In 2009 Bella was interviewed for the “Documenting Old Maine Jewry Oral History Project”. For almost 2 hours she spoke—uncut– on tape. She gave a glimpse of what life was like for her as a young Jewish girl in Bangor, Maine during the early 20th century. I first listened to the interview before I started writing these articles; and I learned things I never remember Bella telling me! What I wrote is a recounting of part of the interview with a few recollections from our conversations together.
To read the rest of this article, check out the Fall 2022 newsletter.
To download a .mp3 file of the interview, You can visit the Portland Public Library Digital Commons page.