G E O G RA P H Yewish geography is a game sometimes played when we learn that seeming strangers in the room are, in fact, our third cousins – or,

at any rate, went to school with our third cousins. Because of the statistical minority of American Jews, such coincidences are striking, and especially so when they happen in more remote parts of Maine.

Two aspects of Maine’s Jewish geography are of interest here: the places that Maine Jews have settled, and the qualities of this beautiful but sometimes harsh New England state that have attracted pioneering settlers, permanent residents, ardent summer visitors, and others inspired by its landscape and lifestyles.

t one time or another, Jews have resided in nearly all of Maine’s sixteen counties, in towns from York in the South to Fort Kent in the North, from Rumford in the West to Eastport in the opposite direction. They have lived in cities, in stark or verdant rural zones, along the coast, and on the

border of Canada. They have lived in communities large enough to support multiple synagogues or as the single Jew in a town.

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Jaking full advantage of the state’s abundant natural beauty and prolific shoreline, lakes and rivers, Maine has hosted dozens of Jewish summer camps (not always advertised as such). In towns like Casco, Denmark, Oxford, Readfield, and No. Sebago, they have had names like Ardeh, Cedar Crest,

Manitou, Tapawingo, and Winnebago.

Among the most popular have been Camp Lown in Oakland, Center Day Camp in North Windham, Camp Micah in Bridgton, and Camp Modin, founded in Belgrade in 1922. Combining “the” environment with a nurturing Jewish one, such camps provide a special bonding experience that sociologists believe helps to ensure future religious affiliation.

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The car declares where Manuel Plavin grew up

The Unobskys (without an “e”) of Lubec

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State of Maine

aine’s Jewish residents have taken advantage of precious summer weather in other ways, too. M

umerous Jewish visitors from out-of-state have made Maine their summer home. Alongside full-time residents, these seasonal Mainers have pitched tents, rented rustic cabins, or taken rooms at grand hotels. At such establishments, cultural, recreational and sporting opportunities, infused with

Jewish customs and ethics, foster deep and long-lasting Maine Jewish memories. N

The Sterns of Portland

The Isaacsons of Auburn

Boys at Camp Modin, one of the country’s first overnight camps

Girls at Camp Lown, 1948

Campers and counselor at Center Day Camp, 1951

Robbinston roadside picnic

Tarr family and friends in Lewiston-Auburn park

Future sailors near the New Brunswick border

Tillie Gordon fishing Down East

In 1904 Jewish guests were welcome at Summit Springs while not at Poland Springs across the lake

Daily calisthenics were offered at the Lafayette, one of Old Orchard Beach’s kosher hotels

Shore Path Cottage, a bed-and-breakfast serving kosher fare in Bar Harbor for 30 years

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The Cohen brothers of Biddeford

MAINE JEWISH MUSEUM

Mike Levinthal, Jewish cowboy from Rockland

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PORTLAND

CANADA

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Photographer: Phyllis Graber Jensen (Issacsons)Documenting Maine Jewry (DMJ)www.MaineJews.org

www.mainejewishmuseum.org

WO R Khe first Jews in Maine were often peddlers, or “junk” dealers, staking out new territory north and east of city centers in New York and Boston. Starting out, these merchants in rags, paper, tin and clothing needed only the rudiments of English to exchange goods or handle currency.

pending so much time on the road, these entrepreneurs could compare life in different towns within their circuits and locate Jewish citizens, even people from the same villages in Europe from which they came. With sufficient capital – from energetic and tireless work or with family assistance – these one-man (almost

exclusively “man”) traveling shops expanded into early retail establishments like these.S

Tewiston, Madawaska, Old Town and Waterville are among the towns where enterprising Jews maintained successful and eponymous (“Cutler’s”, “Levine’s”) retail establishments. Day’s Jewelry has grown to be a statewide chain. L

ews have worked in small industries, and they have also devoted energy to the land, raising poultry or farming potatoes like the Etscovitz family in Fort Kent. More recently those involved in agriculture have been joined by back-to-the-landers opting for a simple life in this predominantly rural state. J

Peddlers Simon Epstein and Jacob Venner, based out of Biddeford and Portland

Advertisement for Calais store

ewish women and men have also served Maine and their country as military volunteers, recruits or career officers. J

Chain Apparel in Madawaska

Two jewelers at Portland branch of Day’s Jewelry

Grocery in Waterville Povich men’s store in Bath

Simon Rubinoff, Maine’s first Jewish policeman

1916 conference of the Workmen’s Circle

rom the 1910s to the 1930s, many progressive immigrants participated in the Workmen’s Circle (Arbeter Ring), a labor-oriented social and cultural organization with, at one point, five Maine chapters. As many second-generation Maine Jews studied to become lawyers, doctors, and accountants, business

proprietors with Jewish names were still common in cities like Biddeford.F

Advertisements for three Jewish-owned enterprises

Lipman Poultry Company of Augusta

Milt Adelman, growing potatoes in Mars Hill

aine’s Jews have distinguished themselves in the arts – for example, sculptors Louise Nevelson and William Zorach, painter-illustrator Dahlov Ipcar, and writer Henry Roth. Producer Hiram Abrams of United Artists and actors like Linda Lavin and Judd Nelson have entertained national

audiences. The community has included fine educators, like Bowdoin College President Barry Mills, and notable attorneys and judges like Louis Bernstein, Max Pinansky, Abraham Rudman, and Louis Scolnick. Two mayors of Portland, Linda Abromson and Jim Cohen, and economist Albert Abrahamson are among many who have contributed in government or public service.

