Looking Back At Jewish Portland: Old South Portland

 Nadene Goldfoot

Nathan Abraham Goldfoot, b: 1871 Lithuania                                               

                                                                        Son, Morris "Meshke"  Goldfoot 

                                                       born July 1, 1908, 

  Nathan  Goldfoot                            boxed at the Neighborhood House

                                                        went pro as "Billy Meshke"

Dad did well for himself. Since his father died when he was 4, he and his brother sold newspapers like a lot of the other little Jewish boys out on the city streets. Everyone spoke Yiddish;  no English.   He had to drop out of high school to work and support his family so missed his last year.

He had been in a lot of sports and was on the baseball team, which he loved.  He missed that a lot.  He was also in track.  

 

 He got a job at the neighborhood kosher butcher shop next to the Lincoln Theater on 3rd and Lincoln and worked, learning the business under a strict owner,  even unable to attend my birth.  Later, he opened up his own Lincoln Wholesale Meats and I worked in it after school as his bookkeeper.                                 

Then he expanded, opening up Silver Falls Meat Packing Co in Columbia Blvd and owned giant cattle trucks. He bought cattle at auctions in eastern Oregon, and brought them to Portland, turning them into steaks, etc. I tried my hand at  collecting from the retail stores who were in arrears.  Ugh.  I'm a better teacher.   I attended Portland State at that point.  

While a newby in the meat business, Dad took in a German Jewish refugee at the nudging of his Uncle Max "Turshinsky"/Turn of La Grande who had a furniture store.  The refugee,  who got out of Germany in 1939. was Werner Oster who then married Dad's sister, Anne.  We all never went hungry for meat.  Charlie married Helen Hochfeld who's granddfather was a well-known Rabbi in Portland, Rabbi Chaim David Hochfeld from Ukraine.  Helen's father, William Hochfeld,  had opened up a department store in Grand Coulee, Washington, so Charlie  worked for him.  

My paternal grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfus-anglicized to Goldfoot during his stay in England, was (born in 1871), was  an immigrant from Telsiai, Lithuania and his wife, Zlata or Essie Jermulowske (born in 1886) , was an immigrant from Lazdjai, Suwalki, Lithuania. Nathan had immigrated from Lithuania to England, then to Dublin, Ireland, and took a ship to Winnepeg, Canada in 1893. In June of 1893 he was on the Londonderry and 22 years old, listed as a farm laborer, and was headed to land in Quebec.  Nine other passengers were on the ship with him.   Then he got to Portland, according to his death certificate, in 1899.                          

    Here, Charlie/Haskel, is sitting, my dad, Meshke/Morris, is standing.

 Nathan was 37 when his 1st son, Charlie, was born in 1906. My dad was born in 1908.   Nathan arrived in Portland in 1899, and I found him on the 1910 census as he died in 1912. They lived at 265 Arthur.  They had met in Council, Idaho and married in Boise.  After about a year, they moved to South Portland, Oregon.  My grandmother, Bubba in Yiddish, attended the Mead Street Shul.  

It's a place I wound up as a teacher teaching the Jewish Chabad school's K and 1st grades.  The roof was leaking during the rain and at times I actually used an umbrella in the classroom. That caused the school to move out a ways near a lake. I attended Neveh Zedek Synagogue, a Conservative one, with Rabbi Kleinman.  Nathan and Zlata Goldfoot had 4 children;  Charles, Moshe-Morris, Elsie and Ann.  My father, Morris-Maurice, was born July 1, 1908.  Charles was born September 22, 1906.                                                    

       Many Jews became peddlers all over the US when they immigrated

Nathan died before Ann was born in 1912.  He had been a peddler with one horse and wagon, supplied to him by a group, and one day the horse was startled and frightened, so ran through the streets of SE Portland as Nathan would pick up boxes from the port to be delivered in SE Portland and deliver them to businesses.  Nathan was thrown out of the wagon, a wagon without any identification on it, hit his head, and was taken to Providence-St. Vincent's Hospital in NE Portland. 

 He never woke up, but died there, and my Bubba, at home on a Friday, waiting for him to come home, pregnant, didn't hear a thing about it.  Finally, several days later, someone came to her door and told her that her husband was dead.  She cursed that man for not coming immediately to tell her.  He died several years later.  

Bubba had to pluck chickens for a living.  She lost control with 3 little children and pregnant with another girl.  She had a girl 1  and 2 boys, age 4, 6 when she became a widow.  Sometimes she had to chase them under the bed with a broom.   

My grandfather, coming from Russia, didn't trust banks, so he hid his money in the barn where he kept his horse.  After his death, Bubbie looked for it but could find nothing.  She was destitute but had a brother nearby who wanted to adopt my father.  She said no, and kept them altogether.                                                                                

Here is a mid-century reproduction photograph of the original Failing Public School in Portland Oregon. Bubba's children, Charlie, Morris, Elsie and Ann attended Failing School that was in their neighborhood from 1911 on.  The school was built in 1882 and named for former Portland Mayor Josiah Failing. Photograph by Mentzer the Photographer – 203 N E Russell St in Portland Oregon. The photo has a description stating the school name and dates of operation as well as its destruction date of 1922.  The Failing I see today and have seen all my life is still standing.          

