Kehilah Portland

Kehilah Portland calls itself "Maine's first Messianic Jewish Synagogue." It gathers in South Portland each Shabbat at 10 a.m. and has been an IAMCS congregation since 2012. An oneg follows the service, and Torah study follows the oneg. A midweek Bible study meets online on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., by invitation.

Worship draws on traditional Jewish liturgy, Messianic music and Davidic dance. Every Shabbat the Sh'ma is recited and the weekly parashah is studied. The congregation reads from the Complete Jewish Bible and observes the Jewish Holy Days. At onegs and festival meals it keeps biblical kosher, though this is not a condition for attending. Rather than pronouncing the divine Name, members say Adonai or HaShem.

Kehilah Portland holds that Yeshua is the promised Messiah of Israel and that the New Covenant was made with the Jewish people. Jewish believers in Yeshua remain Jewish, it teaches. Gentiles who trust in him are grafted into the olive tree as spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham. The congregation affirms that salvation has always been by faith, never by works of law. It looks for the physical and spiritual restoration of Israel. It states that it is not affiliated with Two House or Hebrew Roots teaching. Its mission is to reveal Yeshua first to the Jewish people of Maine, and also to their non-Jewish neighbors.