RABBI JOSHUA STAMPFER addresses the crowd at the OJM Art Auction.
Auction raises $160K for OJM
By Paul Haist
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The Oregon Jewish Museum’s 2008 gala Art Auction held May 4 at the Governor Hotel grossed approximately $160,000, up about 8.1 percent from last year’s $147,000, according to preliminary figures provided by the museum.
The total includes $28,000 raised in the oral auction, $17,500 raised in the silent auction and $50,000 raised in the Mitzvah Moment.
The Mitzvah Moment was an opportunity for the 306 auction goers to pledge additional support for the museum, apart from what they were bidding on auction items. OJM board member Rabbi Alan Berg delivered a plea for support of the museum’s education initiative, which enables Oregon school children to learn about Oregon’s Jewish community.
The balance of the gross revenue came from auction ticket sales and a record $47,500 in auction sponsorship.
OJM President Craig Wollner expressed his gratitude to all 59 sponsors and singled out Platinum sponsor City Center Parking and the Goodman family and Gold sponsors Harold and Arlene Schnitzer, Jerry and Helen Stern and Jay and Diane Zidell.
Auction expenses were estimated at $38,000 by OJM Director Judy Margles.
Margles credited the event committee and volunteers for the success of the event.
“I continue to be in awe of the Museum’s Gala Committee, a group of amazing women who each year set the bar higher, yet reach their goal with great cheer and grace,” said Margles. “The funds raised from this event comprise critical operating dollars and I extend my enormous gratitude to everyone who participated.”
The oral auction included 17 items such as 11 works of art, a $1,000 shopping spree on trendy Northwest 23rd Avenue, a week in a beach house in Cannon Beach, another getaway to a home in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, a catered dinner for 10 and lecture by Rabbi Berg, a classic red bicycle and a weekend in Chicago including tours of the recently renovated Spertus Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The silent auction included art, wine collections, hand-made fashions, jewelry and much more.
Museum Curator Anne Levant Prahl, a gifted quilter, donated a king-size quilt executed in a mathematically complex lone-star motif. The piece sold for $1,800, more than 10 percent of total silent-auction revenue.
A tuxedoed Chris Sheik returned as auctioneer again this year. Television journalist Cathy Marshall emceed the evening.
OJM founder Rabbi Joshua Stampfer led hamotzi, first giving thanks “for the vigor of the land of Israel,” where, he noted, more than 50 Oregonians were celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut on a mission with the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.