The school was closed down and the building abandoned. Located at 049 Southwest Porter Street near the west end of the Ross Island Bridge, it was a central location for the fast-growing community college. Despite the poor name for an education building, Failing provided PCC with 22 classrooms at a single location and a place for its new headquarters, which had been in an old portable building behind Benson High School.  It's been recycled into a city college building. If you cross the Ross island bridge from SE to SW and turn right and go around and then forward, you will see the school on the right.                                                      

                                                              Judge Gus Solomon, my father's peer

Gould "Gus" Jerome Solomon was born in Portland, Oregon in South Portland, too.  He was born August 29, 1906. He should have attended school with Charlie Goldfoot.  Gus's parents were Jacob (born 1872 in Hoosh, Romania, and Rose Solomon, (born 1872 in Ukraine, a Russian state). They married in Portland not long after arriving in Portland.   His mother died in childbirth and his father died young.  He was raised by relatives.  When they arrived in Portland, it was during the severe depression of 1893 to 1897.  He as a peddler, opened a small 2nd-hand store, first with Max Barrell who was also from Hoosh, and later with Morris Augustin.  By 1910, Portland was doing better and was the Pacific Northwest's leading financial, commercial, port and rail center and it ranked 28th in urban population and 55th in manufacturing value.  The Jews who had come here were in trade and commerce.  South Portland's tailor, shoemakers, and storekeepers largely served workers' families.  60% of its Jewish heads in South Portland in 1910 were either proprietors or clerks, while another 18% were on the fringe of proprietorship as expressmen or peddlers (my Zaida-grandpop that I never got to meet).  Many just eked out a living.  

In 1900 the Solomons lived on First Street in South Portland.  Jacob was a clothing merchant at age 29.  They both said they were from Poland to the census taker.  Eugene had been born in 1895 in Portland.  

By 1920 they were living in the NE section of Portland on NE Knott and 14th.  Gus was 13 and his siblings were Eugene J, 23, Sam 21, Claire 19 and Delphine 17.  They were going up in society; out of the   cozy ghetto. 

Rose was born as Rifka Rochel Rosencrantz in 1872 near Kiev, under the Czar. Helen Hochfeld's grandfather was also from Ukraine.   For Russian Jews, there were no civil rights, but there were ruinous restrictions on trading, and periodic expulsions from towns and villages.  Pogroms savaged them early in the 1880's.  They suffered from being evicted from cities, new discriminatory laws that popped up, and heightened violence that worsened conditions in the 1890's.  

Between 1880 and 1920, millions of people from Europe, the Ottoman empire, and Asia created the greatest immigration era in the US history.  In these years, 1/3 of eastern European Jewry left for the fabled USA. which in 1880 had only a quarter-million Jews, about 1/6 from eastern Europe.  By 1900, some 600,000 more eastern European Jews had arrived; 45% of them women and girls.  

The city contained the urban Far West's 2nd highest % of foreign-born people in 1890 and 1900, most of them clustered in the same neighborhoods.  In 1910,  Portland's population was 207,000 with some 5,000 Jews, almost 1/2 from eastern Europe, and they belonged to Portland's synagogues. in 1920, at least 11,000 religiously affiliated Jews lived in the city with 258,288 people which some 6,000 of them were living in or near South Portland.   

Rose's brothers, Abraham and Jacob Rosencrantz, brought the 22 year old Rose to Portland in 1894.  Other siblings followed later.  Similar networks of relatives and friends encouraged Atlantic crossings and helped newcomers.  

The Rosencrantz brothers became leading figures in Jewish South Portland, respected for their learning in Talmud. (Oh dear, my father was thrown out of Hebrew school because at age 4, he was already on the streets of Portland selling newspapers, already making change for people.  He told me that people came to him more than to his older brother, Charlie, who was 6.   He wouldn't listen to the teacher, and probably was noisy and disruptive.)  He never got another chance.

Abraham Isaak Rosencrantz (b:July 4,1875--d: July 17, 1936) became a well-known cantor in small congregations---Shaarie Torah and Neveh Zedek Talmud Torah---and an interim rabbi.  Jacob, called John, became a synagogue sexton. Jacob was born in 1864, died in 1938, buried in Rose city Lodge's Neveh Zedek Cemetery.    

 Jacob became a prospering merchant, though he only had a Hebrew school education in the old country.  At least he was literate in one language.  This school prepared him in about 2 years to be bar-mitzvahed. He was ambitious so attended a night school for 2 years where he learned to write a crude English, math and read from newspapers, and then he moved to key West, Florida which had a large Romanian community and lived in Tampa for 4 or 5 years.  He became a salesman, possibly  attended the World's Fair in Chicago selling merchandise there in 1893, which is when he moved to Portland, where he knew of other Romanian Jews.  I wonder if he knew Beedie and her husband, Max Etlinger who had a son, Joel and a daughter, Joannie?         