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Capt. Harold Gordon brought comfort and a Torah from Bangor’s Beth Israel Synagogue to WWII Jewish servicemen from Reykjavik to Bermuda

Lewis Selbing, a Civil War hero from Augusta

Here we highlight a few individuals whose iconic or iconoclastic careers made them virtually one-of-a–kind.

L to R: Old Orchard’s Dave Glovsky, the (weight) guesser

Sports journalist Shirley Povich, born in Bar Harbor

Art dealer and professional wrestler Robert Elowitch (Robbie Ellis)

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Morris Shapiro served in the 40th Royal Fusiliers of the Jewish Legion in WWI

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ot all of those whose Jewish parentage might suggest the label “Maine Jews” are affiliated or observant. However, thousands of Jews in and from Maine have viewed their faith as part of a vital, ongoing, millennia-old tradition and one that is realized and perpetuated through practice.

ccordingly, they attend synagogue on a daily, weekly, annual or as-the-occasion demands basis. They mark holidays with Jewish foods and special family customs. They participate in life cycle events that follow prescribed Jewish rituals or are imbued with Jewish flavor. These images, spanning

decades, highlight some holidays and festivals of the Jewish year in Maine.

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Newish weddings are another joy-filled occasion for assembling. In synagogues or banquet halls, indoors or out-of-doors, with opulence or minimal frills, countless Jewish couples have married in Maine. They have been “launched” under a chuppah (canopy), sometimes with seven ancient blessings and almost always with the

smashing of a glass, or glass stand-in, underfoot.

Through institutions like the Jewish Home for the Aged, and, later, The Cedars in Portland, Maine Jews have demonstrated their commitment to caring for elders and to affording them dignity in declining years.

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aine Jewish parents, like Jewish parents everywhere, seek to educate their children by sending them to Sunday schools, Hebrew schools and Jewish day schools, and they shep nachas (are filled with happiness and pride) at each step in their children’s progression toward B’nai Mitzvah and

Jewish adulthood.

hen lives come to an end, Maine Jewish mourners are supported by relatives and friends, by clergy, and by members of the chevra kadisha (burial society) and cemetery associations, who, respectively, minister to the dead and help to arrange Jewish funerals. W

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Ornaments for the Aron Kodesh (Holy Ark) that contains sacred Torah scrolls

These elements adorn an Ark at The Cedars in Portland.

The first Chanukah for a Lewiston baby

Zachary Olstein of Auburn celebrates the harvest festival

Raphael Gribetz ushers in the New Year in Presque Isle

Community Passover seder in Bangor, 1947

Making Purim masks

Beth Jacob (Lewiston) boys become Jewish men, 1964

RSVP to David Astor’s Bar Mitzvah, Portland, 1932

Sidney Unobskey, Bar Mitzvah in Calais, 1945

Garden of the Jewish Home for the Aged, later The Cedars

The mizinke dance, honoring parents as their last child is wed, at the nuptials of Phil Levinsky and Elizabeth Zaitlin, 1950

Funeral chapel in Bangor

Seal of the Hebrew Burial Society in Portland

ituals come in many forms. They may be associated with holidays or the life cycle, may fulfill the 613 mitzvot (commandments) or make everyday events special. Whether they follow halacha (Jewish law) or are newly minted, they provide means to connect with Jewish spirituality and heritage in Maine.R

Mount Sinai Cemetery, Portland

A former mikvah at Beth Abraham in Auburn

Heralding a new one in Portland

Rabbi Moshe Wilansky of Chabad Lubavitch of Maine recites the Birkat Hachamah, blessing the sun at the end of its 28-year cycle

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INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES FOR EXHIBITION IMAGESArcadia Publishing - Images of America: Maine’s Jewish Heritage (2007) by Abraham J. Peck and Jean M. Peck; American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati; Bangor Public Library; Bates College/Muskie Archives; Beth Abraham Synagogue, Bangor; Camp Modin, Belgrade Lakes; The Cedars; Congregation Beth Israel, Old Orchard Beach; Cultivating Community; Documenting Maine Jewry; Maine Historical Society (Maine Memory Network, David Astor Collection, Pat Davidson Reef Collection, Harriet and Arthur Waterman Collection); Maine Jewish Film Festival; McArthur Library; Mikvat Shalom; Portland Jewish Community Alliance; Portland Public Library / Portland Press Herald Collection; Sampson Center for Diversity, University of Southern Maine; Temple Beth El, Augusta

INDIVIDUAL SOURCES FOR EXHIBITION IMAGESMilton Adelman, Toby Adelman, Jennie Aranovitch, Peter Beckerman, Broder Family, Roberta Chester, Susan Cummings-Lawrence, Robert Elowitch, Jeffrey Entin, Barbara Fishman, John Gerber, Jack Glassman, Harris Gleckman, Harold “Babe” Goodkowsky, Raphael Gribetz, Judith Venner Halpert, Phyllis Graber Jensen, Steve Joachim, Craig Lapine, Lenora Leibowitz,Karen Kornetsky Levine, Elizabeth and Phil Levinsky, David Lewis, Peter Lewis, Tom MacDonald, Abe and Jean Peck, Pat Davidson Reef, Bruce and Nancy Schatz, Abraham Schechter, Barbara Shapiro, Sam Shapiro, Mark Stern, Joe Strassler, Amy E. Waterman, Ariadne Weaver, Fred Weisberg

Photographers: Susan Cummings-Lawrence (Cedars Ark), Phyllis Graber Jensen (Olstein, baby), Gregory Rec (Wilansky), Mikvat Shalom design: Joe Strassler

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Documenting Maine Jewry (DMJ)www.MaineJews.org