Congregation Beth Israel (Bangor, Maine)

For similarly named synagogues, see Beth Israel.
Beth Israel
Hebrew: בית ישראל
Beth Israel synagogue in 2015
Religion
AffiliationConservative Judaism
Ecclesiastical or organizational statusSynagogue
LeadershipRabbi Bill Seimers
StatusActive
Location
Location144 York Street, Bangor, Maine
CountryUnited States
Geographic coordinates44°48′11″N 68°45′52″W / 44.8030309°N 68.7644996°W / 44.8030309; -68.7644996
Architecture
TypeSynagogue
StyleByzantine-Romanesque
Date established1888 (as a congregation)
Completed
  • 1897 (1st synagogue)
  • 1913 (current synagogue)
Website
cbisrael.org

Congregation Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל) is a Conservative synagogue, located for most of its history at 144 York Street in Bangor, Maine, in the United States. The oldest continuously operating synagogue in Maine, it was organized in 1888 after an influx to Maine of Lithuanian and Polish Jews. There was a previous community of German Jews from the 1850s named Congregation Ahawas Achim (founded in 1849), who gradually assimilated or left Maine, leaving behind the Webster Street cemetery plot now maintained by the Bangor Jewish community.

The synagogue has an active Sisterhood, leads a community-wide Chevra Kadisha, and has an active Hebrew school.

Congregation Beth Israel has taken on Torah scrolls and memorial boards for Temple Israel in Old Town, Maine, Congregation Chiam Yosef in Calais, Maine, and the Aroostook Hebrew Community synagogue in Presque Isle, Maine.

Early history

The first of Beth Israel's founders, Ezriel Lemke Allen, arrived in Bangor in 1882, after Ike Wolper, an Oldtown peddler, convinced him to leave Boston to pursue work in Maine. They were joined by Jacob Altman, Harry Cohen, Israel Goldman, Joe Byer, Joe Bernstein, Marks Goldman, Philip Hillson, and Simon Kominsky forming the first formal minyan of Bangor's Eastern European Jewish community. When they were joined by mohel and shochet Morris Golden, their rituals became more formal, and with a Torah on loan from Ohabei Shalom of Boston, in October 1888 they created the Beth Israel Society.[1]

On August 22, 1897, the cornerstones were emplaced on Center Street, between Cumberland and Garland Street. This would be the first synagogue constructed in the state of Maine.

The 1913 Board of Directors

On April 30, 1911, the Great Fire of 1911 destroyed much of downtown Bangor, and Beth Israel's Center Street building along with it. With a $4000 insurance payment as the basis, on March 9, 1913, the present Beth Israel building was dedicated. It features Byzantine-Romanesque architecture to reflect the origins of Jewish life in Asia Minor.[2]

Leadership

Rabbi Years Religious affiliation Notes
Louis Seltzer 1903 - 1906 Orthodox
Louis Plotkin 1906 - 1909
Mordecai Klatchko 1909 - 1912
Moishe Shohet 1912 - 1921
Eliezer Levine 1925 - 1930 Simultaneously served Congregation Beth Abraham of Bangor.
Bernard L. Berzon 1937 - 1939
Moishe Zucker 1945 - 1947 Simultaneously served Congregation Beth Abraham of Bangor.
Avraham Freedman 1949 - 1969
Irving A. Margolies 1971 - 1976
Alan M. Kalinsky 1976 - 1981
Joseph P. Schonberger 1982 - 1997 Conservative
Yisrael Rod Brettler 1998 - 2000
David Cantor 2001 - 2007
Steven Schwarzman 2008 - 2011
Justin Goldstein 2011 - 2013
Bill Seimers 2014 - present

References

  1. ^ Emple, James Adam, ed. (1988). Congregation Beth Israel's Centennial History. Bacon Printing and Paper Company. p. 17.
  2. ^ Thompson, Seth. "Sacred Spaces of New England". Seth Thompson. Retrieved August 4, 2019.