In Romania, Jews were barred from town and city peddling, their era of legal persecution of Jews, called a "cold pogrom," by historians when the government "defined Jews as enemies of the nation, removed them from the state school system, and encouraged occasional violence."  Jews were disqualified from citizenship periodically and expelled from villages, deported, and worn down by poverty. 

 So Jacob immigrated at age 14 early in 1886, one of 5,518 other Romanians.  They made up only 4% of the east European Jewish tide arriving between 1880 and 1920.   

Leon Feldstein's family came from Rumania in 1907. Other Rumanians would pop in and his mother would play the piano and guitar for people to dance.  They would have a Mameliga party which consisted of a huge tub of mameliga, a corn meal-hardened corn meal mush. Everyone was poor. Gravy was added to the mameliga, a few pieces of meat and lots of onion and garlic.     

South Portland was 14 blocks long that ran from the Willamette River westward 6 to 10 blocks to end in a large garbage dump that could have been "The Gulch", near the Ross Island Bridge, which was in front of the Goldfoot duplex that was also near the Neighborhood House.  It's said that it was a classic 1st settlement neighborhood.  European Jews and Italian Catholic immigrants lived here and got along well.  I remember a kosher Deli and and Italian Deli right across the street from each other. my father would send me over to them from our SE home on a Sunday morning to buy some kippered salmon.

The Blackman family lived near Molly and young Irv Rotenberg on First Avenue next to Mosler's Bakery where my two aunts, Elsie and Ann worked. Mosler's bagels could compete easily with the best out of New York.  People of today don't know a real bagel.  I still remember Elsie coming home early with Mom and I waiting for her with her bag of warm bagels, and we ate them without any cream cheese or anything.  Just ate those delicious bagels.  And the aroma....the best!  

People here chose to live close to each other and it was a wonderful way to live, like we think about the old country and its shtetl-life  of Fiddler On the Roof.  In this small area, anything that anybody needed for good living was available within walking distance.  There was the library within a few blocks.  There were 6 synagogues.  You could take your pick of the one you'd rather be dead that caught in; and they were within a few blocks.  

There were grocery stores such as Korsun's, Louis Leveton's drugstore, Sig Sichel's Cigar shop on 3rd Ave., the laundry, the hospital, the community center.  The Solomon Apartments, built by Jacob Solomon was at First and Caruthers. Dave Schneiderman had a pool hall, often crowded with older boys and its foot patrolman, Mr. Nichols. Calistro and Halperin had a delicatessen between Caruthers and Sheridan that catered to both the Italian and Jewish trade, since its owners came from each ethnic group.  Simon Director, Isaac Friedman and Joseph Nudelman had competition for my father's market with kosher meat markets within a few blocks of each other along First Avenue. They had it all in this South Portland ghetto.  It was sweet living and really everybody helped each other.  Along First Avenue, a little north at first and Grant, was Robison's dry goods store, a mini-department store used by South Portlanders.  It was Mrs. Robison's sons, Charles and Edward, who donated funding to help establish the Robison Home, the Jewish community's modern care facility for the elderly.  

Resource:

Gus J. Solomon, Liberal Politics, Jews and the Federal Courts by Harry H. Stein-Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, 2006

The Jews of Oregon 1850-1950 by Steven Lowenstein, 1987

The Downtown Jews-a walking tour through Portland's early business district by Polina Olsen , 2009

 

We Are People OF Our History: Take a Look At Passover

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                           

Eating matzos during 8 days of Passover; no regular bread
this is unleavened;  flour and water only.

Here we see Jewish children under 6 at a special dinner called a Seder
designed as a teaching lesson about the Exodus.  At the table is a textbook called a Haggadah that tells the story.  The food you see plays a part that reminds us of certain events and facts.  We will recite these facts.  Our youngest child is to ask 4 questions about it:  Why is this night different? Why do we eat bitter herbs on this night?  Why do we dip the herbs twice when we never do this?  Why, tonight, do we all recline when we sat up straight?
We learn that there are 4 types of children:  an intelligent one, a wicked one, a simple one and one still too young to ask questions.

A child's personality and makeup are created by the time they are 6 years old.

