Beth Israel is a

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

congregation and Jewish

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States. The congregation was founded in 1858, while Oregon was still a

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

, and built its first synagogue in 1859.

Architecture

The congregation's first building was a modest, single story, pitched-roof, wood-framed, clapboard building with Gothic, pointed-arch windows and door. This early structure was replaced by an 1889 synagogue building, which was destroyed by fire in December 1923."Fire Destroys Big Synagogue" (December 30, 1923). ''

The Sunday Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', pp. 1, 6. Designed by Portland architect

Warren H. Williams Warren Hedley Williams (born 27 December 1963) is an Aboriginal Australian singer, musician and songwriter from Hermannsburg, Northern Territory, Hermannsburg in Central Australia. As of 2013 he worked as a Radio personality, broadcaster on Cent ...

, the building, called

Moorish revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...

design in some sources, is elsewhere described as a combination of eclectic and

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

styles, with two towers topped by bulbous domes.''The Ties that Bind; A Century of Judaism on America's Last Frontier,'' Julius J. Nodel and Alfred Asper, pub. by Temple Beth Israel, Portland, 1959, p. 55 ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'' newspaper in 1923 described its style as "semi-Gothic and Mooresque". It was located at S.W. 12th and Main streets in

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found ...

. Its two towers were tall, and the main interior space measured , and featured an arched ceiling 52 feet high. Pc-temple-beth-israel-1800

It was replaced in 1928 by a notable

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orth ...

synagogue building at N.W. 19th and Flanders that continues to serve the congregation. It was listed as Temple Beth Israel on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979. Designed by

Herman Brookman Herman S. Brookman (July 2, 1891 — November 6, 1973) was an architect in Portland, Oregon, United States. Born in New York, Brookman received early training in the office of society architect Harrie T. Lindeberg and worked there until 192 ...

, it is considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine-style architecture on the

west coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

, and was inspired by the Alte Synagoge (Steelerstrasse Synagogue) in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

, Germany.

References

External links

Congregation Beth Israel
(official website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Beth Israel (Portland, Oregon) Ashkenazi Jewish culture in the United States Ashkenazi synagogues Religious buildings and structures in Portland, Oregon Jews and Judaism in Portland, Oregon Byzantine Revival synagogues Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Synagogues on the National Register of Historic Places Byzantine Revival architecture in Oregon Reform synagogues in Oregon Synagogue buildings with domes National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon 1928 establishments in Oregon Herman Brookman buildings Northwest District, Portland, Oregon Moorish Revival synagogues Moorish Revival architecture in the United States

Architecture

See also

References

External links