Joy Ride

August 20, 2026 | Third Thursday Thoughts
Dawn LaRochelle, Executive Director

Four rabbis walk into the Maine Jewish Museum…

This is not the beginning of a groan-worthy joke. MJM does live inside a century-old synagogue, after all.

The top hats, however, require some explanation.

Meet the opening act for Comedy, Community & Catskills Classics, our sold-out summer fundraiser earlier this month.

The audience had no idea this was coming. We had secretly enlisted four members of Team MJM’s rabbinical division — Rabbi Gary Berenson, rabbinical leader of Etz Chaim and MJM’s Founding Executive Director; Rabbi Andy Bachman, Scholar in Residence and Delet Educational Leader; Rabbi Dr. David Freidenreich, Historian in Residence; and Rabbi Bill Siemers, Delet Educational Leader — to kick off the evening with Comedy Tonight, the opening number from the Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

As you can see from the photo above, they did not hold back. What you can’t see from the photo, however, is the behind-the-scenes shenanigans leading up to showtime.

I have no idea how many rabbis it takes to screw in a lightbulb. But I can tell you how many rabbis it takes to make MJM Program Coordinator extraordinaire Rebecca Moudachirou and me tear our collective hair out trying to schedule a rehearsal: Four.

“Sorry, I have to bail. Got a funeral to officiate.”

And really, what can you say to that?

At one point, Nick the Brit — a.k.a. my husband and unofficial, unpaid MJM employee — was recruited to stand in for Rabbi Siemers at rehearsal while Rabbi Siemers joined us by Zoom. There were just two minor problems with this arrangement: Nick isn’t Jewish, and he cannot carry a tune to save his life.

And getting everyone into the same room turned out to be only half the battle. The other half? Getting four rabbis to follow stage directions instead of giving stage directions.

“We should all sit in chairs behind the bima, wearing tallit and pretending to pray before the show starts!”

“No, we should be standing in front of the bima, ready to go!”

“No, we should enter from the side to add to the surprise!”

“Who cares how we enter? Let’s talk about some canes to go with those top hats!”

Four rabbis. Four opinions. Who could possibly have seen that coming?

But when the night finally arrived, our rabbis did us proud. They put on their top hats (no canes, thank you very much), took center stage, and hammed it up for all they were worth. They sang. They mugged. They gesticulated. They threw themselves into the choreography with an enthusiasm that suggested they had been waiting their entire rabbinical careers for precisely this opportunity. And the audience ate. it. up.

The rabbis were a tough act to follow, but the Rubin Brothers —  the vaudeville-inspired duo whose juggling, unicycling, acrobatics, and musical mayhem have taken them from Berklee to American Idol — were up to the challenge. Then came our headliner, Cory Kahaney, one of America’s premier stand-up comedians, whose many television appearances include Letterman, Colbert, Conan, America’s Got Talent, and her own Comedy Central special.

It was a wonderful night.

There is a lot about Jewish life right now that is not particularly funny. These have been difficult years for Jews in Maine and around the world. There are serious conversations that we need to have, and that the Maine Jewish Museum will continue to have.

But there also has to be room for joy. For gathering around a table (and, if I have any say in the matter, eating well around that table!). For discovering something we didn’t know yesterday. For making art, listening to music, telling stories, seeing old friends and making new ones. For laughing, uproariously and sometimes at ourselves. Especially at ourselves.

Jewish joy matters.

And there are so many ways to find it at the Maine Jewish Museum.

So, after spending the past several months asking you to buy tickets, join the Host Committee, bid in the auction, raise your paddle, and generally help us make Comedy, Community & Catskills Classics a success, I am delighted to announce:

I’m not asking you for a thing.

Okay, I lied.

I have one ask:

Come see us.

On Sunday, August 30, from 4:00–5:30 PM, join us for Happy Hour with a Historian: Stained Glass Reflections – The Windows of Maine’s Synagogues, featuring internationally recognized stained-glass artist Nancy O’Neil. Nancy will share stories from more than three decades of creating windows for Maine synagogues and explore how art, architecture, memory, and Jewish communal life come together in stained glass. There will also be light refreshments… and yes, I have been plotting the menu.

Looking ahead, next month we’re launching Nature Makers, a new after-school art program for kids ages 6–12. On four Thursday afternoons, young artists will explore sculpture, printmaking, bookmaking, collage, mosaics, and bug sculptures with teaching artists Hazel Barkin and Ilana Welch. Young artists can sign up for one class or all four. And we couldn’t be more excited to welcome them — we are a Museum, not a grown-ups-only club.

On Thursday, September 10, from 5:00–7:00 PM, we’ll throw open the doors for an opening reception celebrating three new exhibitions: Sara Crisp’s New Work; Betsy Stendig Cook’s The 72 Names of God — How the Light Gets In; and Rosalba Breazeale’s Poems From Kay Pacha. Come meet the artists, see the work, have a glass of wine and some cheese, and help us welcome an entirely new season of art to MJM.

While you’re here, don’t miss There Is Always an &. If you loved our spring Ampersand  exhibition (or missed it entirely), 104 of Hedva Rokach’s remarkable portraits of Jewish Mainers are now on view on MJM’s second floor in our “Mini Ampersand” exhibition.

Ampersand has also hit the road! A traveling version of the exhibition is now on view at the Michael Klahr Center at the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine in Augusta, where it will remain for the coming year.

Between the Portland and Augusta exhibitions, you can see all of the photographs from the original There Is Always an & exhibition. Consider this your excuse for a little Jewish-Maine road trip.

See, here’s the thing:

Showing up matters.

Every person who walks through our doors makes this place a little more alive.

Every person who comes to a program, brings a child, looks at a painting, learns a piece of Maine Jewish history, meets someone new, or sits down next to someone they already know helps create the community we want this Museum to be.

So, that’s my “August Annual Appeal”:

No envelope.
No donation button.
No paddle.

Just come.

And when you do, expect the unexpected. Four rabbis in top hats, anyone?

Because we can take Jewish life seriously without taking ourselves too seriously.

Warmly,

Dawn