Documenting Maine Jewry a seven-year-old community history project

1. Documenting Maine Jewrya seven-year-old community history project Presentation Outline key features of DMJ’s approachcurrent successesfuture directions From generation to generation to generationDMJ San Francisco Gathering - September, 2013

2. Helping people save personal memorabilia – creating family trees for them and sharing a digital copy Key Feature 1 Today he DMJ site has an online library with 1,538 photographs, 1,018 original documents and 29,000 individual biographic records and a six-month backlog of yet-to-be-indexed material for a Jewish community with no more than 15,000 Jews at any one time

3. Everyone can contribute in their own unique way to building our information base of Maine community and personal histories,and everyone is a part of the process.

4. Sample biographic record

5. Cantor Messerschmidt and Rabbi Grossman Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #1 All going well DMJ aims for a 20% increase in bibliographic citations and a 20% increase in biographic information in the coming year

6. Working with community organizations to digitize and make their records public Key Feature 2 Today DMJ has working relationships with and records from all 16 Maine synagogues all cemetery associations and ChervaKaddisha all major Jewish social and community organizations; and it supports many of these organizations by helping to archive their records.

7. Cover of a JCC bulletin and Bangor newsletter Photographing and displaying headstone imagesKey Feature 3 Torah covers from Beth Abraham, Auburn

8. Sample organizational history page

9. Beth Israel - Bath Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #2 All going well Enhance DMJ’s website as an entry point for information about all Jewish organizations in the state

10. Creating a sense of identification with Maine, with Judaism, and with Maine’s own Jewish traditions Key Feature 3 Both in smaller and larger ways: all local home pages have their names in Yiddish broadcast messages often reference the religious calendar the website is a platform for listening to Maine Cantors davening Plus …

11. DMJ’s logo From generation to generation to generation

12. All going well More messages reaching out to Maine’s largely isolated and under-identified Jewish families Maine-identified Jews living outside the state Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #3

13. Creating a sense of local Jewish history that reflects the diversity of Maine’s Jewish communitiesKey Feature 4 Today DMJ has local home pages for Aroostook County, Augusta area, Greater Bangor , Bath, Biddeford-Saco, Calais, Greater Portland, Lewiston-Auburn area, Old Orchard Beach, Old Town-Orono, Rockland, Rumford, Waterville

14. Sample local home page

15. CDC boating Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #4 All going well More support for local community history projects:  financing, where possible how-to presentations on Jewish genealogy traveling exhibition on Maine’s Jewish history

16. Revive the Jewish tradition of oral history and story telling as one means to build community historiesKey Feature 5 DMJ has recorded interviews with 40 Greater Portland Jews located an additional 40 oral interviews in the archives of Portland Public Library compiled a list of more than 250 other personal biographic histories and interviews of Maine Jews

18. All going well DMJ aims to support oral and video histories prepared by other Maine communities and by Mainers living in Florida Expectations for 5744, Key Feature # 5

19. Photographing and displaying headstone and memorial images Key Feature 6 DMJ has created a state-wide Jewish burial index and an opportunity for virtual visits to Maine Jewish cemeteries,including burial records from all 18 cemeteries and over 2,500 headstone images

20. Sample headstone image

21. Rockland cemetery Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #6 All going well DMJ aims to add headstones images from six Bangor cemeteries and to devise a plan for regular updates of burial records

22. Hosting Landtsmann community gatherings in and out of the state Key feature 7 DMJ Gatherings have enabled Jewish Mainers to re-connect with old family and friends and have inspired reflections on the special character of the Maine Jewish experience. Gatherings have taken place in Westchester, NY (2); Old Orchard Beach (2); south Florida (2); greater Boston (2); San Francisco and greater Hartford (Oct 2013)

23. Old Orchard Beach Gathering, summer 2009

24. Newton Gatherings Expectations for 5744,Key Feature # 7 All going well At least two additional DMJ hosted Gatherings in the coming year

