Documenting Maine Jewry a seven-year-old community history project

Documenting Maine Jewrya seven-year-old community history project

From generation to generation to generation

DMJ San Francisco Gathering - September, 2013

Presentation Outline

key features of DMJ’s approach current successes future directions

Helping people save personal memorabilia – creating family trees for them and sharing a digital copy Key Feature 1

Today he DMJ site has an online library with

1,538 photographs, 1,018 original documents and

29,000 individual biographic records

and a six-month backlog of yet-to-be-indexed material

for a Jewish community with no more than 15,000 Jews at any one time

Everyone can contribute in their own unique way to building our information base of Maine community and personal histories,

and everyone is a part of the process.

Sample biographic record

All going well

DMJ aims for a20% increase in bibliographic citations

and a 20% increase in biographic information

in the coming year

Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #1Cantor Messerschmidt and

Rabbi Grossman

Working with community organizations to digitize and make their records public

Key Feature 2

Today DMJ has working relationships with and records from

all 16 Maine synagogues all cemetery associations and Cherva Kaddisha

all major Jewish social and community organizations;

and it supportsmany of these organizations by helping to

archive their records.

Photographing and displaying headstone images Key Feature 3

Cover of a JCC bulletin and Bangor newsletter

Torah covers from Beth Abraham, Auburn

Sample organizational history page

All going well

Enhance DMJ’s website as an entry point for information about

all Jewish organizations in the state

Expectations for 5744,Key Feature #2

Beth Israel - Bath

Creating a sense of identification with Maine, with Judaism, and with

Maine’s own Jewish traditions Key Feature 3

Both in smaller and larger ways:

all local home pages have their names in Yiddish

broadcast messages often reference the religious calendar

the website is a platform for listening to Maine Cantors davening

Plus …

DMJ’s logo

From generation to generation to generation

All going well

More messages reaching out to

Maine’s largely isolated and under-identified Jewish families

Maine-identified Jews living outside the state


Creating a sense of local Jewish history that reflects the diversity of Maine’s Jewish communities

Key Feature 4

Today DMJ has local home pages for

Aroostook County, Augusta area, Greater Bangor ,

Bath, Biddeford-Saco, Calais, Greater Portland, Lewiston-Auburn area, Old Orchard

Beach, Old Town-Orono, Rockland, Rumford,

Waterville

Sample local home page

All going wellMore support for

local community history projects:•

financing, where possible how-to presentations on Jewish

genealogy traveling exhibition on Maine’s

Jewish history


CDC boating

Revive the Jewish tradition of oral history and story telling as one means to build community histories

Key Feature 5

DMJ has

recorded interviews with 40 Greater Portland Jews

located an additional 40 oral interviews in the archives of Portland Public Library

compiled a list of more than 250 other personal biographic histories and interviews

of Maine Jews

All going well

DMJ aims to support oral and video histories prepared by other Maine

communities and by Mainers living in Florida

Expectations for 5744,Key Feature # 5

Photographing and displaying headstone and memorial images

Key Feature 6

DMJ has created a state-wide Jewish burial index and

an opportunity for virtual visits to Maine Jewish cemeteries,

includingburial records from all 18 cemeteries and

over 2,500 headstone images

Sample headstone image

All going well

DMJ aims to add headstones images from six Bangor cemeteries and to devise a

plan for regular updates of burial records


Rockland cemetery

Hosting Landtsmann community gatherings in and out of the state

Key feature 7

DMJ Gatherings have enabled Jewish Mainers to re-connect

with old family and friends and have inspired reflections on the special character of the

Maine Jewish experience.