  It only takes that long to develop inherited and learned personality traits, and we are set for life.  Luckily, some bad traits can be redefined with the help of a good psychologist, but so much of us affects the genes we inherit
to be good or bad traits.  Whether we were fortunate enough to have wonderful, intelligent parents or the type that were child-beaters,  sometimes our genes outweigh and save us under even the harshest of horrible conditions of our environment. 
                                                               

            

So it is with nations and the people within.  The world's population since cave man has been under attack at different periods of time.  I often feel so lucky to have been born in 1934 after WWI and all preceding it into a modern world to wonderful parents.  My original inbred shyness has been remodeled to become an outgoing teacher with her classes.  Was it my paternal grandmother who was shy?  Was it my mother?  How is it that my Jewish ancestors have suffered so much in this world?  Has it always been so?  Why do the Arabs hate Israelis so much?  Why do some nations continually attack others?  
                                                                             

Jews in Poland being forced into one area to live in,
then to be transported to death camps to be gassed.
This turned out to be the total extinction of 6 million Jews in Europe
and other places.  

From the beginning of the birth of Judaism, Jews have found themselves in hot water.  Christians can read about the Jews' history and have been doing so since the history of Jesus in about 37 CE; that is for the past 2,000 years at least. The Greek Syrians and then the Romans occupied Jerusalem in c 312 BCE and took over the Temple until the Romans burned Jerusalem down in 70 CE.  We first read about it in our story of Chanukah with the eternal light returning to the Temple that lasted for 8 days and nights instead of one night. With that final blow, Jews were massacred while most others escaped to all parts of the world.  We were then in what was called the Diaspora, and found we were not accepted, for our  religion was so different.                                                     

The Old Testament in Deuteronomy 14:2 states:  "For you are a holy people to the Lord your G-d, and the Lord has chosen you to be his own treasure out of all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth."  In other words, originally, G-d chose the Jews as his favorite.  Because of this, the rest of the Christians must have felt a lot of jealousy.  In fact, some Protestant groups insist that they have replaced us and we are no longer special.  Well, as Tevia said in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Ha Shem, why couldn't you have picked someone else?"  What is the "Old Testament?"  "The Old Testament (abbreviated OT) is the first part of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred Word of God. "  We believe that the 1st 5 books in it were written by Moses himself.  Moses gave the Jews (the Israelites) 613 laws to follow in order to be molded into very special and moral people in order that they would be the light of the nations; the example of good behavior.  Moses saved these people from 400 years of living in Egypt of which most was spent in slavery-servitude to the Egyptians.  All who were these slaves followed Moses to freedom of which we celebrate with the upcoming holiday Wednesday night of Passover.  
                                                     

Hillel, a 1st century BCE also called, "The Elder";  a scholar,
founded a school "House of Hillel"
Born in Babylonia, settled in Eretz Yisrael (Judah) , was a laborer working
with his hands while studying with well-known teachers-Shemaiah and Avialyon, just before the time of Jesus.  

Second most famous Jewish words comes from the original teachings of Torah and is called the Golden Rule written by Hillel who said simply,  "Don't do to others what you don't want to happen to you."  

                                                      

Moses, b: 1391 BCE-d: 1273 BCE at 120 years.
Wandered with 600,000 Israelites for 40 years before
reaching Canaan and could not enter with Joshua and others
because he had lost his temper once.

The ancient Hebrews, as Israelites came to be called because they spoke Hebrew, were the 1st to base their life as a nation under Kings Saul, David and Solomon on the idea of One G-d, the G-d of all nations and all peoples.  In a very real sense, the ancient Hebrews were also "chosen" to bring this message to the world.  The most famous lesson was the Ten Commandments. Just think, laws are made to fix things and make them better.  We have the law of wearing seat belts when driving, and this was to keep people from being killed in an accident.  The Ten Commandments are found in Deut. 4:13;10:4, etc proclaimed by G-d on Mt. sinai and transmitted through Moses to Israel.  This is considered the fountainhead of all the other laws.  They are given in Exod. 20:2-14   The 1st 5 describe man's duties to G-d, and the last 5 his responsibilities to his fellow-man.

 An example: 1. Belief in G-d;  2, Prohibition of idolatry;  3. Prohibition of vain oaths, 4.  The Sabbath,  5.Honor your father and your mother, so that your days will be lengthened upon the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you.  6: "You shall not kill;  7. you shall not commit adultery;  Prohibition against kidnapping-meaning stealing... you shall not steal;  9. you shall not bear false witness against your fellow, 10. you shall not covet your fellow's house, You shall not covet your fellow's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your fellow.  
                                                    

Esau and Jacob, twins of Isaac
DNA of J1c3d
as different as day and night

So, in our beginning, we were a people who were strong and free with Abraham as our founding father reaching back as far as 1948 BCE or in the 2nd millennium BCE who through his son Isaac and then his son Jacob, wound up during a famine and migrated to Egypt which was our only choice available at the time.  From there our story began.  Since then we have felt the slings, arrows, stones and bullets, rockets, and missiles real and of hatred from so many; Crusaders, Spanish Inquisition, on and on to the Holocaust, and now the Arabs in the Middle East.  For over 3,000 years we have believed in one G-d and the need of our moral compass given to us by Moses to be a compassionate and good people, only to find we are not acceptable in this world.  If Moses were to return to earth today, he would recognize much of the Torah, the Hebrew language, and many of the traditional teachings of our people.  Empires have come and gone since his time here, but ours continues.  
                                                      

That makes our history unique.  Since we have so often been ruled by those who sought to destroy us and they are gone and we remain makes it striking:  like the Hellenizers of Ptolemaic rule and then the Seleucids, the surrounding kingdoms of Israel, Philistines and Phoenicians.  

