Bath Jewish History

May/June 2025
Iyyar/Sivan/Tammuz 5785

Rabbi’s Message

Dear Beth Israel Members and Friends,

In the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 17b) we learn that a Torah scholar is required to live in a city that has certain communal organizations and professionals including: a synagogue, a beit din (rabbinic court), a mikveh (ritual bath), a doctor, a tzedakah fund, a kosher butcher, a craftsperson, and a teacher of children. While this list is interesting to study, my purpose in bringing it to you this month is its inclusion of the requirement to have a “teacher of children” - a clear call for a community to engage in the sacred work of ensuring that the next generation grows up to be knowledgeable, engaged and proud Jews.

Here in Bath, we have a dedicated cadre of “teacher(s) of children” who bring enthusiasm, care and a love of Jewish community to all they do. Our teachers and volunteers help our students be joyously and proudly Jewish, something that is vital in a place like Maine where we are very much a religious minority.

It is vital that our children engage with other young people who are part of their Jewish community. And it is truly a blessing to watch this community of kids flourish; support and learn alongside each other, share traditions like bargaining for the afikomen at the seder, and participate in our weekly prayer service joyously and with increasing comfort and familiarity. They support each other in building their Jewish lives and in turn in building the Jewish future here in Bath. 

Thank you to Martin Connelly, Rachel Connelly, Reese Friedel, Lucy Flores, Anita Lichman, Susan Horowitz, Gabi Sennet, and Alina Shumsky, for your time and dedication and to all of our parents who have contributed your time and resources to enliven our Hebrew School and Yachad program.

As this school year comes to a close, we turn to the words traditionally said upon completion a book of the Torah. Chazak chazak v’nitchazaik­—may we be strong, may we be strong, may we strengthen one another.

Rabbi Vinikoor

President’s Message

by Marilyn Weinberg

As I sit at my computer to write my article for the newsletter, I am still feeling the joy of participating in our Beth Israel Community Seder. The interest in attending and the involvement of so many people was overwhelming. People who came early happily joined the many volunteers who had come to set up. So many stayed for the cleanup it felt like another celebration. And of course, the sound of over 100 people singing Dayenu was pretty impressive.

I think our Seder is a perfect example illustrating the best elements of our congregation. Members of our congregation joined with interested members of the greater Bath community to share food and common ideals. All felt welcome and included. I thought, once again, how our community has worked together and thrived through the contributions of its members and friends. This is a real community. This congregation isn’t about one or two people; it’s about all of you.

This activity is a reminder of the busy synagogue life we are developing at our little congregation and of all the new and exciting programs and services that have occurred and are coming up in the months ahead. Each one of them involves so many of you who help set up, create and sustain our synagogue community with your attendance, willingness to volunteer and financial support. Thank you.

As we continue our forward momentum there are many decisions to make about our direction and focus. The Annual Meeting is approaching. On June 8 we ask that you come to not only hear about some of our successes, but to clearly state your wishes for our future.

The board has been working very hard in making decisions and listening to your opinions. So, the next set of questions and options need your input as well.

We can’t do it without you. Each one of you counts. I hope you will be able to set aside the time to come. It’s important.

Annual Meeting and Celebration

by Marilyn Weinberg

Whether it is your yearly tradition or your first time, we hope you will participate in our upcoming 2025 Annual Meeting.

We will take a little time to connect with each other and enjoy a yummy brunch sponsored by our Beth Israel board members. But big decisions must be made. Will our security grants continue? What are our options? What are the issues with our upcoming budget?

Meet and vote on new board members and more. Mark your calendar and watch for more details as we finalize the upcoming agenda. Your presence makes a difference. We look forward to seeing you there.

The Seven Days of Creation Learning Series

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Tuesdays, April 29    May 6, 13, 20, 27
8:00 pm
Zoom only

The Seven Days of Creation Learning Series: The seven-week Omer period begins on the second night of Passover and continues until the eve of Shavuot. During our class each week, a Rabbi from a small congregation from across the URJ will teach for 30 minutes (or a pair of rabbis for an hour) connecting each of the seven weeks of the Omer to its corresponding day of the Seven Days of Creation.

Rabbi Vinikoor will teach on April 29, but you should join in to learn from other rabbis too! You can attend all seven sessions or just join for one! Registration is required. Check your email for details.

