South Portland, and by 1883, Congregation Beth Judah, Portland’s first synagogue, was founded. During the 1880s a wave of immigrants from Russia and Poland arrived in the US, and Portland’s Jewish community increased to 60 families. Most of these new immigrants worked as peddlers and settled in the area close to the three synagogues. By 1884, the first Hebrew school opened its doors. In 1886, Portland celebrated its 100th anniversary, and invited members of the Jewish community to attend and to address the crowd. By the end of the century, the Hebrew Loan association was founded, offering Jews interest-free loans to get started in the community. Later immigrant period (1900 – 1920) With Portland’s growing Jewish population, the number of religious, educational and fraternal organizations increased significantly. The Workmen’s Circle, a Yiddish-speaking fraternal order, was organized in 1907 and grew from 18 members to 150. This group established a library, conducted Americanization classes for immigrants and sponsored lecture courses for members. In addition, The Young Men’s Hebrew Association was founded, as was the Portland Hebrew School, a Portland chapter of Hadassah, and United Hebrew Charities. By 1907, Portland’s Jewish community had grown to 1,500, and just five years later, that number increased to 2,000. With that growth, the small synagogues became inadequate to serve the now significant Jewish community, and Shaarey Tphiloh was chartered and built. End of WWI to end of WWII (1920 – 1945) By 1920, the Jewish population of Portland had increased to 3,000, and numerous charitable and social organizations came to be. The Mount Sinai Cemetery Association was formed, and the newly formed Portland Council of Jewish Women assisted immigrants and were active in getting Jews to register and vote in political elections. Ground breaking ceremonies for the Jewish Home for the Aged were held in 1928, and the new Jewish Community Center opened in the fall of 1938. The Jacob Cousins Post, No. 99, Jewish War Veterans, came into being in 1935, with a mission of securing legislation in the interest of veterans and “to defending the honor of the Jewish people against detractors.” By this time, there were three synagogues, all within just a few blocks of one another The two major congregations in Portland, Etz Chaim Synagogue and Shaarey Tphiloh, stood just two blocks apart, and were rivals. Members of one would not participate in any event of the other. In 1929, a