Congregation Beth El marks 25th anniversary with weekend celebration

Faith Milestones

Congregation Beth El, 183 French St., Bangor, will mark its 25th anniversary this month. A weekend celebration will begin with a sunrise service Oct. 21 at the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. A Havdalah service featuring music and comedy will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at the synagogue. Former Rabbis Shoshana Perry and Laurence Milder will join Rabbi Darah Lerner in a special program at 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 22. The weekend celebration will culminate with a dinner at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono.

History

Just 25 years after its founding, Congregation Beth El is the largest Reform Jewish congregation north of Boston.

Organized in May 1981 by six Bangor area families, the synagogue now has 175 member families, according to Mark Roth, chairman of Beth El’s silver anniversary committee.

Services the first few years were conducted by lay leaders, except on the High Holy Days, when Rabbi Paul Meitoff of the American Hebrew Congregations in Boston would come to Bangor. The rabbi brought a Torah with him at Rosh Hashana and returned it to Boston after Yom Kippur because the synagogue did not have one of its own.

In the mid 1980s Beth El was given a Holocaust Torah, rescued from Czechoslovakia by the Westminster Synagogue Trust in London. Holocaust Torahs are given to new congregations on permanent loan. Beth El’s was written down about 1730 in a style characteristic of Moravia.

In 1995, the congregation bought as its permanent home the French Street building from Messiah Baptist Church. That same year, Beth El hired Rabbi Laurence Milder to serve as its first full-time rabbi. An accomplished folk singer, Milder wove traditional and modern Jewish music into weekly services.

Many of the synagogue’s religious accoutrements including the Torah stand, menorah and Ark, in which the Torah is stored, were handcrafted from wood by Edward Harrow, a Bangor physician. Harrow’s son and daughter were among the first to have their bar and bat mitzvahs at Beth El.

Throughout its history, rabbis and lay leaders at Beth El have reached out to the larger community in an effort to teach non-Jews about the faith and its relationship to other religions. The synagogue also has participated in the Thanksgiving ecumenical service, hosting the event on a rotating basis with other houses of worship in Bangor.

Because it is the only Reform synagogue north of Augusta, Beth El includes families from Patten, Monson, Penobscot, Blue Hill, Stockton Springs and other communities.

Beth El timeline

1981 Congregation founded by six families

1982 Religious school established

1983 First bar mitzvah held

1984 First bat mitzvah held

1987 Rabbi David Sandmel hired as first part-time rabbi

1995 Congregation moves to permanent home on French Street

1996 Membership reaches 150 families

2002 Beth El cemetery dedicated

2006 Rabbi Darah Lerner hired

2006 Congregation celebrates 25th anniversary