Hebrew School Shabbat

by Marilyn Weinberg

Saturday, May 10
10:00 am – Shabbat Morning Service
11:30 am – Potluck Kiddush Lunch

Cast a vote for Jewish education and a vibrant Beth Israel community by attending our last of the season student-led Shabbat service on May 10.

You’ll be impressed by what this joyful group of dedicated learners has accomplished, and your participation will reinforce the feelings of community and connection that are possible when studying and celebrating Judaism. Let's fill the sanctuary!

Adult Education

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Sunday, May 11
4:00 pm
Minnie Brown Center

Plant Gardens and Eat their Fruit
Take a break from your own garden preparations to study Torah with Rabbi Vinikoor with a focus on all things gardening. Our sacred writings provide a bounty of teachings about trees, gardens and working, benefiting from and caring for the earth. All are welcome.

Thursday, June 12
Thursday, June 26
6:30 pm
Minnie Brown Center

Explore the New Reform Torah Commentary
Rabbi Vinikoor will lead a 2-part Adult Education series highlighting the exciting new Reform Torah Commentary now in development. Did you know that the last time our movement produced a new Torah Commentary was in 2008 and before that was in 1981. The Reform movement is embarking on a once in a lifetime project to produce a new Torah translation and commentary. Beth Israel Congregation is partnering with Reform congregations from across the state to be one of the major financial contributors to the project. Come learn about this exciting new project and get a sneak peek at the new translations and commentary!

Reese Friedel B'Mitzvah

by Carolyn Friedel

My name is Reese Friedel, I’m 13 years old and I go to the Yarmouth middle school. My favorite school subjects are ELA and art.

In the short time in which I am not at school, I love to play field hockey, rock climb, cross country ski, and play my cello.

My B’Mitzvah project was to help out at the Hebrew school on Thursdays. A special thanks to my tutors Shira, Ilana, and Rabbi Vinikoor. We hope you will join us on May 24, as I become a B’Mitzvah.

Ben Hansen Bar Mitzvah

by Rebekah Polster

Saturday, June 28
10:00 am
Synagogue

Ben Hansen is finishing up eighth grade at Durham Community School. He has spent the last few years donating his time coaching pee-wee soccer and elementary basketball in Durham and Freeport where he has had a great time teaching the little kids.

His favorite subjects at school are ELA and gym, where he loves to play and learn about all different sports. When he’s not busy with AAU basketball and ODP soccer, he loves hanging out with his dog, Ghost, and enjoys mountain biking with friends and his dad, who is helping him make bike trails in the woods by his house.

He looks forward to celebrating his Bar Mitzvah on June 28 with family, friends, and the synagogue community. 

Upcoming Shabbat Services

by Marilyn Weinberg

By popular request we will be resuming our Shabbat Under the Stars program this spring and summer. We will alternate services inside and outside. Please note we are still finalizing our summer schedule of services, so check the Beth Israel website for updated information.

May 23, 5:30 pm
Bath Waterfront Park
Kabbalat Shabbat Service followed by potluck meal

May 24, 10:00 am
Shabbat Morning Service - Reese Friedel B’Mitzvah

June 13-15
Join Beth Israel members at the
Maine Conference for Jewish Life in Waterville

June 27, 5:30 pm
Bath Waterfront Park
Kabbalat Shabbat Services followed by potluck meal

June 28, 10:00 am
Shabbat Morning Service - Ben Hansen Bar Mitzvah

Maine Conference for Jewish Life

by Rabbi Vinikoor

June 13-15
Thomas College, Waterville

Join hundreds of Jews from across the state for Jewish learning, prayer and joyful community. This year Rabbi Vinikoor would like us to have at least a minyan (10 members) from our congregation attend the conference. Help her meet or exceed this goal! Follow this link to register and email Rabbi Vinikoor at rabbivinikoor@gmail.com if you need financial support to be able to attend. 

The Maine Conference for Jewish Life is a pluralistic opportunity for superior Jewish learning and joyous celebration in central Maine. Living far from America’s major urban centers (and from one another), Jews in northern New England rarely gain access to the Jewish world’s finest scholars and cultural innovators, or the experience of being surrounded by a critical mass of other Jews.

