Introduction - Documenting Maine Jewry

This section of the Documenting Maine Jewry project has information on the communities of Auburn, Greene, Lewiston, Lisbon, Lisbon Center, Lisbon Falls , Mechanic Falls and Poland.

Current Jewish Organizations Search for Lewiston Auburn area People

Short Jewish History

Originally the Jewish community of Lewiston-Auburn was divided into two congregations, one in Lewiston and one in Auburn. Now the twin cities are still served by those two congregations but they are both located in Auburn. The Congregations of Beth Jacob, Lewiston, and Beth Abraham, Auburn, were established in the 1920�s as Lewiston-Auburn�s first formal places of Jewish worship. These two congregations were preceded by a more informal place of prayer and religious education called a Schul, a Yiddish word derived from the German word for school. In addition to the two Synagogues, the community was served by the Jewish Community Center in Lewiston. In 1981, the Beth Jacob congregation merged with the Community Center to form a new institution that combines the role of its predecessors: The Temple Shalom Synagogue-Center. Both Temple Shalom and Beth Abraham are conservative congregations that offer many services to this day. It's Happening Here website , Jan 2010,

Information is available on

5,277 individual Jews with strong ties to Lewiston Auburn area of which 1,166 records have the Old Country origin of first-generation immigrants
925 burial records in Jewish cemeteries, including 778 which have headstone images
297 organizations important to the Lewiston Auburn area Jewish community of which 76 are Jewish community institutions and 166 are businesses important to the Lewiston Auburn area Jewish community
821 bibliographic citations and sources pertaining to Lewiston Auburn area of which 243 are photographs and 20 are oral histories

Census data is available for these years: 1880, 1880, 1900, 1900, 1900, 1900, 1900, 1910, 1910, 1910, 1920, 1920, 1920, 1930, 1930, 1936, 1936, 1940, 1940.

Wiki Page

The coordinator(s) of this site, Phyllis Graber-Jensen and Bonnie, would welcome additional photographs, documents and oral histories sent to dmj@mindspring.com.