During our history we have changed the life and thought of humanity, bringing to the world ideals of equality, decency, and morality which, however imperfectly carried out, are the driving forces of today's civilization."

We see the world as good, believing that G-d has a plan for the universe, a plan in which each of us plays a part.  No individual is hopelessly evil.  Every person can choose to do good, and in that way help perfect the quality of life on earth.  
                                                 

Isaiah, painting by Raphael
lived during 740 to 701 BCE, prophesizing in Jerusalem
of a noble family, closely connected with the royal court under king
Hezekiah; against moral laxity;
Kindness, pity, and justice to the poor and underprivileged are more significant to G-d than offering sacrifices.  

                                         As Isaiah  2:2-4 put it: 
And it shall come to pass in the end of days,
That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains,
And He shall judge between the nations,
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nations,
Neither shall they learn war anymore,   

Resource:
My People --Abba Eban's History of the Jews, adapted by David Bamberger
Passover Haggadah with a new translation by Chaim Raphael
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

USA Presidents and Their Treatment of Jews and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                            

                                  

  
How has the USA handled Jews that came to live in this land of the free and home of the brave?  A President usually leads his constituents in his attitudes.    How did their Party handle this change of being a Christian nation only?  Dennis Ross, former Ambassador of USA to Israel, just wrote a book called THIRTEEN US PRESIDENTS, 67 BUMPY YEARS.    That induced me to look at all the presidents. 

1. George Washington-Federalist 1789-1797 :  Washington was a Deist, like Franklin and Jefferson, and never mentioned Christ in any of his writings. in Maxims of George Washington by A. A. Appleton & Co. 

This prophecy, by Benjamin Franklin, was made in a "CHIT CHAT AROUND THE TABLE DURING INTERMISSION," at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787. This statement was recorded in the diary of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a delegate from South Carolina. ""They [the Jews] work more effectively against us, than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in... It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pest to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America." �George Washington

2. John Adams-Federalist 1797-1891; "I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation." (Letter to Thomas Jefferson)

     3. Thomas Jefferson-Democratic-Republican 1801-1809; Thomas Jefferson is deservedly a hero to American Jewry. His was one of the few voices in the early republic fervently championing equal political rights for Jews. Jefferson’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia is a classic American statement of religious toleration. Significantly, while Jefferson championed the rights of Jews and other religious minorities, he did not do so out of respect for Judaism but because he respected the right of every individual to hold whichever faith they wished.

4. James Madison-Democratic-Republican 1809-1817; I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.
-- James Madison, letter to Mordecai Noah, May 15, 1818, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, and "That diabolical, hell-conceived principle of persecution rages among some, and to their eternal infamy the clergy can furnish their quota of imps for such a business.  Look what they were considering doing in the Congress, "Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any Manner contrary to their conscience.  With him Sharia law of the Muslims would never get established anywhere in the USA.  letter to William Bradford, January 24, 774 from same source-Menendez and Doerr. 

5. James Monroe-Democratic-Republican 1817-1825; To discuss the religion of Monroe and the Founding Fathers means to discuss religion in the United States of their time.
Up to now the Presidents were: the Church, the Church of England, the Established Church, or the Church of Virginia. The independence of the 13 colonies prompted the American members of the Church of England to rename their church and to discard the word “England.” In its place, they adopted in the 1780s the term Episcopal (essentially meaning “we have bishops”) and renamed their denomination, The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Less is known about his thoughts on religion than other previous presidents. 

6. John Quincy Adams-Democratic-Republican 1825-1829:I believe in the rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.  Letter to Major Mordecai Manuel Noah

     7. Andrew Jackson-Democrat 1829-1837; The United States that came out of the American Revolution retained some of the traits of European feudalism—a concentration of wealth and might in the hands of tiny aristocratic elites; a lingering political power for the Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches; a habit of deference on the part of everyone else, the humble masses. By the 1820s the aristocratic features, instead of fading into the past, seemed to be taking on new features with the rise of industrial capitalism, which created spectacular new fortunes for the privileged handful. And the new system, through its banks (and their paper money), imposed monopolies and inhibited competition, which, at least in some people’s view, made it still harder for the ordinary masses to go into business on their own or even to maintain traditional living standards. There are tons of websites quoting him saying vile things about Jews.  He was a man against paper money and banks, and he got his picture on the $20 dollar bill.  Jackson created the Democrat Party. Jackson and his ally Martin Van Buren and their fellow politicos and journalists succeeded in drawing together those many movements and impulses into an electoral coalition, which became the first solidly footed mass national political party anywhere in the world. This was the Democratic Party—a party with roots reaching back to Thomas Jefferson and his anti-Hamiltonians but that took on a modern shape and its modern name only under Jackson and Van Buren. And, in 1828, Jackson’s Democrats won the national election—won on the basis of a larger electorate and larger turnout and many more humble people than in any previous election in all of history.