This conference brings Jews from across the region together in order to gain familiarity with the jewels of Jewish civilization, convene with other Jews from around the state, exchange best practices for crafting successful rural Jewish lives, experience the benefits and challenges of celebrating in a pluralistic environment, and revel in Torah learning.

Shavuot Morning Festival Services

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Monday, June 2
10:00 am
Synagogue

Shavuot, one of our three pilgrimage festivals, celebrates the receiving of Torah at Mount Sinai.

Join Rabbi Vinikoor as she leads our congregation in a Shavuot morning service, including an opportunity to say Kaddish for loved ones who have died, aliyot to the Torah and studying the book of Ruth.

A dairy potluck luncheon will immediately follow the service. Bring a dish to share!

Community Read

by Debbie Smyth

Sunday, June 29
2:00–4:00 pm
Minnie Brown Center

Please join us in reading and discussing Geraldine Brooks’ New York Times Bestseller, Memorial Days.

Heralded by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and others, Brooks’ memoir tracks the geography of grief as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most. While her memoir is a testament to her own unique loss, it serves as a lifeline to others who find themselves in the unfamiliar landscape of grief.

While many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world, in contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists.

This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz–just sixty years old and, it to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy–collapsed on Memorial Day of 2019 and died on a Washington, DC sidewalk.

The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf.

Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void left by Tony’s death.

This book explores varying cultural and religious traditions surrounding death, and raises profound questions about grief, healing, loss, resilience and memory. Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.

Copies of Memorial Days are available through your local library or on Minerva.

Please contact Debbie Smyth with questions.

Restorative Justice in Response to Local Graffiti

by Nonny Soifer

In response to the spray painting of swastikas and the words “Gas Jews” in Harpswell, Brunswick and Bath, a Harpswell father and son faced criminal charges and ultimately pleaded guilty to criminal mischief charges and were ordered to pay restitution. They were also the subjects of a civil rights complaint brought by the Maine Attorney General and were given potential prison sentences if they re-offended in the next year.

As part of the criminal sentence, the men were required to attend a restorative justice program designed to address the root causes of hate-motivated behavior and to discourage repeat offenses.

Joanne Rosenthal and I agreed to participate in the restorative justice program as representatives of the Jewish community. In preparation for the session, we were each extremely apprehensive about directly confronting the perpetrators of this blatant antisemitism. It was scary to contemplate sitting down with them in a conversation. It felt very important to find ways to convey to them that we are established members of our community and also that their actions had caused us to feel extremely frightened and vulnerablNeither the father nor the son appeared to have any knowledge of Judaism or any history associated with being Jewish. They were acting on a generalized hostility to immigrants fueled by online hate speech. They both felt that the restorative justice process had been effective in making them more aware of the hurtfulness of hate speech and actions.

We were able to emphasize to them how important it was that the larger community leadership had been so supportive of us and hostile to their activities. We were also able to share the fear and feelings of vulnerability that they had caused.

For follow-up activities it was recommended that they visit the Holocaust Human Rights Center in Augusta and to remember to use what they had learned to challenge themselves to actively confront bias and hate when they encounter it in themselves or others in the future.

Israeli Culture Class

by Marilyn Weinberg

Rabbi Vinikoor’s Adult education program on Israeli Culture ended with a bang with trying our hands at cooking Israeli foods and then sharing a meal with homemade tahini, falafel, Israeli salad, and yummy herb pie and pita and hummus from a local shop.

Community Passover Seder

by Marilyn Weinberg

What a joy it was to gather together at the Maine Maritime Museum to celebrate our community Passover celebration. Tables were set with seder plates filled with ritual items, candles to light and plenty of matzoh. This ancient ritual was made relatable by an outstanding slide show that everyone could see and join in with readings, songs and prayers. It was wonderful to have so many children ask the four questions and act out the story of Passover.

And thanks to all of our Beth Israel cooks and helpers to make it all come together.

Purim

by Marilyn Weinberg

We are supposed to be joyous on Purim and we certainly were at Beth Israel. Our community celebration featured some great costumes led by our intrepid leader, Rabbi Vinikoor. We participated in a great Purim Spiel led by our Hebrew School students. Games, singing and drowning out that evil name Haman with noisemakers, made for laughter and joy for all.

