Upcoming Events

Join us on Yom HaShoah

Please join us on Sunday, April 27th at 3:00 for a Yom HaShoah commemoration in the Michael Klahr Center. Together we will share readings, poetry, prayer and music. During this solemn occasion, we will be patient, pausing between each item to absorb the words, reflect, and feel the enormity of so much loss. If you have a reading you wish to share, or are interested in reading one of our selections, please contact Erica Nadelhaft. Following the service we will linger for conversation, fellowship and refreshments. We hope you will join us to participate in this reverent day for Jewish people around the world. Register here. 

Repair Workshop

On Tuesday, April 22nd from 2-4:00 p.m. Lesia Sochor will offer a workshop in repair—based on her work in the Reuse, Repair, Reconsider series now on display in the Center. Lesia will share her thoughts around repair as a meditation, an antidote to today’s consumerism and dispensable approach to possessions. In an increasingly consumer driven economy, things we own are quickly discarded, contributing to a threatened environment. Lesia use a needle and thread to investigate mending as an intervention, a metaphor, a call to action. Not only to restore material things, but to mend fractured parts of ourselves and injustices of our broken world. We hope you will join us to learn some practical skills in sewing, patching, mending while we talk about the more intangible rewards of this once valued and appreciated activity.

Soul Survivors Book

We are thrilled to collaborate on a beautiful book by and about Maine Holocaust survivors as a resource for students and teachers. Through the Lens: Creating Soul Survivors by Photographer Jack Montgomery will showcase stunning portraits paired with the survivor’s story about suffering, persevering and surviving the Holocaust to go on and build a new life in America. These people founded and built the Holocaust and Human Rights Center—remaining steadfast supporters and members of our close community. The book is brings together projects that date back to the beginning of the HHRC and building of the Michael Klahr Center. We are indebted to Jack, and thrilled that these evocative portraits and heartbreaking, inspiring stories now exist in a book. Writes Jack, “The things we save can become the means for our recovery. I am moved by every aspect of these stories … And I am forever grateful to the survivors for giving us this record, which no amount of denial or historical revisionism can ever erase. We are in their debt.” A generous donor has funded the gift of a free copy to every school in Maine.

Preserving Their Voices

Through several initiatives in conjunction with the 40th Anniversary celebration, we will preserve the stories and voices of our founders, Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Maine to rebuild their lives. As it turned out, they also changed the state, bringing advocacy and education to students by traveling the state telling their stories, and speaking out against antisemitism and bigotry. This project will include a stunning book, revamped multi-media installation, events with second generation survivors, four art exhibits and a timeline to honor our forty amazing years.

The Ravensbrück Series

This exhibit is a series of small painting by the late Brenda Bettinson created after she read Sarah Helm’s book about the enslavement, beatings, torture, rape, starvation, surgical experimentation and murder of the women at the Ravenbrück concentration camp. The series will be exhibited at the HHRC from June to September.