Adas Yoshuron synagogue is located in Rockland, Maine—a small and vibrant city with a year-round population of about 7,000. Our city sits in a gorgeous setting of rural Midcoast Maine, with a working waterfront of fisheries and boatbuilding, a walkable, vibrant “Art Capital of Maine” downtown, and a local population that enjoys engaging with the diversity of opportunity and experience that both of these attractions offer.

Rockland enjoys a vital cultural landscape, with world-class museums, music, film, and foreign policy forums. The region is home to The Farnsworth Art Museum, The Center for Maine Contemporary Art, The Maine Media Workshops, Bay Chamber Concerts, The Camden Conference, and The Points North Institute, sponsor of the Camden International Film Festival.  With forested hiking and biking trails, mountains, and picturesque small New England towns, Midcoast Maine attracts people from around the world. As a vacation destination for many, we see a significant jump in population during the summer months and our community is driven and shaped by both part-time and year-round residents.

Our rural setting means that rather than Uber, you’ll be calling Joe’s taxi and, because there’s no grub hub, you’ll be eating in or getting take-out from one of our many farm to table restaurants. Many folks in Maine have never (knowingly) talked with a Jew before and we’re far from traditional centers of Jewish community. Without the access or total anonymity of the city, Midcoast residents find joy in making do with what we have and in the feeling of community and belonging that comes from knowing how important our contributions are.

While you can find Matzoh and Shabbat candles at the local Hannaford grocery store, great local bagels, and Dr. Brown’s on Passover, you’ll have to get your kosher meat delivered from Boston. Some of Midcoast Maine’s treasures can be hard to find, but talk to the locals and wander a bit and you’ll discover anything from amazing sushi places to the best farm to cuddle a goat and eat fresh cheese. Summer and year round resident journalists, writers, and artists have created a rich body of work featuring the Midcoast, from articles in the New York Times inviting tourists to our favorite restaurants and skiing destinations to literature featuring the people and places of our many varied communities. Midcoast Maine has a range of socioeconomic experience with working class generational Mainers, artists and farmers who’ve come to Maine to get back to the land, people whose vacation homes have become the place where they spend most of their year, and a host of cultural institutions that are supported by the whole cast of characters.

Portland is just under 2 hours away; Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park is just over 2 hours; and Boston is a 4-hour drive. Rockland has a small regional airport with several small daily flights to Boston.

Our population in Maine skews among the oldest and whitest in the nation. Among the three counties we generally draw from (Lincoln, Knox, and Waldo counties), the median age of 49 years is the highest in the nation. Of a total of 115,000 people in these counties, 6.9% are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, or of multiple races. Household median income is ~$58,000/year.

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