8. Martin Van Buren-Democrat 1837-1841,  "While there are no other indications of President Van Buren having important interactions with the Jewish community, his actions in 1840 with the Damascus Affair in Syria will always be appreciated by the Jewish community.

9. William Henry Harrison-Whig 1841-1841 one month, of 30 days, 12 hours and 30 min died in office. 
10. John Tyler-Whig 1841-1845,

11. James Knox Polk-Democrat 1845-This 11th President of the United  States in 1832  had fifteen slaves who he treated most cruel.  Many of his slaves would runaway to escape the harsh treatment of his  hard disciplinary ways toward them.  It is clear by his own words that James Polk saw himself as the superior, and the Jews as Israelite slaves who were supservient heaven sent servants.  1849. 

12. Zachary Taylor-Whig 1849-1850
13. Millard Fillmore-Whig 1850-1853
14. Franklin Pierce-Democrat 1853-1857
15. James Buchanan-Democrat 1857-1861
16. Abraham Lincoln-Republican 1861-1865;  Felt it was noble to want Jews restored to their native home in Palestine.  "The President said his chiropodist was a Jew who “has so many times ‘put me upon my feet’ that I would have no objection to giving his countrymen ‘a leg up.’”

17. Andrew Johnson-Democratic Union 1865-1869
18. Ulysses Simpson Grant-Republican 1869-1877
19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes-Republican 1877-1881
20. James Abram Garfield-Republican 1881-1881
21. Chester Alan Arthur-Republican 1881-1885
22. Stephen Grover Cleveland-Democrat 1885-1889
23. Benjamin Harrison-Republican 1889-1893
24. Stephen Grover Cleveland-Democrat 1893-1897
25. William McKinley-Republican 1897-1901

26. Theodore Roosevelt-Republican 1901-1909 : In the 1890s, Eastern European Jewish immigrants poured into the tenements of New York’s Lower East Side, Chicago’s Maxwell Street, Boston’s North End and other urban neighborhoods. Living and working together, cut off from the broader society, recent Jewish immigrants and their children who could vote were usually willing to support the Democratic Party, which was known for its greater sympathy to the working classes. The Republican Party sought ways, and recruited candidates, who might persuade these Jewish Democrats to abandon their ethno-political solidarity and become “real Americans” -- that is, to vote Republican.Roosevelt was an unlikely hero for Yiddish-speaking tenement dwellers. Descended from patrician, colonial Dutch Calvinist stock, Roosevelt was a wealthy, Harvard-educated outdoorsman and former police commissioner of New York City -- one with little sympathy for the tumultuous social order of the Lower East Side. Nonetheless, American politics has a way of bringing together interesting bedfellows. When Roosevelt campaigned for governor, the Republicans invoked the ghost of the Spanish Inquisition to mobilize Jewish support for his candidacy.

27. William Howard Taft-Republican 1909-1913:

28. Thomas Woodrow Wilson-Democrat 1913-1921: The allied nations with the fullest concurrence of our government and people are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundations of a Jewish Commonwealth.To think that I, the son of the manse, should be able to help restore the Holy Land to its people. (Reaction to the Balfour Declaration). 
   

29. Warren Gamaliel Harding-Republican 1921-1923; It is impossible for one who has studied at all the services of the Hebrew people to avoid the faith that they will one day be restored to their historic national home and there enter on a new and yet greater phase of their contribution to the advance of humanity.

30. John Calvin Coolidge-Republican 1923-1929; Coolidge expressed his “sympathy with the deep and intense longing which finds such fine expression in the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine.”

The Jews themselves, of whom a considerable number were already scattered throughout the colonies, were true to the teachings of their prophets. The Jewish faith is predominantly the faith of liberty.

31. Herbert Clark Hoover-Republican 1929-1933; I know the whole world acknowledges the fine spirit shown by the British Government in accepting the mandate of the Palestine in order that there might under this protection be established a homeland so long desired by the Jews. Great progress has been made in this inspiring enterprise over these last ten years, and to this progress the American Jews have made enormous contribution. They have demonstrated not only the fine sentiment and ideals which inspire their activities but its political possibilities. I am confident out of these tragic events will come greater security and greater safeguards for the future, under which the steady rehabilitation of the Palestine as a true homeland will be even more assured.

