Nadene Goldfoot
A Reed College Student's car in 1950's In 1950s Portland, anti-Semitism was largely defined by social, professional, and institutional exclusion rather than overt violence. While the community was becoming more established, Jewish Portlanders routinely faced discrimination in employment, housing, and social clubs, reflecting a localized version of national prejudices during that era. However, we had it better than the East Coast, or the Black Community here.
I graduated Washington High in 1951, a year ahead of my peers. It was the time I experienced some anti-Semitism. When sitting in the cafeteria with others where there was a seat, I heard them talking and saying how awful Jews were. Being a kid, I finally said during a lull in their conversation, "I'm Jewish." I was looking at the expression on their faces, and they were embarrassed, I think. That stopped that topic!
In high school, one waited to be asked to join a sorority. There were the exclusive ones with all the popular girls, and then there were the lowly ones. We Jewish girls had learned to have our own sorority made up of Jewish girls from all the high schools.
First I belonged to the Bnai Brith and joined the BB Girls. Then I joined QED (Queen Ester's Daughters) The 3rd one was Sub Deb. That kept me busy attended meetings and events such as fantastic formal dances calling for evening gowns, and dates and corsages. Somewhere in between I attended classes at school, and dated Darrell Felici, an Italian big guy and went to a few football games. He was on the school patrol and warned us when our Shack was being invaded . I walked to school from Ladds Addition and back, so met up with Pat Diel who lived further on; and then Dick Bogle, high school sports editor who was 4 years older than me and we walked together and talked; him about his experiences being kept out of events because he was Black, and few of mine. We managed to remain friends till he passed away.
1951 as Queen EstherMy big event was while dating Sammie Arnstein, I became Queen Esther of that year's Purim Ball in Portland. That honor was exciting for me, but even more meaningful as I got older, and I thank Sammie in my prayers for making it happen somehow; oh yes, buying tickets. It told me who I was many a time and I am who I am because of that one thing, I think. Life was okay. Okay because I worked for my father when 16 and could drive the car he provided.
In the 1950s, Reed College acted as an intellectual haven for Jewish students from the East Coast and California. Many were denied admission to Ivy League schools due to strict religious quotas. Drawn to Reed's coeducational, nonsectarian, and barrier-free environment, Jewish students found an egalitarian community focused heavily on rigorous academic inquiry. I met one studying Pre-Med and we married. By 1953 I had a son, Steve, and 1954 brought my daughter, Debbie. I kept attending Lewis & Clark until 10 days before Steve was born. My Reed College partner was not Jewish, and this turned out to be such a mixing time of people, and for me, didn't work out.
My Dad was tough, as he had had a rough childhood, by firing me when I was pregnant. Oy vey! I thought I'd have to peddle cookies from door to door. Job Market: Established non-Jewish law firms and major professional corporations frequently refused to hire Jewish applicants. This forced professionals to either open solo practices or join small, primarily Jewish partnerships (for example, future prominent attorney Morrie Galen opened his own solo practice in 1950 because he couldn't get hired by established firms).
Little did I know what was happening to my father's South Portland beginnings. The "South Portland" Transition: For the first half of the 20th century, the Jewish community was largely centralized in the tight-knit, working-class immigrant neighborhood of South Portland. In the 1950s, this area radically changed due to urban renewal projects that cleared residences, pushing Jewish families to relocate to more prosperous, established neighborhoods on the city's east side. We were a family already there by 1936.
Community Building: To combat exclusion from the broader secular community, Jewish Portlanders leaned heavily on their own civic organizations. The B'nai B'rith, the Jewish Community Center, and several synagogues became the primary social hubs. In 1959, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland even established the Jewish Review to foster community communication. My neighbor, Ben Padrow, the brother of my playmate, Joan was the editor and also taught at Portland State U. I had him as an instructor by taking his class.
The Palais Royale Ballroom: Once located at 2115 West Burnside, the ballroom had many different names before bought in 1944, including DeHoney’s Ballroom, the Uptown Ballroom and finally the Palais later. The ballroom was open six nights each night with a designated dance. Some of the types and styles included Old Timers which meant old structured dances such as Schottische, Varsovienne, Viennese Waltz, Polka, the Quick Step, and the Peabody.These were full houses of accomplished dancers who knew the intricate steps and patterns of these dances. Another designation was “modern,” which meant jitterbug, foxtrot, Balboa, swing, glides and waltzes. Latin was also popular and included rhumba, Bolero, tango, samba, merengue, salsa, cha cha cha, Paso Doble, Mambo and Bossa Nova.Dancers included older and younger adults, married couples, singles, high school and college students, service men and women. Many couples would arrive separately and meet up to dance – it was usual for men and women to arrive alone. Dancing in 1950s Portland was defined by swinging jazz clubs along N. Williams Ave, legendary downtown ballrooms, and local teen TV shows. It was a vibrant era where R&B, country, and early rock 'n' roll fueled everything from structured ballroom dancing to unstructured free-form styles. We danced only one step, a square, as I remember at the Jantzen Beach Ballroom. Extremist Fringe Elements: While Oregon had a strong history of far-right and white supremacist movements—such as the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and pro-Nazi groups in the 1930s—the 1950s was a period where extreme, fringe anti-Semitism operated quietly beneath a veneer of polite exclusion. More militant anti-Semitic fringe groups (like the National Party) did not surface visibly in Portland until the mid-1960s.
Dick was fantastic: Dick Bogle was a multi-talented Oregonian and humanitarian who dedicated his adult life to service in the Portland area. The great-grandson of Northwest pioneers, Bogle was a modern pacesetter—one of the first Black police officers in Portland, the first Black television newscaster in the Northwest, and the second Black city commissioner of Portland.After college, Bogle worked as an insurance fraud investigator. In 1952, he published a jazz review and an endorsement of Adlai Stevenson for U.S. president in the Portland Challenger newspaper, which was founded by William A. Hilliard and targeted the black community. His beautiful mother has been writer on one of our newspapers, and we had an Oregonian and a Journal.
Meanwhile during this period, Dick Bogle was experiencing more disappointments: Public Accommodations: While Portland passed a unanimous ordinance in 1950 banning discrimination in public spaces, true social integration remained a battle. Black patrons were regularly barred from white restaurants and businesses, and many venues operated under covert "white trade only" policies. Activism and Advocacy: The Urban League of Portland and local NAACP branches led major pushbacks, eventually securing a statewide public accommodations law in 1953 that outlawed refusal of service based on race. So that's what he had to work against, a background of anti-Blacks.
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