A Note From the JCRC Director

Last month, the Jewish Community Alliance here in Portland, as well as another synagogue in Portland, received a letter. Its typewritten message was simple: “I will kill all at this location for Palestine for Russia.”

It hurts to admit that I wasn’t surprised. Since I began my role a few months ago, there has been what feels like at times a firehose of Jew-hatred: on my very first day of work, a white nationalist emailed hundreds of staff members at Portland schools a vile article with racist drawings of Jews lifted straight from Nazi Germany. I have learned of Jewish children finding swastikas scribbled on their belongings at Southern Maine schools. I’ve corresponded with a Jewish woman who was told on a Portland bus that she “belonged in a cemetery” for wearing a Star of David.

This isn’t just inflamed rhetoric. In the last two months, there have been two deadly terrorist attacks against the American Jewish community: a firebombing in Boulder, Colorado which killed an elderly Holocaust survivor, and a shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, in which a gunman yelling “Free Palestine” shot and killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram. The irony is that both Yaron and Sarah were peacemakers: Sarah volunteered at an advocacy group which trains young Palestinians and Israelis to work together, and Yaron worked at the Israeli embassy, with a focus on building bridges with the Arab world.

Our CEO, Leslie Kirby, and I were at the very same Capital Jewish Museum last month for a conference. In a sad reminder of our new norm, we were told to hide our presence there—no posting, no pictures—until after the event had concluded. There at the museum where the makeshift sidewalk memorial to Yaron and Sarah still gathered fresh flowers, we bowed our heads for a long moment of silence. I looked up to see faces filled with glistening tears—people who knew Yaron and Sarah personally.

With these events playing in my mind, I recently went to the synagogue in Portland which had also received a death threat letter. An armed guard greeted us at the door. Sitting there, I wished that modern antisemites could see the room. It was a beautiful, diverse gathering of people, simply thanking God for giving us the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament). We prayed for peace, we read from the Torah, we sang the songs of our ancestors. Grandparents, parents, children, babies.

I wish that these Jew-haters could see the works of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, and all the good deeds it does in the community. Every day, I am awed by my coworkers at the JCA, who in the last year alone have distributed over 46,000 diapers, 11,000 menstrual pads, and 500 pairs of winter boots to Mainers in need; they’ve helped hundreds of refugees secure life-saving medical care, housing, and first jobs; they’ve created “Mitzvah Days” where Jewish volunteers package meals for the needy and clean up Maine trails; they lend our space out to diverse cultural groups, including hosting last month’s World Refugee Day. It is incredible what the people on our staff do on a daily basis. It is fully in line with the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam—the practice of repairing our broken world.

And yet, there are groups that not only wish for Jewish death, but celebrate it. After the Capital Jewish Museum shooting, the DSA Liberation Caucus, which is a subgroup of the Democratic Socialists of America but does not speak for the organization as a whole, posted a picture of the shooter, Elias Rodriguez, with the words “Build the International Popular Cradle of Resistance!” underneath him. Their statement read: “Rodriguez’ targeted attack on two Israeli diplomatic staff on May 21, 2025 was a legitimate act of resistance…[his] act was fully justified.” They might as well have continued: slaughter anyone associated with Israel or Judaism, and you will be glorified.

I have no doubt that were a terrible attack to happen to the Maine Jewish community, those same people would gleefully celebrate it. But we know this is absolutely not true of the Portland or Maine community at large.

Just like we as a Jewish community condemn prejudice and hatred, just as we as a society can condemn racism and homophobia and Islamophobia, so too should we identify and condemn Jew-hatred—whether it emerges from bigots who wrongfully exploit the Palestinian cause to kill, threaten, or bully Jewish people, or from losers who drape themselves in the fetid symbols of Neo-Nazism.

