By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

WILTON - Jews living in Maine's western mountains will be lacking a religious leader no more. Starting Sunday, Rabbi Hillel Katzir of Temple Shalom Synagogue-Center in Auburn will initiate the founding of Temple Shalom Tsafon (North) in the Farmington and Wilton area.

The group was instituted as part of the Auburn synagogue's project outreach program, the rabbi said Friday.

Katzir said his congregation, consisting of roughly 115 families, knew there were many Jewish families in the region not affiliated with a synagogue or Jewish community. The Auburn community itself has dwindled in the last few years with the decline in the area's economic base and the death of several older members.

"The demographics are worrisome for the continuance of the community," said Katzir. Many members of the Auburn congregation are in their 50s and 60s, or older, and there are very few children. He sees the founding of a northern congregation as a means to meeting the needs of the synagogue and the Jewish community.

There has been a significant change in demographics in the American Jewish community in the past few decades with a high percentage of Jews marrying non-Jews, he said.

"This is what American Judaism looks like in the first part of the 21st century," he said.

Many families have become integrated into American society. We can choose to write the interfaith families off, or we can try to attract them into the Jewish community, he said.

His "soapbox," he said, is that the American Jewish community has done a terrible job teaching the Jewish religion. This is one reason he is bringing his services to the Farmington region.

Based on the synagogue's mailing list that numbers more than 250 addresses and has members from South Paris to Carrabassett Valley, Katzir estimates there are at least 30 households with at least one Jewish member in the area. The closest synagogues to Franklin County are in Auburn and Augusta.

This first meeting will take place in Wilton and will begin with a potluck dinner at 5 p.m. Katzir plans to follow it with a Hebrew lesson "that will work for everyone, from very beginners to fluent readers," according to a news release. He will then lead a discussion about different ways to be Jewish. For more information, phone the rabbi at 786-4201.