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Keywords: Jewish communities

Historical Items

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Item 56926

Globe Yiddish Theater, Auburn, 1914

Contributed by: An individual through Colby College Special Collections Date: 1914 Location: Auburn Media: Photograph and ink

Item 54083

Letter of thanks to Shaarey Tphiloh Sisterhood, Portland, 1951

Contributed by: Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh Date: 1951 Location: Portland Media: Ink on paper

  view a full transcription

Item 100283

Anshe Sfard synagogue being demolished, Portland, 1983

Contributed by: Abraham Schechter through Maine Historical Society Date: 1983-08-08 Location: Portland Media: Photographic print

Online Exhibits

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Exhibit

Fallen Heroes: Maine's Jewish Sailors and Soldiers

Thirty-four young Jewish men from Maine died in the service of their country in the two World Wars. This project, including a Maine Memory Network exhibit, is meant to say a little something about some of them. More than just names on a public memorial marker or grave stone, these men were getting started in adult life. They had newly acquired high school and college diplomas, they had friends, families and communities who loved and valued them, and felt the losses of their deaths.

Exhibit

Fallen Heroes: Jewish Soldiers and Sailors, The Great War

Thirty-four young Jewish men from Maine died in the service of their country in the two World Wars. This project, including a Maine Memory Network exhibit, is meant to say a little something about some of them. More than just names on a public memorial marker or grave stone, these men were getting started in adult life. They had newly acquired high school and college diplomas, they had friends, families and communities who loved and valued them, and felt the losses of their deaths.

Exhibit

Fallen Heroes: Last of the Jewish WWII Veterans

Listen to recordings from the last of the World War II Jewish veterans.

Site Pages

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Site Page

Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

Site Page

The Cedars

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

Site Page

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - Building Of The Arts Era

"… was the daughter of an Italian painter and German-Jewish mother, and lived in Italy until the end of World War I."

My Maine Stories

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Story

Jennie Aranovitch - honoring family legacy and Jewish identity
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center

Her great-grandparents journey from Belarus through current day Jewish experience in Biddeford.

Story

Redlining and the Jewish Communities in Maine
by David Freidenreich

Federal and state policies created unfair housing practices against immigrants, like redlining.

Story

Cantor Beth & Dr David Strassler: personal insights on life
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center

The journey of a couple devoted to each other, their family, their community and their religion

Lesson Plans

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Lesson Plan

Jews in Maine

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12, Postsecondary Content Area: Social Studies
This lesson presents an overview of the history of Jews in Maine and the U.S., including some of the factors that led to Jewish immigration to the U.S., examination of the prejudice, discrimination and anti-Semitism many Jews have experienced, and the contributions of Jews to community life and culture in Maine.

Lesson Plan

Longfellow Studies: "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport"

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Longfellow's poem "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport" opens up the issue of the earliest history of the Jews in America, and the significant roles they played as businessmen and later benefactors to the greater community. The history of the building itself is notable in terms of early American architecture, its having been designed, apparently gratis, by the most noted architect of the day. Furthermore, the poem traces the history of Newport as kind of a microcosm of New England commercial cities before the industrialization boom. For almost any age student the poem could be used to open up interest in local cemeteries, which are almost always a wealth of curiousities and history. Longfellow and his friends enjoyed exploring cemeteries, and today our little local cemeteries can be used to teach little local histories and parts of the big picture as well. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the Jewish cemetery in Newport, RI on July 9, 1852. His popular poem about the site, published two years later, was certainly a sympathetic portrayal of the place and its people. In addition to Victorian romantic musings about the "Hebrews in their graves," Longfellow includes in this poem references to the historic persecution of the Jews, as well as very specific references to their religious practices. Since the cemetery and the nearby synagogue were restored and protected with an infusion of funding just a couple years after Longfellow's visit, and later a congregation again assembled, his gloomy predictions about the place proved false (never mind the conclusion of the poem, "And the dead nations never rise again!"). Nevertheless, it is a fascinating poem, and an interesting window into the history of the nation's oldest extant synagogue.