We very much look forward to tackling this issue of antisemitism together as a community. Please continue to read for an update of what we’ve done so far, and an invitation to join our work.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

What's New in Jewish News This Week

August 22, 2025

Important Note: The following articles do not represent an official position of the JCA, and are deliberately intended to mirror the wide range of diverse perspectives within Southern Maine’s Jewish community. Our goal is to deliver interesting news, reliable sources, and important perspectives on major Jewish issues. In IDF-controlled Rafah, an armed clan’s school plants seeds of a Hamas-free future (The Times of Israel) - The Palestinian Abu Shabab gang claims to have carved out an area where it is providing electricity, medical care and education for thousands of displaced Gazans under IDF protection. The school eschews Palestinian Authority textbooks previously prevalent in Gaza, with teachers apparently recruited from among displaced Palestinians living in a part of Gaza controlled by the Israel Defense Forces and appears to educate pupils along progressive ideas of pluralism and tolerance. “We want to create a generation of learners, not terrorists,” said Mohammed, a senior member of Abu Shabab’s forces, in a phone interview with The Times of Israel. Both initiatives appear to address longstanding Israeli concerns regarding Palestinian education, which critics say includes content that incites against Israelis and Jews, perpetuating narratives that fuel distrust and conflict rather than coexistence. After decades of conflict, Armenia-Azerbaijan peace plan gives Caucasus Jews new hope (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) - Two former Soviet republics that have been sworn enemies ever since the breakup of the USSR are suddenly on the verge of making peace. Since even before their independence in 1991, predominantly Christian, landlocked Armenia and mostly Muslim, oil-rich Azerbaijan have fought many wars over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and accused each other of human rights abuses, ethnic cleansing — even genocide. But now, their leaders say they have decided to bury the hatchet — and Jews in both countries could benefit. Israel opens new embassy in Zambia, once home to a historic Jewish community (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) - Israel has opened an embassy in Zambia, more than half a century after it was shuttered following the Yom Kippur war and as the African nation’s Jewish population has dwindled to near zero. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Zambian Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe opened the embassy together on Wednesday. “It’s an honor to be in Lusaka for the opening of Israel’s embassy,” Sa’ar tweeted, adding that the two countries were “enhancing our partnership in agriculture, health and much more.” 80 Modern Orthodox rabbis call for ‘moral clarity’ in the face of Gaza humanitarian crisis (The Times of Israel) - Dozens of Orthodox rabbis have issued “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis,” in an addition to a recent cascade of open letters from Jewish voices responding to a hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave nearly two years into the Israel-Hamas war. Unlike some of the other letters, the new letter stresses condemnation of Hamas and does not call for Israel to end the war in Gaza. Instead, the rabbis write, “Hamas’s sins and crimes do not relieve the government of Israel of its obligations to make whatever efforts are necessary to prevent mass starvation." The Orthodox rabbis also lament the ascendance of extremist voices in Israel, the hardening of sentiments about Palestinians, and the explosion of settler violence in the West Bank — which they refer to using the Hebrew name for the region that conveys a historic Jewish connection to the land. “Hamas’s sins and crimes do not relieve the government of Israel of its obligations to make whatever efforts are necessary to prevent mass starvation,” the rabbis write. Israel Claims UN’s Gaza Famine Declaration Based on ‘Biased and False’ Hamas Report (The Media Line) - Israel has rejected a global classification of famine in northern Gaza, accusing the international monitoring body behind the assessment of using flawed data sourced in part from Hamas-affiliated individuals and organizations. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC), a widely used global hunger monitor, declared on Thursday that famine is occurring in the Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City, and warned that conditions are deteriorating rapidly across the territory. The declaration prompted a sharp rebuke from the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit of Israel’s Defense Ministry that oversees humanitarian efforts in Gaza. In a counter-report, COGAT said the IPC’s findings were “biased and false” and accused the organization of relying on “severe methodological flaws.” Massachusetts Man Who Threatened to Kill Members of Jewish Community and Bomb Synagogues Sentenced to Prison (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man was sentenced on August 14 to more than two years in prison after he threatened to bomb synagogues and kill Jewish children in a series of calls he placed to two local houses of worship and the Israeli consulate in Boston after Israel and Hamas went to war in 2023. John Reardon, 60, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston to 26 months in custody after pleading guilty in November to charges related to what prosecutors said were dozens of violent and antisemitic calls and voicemails he placed to Jewish institutions beginning on October 7, 2023.

