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New history trail shows resilience of Portland’s Jewish community

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New history trail shows resilience of Portland’s Jewish community


Historian Riva Krut speaks outside the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland while Bobbie Lamonte holds up an old photo of the building during a walking tour of the new Portland Jewish History Trail. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)

Standing on the other side of Fore Street across from Dock Fore Tavern, you might not pay attention to the faint yellow lettering of “Zeitman’s Grocery Store” that can be read on the bricks above the sports pub’s red awning. But once Riva Krut points it out, you won’t miss it again. 

Moments later, as Krut tells the story of the grocery store run by a Jewish couple who immigrated from Ukraine at the start of the 20th century, the history of the building is also illuminated. The tale of 336 Fore Street is one of familial love, loss, prevalence in the face of antisemitic rulings from City Hall, and a Jewish businesswoman who stood under 5 feet tall, lived to 97 years old, and shaped the commercial district of Portland. 

This stop along the new Portland Jewish History Trail is one of 28 that highlight the often unnoticed Jewish history of Portland. 

The trail unveils the history of Jewish neighborhoods, congregations and synagogues, businesses, and involvement in the welfare and politics of the city from the end of the 19th century through the present. Using standing buildings, historic photos and research, the trail weaves together a portrait of Portland’s Jewish community as they made space for themselves while also developing their identity as Americans and Mainers alongside other immigrants in Portland. 

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The fomrer Shaarey Tphiloh Synagogue on Newbury Street, which is now condominiums, is one of the stops on the new Portland Jewish History Trail. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)

“Portland’s history and future has been and will be made of many, many communities,” said Krut of Cumberland, who created the trail.

Launched with its first tour on Sunday, the trail consists of 28 locations, divided into five walking routes sorted by location and topic: the East End and Munjoy Hill, Middle and Fore Street businesses, Portland’s downtown, Woodford’s Corner and Deering Center, and Jewish cemeteries. 

While anyone can walk the five trails with the map and historic background available online or in an app, the guided walking tours begin in front of Maine Jewish Museum and currently combine segments of three trails in a two-and-a-half-hour, three-mile loop.

During the inaugural tour, 20 participants stood outside 11 Portland buildings as they listened to Krut, 67, tell stories of their residents and activities over the centuries. With so many buildings standing in Portland for over 100 years, the tour “let the bricks talk.” 

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“We’re here all the time. It’s nice to see it in a new light,” said tour participant Kim Levy, 52, of Cape Elizabeth. 

The trail emerged from the research of Krut’s husband, Harris Gleckman, who grew up Jewish in Portland. After a career working for the United Nations in New York and retiring in Maine, Gleckman began researching Jewish history in the state as a hobby, compiling the database using sources such as census records and annual business directories. 

Historian Riva Krut, center, stops on India Street while speaking about the former North School, where in the early 20th century up to 40% of students were Jewish, records show. The building is now home to apartments. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)

Over 20 years, the project became Documenting Maine Jewry, a website containing over 40,000 biographical records, and 10,000 photographs, newsletters, and other documents, and pictures of over 7,800 Jewish headstones. 

The Maine Jewish Museum adopted Documenting Maine Jewry’s catalogue this spring in collaboration with Colby College, exemplifying the museum’s emerging effort to tell the stories of all Jews in Maine, not just Portland, said the museum’s executive director, Dawn LaRochelle. 

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“We really want to capture Jewish history in all of Maine, and hopefully these walking tours will ultimately be replicated in different parts of Maine, not just Portland,” said LaRochelle.

The Jewish History Tour – the first Jewish historic tour offered in Portland and first tour by the museum – was created by Krut in honor of her husband’s research. A historian of Jewish immigrant history herself, she is versed in linking location and dates to create an understanding of the past.

“Place and identity for me are connected. A place is also about time. What that building meant in 1912 is different than today,” she said. 

Stops on the guided tour include the North School, a former public school where up to 40% of a class appeared to be Jewish on attendance records; the original location of the synagogue that is now condos and a hair salon; the former Jewish Community Center, a hub of activity and culture on Cumberland Avenue, and City Hall, where Linda Abromson served as the first Jewish female mayor starting in 1982. 

Debbie Wineberg, 68, took the walking tour on Sunday with her husband, Howard Wineburg, 71, of Wells. Her Jewish grandparents and mother lived on Portland’s Vesper Street and attended the Etz Chaim Synagogue, where the Maine Jewish Museum now also resides on Congress Street. 

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Debbie Wineberg said that in the face of increasing antisemitism, she thought twice about attending a public Jewish event like the tour. But ultimately, she felt like it was important to show up.

“We want to support organizations like the Maine Jewish Museum,” she said. 

“We’re not big synagogue goers, so we wanted to come and get the education side of things,” said Howard Wineberg. 

At a time where the Jewish community faces both prejudice and division over the war in Gaza, the tour and its participants instead focused on what connects Jewish Mainers to each other and to other communities. This was particularly accomplished by viewing Portland Jewish history through the lens of immigration and building community. 

