Rabbi Phillip Kleinman of Neveh Zedek Synagogue During WWII in Portland, Oregon

 Nadene Goldfoot                                    

             Wartime in Poland, about to be invaded by Nazis in 1939, with things heating up terribly for Jews in Germany by 1934 when I was born, luckily, in Portland, Oregon.  

A Rabbi's picture in place of Rabbi Kleinman who was born April 15, 1890 in Galicia, Austria; married Yetta Kirschenbaum of Opole Miasto, Opolskie, Poland, and died June 9, 1983 in Portland, Oregon. They had 3 sons which as a 5 year old in 1939, I neither knew nor cared about.  He always came in our classroom for the song lessons.  However, he didn't leave any pictures of himself that I can find.        

In 1923 Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, then known as Congregation Beth El, became the first Conservative Jewish congregation to hold services in Milwaukee. As the only congregation on Milwaukee’s West Side, the first synagogue was built at North 49^th Street and Garfield Avenue. (The building still stands today.)

Rabbi Kleinman came to Portland in 1937 after being rabbi for 11 years at Temple Beth El in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  "He helped to revitalize the congregation with innovations oriented toward youth, such as junior services for young people, special programs for recently married couples and a Jewish boy Scout troop.  Neveh Zedek also continued to grow, and the rabbi remained as spiritual leader for 20 years.  

                     Neveh Zedek Synagogue on 6th Street , called Sixth Street Synagogue or Shul by some.  Abraham Rosencrantz was the chazzan and had a most beautiful voice.  In the summer people would open their windows to hear him practice davening.  It was a pleasure.                                   

I started Kindergarten at Neveh Zedek Synagogue when I was 5 years old in 1939.  Rabbi Phillip Kleinman, a rabbi with white hair and beard as I remember him, was the rabbi that was such a nice man, as I remember.  I kept on going every Sunday morning till I was over 15 and teaching little ones.  The rabbi seems to be part of my family.  I have good memories of attending and learning.             

    I found him on ancestry.com.  He's buried at Neveh Zedek, Rose City Lodge, Oregon, plot 069.  

What impressed me was that I found a Matthew, a dentist, born in Brooklyn, New York on June 2, 1914, died in Jerusalem on August 27, 2005.  After the rabbi had been promoting Zionism, his son took him up on it, somehow.  I think this would be Matthew, his son.     

I looked the rabbi up, as I'm a genealogist by hobby, and found he came from Galicia the slice of land that Austria got after a war, as he reported honestly in 1920 on the census.  He was 28 and living then in St Paul, Minnesota and was the rabbi at the Jewish church, as they wrote.  He was married to Yetta of Poland, and had a son, Matthew, age 5 at the time.  Yetta, by the way, was on the 1900 census with her parents and siblings, and had been born in Opole Miasto, Opolskie, Poland in 1890.  Her father, Wolf, had immigrated in 1896 but her mother, Sarah, had immigrated in 1900; both listing "Russia."  

Rabbi Kleinman then reported from Milwaukie, Wisconsin in 1930 that he was a rabbi at a temple.  He had 2 more son, Solomon Kleinman and Norman Stanley Kleinman.  

The rabbi, Phillip Kleinman was on the 1940 census in Portland, so I know I have the right one.  Rabbi Kleinman was 49 and a Clergyman at a Temple, that we know as a rabbi at Neveh Zedek Synagogue.  

He and his wife were on the 1950 census of Portland with the comment of the occupation being a rabbi of a church.  

My comment is that either census takers do not know of the noun, "synagogue", and could not understand the word in order to write it down, or it was Rabbi Kleinman trying to Hellenize his occupation out of fear of WWII.  Nowhere was he listed as being a rabbi at a synagogue.  

Rabbi Philip Kleinman of Congregation Neveh Zedek was a president of the Zionist Society which had lost membership and influence in the 1920s and 30s.  He remembered it functioning informally with about 15 members. By 1937 he asked Harry Mittleman, real estate developer to help him with raising funds to keep going.  Debbie Goldberg at Reed College had written her thesis on Zionism.  She knew that Hadassah had the most influence. 

Kleinman was a key figure in the community along with the other Portland rabbis;  Wise, Berkowitz at Beth Israel;  Parzen, Sandrow and Sydney at Ahavai Shalom, and Fain at Shaarie Torah.   Rabbi Kleinman had extended his leadership at Neveh Zedek from 1937 to 1956 due to wartime.  Rabbi Joseph Fain served Shaarie Torah from 1916 to 1946.  Beth Israel used to have more German Jews attending but with the war found they also served people of Eastern European background.  

While doing searches, I stumbled across another Phillip Kleinman.  who died 7/30/2023:  Then I found another Phillip Kleinman born June 17 or 21, 1888 at age 54 and unemployed in New York City on the WWII draft.  He was born in Chittian Chattin, Russia who was a tailor; 5'6" weighed 135 lbs, black hair and 24 years old on his Declaration of Intention.  His wife was Julia.  

They lived at 765 E. 175th Brooklyn?  Another Phillip Kleinman with the  birthdate of 22 Oct 1890  had served in the US service popped up.  He was a veteran, a Pvt.  He died Oct 14, 1918 in France, buried now at Mt Zion Cemetery.   What are the chances of finding 3 or 4 Phillip Kleinmans?   Could be a relative. The last one was  Killed in action.  

Kleinman is a fairly common surname, but using an already used first name is a shunda  as I have been finding More than one Phillip Kleinman?  Not fair to genealogists.  I've even found quite a few Matthew Kleinmans.  Joseph Zalman Kleinman, a Holocaust survivor who survived the Auschwitz death camp and testified against Adolf Eichmann in the Nazi commander's trial in Jerusalem, died Tuesday, Israeli media reported. He was 91.This was reported on May 5, 2021.  I keep telling myself we're only 0.02% of the world population.  

Resource:

https://nevehshalom.org/cns150-history/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joseph-zalman-kleinman-dies-holocaust-survivor-dead-age-91/

ancestry.com

Book: The Jews of Oregon 1850-1950 by Steven Lowenstein