JCA Spotlight

March 24, 2025

Your Gift, Our Community: How the JCA Allocations Make an Impact

When you give to the JCA’s Annual Campaign, you’re not just supporting the incredible programs and services we offer—you’re investing in a stronger, more connected Jewish community. One-quarter of every dollar raised is distributed by our Allocations Committee, a dedicated group that reflects the diversity and values of our community.


Of these allocated funds, 75% stays local, supporting partners like the Maine Jewish Film Festival, the Southern Maine Jewish Cemetery Association, religious schools across Cumberland, York, and Sagadahoc Counties, and more. The remaining 25% goes overseas to non-governmental organizations providing essential social services, including Hand in Hand Schools and World ORT.

One powerful example of your impact is the Maine Jewish Museum’s Delet program, which introduces Maine middle and high school students of all backgrounds to the richness of Jewish history, culture, and traditions. Thanks to your support, Delet is opening doors to greater understanding.

What is the purpose of the Delet Program?

"Delet" is the Hebrew word for "door," and the mission of the Delet Program is to share our experiences and open a door to a greater understanding of Jews and Judaism among diverse Maine middle and high school students. We work one-on-one with teachers at schools throughout the state to custom-design lesson plans that dovetail with their specific teaching goals. We usually take over teachers' classrooms for the day or multiple days in a row, allowing them to be part of the learning experience themselves, if they so choose — as a long-time educator with a Master's degree in teaching, I aim to give our overburdened teachers less work, not more. Sometimes our lessons complement units on the Holocaust, sometimes they highlight Maine Jewish history, and sometimes they focus on Jewish literature and culture. This month, we are teaching a class on Jewish contributions to the Civil Rights movement for the first time. Whatever teachers teach, we are happy to connect to Jewishness in cross-culturally meaningful ways.


We also provide transportation for schools to visit the Maine Jewish Museum for general tours and special programs. We give students an introduction to the synagogue, allowing them to see and touch a Torah, explaining the basic elements of a Jewish service, and outlining the similarities and differences between the Jewish religion and other world religions. We walk them through our historic collections and contemporary art exhibitions and give them an overview of Jewish contributions to Maine's history and vibrant arts community. Our emphasis is on Jewish life and light even when discussing antisemitism — as we always remind students and teachers, Jews are forced to contend with antisemitism, but antisemitism does not define us.


Our Museum Vision calls on us to connect people to the Maine Jewish experience and use our Jewish core as a springboard for broader outreach, and the Delet Program is critical to this mandate. With antisemitism continuing to skyrocket and our society increasingly divided, bridge-building is more important than ever... particularly with our youth, in whose hands our future lies.


How does the JCA’s gift impact the Delet Program, and what is the significance of the Jewish community backing this program through the local allocation process?

The JCA's generous funding allows us to bring the Maine Jewish Museum to schools and schools to the Maine Jewish Museum, as well as to host performances and workshops for students of all backgrounds. Many of the schools we work with are unable to afford transportation for field trips, and being able to cover that cost for them is game-changing. In fact, students are often not only visiting the Maine Jewish Museum for the first time, but they are also visiting Portland for the first time! My educational mantra is "you can't teach them 'til you reach them," and the JCA has gifted us with the opportunity to reach hundreds of young Mainers who have had little or no contact with Jews.


Knowing the Jewish community is putting its dollars and faith in the Delet Program through the local allocations process makes me feel buoyed and supported even as Jews are under siege nationally and in Maine. There are so many nefarious forces beyond my control, but thanks to the JCA, I am able to focus on impactful work on the ground that I can control, and that is everything to me.


With one gift, you change lives. You build a more resilient, vibrant Jewish community. Join us in strengthening our future by supporting the JCA Annual Campaign today.

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July 18, 2025
Nation’s Largest Teacher’s Union Votes to Sever Ties with ADL, JCA Responds This month, the US’s largest teacher’s union, the National Education Association (NEA)—which is also the teacher’s union of Maine—voted to cut all ties with the ADL: banning their lessons on antisemitism, Holocaust education, and Jewish-American history. According to the proposal, the “NEA will not use, endorse, or publicize any materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or its statistics…NEA will not participate in ADL programs or publicize ADL professional development offerings.” This vote will now head to the Executive Committee of the NEA for final approval. This is an incredibly disconcerting development. While the ADL does not represent the views of the entire Jewish community, it has built widely respected anti-bias and Holocaust education curricula that are acclaimed for their effectiveness in progressive, centrist, and right-leaning spaces. Banning the ADL will eradicate a pillar of Jewish-American education and handicap the American Jewish community’s ability to fight rising antisemitism in schools. We here at Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine joined 378 other Jewish organizations last week in a joint letter to the NEA’s Executive Committee, strongly urging them to veto this resolution. Along with our friends at the Jewish Federations of North America and Jewish Council for Public Affairs, we are closely monitoring this situation so we can best support Jewish parents and educators in Maine. You can read the communal letter with our organization’s name on it here , and learn more about the situation on Axios . New Polish Plaques Deny Complicity With Nazis When Jews gathered this week for the anniversary of a World War II massacre in the Polish town of Jedwabne, they saw a new installation—one that denied a historical consensus about the grievous events that unfolded there. At the same time, a far-right lawmaker interrupted the memorial gathering — and triggered a police investigation by calling the gas chambers at Auschwitz “fake.” Thursday marked 84 years since the crimes in Jedwabne, a town of less than 2,000 people northeast of Warsaw. In 1941, local residents killed hundreds of their Jewish neighbors, most of them in a barn where they were burned alive. An official investigation by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance confirmed in 2002 that the murder was carried out by Poles. But Jedwabne has become a flashpoint in Polish politics, with some far-right politicians claiming it was Germans who perpetrated the massacre and characterizing research on Polish complicity as part of an effort to slander their nation. Read more about this disturbing controversy at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency . Five Hebron Sheikhs Break Away from Palestinian Authority and Call for Peace With Israel Five leading Hebron sheikhs, headed by Sheikh Wadee’ al‑Jaabari, have asked Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat to let Hebron break from the Palestinian Authority and form an “Emirate of Hebron” that would fully recognize Israel as the Jewish state and join the Abraham Accords. The clan leaders have pledged zero tolerance for terror and proposed a joint economic zone that could employ tens of thousands of Palestinians inside Israel. The initiative has drawn cautious interest in Jerusalem, underscoring mounting frustration with the Palestinian Authority among many West Bank Palestinians. If it moves forward, Hebron could become the first Palestinian‑led experiment in clan‑based self‑rule and economic partnership under the wider Abraham Accords umbrella. Read more at The Times of Israel.
July 15, 2025
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July 9, 2025
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.
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