Sunday, January 25
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Please join us for the January meeting of the MJM + Hadassah + Rimon Book Group as we gather to discuss Hostage by Eli Sharabi.
In this moving memoir, Sharabi shares his experience of captivity and the long road that follows, offering readers a deeply personal reflection on endurance, memory, and the power of human connection. While the subject matter is serious, the book is written with clarity and care, inviting thoughtful reflection and conversation. Reading it together gives us the opportunity to listen closely, bear witness, and engage as a community.
Sunday, February 1, 2026
2:00 pm –4:00 pm
$36 materials fee
Make something beautiful. Celebrate something meaningful.
Join us for a hands-on Tu B’Shevat workshop where you’ll twist, shape, and sculpt your very own wire tree — a perfect way to honor the Jewish “New Year of the Trees.”
Thursday, February 5 2026
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Join us for an evening honoring memory, resilience, and community at the Maine Jewish Museum: Jack Montgomery — Maine lawyer turned photographer and the originator of our acclaimed Soul Survivors exhibition — will present his new book, From the Holocaust to Maine: Testimonies of the Survivors.
Saturday, February 21, 2026
7:00 PM (Doors open at 6:00 PM)
One Longfellow Square, Portland
$30 advance • $40 at the door
What happens when world-renowned artists spend an intensive week making music with an intergenerational ensemble of Maine musicians — and then everyone takes the stage together?
Thank you to our co-sponsor
This program is made possible by a generous grant from the Davis Family Foundation
Thank you to our sponsors
Thursday, March 5, 2026
5:00 pm –7:00 pm
Mingle with artists and friends and enjoy wine and cheese as we debut our new series of art exhibitions!
Sunday, March 8, 2026
5:00 PM
At the Maine Irish Heritage Center
Irish corned beef dinner or Jewish corned beef sandwich on rye? Why choose one when you can have both?
Join the Maine Jewish Museum and the Maine Irish Heritage Center for our second annual Shalom & Shamrocks, a festive, flavor-forward evening celebrating shared foodways, music, and immigrant histories — bringing together the luck of the Irish and the chutzpah of the Jews for a joyful night in Portland.
Monday, March 16, 2026
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Raise a glass and step into history.
Join us with Louis Miller, Assistant Director for Research and Fellowship Programs and Cartographic Reference and Teaching Librarian at the University of Southern Maine’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, for an evening of conversation, community, and compelling storytelling as we gather for Happy Hour with a Historian. This installment brings us from Maine mill towns to the battlefields of World War I, exploring how American Jewish lives were shaped — and remembered — during the Great War.
Thursday, March 26, 2026
7:00 pm
What happens when African American musical traditions and Jewish musical traditions meet — not as a fusion experiment, but as a shared language of history, resilience, and joy?
The Afro-Semitic Experience answers that question with music that is soulful, searching, celebratory, and deeply human. Rooted in jazz, blues, gospel, swing, klezmer, and improvisation, the Afro-Semitic Experience creates a powerful musical conversation that honors the distinct histories of Black and Jewish communities while illuminating the profound connections between them.
Sponsored by:
The Leir Foundation
Congregation Bet Ha’Am.
Sunday, March 29 2026
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Join Dawn LaRochelle, Hedva Rokach, and Melissa Yaverbaum for an intimate conversation about The Ampersand Project — the photography exhibition There Is Always an & and the companion book Faces & Facets of Jewish Life in Maine.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Food tells stories. So do hands, tables, light, and what’s left behind after a meal.
In this intimate, hands-on workshop, There Is Always an & photographer Hedva Rokach invites participants to explore food photography as a doorway into deeper observation — not just what’s on the plate, but what surrounds it. Using only your smartphone, Hedva will guide you through the essentials of light, framing, perspective, and intention, showing how everyday moments can become powerful visual narratives.
Sunday, May 3, 2026
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
The Maine Jewish Museum invites you to a thoughtful and participatory afternoon exploring how numbers and narratives together help us understand Jewish life in Maine.
3rd Tuesday of Every Month at 2:00 pm
Join Ted Fleischaker, the Maine Jewish Museum’s “building specialist,” for a tour of the museum with a focus on our historic synagogue’s fascinating history. Ted is a journalist who has written for and owned newspapers in over half a dozen states, hosted a program on National Public Radio for over a decade, was a professor at University of Louisville, and served as PR Director at the United Jewish Campaign in Louisville.
On the first Friday evening of every month, from 5-8PM the city’s artists, galleries, and arts venues (including MJM!) open up their doors for Portland’s First Friday Art Walk.
All images copyright of the artist, unless otherwise noted; reproduction not allowed without express permission
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