25. Stimulate research and exhibitions collaborating with state and international historical and genealogical organizationsKey Feature 8 Today DMJ has institutional ties with  Colby’s Maine Jewish History project  Maine Historical Society  International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies  Greater Boston Jewish Genealogical Society  Portland, Bangor, and USM public libraries and has produced exhibitions for the  Maine Jewish Museum and Bates College

26. Exploring the latest state-of-the-art software to tell Maine’s Jewish storyKey Feature 9 DMJ utilizes the best of web-based technology to engage Jewish Mainers in their own history and help them visualizetheir own role in the Jewish history of the state

28. All going well DMJ aims to have user-friendly update and notification systems in place this year Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #9

29. People genealogical info POB, Lived In, POD Significant Events Images Burial records Organizations History Location Significant Events Images Places Local home pages Maps Oral Histories / Biographies Photographs / Documents Years Significant Events World As it Was Cemeteries Burial info Public Index Sources & Software

30. Documenting Jewish contributions to civil society and the impacts of civil society on Maine’s Jewish lifeKey Feature 10 DMJ is collecting information on Maine’s Jewish businesses, lawyers, doctors, political figures and artists as well as on Maine’s history of anti-Semitism in hotels and clubs, in residential housing and in social clubs

31. All going well DMJ aims to do two special research projects – one on the Jewish history Maine’s shoe and leather industry and the other on Maine Jews in the retail trades Expectations for 5774 Key feature #10

32. Creating a model to share with other small Jewish communities as well as with other religious, ethnic, and cultural communitiesKey Feature 11 Documenting Maine Jewry has had meetings about sharing our methodology and software with RI Jewish Historical Society, The Portland Public Library, The Greater Boston Jewish Genealogical Society, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies; and South African Jewish historical society.

33. All going well As a specially funded sub-project, DMJ aims to redesign, document, and make portable our methodological approach and our operating software so that it be used by other small and medium sized Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Expectations for 5774 Key feature #11

34. DMJ Structure Registered Maine non-profit organization Under the financial supervision of Temple Beth El, Portland, Maine Under the organizational leadership of a state-wide Minyan , a local gabbiium from ten Maine communities, and a national group of Mainers from the diaspora community

35. DMJ Finances Income : 45 Donors of over $500 Foundations grants from Sam Cohen Foundation, Cogan Family Trust, Haward Fund for Community Development, Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropic Foundation, Jewish Community Endowment , and Wein Charitable Trust Project contracts from Tree of Life Foundation (Maine Jewish Museum) Expenses : part-time data manager, part-time software consultants, computer services and subscriptions, honorium to project shammas, support to local communities, support for DMJ gatherings, administrative and office expenses. Totaling $25 - $40,000 per year

36. All going well Core functions : Full-time data manager, Half-time software manager and outreach coordinator Working office [other elements the same] Expected operating budget: $85 – $95,000 Project functions: Fund ($8 -$10K/yr) for local history projects, extending community history methodology and software to other Jewish and non-Jewish communities ($40 - $60,000) Expectations for 5744,Finances

37. DMJ People The Minyan Thirteen State-Gabbiim Nine out-of-state Landsmann coordinators Part-time data manager Part-time software person Contracted software firm services Specially funded project people DMJ Shammas coordinator 550 Volunteers of Data and 2400 Registered Users

38. All going well DMJ aims to expand the number of geographic coordinators stabilize the organization with a full-time data manager, half-time software manager and outreach coordinator and have the project shammas share DMJ methodology with other Jewish and non-Jewish communities Expectations for 5744,Personnel

39. Documenting Maine Jewrya seven year old community history project From generation to generation to generationDMJ San Francisco Gathering - September, 2013

40. Documenting Maine JewryDMJ San Francisco Gathering - September, 2013 Volunteer to help build the database on Maine’s Jewish life Please contact me to discuss ____ donating photographs and memorabilia ____ helping to collect data on a theme ( an organization / a business) ____ making a financial contribution ____ outreaching out to other Mainers in CA and elsewhere Name _________________________________________________________ Email / Telephone number _________________________________________