns of immigration? Have you been to any of these places? Why do you think immigrants went to these places?
[top of page]
www.oj
