THANK YOU OREGON ARTS COMMISSION

THANK YOU!  THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

We just finished writing our evaluation for the Arts Builds Community Grant we received in 2011. Jewish Arts Month wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of this granting organization.

Our planners worked hard to document each and every event held. We took copious notes and learned a lot. We made a few mistakes but we had numerous successes. 

Stay tuned. We will soon post what is scheduled for JAM 2012~

We chose not to apply for another OAC grant this year. RACC is supporting our Playwriting for Seniors program (Acting Our Age!)

We hope the community will now contribute financially to support our JAM endeavors. In fact, we are seriously contemplating a name change.

It will still be JAM....but we are thinking that Jewish Arts Moments might be a more accurate idea. Spring will become a season of Jewish Arts Moments...more than can possibly be contained within a month!

Care to donate? Send a check written to the Mttleman Jewish Community Center with JAM written on the memo line c/o

6651 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland 97201

See y’all soon!               

Acting Our Age- HUGE SUCCESS!

There is something very powerful about hearing your words come to life. On August 14th, 2011 the auditorium of the Southeast Community Music Center filled with friends, family and community to hear the plays written by 7 residents of Rose Schnitzer Manor. The writers were amazed by how their short one-act plays came to life on stage.


Illness prevented two residents from attending but a recording of the plays will help them hear the performances.


Applause was mighty following each reading and our resolve is to do it again!


We want to SHOUT OUT our gratitude to our sponsors....The Oregon Arts Commission, The NEA, Cedar Sinai Park, The Mittleman Jewish Community Center, and The Northwest Council of Jewish Women (Oregon Chapter)and Portland Center Stage.....and of course ....


MATT ZREBSKI, playwright, director and teacher for all his efforts!  All the writers delighted in working with him and look forward to future opportunities to do it again!


THANK YOU to our actors: Gavin Hoffman, Paige Jones, and Debbie Lamedman!


Eddy Shuldman teaches the writing class at Rose Schnitzer Manor and coordinates Jewish Arts Month. Todah Rabbah (thanks) Eddy!


And we can't close this blog article without acknowledging our playwrights.....We Love You and hope to see you continue writing plays and stories and poems. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

Play 1: Birthday Surprises by Martha Pomeranz

Play 2: Injustices by Francine Stone

Play 3: Food For Thought by Michael Mogell

Play 4: Our Golden Years by Barbara Dubin

Play 5: Forecast: 17 Hours by Ruth Henning

Play 6: Tango by Charlotte Wiener

Play 7: Mrs. Who? By Evelyn Hirsch

JAM 2011 Update

Last year JAM became a reality thanks to the generosity of The Oregon Arts Commison, National Endowment for the Arts and some individual donors.

We had numerous sponsors who will be identified in the next blog posting. Special thanks needs to go to The Mittleman Jewish Community Center (MJCC) who not only took on fiscal management responsibility but also donated space and staff time to make this possible.

A new grant has been written to the OAC and we hope that they might be willing to offer us funding one more time. This financial assistance will allow to concentrate on fine tuning our festival while looking for other financial resources.

Last year we developed a template for hosting a Portland area Jewish arts festival. Our planning team reviewed, studied and evaluated everything we did. We learned so much and we're determined to make year two more exciting - a festival that will reach more broadly across age groups and spread across the broader community.

Above all, we will need to find ways to financially support JAM. We can't become dependent on grants for our future.

Do you want to be involved as a planner? Write to us! jampdx@gmail.com or to eddy shuldman at  sparksofspirit@gmail.com.

Would you consider a tax deductible donation? Donations large and small are needed. Send your check to the MJCC but write in JAM donation on the memo line. Your contribution will be a statement of your support to building networks throughout our community through the arts.

Stay tuned for info re: JAM events. I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

The PROPER logo

With a little help from the graphics dept. at the MJCC, we can now proudly boast both the OAC and NEA logos.

Because of them....JAM is up and running in Portland Oregon.

Somehow, just saying "Thank you" doesn't seem like enough!