What's New in Jewish News This Week

August 8, 2025

Hundreds of Rabbis Demand Israel Stop ‘Using Starvation as a Weapon of War’ - ( The Times of Israel ) Hundreds of rabbis in the US and worldwide, including many rabbis here in Maine, have signed a letter calling for Israel to stop using starvation as a “weapon of war,” bring home the hostages, and end the fighting in Gaza. The letter, posted on July 25 and featuring the names of several leading rabbis across denominations, said the “Jewish People face a grave moral crisis…[even as] we recognize, and many of us endure, the huge challenges the State of Israel relentlessly confronts, surrounded for so long by enemies and facing existential threats from many quarters.” The signatories also said they “unequivocally support” Israel’s battle against Hamas and Hezbollah and understand the IDF’s policy of protecting its soldiers’ lives. “But we cannot condone the mass killings of civilians, including a great many women, children and elderly, or the use of starvation as a weapon of war,” the letter stated. Palestinian Leader Condemns Hamas for Contributing to Hunger Crisis - “Producing mass death from hunger is Hamas’ final play,” Palestinian activist Ahmed Foud Al-Khatib writes in a piece for The Atlantic that both criticizes Hamas for deliberately manufacturing a famine against Gazans and calls upon the Israeli government to flood Gaza with food, in order to lessen the terrorist group’s influence. Al-Khatib states that "if the hunger crisis and humanitarian issues are addressed, Hamas can no longer use the suffering of Gazans to generate an international outcry or use the resultant leverage to end the war on its own terms." German Media Investigation Exposes Staged and Out-of-Context Photographs of Civilian Suffering in Gaza - A new investigation by German media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung and BILD reveals that prominent Gaza-based photographers have been staging photos of Gazan civilians for propaganda efforts. While acknowledging the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the investigation found that photographers, including Anas Zayed Fteiah, were selectively staging images to “depict chaos and destruction” in order to serve Hamas’s propaganda wing and influence public opinion. One of Fteiah’s photos, depicting starving Gazan women and children desperately brandishing pots and pans to receive food, was published on the cover of the August 1 edition of TIME Magazine. Süddeutsche Zeitung ran a photograph of Fteiah taking the picture, revealing that the pots and pans were held out for the purposes of the photograph, not to receive food. Other photos from the same location showed adult males calmly receiving food. Israel's Security Cabinet Approves Plan for Israeli Military to Temporarily Take Over Gaza City - ( CBS ) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced early Friday morning local time that Israel's Security Cabinet had approved a plan for the Israeli military to take over Gaza City. In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the Israel Defense Forces would prepare to take over Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside of combat zones. According to Netanyahu's office, the cabinet adopted five principles for ending the war: the disarmament of Hamas, the return of all hostages both living and dead, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of an alternative civilian government in Gaza that is not led by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. 19 Former Israel Defense Chiefs Demand End to Gaza War - ( The Times of Israel ) More than a dozen former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message Sunday, August 3, with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that Israel has racked up more losses than victories and that the fighting has dragged on for political reasons rather than strategic military need. Among those backing the clip were former prime minister and IDF chief Ehud Barak and former IDF chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz. The group says that Netanyahu is avoiding agreeing on a permanent end to the war and the return of the 50 hostages still in captivity in order to preserve his coalition, which relies on far-right parties who insist on continuing the war. Israeli and American Assessments Agree Tehran’s Infrastructure to Finish a Bomb Is Shattered - ( The Washington Post ) Now that the rhetorical debris has settled from Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, there is growing evidence that Iran’s nuclear program suffered such severe damage that it will be neutered for at least a year, and probably far longer. “Iran is no longer a threshold nuclear state,” one well-informed Israeli source says. This account supports claims by both the Trump administration and Israel that the Iran campaign achieved its objectives. Jewish Community Remains Most-Targeted Religious Group in FBI’s 2024 Hate Crime Report - ( Security Community Network ) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its 2024 Hate Crime Report , confirming the Jewish community remains the most targeted religious group in the United States. The report documents 1,938 anti‑Jewish hate crimes, representing 69 percent of all religiously motivated incidents, up from 67 percent in 2023. Among these incidents were terroristic plots, assault, vandalism, harassment, burglary, false bomb threats, and swatting. The FBI’s report carries added significance in the years following the 07 October Hamas attacks, as anti-Jewish related crimes continue to reach all‑time highs.

