First Jewish Wedding, 1872

Story #10: On this spot in 1872, the first Jewish wedding in Portland took place.

India Street is a historically Jewish neighborhood. In a conversation with Rabbi Gary at Etz Chaim, we learned that the first Jewish wedding took place in the neighborhood. It took a bit of sleuthing to figure out the exact location—the first Jewish wedding predates the two known synagogues in the neighborhod. City records dating from the 1800’s only included Christian houses of worship. To locate the first Jewish wedding, Abraham from the Portland Room at The Portland Public Library helped us look through the city records. In 1872 rabbis often lived adjacent to houses of worship. We located this spot by finding the last name of the rabbi who served at this time and the location of his home.