The Rose Schnitzer Manor at Cedar Sinai Park

Cedar Sinai Park’s roots are firmly planted within the Portland Jewish Community. In 1920, the need arose for housing for the elderly, and the community responded by furnishing a 16-room Victorian home in the heart of the primarily Jewish neighborhood in Old South Portland. Originally named the Jewish Old People’s Home, it served seniors at that location until the 1950s. In 1954, the Board of Trustees purchased and broke ground on seven acres of farmland in southwest Portland, where suburban neighborhoods were beginning to crop up. 15 residents moved into the new Robison Jewish Home for the Aged in 1955, which was renamed in honor of Hannah Robison’s legacy and her sons’ generous donation towards the project. Hannah is fondly remembered as a pillar of the Old South Portland neighborhood and her family’s gift left a solid foundation for the Jewish community to build upon. The Robison Home was the first Jewish organization to expand into southwest Portland outer area, followed in the coming decades by multiple synagogues and the Jewish Community Center.