The Southeast Alaska Empire, Juneau’s daily newspaper, headlined this week what it claimed to be the first Bar Mitzvah ever performed in Alaska. The paper published a front page photograph of 18-year-old Alan Gross and his parents with Rabbi Morris Hershman, of San Francisco, who officiated. Alan’s mother, Belle Simpson Gross, was the first Jewish woman born in Juneau, according to the paper.
The Jewish community in the capital of the 50th state numbers less than 100. The only synagogue in Alaska is located in Anchorage which has a Jewish population of 300. Alan’s Bar Mitzvah was held at the Baranof Hotel in Juneau, according to the newspaper account mailed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Washington Bureau.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