Gatherings have taken place in Westchester, NY (2); Old Orchard Beach

(2); south Florida (2); greater Boston (2); San Francisco and greater Hartford (Oct 2013)

Old Orchard Beach Gathering, summer 2009

All going well

At least two additional DMJ hosted Gatherings

in the coming year

Expectations for 5744,Key Feature # 7

Newton Gatherings

Stimulate research and exhibitions collaborating with state and international

historical and genealogical organizations Key Feature 8

Today DMJ has institutional ties with Colby’s Maine Jewish History project

Maine Historical Society International Association of Jewish Genealogical

Societies Greater Boston Jewish Genealogical Society Portland, Bangor, and USM public libraries

and has produced exhibitions for the Maine Jewish Museum and Bates College

Exploring the latest state-of-the-art software to tell Maine’s Jewish story

Key Feature 9

DMJ utilizesthe best of web-based technology

to engage Jewish Mainers in their own history

and help them visualizetheir own role in the Jewish history of the

state

All going well

DMJ aims to haveuser-friendly update and notification

systems in place this year


People genealogical info

POB, Lived In, POD

Significant EventsImages

Burial records

OrganizationsHistory

LocationSignificant Events

Images

PlacesLocal home pages

Maps

Oral Histories / Biographie

s

Photographs /

Documents

Years Significant

EventsWorld As it

Was

CemeteriesBurial info

Public Index

Sources &Software

Documenting Jewish contributions to civil society and the impacts of civil society on Maine’s Jewish life

Key Feature 10DMJ is collecting information on Maine’s

Jewish businesses, lawyers, doctors, political figures and artists

as well as on

Maine’s history of anti-Semitism in hotels and clubs, in residential housing and in social

clubs

All going well

DMJ aims to do two special research projects –

one on the Jewish history Maine’s shoe and leather industry

and the other on Maine Jews in the retail trades

Expectations for 5774Key feature #10

Creating a model to share with other small Jewish communities as well as with other religious, ethnic, and

cultural communities Key Feature 11

Documenting Maine Jewry has had meetings about sharing our methodology and software

with

•RI Jewish Historical Society, •The Portland Public Library,

•The Greater Boston Jewish Genealogical Society,

•the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies; and

• South African Jewish historical society.

All going well

As a specially funded sub-project, DMJ aims to redesign, document, and

make portable our methodological approach and our operating software so

that it be used by other small and medium sized Jewish and non-Jewish

communities.

Expectations for 5774Key feature #11

DMJ Structure

Registered Maine non-profit organization

Under the financial supervision of Temple Beth El, Portland, Maine

Under the organizational leadership of a state-wide Minyan ,

a local gabbiium from ten Maine communities,

and

a national group of Mainers from the diaspora community

DMJ Finances

Income :45 Donors of over $500

Foundations grants from Sam Cohen Foundation, Cogan Family Trust, Haward Fund for Community Development, Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropic Foundation, Jewish Community Endowment , and

Wein Charitable Trust

Project contracts from Tree of Life Foundation (Maine Jewish Museum)

Expenses : part-time data manager, part-time software

consultants, computer services and subscriptions, honorium to project shammas, support to local

communities, support for DMJ gatherings, administrative and office expenses.

Totaling $25 - $40,000 per year

All going wellCore functions :

Full-time data manager,Half-time software manager and outreach coordinator

Working office [other elements the same]Expected operating budget: $85 – $95,000

Project functions: Fund ($8 -$10K/yr) for local history projects,

extending community history methodology and software to other Jewish and non-Jewish communities

($40 - $60,000)

Expectations for 5744,Finances

DMJ People

The Minyan

Thirteen State-Gabbiim

Nine out-of-state Landsmann coordinators

Part-time data manager

Part-time software person

Contracted software firm services

Specially funded project people

DMJ Shammas coordinator

550 Volunteers of Dataand

2400 Registered Users

All going well

DMJ aims to

expand the number of geographic coordinators stabilize the organization

with a full-time data manager,half-time software manager and outreach coordinator

and have the project shammas share DMJ methodology

with other Jewish and non-Jewish communities

Expectations for 5744,Personnel

Documenting Maine Jewrya seven year old community history project

From generation to generation to generationDMJ San Francisco Gathering - September, 2013

Documenting Maine JewryDMJ San Francisco Gathering - September, 2013

Volunteer to help build the database on Maine’s Jewish life

Please contact me to discuss

____ donating photographs and memorabilia

____ helping to collect data on a theme ( an organization / a business)

____ making a financial contribution

____ outreaching out to other Mainers in CA and elsewhere

Name _________________________________________________________

Email / Telephone number _________________________________________