History of IJS

How did it all begin?

Until 1960 there were no Judaic studies courses offered in higher education in Oregon. Then the Middle East Studies Center opened at Portland State College with the support of a federal grant to cover studies in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew. Rabbi Joshua Stampfer joined the faculty to head the Hebrew section. This included language studies as well as Hebraic civilization.

This program continued for twenty-three years until it was abruptly cancelled due to ï¬scal emergencies in the state budget. Rabbi Stampfer was concerned that no college or university was offering any Judaic studies. He called a meeting of the presidents of Reed, Lewis and Clark, and Portland State Colleges and they agreed to support the introduction of Judaic Studies on their campuses. Leaders of the Jewish community gathered to organize the Institute for Judaic Studies to put this goal into action.

Over the years the original goal of introducing Judaic Studies on local campuses expanded. The Institute saw the higher education community as a signiï¬ cant resource for the community at large and particularly for the Jewish community. As a result, Institute activities ï¬rst centered on the colleges themselves, then on college-community activities, and lastly on community wide events, such as the Portland Jewish Film Festival.