RESEARCH LIBRARY and ARCHIVE

Open by appointment

Researchers are welcome to use the library. Please schedule an appointment prior to your visit by calling 503.226.3600 Ext 102 or curator@ojm.org

Incorporating the archives of the Jewish Historical Society of Oregon

Institutional Member, Council of American Jewish Museums

Contituent Agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland

Past Exhibits

Lauren Pressler: Ludwig Salzer, Man of Letters
October 14, 2007 - January 27, 2008

Ludwig Salzer: Man of Letters was an exhibit that described the plight of European Jews who fled to Shanghai during the rise of the Hitler regime and eventually migrated to the United States. The story was told by Lauren Pressler, an art student at Willamette University, who chronicled the journey of her grandfather, Ludwig Salzer, through excerpts from his journals - found after his death - letters from his family, and acrylic and mixed media paintings and pen-and-ink drawings. Added to his story were interviews with Jewish émigrés, now living in Portland, about their Shanghai experience.

The exhibit opened a remarkable window onto the hardships experienced by an often forgotten population of Jews, those who ended up in Shanghai because it was the only port at the time that did not require entry or transit visas. The exhibit offered historical documentation (the journals are available at OJM in English translation) of the experience of displacement in a wholly foreign culture. Equally important, this exhibits also displayed the cross-generational effects of persecution, emigration and struggle for existence as a Jew in the New World.

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RESEARCH LIBRARY and ARCHIVE

Past Exhibits