The evening features a panel discussion on how religious and cultural practices provide a window of enlightenment into any Jewish community, especially the Lewiston-Auburn one. Panelists include: Harris Gleckman, sociologist and Documenting Maine Jewry project director; Amy Waterman, educator, museum specialist and former executive director of the Eldridge Street Project; Lewiston education administrator Helene Schwartz Perry; Auburn businessman Morris Silverman; marketing professional Nancy Silverman Levinsky; and L-A attorney Elliott Epstein.
Panelists will focus their discussion on the contents of two display panels that consist of photographs and text exploring religious and cultural practices of the Jewish community in Lewiston and Auburn, past and present. Individuals narrate stories about Jewish life, including such rituals as the blowing of the shofar, the reading of the Haggadah and the ceremony of marriage.
The genesis of the Jewish community in the Twin Cities lies in the arrival of German Jewish newcomers in the1870s. Jews from Eastern Europe followed between 1880 and 1900. As the Jewish population grew, families founded Beth Abraham Synagogue in New Auburn at the turn of the 20th century, then Beth Jacob Synagogue in Lewiston in 1925. This rich immigration history provides a wonderful legacy for the present-day community that today includes Auburn�s Temple Shalom Synagogue-Center.
To supplement the two-year grant that Documenting Maine Jewry received from the Arthur B. Wein Charitable Foundation to support a traveling exhibition on Maine Jewish history, Lewiston-Auburn received a grant from the Bates College Harward Center for Community Partnerships. The Harward Center funds supported the work of two Bates College students who, in collaboration with DMJ L-A project coordinators Bonnie Margolin Faiman and Phyllis Graber Jensen, edited a collection of essays about the importance of the immigrant experience in linking the lives of �Old Mainers� and �New Mainers.� The publication will be distributed at our May 10 event.
Refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP by contacting Temple Shalom Officer Manager Julie Waite at temple6359@aol.com or 207-786-4201.