Etz Chaim Synagogue is a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

. Located at 267 Congress Street, it is the only immigrant-era

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an-style synagogue remaining in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. It was founded in 1921 as an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

synagogue, rather than a traditional

Yiddish-language Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

one. Gary S. Berenson presides as Rabbi of the congregation. The building also houses the Maine Jewish Museum.Maine Jewish Museum Website
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References

External links

Etz Chaim Synagogue Website

Portland Press Herald, October 4, 2003

Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME) December 14, 2009 1921 establishments in Maine Jews and Judaism in Portland, Maine Jewish organizations established in 1921 Religious buildings and structures in Portland, Maine Synagogues in Maine {{US-synagogue-stub