become an annual style show at Chernowsky’s Department Store, with proceeds to benefit the community. In 1952, Lipman Poultry moved their business to Augusta, resulting in more Jewish families moving to the area. Augusta Hebrew Community outgrew their rented space, and the Lipmans led the charge to help build what would become Temple Beth El, dedicated in 1957. Beth El, Augusta, Maine End of the sixties to the end of the 20th century (1970 – 1999) In 1973, Temple Beth Israel in Gardiner [closed its doors] and made the decision to merge with Temple Beth El in Augusta. By 1987, Temple Beth El joined the Reform movement, making it the only Reform synagogue in Central Maine. Ten years later, they hired their first full-time rabbi. Beginning of the 21st century to date (2000 – present) As Maine's capital, Augusta has provided opportunities to connect to Maine’s Jewish history and its widespread community. Beginning in 1995, Governor Angus King and his wife, Mary Herman, hosted a Hanukkah celebration at the Blaine House, a tradition that has continued. In 2018, the Maine State Museum opened a year-long exhibit, the first major exhibition in Maine to tell the history of the state’s Jewish community. While the Holocaust and Human Rights Center (HHRC) came into being in 1985, they had no building until 2008 when the Michael Klahr Center opened on the campus of the University of Maine in Augusta. And Temple Beth El, opening their doors in 1957, is currently home to over 100 families in the Greater Augusta region. Greater Bangor In 1849, a small group of German Jews lived in Bangor. They voted to hire a slaughterer for access to kosher meat, and to purchase a piece of land suitable for a burial ground. Later that same year, they drew up bylaws for a congregation, and by 1850, they had organized the first synagogue in Maine, Ahawas Achim (Brotherly Love). Jewish immigrants arrived in Bangor in three separate waves. The German Jews were the first to arrive. They were a well-educated group who found it easier to assimilate than those who would follow. By the end of the 19th century, most of this group had converted to Christianity or had intermarried. In the 1860s and 1870s, a group of Lithuanian Jews arrived, followed by a wave of Russian and Polish Jews toward the end of the 19th century. Bangor was one