Building a past Bangor exhibits, lectures, films trace Jewish presence in U.S.

Jews had been living in America for almost 200 years before any made their way to Bangor shortly after the Civil War.

By then, the descendants of the 23 men, women and children who landed in New Amsterdam, now Manhattan, had made an indelible mark on American history.

This year, Jews throughout the country are marking 350 years of Judaism in America. In recognition, the Jewish Community Council in Bangor will sponsor a series of events over the next eight months designed to celebrate the first Jewish settlement in North America.

Films, lectures and two traveling exhibitions are on the bill.

“Builders of America: The Jewish Heritage” and “Women of Valor” will be displayed Monday through Thursday at the Bangor Museum and Center for History, 6 State St.

“Builders of America” was created by Boris Feinman of New Rochelle, N.Y. He created a similar exhibition in the 1960s that celebrated African-American contributions. He died this summer at the age of 88.

Feinman put together “Builders” after his retirement to Florida in the 1980s. It traces the history of Jews in North America from those who sailed with Christopher Columbus to the arrival of the Statue of Liberty in the 1880s.

“Women of Valor” was created by the Jewish Women’s Archive to highlight the lives of 16 trail-blazing Jewish women from Gertrude Weil, a Southern suffragist, to former U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug, D-N.Y.

Each overcame social, cultural and religious barriers to achieve her goals and made a meaningful contribution that transformed the communities of which she was a part, according to information on the Web site for the Boston-based Jewish Women’s Archive.

The council will sponsor other events.

Hunter College historian Robert M. Seltzer will give a “historical overview” of Jews in America at a lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine in Orono. Seltzer is director of the Hunter College interdisciplinary program in Jewish social studies and has written several books on Jewish history.

“I want to put American Jewish history in the larger context,” Seltzer said in an interview. “What happened to Jews here is unique. … It will be a sort of stock-taking to see where we’ve gone and what Jews have achieved in America.”

The dilemma Jews face during the holidays will be the subject of a December lecture, “Greeting the Season: The ‘December Dilemma’ on American Television.” Jeffrey Shandler, a scholar of Jewish culture, will use video clips to demonstrate how the issue has been explored in a variety of programs.

Shandler will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, at Congregation Beth El, 183 French St., Bangor.

The mass media blitz centered on Christmas – the secular and Christian aspects of the holiday – has given too much importance to Hanukkah, a minor religious holiday, according to some Jewish theologians. Others see little harm in Jews decorating evergreen trees, a tradition more closely associated with the winter solstice than the birth of Jesus, or participating in other secular aspects of the holiday.

Over the winter months, the events will include a film series at Bangor Public Library.

The documentary “Jews, Movies, Hollywoodism and the American Dream” will be shown on Jan. 20; “Gentleman’s Agreement” on Feb. 17; “Hester Street” on March 17; and “Sweet Lorraine” on April 14. The times will be announced.

The program will conclude on Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Voice of the Generation,” a video by Julie Kohner that includes her parents’ story of surviving the Holocaust, will be shown May 2 at Beth Israel, 144 York St., Bangor.

For more information, call the Jewish Community Council at 941-2950 or visit its Web site at www.jccbangormaine.org.