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Publication Date

10-1-2020

Document Type

Article

First Page

41

Last Page

56

Abstract

Jews in 19th-century Maine relied on familial, ethnic, and, to a lesser degree, institutional networks of mutual assistance to survive and thrive. These Jews, who commonly worked as merchants of clothing and other dry goods, counted on family members to get them through hard times and hired fellow Jews to peddle their wares in the countryside. Jewish peddlers and merchants regularly borrowed or loaned cash and goods on credit within a small, tightly knit community that extended across Maine and as far as Boston and New York. Commercial networks also reinforced familial ties as children and in-laws entered the family business, often marrying their father’s employees or business partners. In Bangor and Portland, Jews formed associations—the Ahawas Achim synagogue in 1849 and a chapter of the B’nai B’rith fraternal organization in 1874, respectively—designed to care for ill, deceased, and widowed community members as well as to attend to religious and cultural needs. Although both of these early institutions dissolved within seven to eight years of their founding, and many of their members migrated out of the state, the Jews who settled in Maine before 1880 laid the foundations for communities and organizations that remain vibrant to this day. The present study draws on the records of these institutions and credit reports of approximately 150 individual Jewish businessmen from towns throughout the state, along with census records and local or family histories. David M. Freidenreich is the Pulver Family Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College, where he serves as director of the Jewish studies program and associate director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life. He is also the founder of Colby’s Maine Jewish History Project (web.colby.edu/jewsinmaine/),which fosters research on Jewish life in Maine by student and community historians. As a member of the religious studies department, he teaches a wide range of courses on Judaism, Jewish history, and comparative religion. After receiving a B.A. from Brandeis University, he earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Most of his scholarship explores attitudes toward adherents of foreign religions within premodern Christian, Jewish, and Islamic sources. Kristin Esdale graduated from Colby College in2016 with a major in chemistry and a minor in Jewish studies. She currently teaches high school science at an international boarding school in Germany.

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