Remembrances for May/June 2025

May their memories be for a blessing.

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Listing the birthdays and anniversaries of those in our immediate family creates a wonderful opportunity for our community/shul family to have an excuse to celebrate with each other. 

DONATIONS

Memorial Gifts

• Barbara and Robert Lenox in memory of her mother, Freda Selig and her father, Mishael Sellig

• Fred and Marilyn Weinberg in memory of his mother, Frances Weinberg

• Karen and Matthew Filler in memory of her father, Gerald Feldman

• Gary Torow and Denise Linet in memory of his mother, Ann Torow

• Shelia Cohen in memory of her mother, Helen Freedman Cohen

• Ellen Hagler in memory of her husband, Michael Hagler and her mother, Sarah Goldman

• Sheldon and Denise Tepler in memory of her father, Moshe ben Gedalyah

• Barrett and Barbara Silver in memory of his mother, Rose Hurwitz Silver

• Erich and Pauline Haller in memory of Edward, Josef and Marie Haller

• Matthew and Karen Filler in memory of his parents, Morris and Gladys Filler

• Mary and Bud Samiljan in memory of her father, John Ramsey

• Marilyn and Fred Weinberg in memory of her sister, Judy Gelles

• Stan Lane and Norma Dreyfus in memory of his father, Jesse Lane

• Marcia and Lenny Klompus in memory of her son, Jeffrey Robert Cherner

• Donald and Mara Giulianti in memory of his mother, Elaine Friedberg Giulianti

• Robert Gersh and Susan Horowitz in memory of his father, Fred Gersh

• Paul Linet in memory of his wife, Susan Linet and his mother, Audrey Linet

• Debra and Richard Finn in memory of her father, Alvin Ludwig

• Elinor and William Rosenberg in memory of Leo Bornstein

In Memory of Pauline “Tinker” Hannaford

• Peggy Brown and John Martell

• Marilyn and Fred Weinberg

• Karen and Matthew Filler

• David and Susan Kertzer

• Phyllis Wolfe

In Memory of Diane Moyer

• Bob and Sue Nusbaum

• Janet Marstine and Mark Polishook

• Jamie Kaplan and Suzanne Meeker

Building Fund/Centennial Campaign

• The Hagler Family in memory of Michael Hagler, Thomas and Blanche Queen

For the Benefit of the Synagogue

• Pauline and Erich Haller

• Sonya Sampson

• Kristin and Louis Propp

• Paul Linet in honor of Bud and Mary Samiljan

• Peter Felsenthal and Jennifer Litchfield

• Elaine Koufman

• Dawn Fecteau

• Paul Linet in gratitude to Irwin Brodsky and Marlyn Weinberg

Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund

• Marge Curley

• Virginia Fish

• Hannah DeAngelis

Immigrant Support Fund

• Mollie Sandock and Jim Brokaw

• Ken and Beverly Sandock

• Peter Felsenthal and Jennifer Litchfield

• Virginia Fish

• Jon and Lorna Lichter

• Phyllis and Joseph Lisi

• Sherrie Bergman and Donald Quaid

• Jeanne McNutt in honor of Camille Kauffunger’s 50th birthday

• Ben Crystal and Susan Kamin

• The Brodsky Family

• Christina Bour

• Norma Bernstock

• Anne Hebebrand and Richard Jablow

• Miriam Johnson and Clayton Kane

• Dan and Linda Wood

• The Finn family

• Mark Polishook and Janet Marstine

• Michelle Lisi-D’Alauro

• Jeffrey Cohen and Nancy Heiser

• Gary and Amy Philo

• Matthew and Karen Filler

• The Hagler Family

• Stern-Hayes Family

• Peggy Brown and John Martell

• Catherine Field

• Lempert Family

• Phyllis Wolfe

• McCandish-Stone Family

• Annie Valliere

• Marty Fox and Thyle Shartar

• The Jordans

• Annie and David Miller

• Kristin and Louis Propp

• Pauline and Erich Haller

• Jamie Kaplan and Suzanne Meeker

• Marilyn and Fred Weinberg

• Carol and Marty Eckstein

• Barbara and Steven Inkellis

• Jill Standish

back to top