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Dorothy Green and Sol Crasnick met and fell in love on Old Orchard
Beach in 1933.
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Seventy-seven years later, their daughter, Elaine Crasnick Kahaner, stood
at the front of Temple Beth Israel in Old Orchard Beach and
listened as others shared their memories of growing up Jewish in Maine.
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About 100 people gathered for a summer meeting Sunday afternoon at the
shul on East Grand Avenue to share stories and learn more about
Documenting Maine Jewry, a community-based history project that
provides information on Jewish citizens of Maine. Documenting Maine
Jewry is working in cooperation with the Maine Historical Society and Maine Humanities Council.
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Kahaner, a member of the project's coordinating group, said she
expected only 30 or 40 people to attend the meeting when she first
started spreading the word. Within weeks, she received phone calls and
letters from people across the country and Canada who recalled
visiting Old Orchard Beach as children.
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"People have very happy memories of being connected to the Jewish
community here," Kahaner said. "It was a unique community because it
was so inter-connected."
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One letter, from Nelson Myers of Toronto, Canada, recalled how his
late father, Bernard Myers, brought his parents, Ross and Jennie, from
Montreal to stay at the Lafayette Hotel in the late 1930s. His mother,
Edna, met her future husband at the ballroom of Hotel Empire in 1938
after she arrived by train from Montreal.
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Kahaner said the most memorable phone call came from a 90-year-old
woman in Montreal. Weeping, the woman described how smelling a nearby
bakery reminds her of summers in Maine.
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"She's transported back to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, because it
smells like the kosher bakery on East Grand," Kahaner said.
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As three generations greeted each other before the meeting, shul
President Eber Weinstein said the group was the largest the synagogue
had seen in some time. The synagogue was built around 1917 by a French
carpenter hired by Joseph Goodkowskey, who built the Lafayette Hotel.
The building later was doubled in size and has been used year-round
for the past 30 years. Until the 1960s, "it was standing room only" in the shul on Saturday mornings.
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"It's so nice to see all these Jewish people with ties to this shul,"
he said.
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Weinstein said many orthodox Jews stayed at the Lafayette because it
was one of three kosher hotels in town. The hotel was torn down in
1974, a few years after it closed.
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Weinstein said his connections to Old Orchard Beach go back
generations. His family ran the Weinstein Bros. fruit and produce
stand beginning in the 1880s. His grandmother, then 9 years old and
pulling her two younger sisters in a wagon, escaped the 1907 fire that destroyed much of the town.
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For Beverly Hurwitz of Philadelphia, the meeting provided an
opportunity to reminisce with childhood friends. Her father bought a
house on Graham Street in 1925 - the same cottage where her family
continues to summer. They had the only outdoor shower in the neighborhood when Hurwitz was a child.
Barbara Epstein, who lived on the next street, remembered the shower
and that Hurwitz's mother "was just the best."
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"I've come to Old Orchard Beach every year of my life," Hurwitz said.
"It's wonderful to be here with all these people."
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Her son, Jim Hurwitz, said he has spent all of his summers in Old
Orchard Beach.
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"I was born in the middle of July in Philadelphia and was here by the
end of July," he said.
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During the meeting, each person was given 90 seconds to share their
connection to the Jewish community in Maine. Many remembered growing
up in Portland, Lewiston/Auburn or Bangor and traveling to Old Orchard
Beach and Pine Point in Scarborough in the summer.
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Jack Shapiro, who grew up in Auburn and summers at Pine Point, stepped
into the temple on Sunday for the first time in 30 years. He brought
with him his 92-year-old father, Sherman G. Shapiro, who used to
summer in Old Orchard Beach. Jack Shapiro said his grandfather, Jacob,
moved to Auburn from Lithuania in the 1890s. After peddling rags and
bobbins, he opened JJ Shapiro & Bros. store to sell clothing and dry goods.
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Janie Silver used her 90 seconds to say she has been coming to Old
Orchard Beach most of her life and met her husband in town. Her
sisters waited tables at the Lafayette, she said. Lisa Bornstein Brand
said she grew up in Auburn but remembers fondly living in Old Orchard
Beach for two years in grade school.
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Julie Lyons said it was "extraordinary" to come back to Old Orchard
Beach with her 96-year-old mother and sister, Annette, to see familiar faces.
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"I have such fond memories of the beach," added Annette Lyons.
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Steven Hirshon of Portland and formerly of Old Orchard Beach, lived
just down the street from the shul. He currently is collecting stories
of people who fell in love in Old Orchard Beach for a Documenting
Maine Jewry film. He said people may contact him through the Facebook
page "I met your dad (mom) in Old Orchard Beach."
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"A lot of people have met and fallen in love in Old Orchard Beach over
the years," he said.
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Many people recalled going to the Jewish Community Center on
Cumberland Avenue in Portland or meeting friends and future spouses at summer camp.
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"I just absolutely love coming back to Maine," said Karen Levin of
Newton, Mass. Her family still owns the house her parents bought in
Portland in 1955.
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Robert Levin of Boston has visited Old Orchard Beach "every year of my
life except during the war."
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"It's a wonderful place and wonderful people," he said. "Old Orchard
and Maine are a big part of my life."
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Ruth Sylmor of Cape Elizabeth said her family had a lake house, but
she was envious of friends who spent the summer in Old Orchard Beach.
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"I was jealous of The Pier and all the things going on down here," she
said as a woman at the back of the room called out, "I knew it was you Ruth!"
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Kahaner said she also remembers Sylmor from their childhood and still
has a photo of them together at her sixth birthday party.
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Muriel Maron Shuchat, who attended the meeting with an "entourage from
Montreal," said she brought her children to ride the merry-go-round
and thinks Pier fries are still as good as they always were.
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"We've had so many happy, phenomenal summers here," she said. "Very
few things in one life could replace that joy."
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Epstein, who earlier remembered her neighbor's outdoor shower, said
her connections to Old Orchard Beach date back to when her grandfather
was a part-time canter here. Her parents met at the Lafayette Hotel
and were married for 51 years.
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"There's a lot of great memories that have gone on here," she said.
"There's a lot of history."
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