Aditya Madyantara

Professor Annie Knepler

UNST 107G-001

The Italians and Jews of South Portland

In spite of large immigrant numbers, the American west has had little research
conducted regarding its early immigrants, especially on the impact they had on their citys
culture, economy, and social makeup. This is indirect opposition to many eastern or midwestern
cities where extensive research has been conducted. In the early 1900s, the city of Portland,
Oregon began to see rapid growth and expansion. The population of the city climbed from
17,000 residents in 1880 to a population of around 90,000 in 1900, and from 1900 to 1913 the
citys population grew to an astounding 225,000, according to Portland Historian Carl Abbott
(Abbott 75). As a result of the extreme growth, the job market skyrocketed and more and more
laborers were required. This caused an influx of immigrants, including Chinese, Japanese,
Germans, Italians, and Jews. The growth of the city provided job opportunities in areas that
Italians and Jews held previous experience in which subsequently caused the Italian population
of Portland to grow fivefold to over 3,000 and the Jewish population to double to around 2,200
between 1900 - 1910 according to William Toll article Ethnicity and Stability: The Italians and
Jews of South Portland 1900 - 1940 was the basis for this paper. The majority of the Italians and
European Jews that came to Portland and settled in the area of South Portland and intermixed
with each other, unlike other cities including New York in which there was a clear division
between the Italian and Jewish populations (Abbott 169). The early Italians and Jews of South
Portland provide an important look into a small geographic area where two distinct ethnic groups
came together to form a cultural identity unique to the area. Closer examination of the social,
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economical, and family dynamics of South Portland in the early 1900s reveals much regarding
the makeup of the close knit community and its unique culture.

Multnomah County Census 1910.

The influence that the Italian and Jewish immigrants had on South Portland was
immediate and significant. South Portland of 1910 contained a mikveh (ritual bath for women) as
well as half a dozen orthodox congregations. The neighborhood house was erected by the council
of Jewish Women in 1905 and provided meeting spaces for cooking, sewing, and English classes
as well as special classes for immigrants to prepare them for the naturalization process (Toll
172). By the 1930s there was an Italian grocery, bakery, shoe repair shop, and billiards parlor in
addition to the the Italian Catholic church St. Michael the Archangel (Toll 171).
South Portland was preeminently district of families and as a result the proportion of

married couples among adults as well as the overall number of children were substantially higher
than elsewhere (Toll 174). As was common in other cities Jews emigrated to Portland in family
groups or were reunited with their families in one to two years (Toll 174). Family was the focal
point of life in South Portland and was the main reason for a continual growth among the
Immigrant population as more and more Italians and Jews came to South Portland to be with
family members. Home ownership was a big part of family life in South Portland and in fact by
1910, around 23 percent of Italian and Jewish patriarchs owned their own homes despite the
majority having been in Oregon for less than ten years (1910 Multnomah County Census). One
common way home ownership was made affordable for families boarding residents. This was
especially common among the Italians whom an estimated fifty-seven percent had boarders
living with them. The average number of boarders in an Italian home was 4.4 according to John
Bodnar in his book Lives of Their Own, which discusses the Italian population in Pittsburgh
during the same time period (Bodnar, Lives of Their Own,102) The large number of families and
homeownership was one of the unique things about South Portland of the early 1900s and was a
key part of the areas identity.
Employment is another key area in which distinction can be found among the Italian and
Jewish residents who made up South Portland. The majority of South Portlands Jews were able
to become sole proprietors of businesses or find clerical work, while the Italian men of South
Portland worked as laborers, skilled workers, or service workers. Italian women were able to
find employment in clerical or sales work which differed from many other cities in the U.S. (Toll
177). Both Italian and Jewish entrepreneurs in South Portland provided specialty services. The
Italians specialized in barbering, and bootblacking and the Jews specialized in secondhand
goods, clothing, and junk (Toll 186). Portland became a land of opportunity for these immigrants

because of the rapidly growing economy, numerous job opportunities, and weakened competition
in comparison to east coast cities that it provided.
The relationship between the Italians and the Jews of South Portland was one of the
areas defining points. Not only did these two ethnic groups coexist with each other, (despite
some differences) but they learned from and shared with each other to make the South Portland
neighborhood a better place. Gaulda Jermuloske Hahn, a Jew who grew up in South Portland
stated in our immediate neighborhood there was an Italian family and they were very good
friends, somehow I guess we all had our differences, but there was a feeling of extended family
closeness. A closeness that was formed among many of the Italians and the Jews in the area
that had to deal with many of the same issues. They also shared many of the same reasons for
coming to Portland and this shared experience is what made South Portland have such a close
community feel. Ernest Jachetta an Italian who grew up with Jews expressed nothing but
admiration for the Jewish businessmen who had been his childhood friends (Toll 187). The
connection between the Italians and Jews who grew up in old South Portland remains to this
day (despite the South Portland they grew up in being virtually destroyed in the 1960s).
According to a 2009 article in the Jewish review by Polina Olsen, every week a group of Italian
and Jewish men in their mid 80s get together at a pub and reminisce about the old neighborhood,
they discuss their lifelong friendship despite having to overcome language barriers and the ways
in which they helped each other including the Italians performing forbidden chores over Shabbat
or Shabbos for their Jewish friends. As one of the men named Teta said nobody had money, and
we were so close, we always say there will never be another South Portland (Olsen).

Courtesy of Oregonlive.com.

The Italians and Jews of South Portland created a close knit community that bridged
ethnicity and religion and allowed immigrants to have a sense of place and an identity, the
influence that both ethnic groups had on the area is numerous. Looking through the family,social,
and economic dynamics of the area provides a great view into the cultural identity of the Italians
and Jews of South Portland.
Works Cited
Abbott, Carl. Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the People.
Bodnar,John E., Roger D. Simon, and Michael P. Weber. Lives of Their Own: Blacks, Italians,
and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900 - 1960. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1982.
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Olsen, Polina. Old South Portlanders Kibbitz after All These Years. Jewish Review.org. Jewish
Review, 15 Feb. 2009.
Toll, William The Italians and Jews of South Portland. Pacific Historical Review 54.2 (1985)
161 - 189 www.Jstor.org University of California Press.
U.S. Manuscript Census, Multnomah County, 1910.
Oregonlive.com