32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt-Democrat 1933-1945; juggled and equivocated; told King of Saudi Arabia one thing and World Jewish Congress the opposite, promised each what he told them was his real position.  "I have on numerous occasions, as you know, expressed my sympathy in the establishment of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine and, despite the set-backs caused by the disorders there during the last few years, I have been heartened by the progress which has been made and by the remarkable accomplishments of the Jewish settlers in that country. (Letter Oct. 19, 1938 to Senator Tydings)"
                                                                               

May 14, 1948

     33. Harry S. Truman-Democrat-1945-1953; voted for Israel though advisers were against it; but refused to sell weapons and demanded a pull back from 1949 armistice lines to the 1947 boundaries.  Disapproved of Israel's handling of refugee problem.," "I had carefully read the Balfour Declaration. I had familiarized myself with the history of the question of a Jewish homeland and the position of the British and the Arabs. I was skeptical, as I read over the whole record up to date, about some of the views and attitudes assumed by the 'striped-pants boys' in the State Department.",  "I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have faith in it now."                                                                       

34. Dwight David Eisenhower-Republican 1953-1961; Little tolerance, thought Israel was too aggressive, demanded repatriation of Arab refugees, expected Israel to sacrifice Negev for territory between Gaza and Judea-Samaria.  Demanded withdrawal of IDF from Gaza thought it was Arab aggression as cause of attacks. ""The people of Israel, like those of the United States, are imbued with a religious faith and a sense of moral values"  (Radio Address on situation in the Middle East, February 20, 1957. 

35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy-Democrat 1961-1963; Sec of State opposed 1947 partition plan.  Agreed to give defensive anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, against IDF retaliatory raids, tried to block Israel's nuclear program. "“Let us make it clear that we will never turn our backs on our steadfast friends in Israel, whose adherence to the democratic way must be admired by all friends of freedom.” (Speech at Eastern Oregon College of Education, November 9, 1959

36. Lyndon Baines Johnson-Democrat 1963-1969; Sympathizer with Israel, but in 1967-warned IDF not to strike 1st.  Resolution 242-land for peace paradigm, 1st to sell Israel offensive weapons;"When Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin asked Johnson why the United States supports Israel when there are 80 million Arabs and only three million Israelis, the President replied simply: “Because it is right.”

37. Richard Milhous Nixon-Republican 1969-1974-didn't like Israel relationship as it interfered with one with Arabs, wanted Israel to pull back to 1949 armistice line-starting of 1967 War, wanted Israel to grant Arab refugees and descendants a return to Israel, sold arms to Israel but was distressed about it.-labored to stop a strong victory in 1973 Yom Kippur War, saw time to get land for peace-only resupplied Israel with arms when they were completely out.  Peace process introduced with unrealistic comprehensive solution."Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.""

38. Gerald Rudolph Ford-Republican 1974-1977- Expected a Sinai pullback causing Jerusalem to balk-so he reassessed and put in an arms embargo forcing Israel to comply, so promised USA wouldn't talk in secret to PLO, thought settlements were illegal.; The United States ... has been proud of its association with the State of Israel. We shall continue to stand with Israel. We are committed to Israel's survival and security. The United States for a quarter of a century has had an excellent relationship with the State of Israel. We have cooperated in many, many fields -- in your security, in the well-being of the Middle East, and in leading what we all hope is a lasting peace throughout the world." (Remarks Welcoming PM Rabin to USA, September 10, 1974). 

      39. James Earl Carter, Jr.-Democrat 1977-1981;  Felt animus towards Israel, obsessed with Palestinian cause and so did his security advisor, Brzezinsi.  Wanted to impose a solution; disliked Rabin, so distanced USA from Sadat in 1977 with Begin's peace offer; "appeared more pro-Arab than Sadat himself."; continued along this vein with anti-Israel books he wrote. But to the Press Conference at the Illinois State Legislature on May 26, 1978, he said, "The special relationship between the United States and Israel still stands. Our total committments to Israel's security and our hope for peace is still preeminent among all the other considerations that our Nation has in the Middle East ... But there need be no concern among the Israeli people nor among Jews in this country that our Nation has changed or turned away from Israel."

40. Ronald Wilson Reagan-Republican 1981-1989; had advisor Al Haig who was against Israel; urged by Weinberger to sell AWACS to Saudi Arabia-I had my class in Israel write to White House and tell why it was a bad idea, penalized Israel for bombing Iraq's nuclear facility; 1982 was critical for "disproportionate" bombing in Lebanon War accusation, helped get Arafat a safe exit from Beirut, Peace plan called for Israeli pullback to 1949 lines again, a bad idea-led to gaining nothing with Arabs for anyone., Then there's Reagan's speech on the US S Policy for Peace in the Middle East on September 1, 1982  ""Israel exists; it has a right to exist in peace behind secure and defensible borders; and it has a right to demand of its neighbors that they recognize those facts. I have personally followed and supported Israel's heroic struggle for survival, ever since the founding of the State of Israel 34 years ago. In the pre-1967 borders Israel was barely 10 miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel's population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again."

