When Portland State U: Alma Mater Became Anti-Semitic

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

    On becoming Queen Esther at the February Purim Ball back in 1951, another of our own  life experiences  aside from high school activities, backed by the Jews of Portland.  Anti-Semitism permeated in Portland through ways of keeping us separate from the general population, like athletic clubs with their NO JEWS Allowed.  We teen-agers were not as aware of what the adults experienced in this.  It was also happening in getting jobs everywhere, not just Portland.  My in-law, Corrine,  in Brooklyn,  couldn't get a job with the telephone company because of being Jewish.  

Anti-Semitism had been going on all over the USA for years before it hit the universities.  

Maybe having so many Arabs attending at one point in time changed the atmosphere.  They were peddling BDS among other things. Iranian students began attending universities in Oregon in the early 1970s, including Portland State University. Most of these students were young men who came to the US to study science and engineering. Their goal was to return to Iran to work in its growing economy. 

October 4, 2001-Vanguard :  Currently, 75 Middle Eastern students are enrolled at Portland State. The largest amount of Middle Eastern students come from the United Arab Emirates, 36 from Saudi Arabia and 25 students from Kuwait. There are also a few students from each of the following nations: Yemen, Palestine, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, Iran and Syria.  Sadly, with the Arabs came demonstrations against Israel.  

Portland, OR (October 26, 2016)— The student senate of the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) passed a resolution earlier this week brought forward by Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER). The resolution calls on the university to divest from Israeli apartheid by an overwhelming vote of 22-2, with 1 abstention.  Here's where anti- Semitism really begins....

In 2017,  President Trump had a travel ban.  It affected Iranian students going to

 Portland State.  Portland State University announced Thursday on July 6, 2017,  its top donor has made a new $5 million dollar gift, completing the school’s fundraising campaign to renovate a key building, Neuberger Hall.  The gift came from PSU alumnus Fariborz Maseeh, an Iranian-American investor and engineer.  In addition to Maseeh’s gift, Portland philanthropist,  Jordan Schnitzer , gave $4 million for the renovation.  Money talks at universities who always need it.  

                                           Washington High Graduate 1951,  Me.  

Way back in 1951, I graduated a Portland high school and passed the test to enter Lewis & Clark College.  By 1953, I was married, had a son, and had transferred to Portland State which was still in the act of growing and building.  We could hear all the noises of hammering and drilling in our classrooms that were also full of returnees from the Korean War, men, not boys, who asked terrifically deep questions in class.  There was no anti-semitism then that I noticed, whereas there had been in my high school cafeteria.

I remember once sitting with other students at a table in the cafeteria, a rarity for me since I usually ate my Mom's sack lunch at The Shack and finishing it off with a soft ice cream cone with several friends.  The conversation had turned to Jews and how terrible they were.  I sat there appalled, wondering what to do.  I had skipped a year so was a year younger than they were, not mature enough to be contrary, but this was too much for me.  I quietly interrupted at their pause, saying, I'M JEWISH.  I caught their embarrassment, and they seemed to gulp and changed the conversation.  I must say, with my dirty blonde hair, I didn't "look" Jewish.  I'd make a good spy.      

At one of our dances; below are my cousin, Nathan and his date and other friends.  I'm on the right side.   My date, Sam Arnstein, is on the left side.                                

No wonder, I thought, why I hadn't been asked to join any of the sororities; they disliked Jews.    I had finally joined an all Jewish sorority of sorts, the BBG Girls, managed by the B'nai Brith who must have caught onto Jewish girls' dilemma in school.  That led to another group; QED (Queen Esther's Daughters,  and a 3rd, Sub Deb.  I was having fun aside from high school, and feeling wanted.  Evidently Parents had stepped forward to care for our facing anti-Semitism.  We held our own formal dances with their help, too.  One time after that I was asked to join a school sorority, but declined.  Too busy.

Eight years later, my only other sibling, my brother born in 1942, went to the same high school.  He became the Student Body President.  He was a handsome lad,  blonde and blue-eyed, had been the Jr. Rose Festival Prime Minister, and that shows that anti-Semitism by 1960 was contained,  and David did not feel any anti-Semitism then.  However, to be truthful-he spent the summer between his junior and senior year as a foreign exchange student --- in Germany, and certainly realized it there with his own school instructor, but not with the family he lived with.  I have to brag; he wound up with 2 PhDs, and I had been his chief baby-sitter, helping him to develop.  I take all credit 😀 so I became a teacher.  