Refugee Resettlement Program Pause & the JCA Volunteer Community

July 30, 2025

On July 1, the JCA’s Board of Directors notified staff that they had made the gut-wrenching decision to pause Federally funded HIAS/RRNS work at the end of September 2025. Our current Federal administration does not support refugee resettlement and is defunding the programs that have made it possible. Sarah discussed how working with refugee clients supports Jewish values and highlighted the “incredible, selfless and humanistic work of the RRNS staff.” We would like to take this opportunity to honor the story of volunteers’ participation in the RRNS program and address the impact of the program's pause on our volunteer community. In January 2022, when JCA began its partnership with HIAS to resettle refugees in Maine, we did not fully comprehend the scope of the endeavor we took on and found ourselves struggling to organize, manage, and administer the demands of the program. The resettlement process, beginning as the planes touched down at the Portland Jetport, was determined by Federal mandates, including required programs that had to be offered within specific timeframes. During this time, we turned to our volunteer community to assist our HIAS staff in a variety of impactful roles in the efforts to welcome these families to Maine. Volunteers did everything from helping to find suitable housing, picking up clients as they arrived, assisting them into temporary housing, preparing permanent housing, which included sourcing and moving furniture, cleaning, and transporting clients to their new homes. Volunteers also helped clients adjust to a culture very different from their own by assisting with grocery shopping and cultural orientation groups. Due to the nature of the work, there was often very little lead time. Emails alerting volunteers to various needs often occurring within that same week, and invariably, people would show up to help. When housing was no longer available in the Portland area, volunteers drove to Lewiston, Auburn, and Waterville to help clients with their moving and settling process. Volunteers’ passion, dedication, flexibility, and commitment were vital to the program’s success. Words like “amazing,” “awesome,” and “wonderful” can’t adequately capture the quality of our volunteers’ efforts on behalf of the JCA to carry forth its mission or on behalf of the refugees whom the program has served. People put their heart and soul into this endeavor in response to JCA embracing such a massive undertaking and in response to the refugees’ situations in their home countries and the courage and bravery they demonstrated in emigrating. And not surprisingly, many volunteers developed strong relationships with the refugee clients they served. The abrupt end to this funding and JCA’s struggles to provide as many services to as many people as possible since then have caused a type of emotional whiplash amongst the volunteer community. People have experienced many feelings, including shock, confusion, sadness, anger, and disappointment. It felt to many of the volunteers that the program was just starting to solidify. Services were being evaluated and improved. Communication was enhanced. In other words, just as the program was coming into its own, it was suddenly ground to a halt. It is painful for all of us to be in this current situation. However, JCA is hopeful that attitudes toward refugees will change in the future and that we will once again be able to help people from ravaged countries start new lives here. We all know that despite the prevailing environment, steadfast dedication can change the world, and JCA remains committed to providing what services we can. We will be forever grateful for our volunteers’ efforts in support of those goals. Please feel free to reach out to Adam if you have questions or want to talk about the end of the RRNS program.