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Congregation Beth Israel

Bangor, Italy

Congregation Beth Israel

Congregation Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל) is a Conservative synagogue, located for most of its history at 144 York Street in Bangor, Maine, in the United States. The oldest continuously operating synagogue in Maine, it was organized in 1888 after an influx to Maine of Lithuanian and Polish Jews.

There was a previous community of German Jews from the 1850s named Congregation Ahawas Achim (founded in 1849), who gradually assimilated or left Maine, leaving behind the Webster Street cemetery plot now maintained by the Bangor Jewish community. The synagogue has an active Sisterhood, leads a community-wide Chevra Kadisha, and has an active Hebrew school. Congregation Beth Israel has taken on Torah scrolls and memorial boards for Temple Israel in Old Town, Maine, Congregation Chiam Yosef in Calais, Maine, and the Aroostook Hebrew Community synagogue in Presque Isle, Maine.

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