In the late 1960s, Palestinian secular movements like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Al Fatah began to target civilians outside of the conflict zone.     Israeli restaurant hit by suicide bomber... danger everywhere, even in a box on the street left by terrorists.  By 1980, Iran was fighting Iraq, each about to wipe the other out...We made our move....to Israel.   It was to be a move for keeps.  

  Just moved into  apartment in Safed, Israel, 1981, ground floor with window  barred. We moved in September 1980 living in Haifa while attending school and certification to teach.

By 1980, I had been reading and studying alone about Israel and had talked my next husband, also a teacher, a high school teacher at that,  whose main interest was American history, to move to Israel with me and our dog, Blintz.  We did; teaching and learning, leaving Israel during Thanksgiving 1985.  My son, now 32 in Portland,  had become very ill and we returned to help him.  

Since my youth, I have heard many stories of Palestinians taking over Portland State and not allowing Jewish students entrance to their classes.  I note in my March 2009 blog that anti-Semitism was going strong at colleges and universities.  CUFI Presents Erick Stakelbeck at Portland State U. was an article I wrote on May 14, 2012.  CUFI stands for Christians United For Israel, and they are very pro-Israel along with me.

I even attended some in-services of speakers telling us of the Problems at Portland State and the people keeping Jewish students away from their classes, taking over the halls, etc.  Life was changing, even at a school like Portland State,  for the worst.  

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - On Monday, (February 3, 2025) the U.S. Department of Education announced it was investigating cases of antisemitism at Portland State University, as well as four other universities.

The investigation is a reaction to President Trump’s executive order, signed last week, designed to combat antisemitism.

“The U.S. Department of Education today announced investigations into five institutions of higher education where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported,” the department stated in a release. “The investigations are in response to the explosion of antisemitism on American campuses following the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023.”

The schools are:

• Columbia University
• Northwestern University
• Portland State University
• The University of California, Berkeley
• The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

I can say that it has been going on for a long time.

By May 7, 2020, I wrote in another blog I started "The Fight Against Growing Propaganda, telling what was happening at Portland State in particular because of BDS (Boycotting, Divestments and Sanctions) no doubt having much to do with growing anti-Semitism.      

Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon began as the Vanport Extension Center in 1946. It was created to provide higher education to World War II veterans using the G.I. Bill. The university became permanent in 1952, and was renamed Portland State College in 1955. It was elevated to university status in 1969.   

PSU made headlines in spring 2024 for an encampment that turned into a multiday occupation of the university’s Millar Library. The occupiers did $1.23 million in damage before police removed them. Campus protesters demanded the university sever ties with Boeing, (part of BDS organizing, no doubt ) call for a cease-fire in Gaza, and stop selling Israeli-made merchandise on campus, (more of BDS activity)  .

The university ultimately paused connections with Boeing, which had previously made investments at PSU. Students protested the company because it helped build Israel’s missile-defense system and shipped it bombs after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.  

The Department of Education specifically referred to campus encampments for Gaza in its announcement of the investigations.  

Students at more than 100 colleges across the U.S. have set up protest encampments to demand their schools divest from companies supporting Israel.

Resource:

Update: 2/5/25 in evening

https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/student-protests-pro-palestinian-encampments/

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2025/02/boycott-divestment-and-sanctions.html *****

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2025/02/spreading-federal-research-of-anti.html ****

https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/iranians-in-oregon/#:~:text=At%20that%20time%2C%20most%20were%20young%2C%20single,students%20intended%20to%20return%20to%20Iran%2C%20however

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/02/cufis-honoring-israel-night.html

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/06/usas-position-on-anti-semitism.html

https://www.kptv.com/2025/02/03/feds-investigate-widespread-antisemitism-portland-state-university-4-other-schools/

https://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-fight-against-growing-propaganda.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism_in_the_United_States *****

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Stakelbeck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_and_antisemitism *****

https://psuvanguard.com/arab-students-experience-at-psu-positive/

https://www.wweek.com/news/2016/07/26/is-it-true-that-the-multnomah-athletic-club-did-not-allow-jews-to-become-members-until-the-1970s/#:~:text=There's%20no%20reason%20to%20heap,doors%20to%20Jews%20in%201958.-added 2/10/25  at 7:21am

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2025/02/moe-tonkon-tonkin-jewish-son-of.html  added 2/10/25 at 4:16pm 

It was possibly Itamar Marcus who spoke to our group about what was happening in Israel, BDS, etc.  That name seems so familiar; at Portland State ...2/11/25 6:34pm