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This building, at 23 Hampshire Street, housed Jewish families in the 1890s through the early 20th century and is one of the stops on the new Portland Jewish History Trail. The building is now condominiums. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)

“I am not interested in talking about antisemitism. I’m interested in our commonalities, and the immigrant story is that story,” said Bobbie Lamont, 62, who helped lead the tour group. 

As the tour moves through locations and time periods, it takes participants through the arrival of Jewish immigrants, primarily from Eastern Europe to Portland to how they integrated and shaped the city over the generations in all areas of life.

Krut said the Jewish history of resilience in the face of prejudice is one that she hopes will resonate with all types of immigrants in Portland today as they face challenges and persist in building a life here. 

“I looked at it as a series of events for minorities now to look at and see how the Jews found success in the face of antisemitism,” said Krut. 

Both Krut and tour participants noted how the Jewish History Trail intertwines with other historic walking trails in Portland such as the trail about Black and abolitionist history, the women’s history trail, a queer history trail, and a tour of Chinese-American history. Just as the histories of marginalized groups are connected through the city’s past, Krut hopes that the growing network of historic trails will inspire more of these histories to be told.

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“Every group has a story, and we should go out and tell it,” said Krut.



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This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage

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This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage


A waterfront home with open ocean views on the coast of Maine came to market Tuesday asking $4 million. 

Built in 1978, the three-bedroom cottage is at the southern point of Cape Elizabeth, less than 10 miles from downtown Portland. The 1.1-acre property on Sunny Bank Road features 200 feet of south-facing water frontage on the wide open Atlantic. 

It is bordered by a rocky sea wall that’s about 28 feet high, according to listing agent Sam Michaud Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty

“The views are like a Monet painting,” he said via email. “The water sparkles and the waves are endless.”

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MORE: Laid-Back Costa Rica Is Getting a $7 Million Mega-Penthouse

The 3,364-square-foot home was built in classic New England style, with shingle siding, a single sloped roofline and large windows—complemented by white-washed walls, exposed-beam ceilings and wide-plank flooring on the interiors. 

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The main common area features cathedral ceilings with a step-down between the living and dining room, and a partial wall divides the dining room from the kitchen. There is also a wood-paneled family room off the kitchen, a gym and a covered porch. 

The sellers purchased the property in 2010 for $1.562 million, according to property records accessed through PropertyShark. They could not immediately be reached for comment. 

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“I have received quite a few inquiries since hitting the market two days ago,” Michaud said. “Buyers understand that this is a golden opportunity to own over an acre with 200 feet of bold oceanfront in Cape Elizabeth.”

MORE: Iranian Strikes on Dubai Put the City’s Roaring Real Estate Market to the Test

There are currently just seven three-bedroom homes available for sale in Cape Elizabeth and fewer than five waterfront properties, according to Sotheby’s and Zillow data. It is also the most expensive listing in the town, with another waterfront property on a tiny lot just south of Portland coming in a close second, according to Zillow. 

Michaud sold the former Cape Elizabeth home of Bette Davis this past summer for $13.4 million, the priciest sale on the cape in at least a decade—and even those views can’t compare. They’re “just magical,” he said. 



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NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion

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NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion


Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.

In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.

As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.

The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.

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Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.

Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”

After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.

Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.

In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.

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First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.

Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.

Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.

Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.

If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.

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Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition

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Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition


For a lot of people throughout Maine, there’s some built up frustration that they’ve just been keeping inside.

That frustration can come in a lot of different forms. From finances to relationships to the world around you.

So it makes plenty of sense that a rage room opened in Portland, Maine, where people can let some of that frustration out.

It’s called Mayhem and people have been piling in to smash, crush and do dastardly things to inanimate objects that had no idea what was coming.

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But Mayhem has realized not everyone is down with swinging a sledgehammer. So they’ve decided to cook up something new.

Mayhem Creating ‘Scream Room’ at Their Space in Portland, Maine

Perhaps the thought of swinging a baseball bat and destroying a glass vase brings you joy. The thought of how sore your body will be after that moment makes you less excited.

Mayhem Portland has heard you loud and clear and is developing a new way to get the rage out. By just screaming.

Mayhem is working on opening their very first scream room. It’s exactly what you think it is, a safe place to spend some time just screaming all of the frustration out.

There isn’t an official opening date set yet but it’s coming soon along with pricing.

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Mayhem in Portland, Maine, Will Still Offer Rage Rooms and Paint Splatter

While a scream room is on the way, you can still experience a good time at Mayhem with one of their rage rooms or a paint splatter room.

Both can be experienced in either 20-minute or 30-minute sessions.

All the details including some age and attire requirements can be found here.

TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Things to do in Portland, Maine

Looking for fun things to do in Portland, ME? Here is what the reviewers on TripAdvisor say are the 10 best attractions.

This list was updated in March of 2026

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Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka

Top 15 of The Most Powerful People in Maine

Ever wonder who the most powerful players are in Maine? I’ve got a list!

Gallery Credit: Getty Images





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