Members of the Ladies Auxiliary pose outside of the West Side Hebrew Institute for this photograph. The West Side Hebrew Institute was one of the two earliest schools in St. Paul teaching Hebrew to Jewish children. The building was located at the intersection of Fenton and Kentucky Street, and was dedicated in November 1911.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Sunshine Club of Virginia was a young women's service and social club. The club's Americanized name suggests the second generation's disposition to claim their American identity: first generation organization names would have likely been rendered in Hebrew.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A group of women and children arranged in and around an automobile. This photograph is notable for the fact that there is a woman in the driver's seat.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Portrait photograph of a large group of Hadassah members in costume. Founded in 1912, Hadassah is the second-oldest independent Jewish women's organization in the United States. Hadassah draws on both the ideology of Zionism and on women's sense of social responsibility to elicit support for Israel, youth activities and educational services. National programs that were implemented in Minnesota included "linen showers" for medical units, money collection for school lunch programs in Palestine, and providing Jewish-German children foster-homes in Palestine during WWII. Members also made time to play and socialize.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Fannie Cohen wearing a white pharmacist's coat and standing amongst shelves of medicines. Fannie Cohen was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Minnesota Pharmacy School. She was born in 1901 to Romanian immigrant parents, and graduated with her degree in 1922. Show worked in Hospital pharmacies in Duluth, Rochester and St. Paul. She was a lifetime member of Temple Israel in Minneapolis, and was bat mitzvahed in 1977 at the age of 75.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
In the picture, Leona (Isadore's sister-in-law) and her daughter Anita, are in the backyard of the Mike Gordon's Ely store: the steps in the background lead to the family home upstairs. Mrs. Rosenbloom, another Jewish Ely resident, is at the right of the picture. The Gordon family was one of the first Jewish families to settle in Ely. Isadore Gordon left Lithuania and traversed Canada before arriving in Duluth. He worked in the shipyards, and peddled the Range. His customers liked him so well that they loaned him money to open a clothing store in Ely. The Rosenblooms raised seven children in Ely, and most of them continued on to college at the University of Minnesota. When the Rosenblooms moved to Minneapolis in 1943, the family store became the Ely American Legion Hall.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A group of women dressed in costume. Etheldoris Stein Grais sits in the background: in the back row, left to right, is Maddie Gerron, Gertrude Gottstein Stein, and Hia Sacks. Front row, left to right, is Beatrice Nildes, Etta Hallock and Rose Shapiro. Dress-up parties were popular informal social events thrown by female friends, or occasionally by women's organizations. Parties offered an opportunity to dress out of character, socialize, and enjoy each other's company. Costumes could be lavish, symbolic or simple. Participants often dressed as men, brides or babies.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Minneapolis Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women was founded in 1894 by Nina Morais Cohen. Cohen was a nationally recognized leader: when Susan B. Anthony came to Minneapolis, she stayed at Nina and Emanuel Cohen's home. The N. C. J. W. is a volunteer organization working for social change based upon Jewish values. In its earliest years, volunteers worked in settlement houses, acted as juvenile court advocates, helped provide vocational training for immigrant and poor women and girls, and helped develop free school-based health services. Fanny Brin is second from the right.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Purim is a time for acting out and speaking up. The women of Kenesseth Israel's auxiliary did just that, appropriating men's garb, including a tallis (prayer shawl) and a cigarette to declare a minute of breaking away from accepted roles and dressing conventions of the day.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Portrait photograph of Ida Cook sitting in a chair. The Cook family, headed by Rabbi Isaac Cook and his wife Ida, arrived in Duluth in the 1880s from Lithuania. They organized minyans and their home served as a welcoming center for new immigrants coming to the city. Ida Cook spearheaded the establishment of Duluth's first Hebrew school.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
N. C. J. W. was founded in 1893 under the leadership of Hannah Greenebaum Solomon. It has a progressive legacy of providing vocational training, medical and educational services, judicial advocacy for minors and international aid. Minnesotan Fanny Brin served as president from 1932 to 1938. Pictured in photo (left to right): Fanny Brin, Jane Addams, Hannah Solomon, Mrs. Gershon Levi.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Women's Auxiliary raised money for service programs at the Talmud Torah. This particular popular program featured at least two generation of women's in their bridal gowns.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Jewish Mothers Club was organized through the Central Community Center in St. Paul. It provided an opportunity for Jewish women, many of them immigrants, to socialize together.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Group photograph of the Minneapolis Talmud Torah Women's Auxilliary Presidents. While most of the faculty involved in actual teaching at the early Hebrew schools was done by men, women were important to the ongoing success of religious education. The Talmud Torah Women's Auxiliary in Minneapolis was founded in 1911 as a club, and by the mid-1920s had grown to more than 500 members. In addition to raising funds for the school, the Auxiliary was committed to furthering Jewish civic pride and Jewish consciousness in the home.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The founders of Pioneer Women, posed outdoors for this photograph. Pioneer Women was an international group of Labor-Zionist women who made Aaliyah to Palestine during the 1920s. They came with a feminist agenda, to be full partners in the political and economic work of building a Jewish state. A women's group formed in Minnesota to raise funds to support their counterparts in Palestine. Included in the picture, back, left to right: Sara Rosenblatt, Helen (Wiener) Pogoler, Mrs. Jake Berman; front: Mrs. Schwartz, Brucha Wiener. Photograph taken in August of 1938 at Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
This group of neighbors would meet informally at members' houses over the years. Their connection was geographic (North Side) rather than congregational (synagogue-related).
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The context of the display is unknown. However, the two women in the photo are Mrs. Arthur Horwitz (left) and Mrs. H. Z. Mendow (right). Note the photos in the background display featuring prominent Minneapolis Jewish leaders, including Rabbi Solomon Silber, Joseph Shandfield and Rabbi Samuel Deinard. Below the portraits are photos of Minneapolis synagogues and the first Jewish Sheltering home.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Women's auxiliaries always played the key role in planning and staffing fundraising events. This publicity photograph shows many of the St. Paul women who had ongoing involvement supporting the J. E. C. programming.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives