Author Karen Treiger will speak about her newly released book, Standing on the Crack, which tells the story of her five families that immigrated to the U.S. between 1860 and 1913. She will discuss two of her families that immigrated to Portland - one, a young German Jew, who arrived in Portland in 1900 and the other, a family of five, who lived in the Old South Portland Jewish neighborhood. Treiger’s great-grandfather, Yisroel Aryeh Treiger, was one of the myriad Jewish peddlers, collecting junk with a horse and cart. Her grandfather, Sam, was one of the many Jewish Newsie selling papers on the street corners. Bert Treiger served as Principal of the Portland Hebrew School, whose classes held at the Neighborhood House.
Cedarwood Waldorf School in South Portland is the historic site of the Neighborhood House. Old South
Portland was home to the immigrant Jewish community. Life was hard for these Yiddish-speaking
immigrants, but the Neighborhood House served as a focal point for the neighborhood.