41. George Herbert Walker Bush-Republican 1989-1993; no sentiment for Israel, thought Reagan was too pro-Israel, disagreed over settlements with Shamir, Baker was Sec. of State-anti-Semite; His address to the UN on September 23, 1991 was great, however: ""The friendship, the alliance between the United States and Israel is strong and solid, built upon a foundation of shared democratic values, of shared history and heritage, that sustains the life of our two countries. The emotional bond of our people transcends politics. Our strategic cooperation—and I renew today our determination that that go forward—is a source of mutual security. And the United States’ commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakeable. We may differ over some policies from time to time, individual policies, but never over the principle ... For more than 40 years, the United States and Israel have enjoyed a friendship built on mutual respect and commitment to democratic principles. Our continuing search for peace in the Middle East begins with a recognition that the ties uniting our two countries can never be broken ... Zionism is the idea that led to the creation of a home for the Jewish people....And to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism is to twist history and forget the terrible plight of Jews in World War II and indeed throughout history."

42. William Jefferson Clinton-Democrat 1993-2001;  Israel's PM going along with land-for-peace formula of Rabin. Atypically harmonious with Israel.  Wanted Peres to be next PM but Netanyahu won, instead, thought this PM was grudging about peace; Barak pushed for a 2000 Camp David Summit with Arafat-to cut a deal but he refused to go to an end of conflict deal.  Arafat saw that  resistance got Hezbollah everything.  Words said to Israeli Ambassador Shoval on September 10, 1998 were, ""America and Israel share a special bond. Our relations are unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, as a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted ... The relationship between our two countries is built on shared understandings and values. Our peoples continue to enjoy the fruits of our excellent economic and cultural cooperation as we prepare to enter the twenty-first century."

43. George Walker Bush-Republican 2001-2009; Enmity towards PM, 2nd intifada going on, and Mitchell report didn't see difference between  terrorism from Arabs and Jews settling in land formerly theirs, even land designated for their settlement.  Declared that Arabs had right to self-determination and to live peacefully in their own state (though they had no state and did not behave peaceful to Israel.) Al-Qaida attacked 9/11/2001, changing the USA but, still thought Arabs would reject radicalism if given the chance-offered roadmap to Arafat.  Sharon disengaged from Gaza, for 1967 plus formula for land, had stroke in 2006; Now Condoleeza Rice Secretary, pressed for Palestinian elections-Hamas was elected-last election held.  Bush liked Olmert.At a press Conference on February 17, 2005, he made it short and sweet. "[Israel] is our ally and in that we've made a very strong commitment to support Israel, we will support Israel if her security is threatened."

44. Barack Hussein Obama II- Democrat 2009-2017-visited Israel in 2008-implied would break with 1967 plus pledge, 2009 went to Cairo, told Arabs he understood their grievances against Israel, remained distant to Israelis, pressed for settlement freeze, distance policy apparent, one of his close staff said that Netanyahu was A CHICKENSHIT.  Has never allowed self if Palestinians want peace. Didn't invite him and staff to dinner when at White House, Had him enter from back door, Wouldn't back  Land concessions by Israel with security measures in arbitration.  Allowed Iran to have nuclear power along with huge monetary payment when they have threatened to wipe out Israel with A Bomb.  Where words count, he said to the UN's General Assembly on September 21, 2011, ""America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable, and our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day ... The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth,just as friends of Israel must recognize the need to pursue a two state solution with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine."   Here he got his lecture in and was pushing for the 2-state solution, something we today as a plan gone nowhere since it takes 2 to want peace and the Arabs continue to be terroristic towards Israel"              

g

In an interview by an Israeli TV station, former Obama adviser David Axelrod recalled the president venting in a moment of contemplation about criticisms that he doesn’t support Israel strongly enough.

“You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office,” the president told Mr. Axelrod. “For people to say that I am anti-Israel, or, even worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts.” 

Guess he doesn't understand how we view his negative actions and his obvious favoritism of Muslims as well as the church he sat in for 22 years listening to the blasting of Jews by his minister.   That should have been hard for any man so close to being a Jew.  

Update:  At one time, seen on TV, he forgot his mike was on and was talking to Putin as they were walking, saying something about wait, when he could he would be happy without Netanyahu or some such thing.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/26/the-roots-of-why-obama-and-netanyahu-dislike-each-other-so-much/?utm_term=.3fb9d7772197

Update:  On Obama's last day in office, he went against Israel by not backing her in the UN on one important agenda for that period.  To me that showed his true feelings.  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-barack-obama.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/inside-barack-obama-benjamin-netanyahus-strained-relationship/story?id=44414492
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-obama-israel-20160921-snap-story.html

Resource; NuVenture Creations, USA, Fairfield, CT
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/repute.htm
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/presquote.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jeffjews.html
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/191836/democracy-and-its-tens-and-twenties
http://www.jewishtreats.org/2012/02/presidents-day-jews-and-martin-van.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/TeddyRoosevelt.html

Had problems with lines on Jewish Bubba so posted article here.