Stampfer feted for role in Judaic studies advances

By AMY R. KAUFMAN

article created on: 2008-10-01T00:00:00

Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, founder and executive director of the Institute for Judaic Studies for the past 25 years, changed the course of Jewish studies in Portland and beyond, according to Dr. Robert Wexler and other speakers at the Sept. 18 banquet held at the Benson Hotel.

In 1983, Stampfer said, he was teaching Hebrew on the faculty of the Middle East Studies program at Portland State University when the program was canceled and he lost his job.

“It was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said. “That’s when I started the Institute.”

Dr. Paul Bragdon, president emeritus of Reed College, played a “critical role in 1983 in fostering and welcoming the Institute and making college facilities available for events,” said Toinette Menashe in a tribute to Bragdon for his 25-year association with the Institute.

Stampfer was responsible for creating the first “ongoing, scholarly, university-based program for Judaic studies in all of Oregon,” according to Arden E. Shenker, who contributed to the history of IJS distributed at the event.

The goal of the early Institute, according to the history, was to introduce Jewish studies at local colleges and universities, and the Institute encouraged financial support for the establishment of chairs in Judaic Studies. Stampfer wrote, “One of our proudest achievements has been the role we played in establishing chairs of Judaic Studies at Reed College and Portland State University.”

Professor Steve Wasserstrom is the Moe and Izetta Tonkon Chair of Jewish Studies at Reed College. The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE foundation funded the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Oregon—directed by Professor Judith R. Baskin—and the program of the same name at Portland State University, where Professor Michael Weingrad is the chair. In 2008 Lorry I. Lokey created another chair in the Harold Schnitzer Family Program at PSU, to be filled by Professor Natan Meir, according to the IJS publication.

“I envision Portland as taking its place as a major center of Jewish learning, producing a new generation of teachers and researchers in Judaic studies,” said Stampfer.

In 1996, the Institute formally evaluated the state of adult Jewish education in Portland and formed a coalition called Morasha that later brought the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School program to Portland.

The Institute’s annual academic conferences featuring international scholars draw large audiences from the community at large. IJS also has conducted all-day marathons at Reed College to explore Jewish themes in a variety of disciplines.

The Writers and Scholars Lecture Series, launched by IJS in 1998, has hosted prominent speakers, such Rabbi Harold Kushner, historian Sir Martin Gilbert and Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua.

The first Portland Jewish Film Festival, now in its 16th season, was organized by IJS, and IJS continues to co-host the event with the Northwest Film Center, drawing more than 2,000 people each year.

The Institute also presents music, theater and dance performances, and, with Portland Symphonic Choir, co-sponsored the Bloch Music Festival.

IJS has co-sponsored interfaith conferences with Warner Pacific College and law conferences with Lewis and Clark Law School.

Two new programs of the Institute are the Jewish Cinematheque and the Jewish Collaborative Theater.

The Institute has also published six books.

Stampfer said he envisions a Jewish repertory theater, the creation of an office for the promotion of Jewish music and a Jewish Retreat Center that would serve as a campus for a wide range of educational programs and youth activities.