Looking Back At Portland, Oregon in 1860s-1870's and a Growing Anti-Semitism and Racialism

 Nadene Goldfoot                                        

                   1869-Bernard Goldsmith, mayor of Portland, Oregon

Oregon was granted its statehood in 1859. The first Jews who settled there were mainly of German origin, and largely practiced Reform Judaism. By the mid-1850s, Oregon had a number of Jewish communities in small towns, including Jacksonville in southern Oregon, and later Burns, Heppner, and Baker in eastern Oregon

In 1869, Bernard Goldsmith, an immigrant Jew from Bavaria, was sworn in as the mayor of Portland. Two years later, he was succeeded in office by his friend, countryman, and coreligionist, Philip Wasserman, a former state legislator who would later serve on the city’s school board. Jews comprised only about 0.5 percent of Oregon’s population in the late nineteenth century, yet Goldsmith's and Wasserman’s political achievements were hardly unusual. At least seven Jewish mayors served towns across the state, and others held statewide office, served in the legislature, and sat on city councils and school boards. Between 1877 and 1911, Joseph Simon, a German Jew, served on Portland’s city council, in the state senate, in the U.S. Senate, and as Portland’s mayor.

Several factors fostered the acceptance of Jews suggested by these political achievements. The timing and composition of Jewish migration was key. Jews first arrived in Oregon in 1849, just years after the first Overland immigrations brought resettlers to the region. The vast majority, like Goldsmith and Wasserman, were immigrants from German lands; but rather than coming directly to Oregon from Europe, most spent years elsewhere in the United States before following the Gold Rush west and establishing merchandising networks anchored in San Francisco and extending north to Oregon. Those who settled in Oregon brought with them knowledge of English, familiarity with frontier society, and connections to San Francisco-based trade networks that positioned them well to join with fellow pioneers and help create new communities..

                                               This portrait shows Louisa M. Thacker circa 1872.Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society, Org Lot 865_F2_007

The East Coast developed robust networks to aid escaping slaves because it shared immediate borders with the American South and possessed a deep-rooted abolitionist movement. Conversely, the Pacific West Coast—notably the Oregon Territory—was far removed from the slave South and populated by settlers aiming to establish exclusive white agrarian communities, leading them to enact strict Black exclusion laws rather than accept free or escaped African Americans.

The Oregon Historical Society recently released a new batch of digitized historical images of some of the state’s earliest Black residents. The photographs provide a rare look into the lives of Black pioneers — and may help solve an intriguing mystery.In the 1860s and 1870s, only a handful of Black residents lived in Oregon. Now, newly digitized photographs provide a rare and unique view into some of their lives. The two collections feature personal and professional images of the Dixon and Flower families, who arrived in Oregon beginning in the 1860s. Both families stayed in the region for decades and operated some of the earliest Black-owned businesses in the state.

Organized or systemic anti-Semitism was largely absent in Portland, Oregon, during the 1860s and 1870s, contrasting with severe anti-Black and anti-Chinese prejudices prevalent in the region at the time. Chinese arrived as Documented arrivals include early merchants like Ar Foo Fong, a tea merchant who came to the area by 1860. After the mid-1860s, Cantonese-Chinese settlement in Oregon underwent a major transformation, characterized by accelerated population growth, geoterritorial expansion, and the establishment of permanent ethnic Cantonese-Chinese communities.

Beth Israel, organized in 1858, is Portland’s oldest Jewish congregation.  The members worshipped above commercial space on Front Street before moving to this synagogue on Southwest Fifth and Oak in 1861. 

When Congregation Beth Israel built its synagogue, Portland was also home to a number of other religious groups, including Roman Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians.  Both Jewish and Protestant groups encouraged personal scriptural study, which required literacy and several religious groups had a vested interest in an educated populace.

During the 1860–1870 decade, Portland's only synagogue was Congregation Beth Israel, which dedicated Oregon's first synagogue building in August 1861 at Fifth and Oak Streets. This is a reformed Temple where German Jews attended.  The Jewish population in Portland grew from approximately 100 individuals in 1860 to several hundred by 1870. 

 During the 1860s and 1870s, Portland and the state of Oregon maintained an intense legal and social environment of anti-Black exclusion, rooted in the state’s original 1857 constitution which banned Black people from living, owning property, or making contracts in the state, even though Oregon entered the Union as a free state.

 Central European Jewish pioneers experienced high levels of economic integration, civic participation, and social acceptance. Commercial Success: By 1860, roughly one-third of Portland’s merchants were Jewish, actively participating in local trade, shipping, and town-building. 

1870s Expansion: Nearly half of Oregon's total Jewish population lived in Portland by the 1860s and 1870s, with numbers steadily rising as families consolidated their trade networks from declining southern and eastern mining camps into the city. The Jewish pioneers came mostly from Bavaria, Prussia, and other German-speaking Central European states.

Institutions: Centered around Congregation Beth Israel (founded in 1858) and the [First Hebrew Benevolent Association]. A splinter traditional group formed Congregation Ahavai Shalom in 1869. Ahavai Sholom was a traditional and Orthodox congregation that later joined the Conservative movement. Founded in 1869 by Polish and Prussian immigrants, looking for a more traditional approach to Judaism than the Temple Beth Israel.   

Civic Life: Jewish settlers shared middle-class mercantile values with their non-Jewish neighbors and moved comfortably within early Portland society without facing institutional rhetoric or widespread public hostility. 

Jewish pioneer stores in Portland from 1860–1870 were general merchandise, dry goods, and specialty shops located primarily along Front and First Streets, most notably Meier & Frank (founded 1857/1873), Fleischner, Mayer and Co. (founded 1875), and Bernard Goldsmith’s jewelry and general merchandise stores.  
Meier & Frank: Began as a dry goods and general store on Front Street by Aaron Meier (opened 1857), becoming a formal partnership with Emil Frank in 1873. 
Fleischner, Mayer and Co.: Established by Louis Fleischner and partners, growing into a massive wholesale dry goods enterprise supplying the Pacific Northwest. 
Goldsmith’s Store: Operated by Bavarian pioneer Bernard Goldsmith (who later served as Portland's mayor from 1869–1871), featuring jewelry, gold-dust trading, and dry goods. 
Community Institutions: Settlers established vital communal structures, including the First Hebrew Benevolent Association (1859), the First Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society (1864), and a local B'nai B'rith lodge (1866).
The Broader Climate: While the 1860s and 1870s in Oregon featured intense racial discrimination—such as anti-Black exclusion laws and severe hostility directed at Chinese laborers—these legal frameworks and social hostilities were not targeted at the white, German- and Prussian-speaking Jewish merchant class.
          The Beginnings of Anti-Semitism 
Minor Social Exclusions: Formal barriers were rare, though elite non-Jewish social spaces like the Arlington Club did exclude Jewish residents, reflecting subtle social cliquishness rather than violent or systemic persecution. 
The Arlington Club was founded December 9, 1867 Founded in 1867, the Arlington Club is a private social club in Portland, Oregon, established by 35 prominent business and banking leaders including Simeon Reed, Henry Failing, and William Ladd. It has served as a gathering place for the city's civic and industrial elite.  It operated for over a century as a strictly all-male, predominantly Caucasian club for elite business leaders, with women only permitted as guests on specific Wednesday evenings.
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