Rabbi Wechsler (pronounced Wexler) lead the congregation's sponsoring a Jewish farming settlement in the Dakota Territories. The settlement attempted to help Russian Jewish immigrants find livelihoods working the land in the American West. Though the farm colony ultimately failed, he was considered an innovator and modernizer. Late in his career, after leaving Minnesota, he worked to improve educational opportunities in Mississippi for blacks. He served at Temple Mount Zion from 1878-1886.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A duplicate portrait photograph of Nellie Weiss Bondy in her wedding dress. Nellie Weiss married Louis Bondy in 1886: the event is reputed to have been the first Jewish wedding in Duluth.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A photograph of the front exterior of the Temple Israel synagogue. The Temple Israel Congregation was incorporated as Congregation Shaarei Tov in 1879. This building occupied 501-503 10th Street South in Minneapolis.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A contract between the Russian Brotherhood synagogue and Joe Isololen regarding payment for congregation membership. Payment amounts are specified, and the congregant is assigned seat 35A in the synagogue building.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Mains family were photographed in Russia before their move to the United States. Alexander Mains, seated at the far left, eventually settled in St Paul, Minnesota, where he married his wife Daisy and ran a successful shoe store.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Kafka became Sexton (custodian) of Temple Mount Zion in 1874. He was responsible for the care of the Temple, keeping the heat on, collecting contributions, and carrying out the directives of the congregation president. Whether the pay for his service was insufficient can only be conjectured, but Kafka left his job for a post on the St. Paul Police Force.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Shapiro family lived on the second floor of the building above the butcher shop. The woman in the upstairs window is Rose Shapiro. The man to the left of the fire hydrant is Max Shapiro, and the man in the apron is Sam Shapiro. Carl Shapiro is to the right of the horse.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Max Shapiro stands behind the counter at his butcher shop. An unidentified man stands at the end of the counter. The first Jewish Range residents lived in the Tower/Lake Vermillion area. They were peddlers, merchants and distributors who supplied first the lumber industry, then the mining community with provisions, dry goods and selected services.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
View of the front exterior of th Mikro Kodesh Synagogue. One of several North Side Orthodox congregations, Mikro Kodesh was founded as Anshei Russia (Men of Russia), but changed it's name to Mikro Kodesh (Holy Assembly) several years later. The name change reflects a growing away from the congregation's ties to the place where they came from, and towards the America they settled in.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Harry Silberstein driving a horse-drawn wagon used for collecting scrap metal. Scrap metal salvage was one of the occupations accessible to Jews. For immigrants leaving Europe in the late 1880s, scrap collection was an open field which required minimal capitalization and a willingness to move about. It also allowed the collector to be his own boss and avoid mandatory factory work hours which would have conflicted with Sabbath observance. Paper-Calmenson was founded 1891 and is still in operation.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
View showing the front exterior of the Synagogue Kenesseth Israel. Kenesseth Israel was formed sometime in the late 19th century from the combined congregations of Ohel Jacob and Beth Midrash Hagodol on Minneapolis's North Side. The congregation was Orthodox, active, and engaging of newly arrived immigrants, providing them with medical care and free shelter. The culturally and religiously important Minneapolis Talmud Torah grew out of Kenesseth Israel's Hebrew School. The building shown here was located in the middle of the block on 6th Avenue North and Lyndale Avenue North.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Etta Zrive and Abraham Bearman were born in different Lithuanian shtetls in the 1870s. Their clothes and home furnishings suggest they were economically comfortable by the time that this photo was taken in the early 1900s.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Frontal view of the third Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, Minnesota, located at Holly Avenue and Avon Street, designed in the classical style. This was the location prior to the fourth and current Mount Zion on Summit Avenue, designed in the modernist Bauhaus style.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Four unidentified men stand inside the Milavitz Jewelry and Tobacco Shop. The counter on the right shows tobacco products while the counter on the left displays jewelry.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Mr. Milavitz stands in front of his store. A young girl stands to the side of the doorway and a child in a carriage is visible on the left side. Many avenues of employment were closed to Jews, resulting in a concentration of Jews earning a living as small shopkeepers. Many graduated from peddling to keeping a store after years of travel and establishing accounts on the road.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The picture includes several generations of Cohens, standing on a porch, including a set of Old-World-looking grandfathers. The mohel wears the tallis and kippa: he performed the ritual circumcision at the bris.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The Kronicks were close-knit family from the Iron Range. Several other Jewish Range families are represented in this photograph, including the Grais', Gordons, Garbers, and Londons.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Jesse Codden stands holding the reins of a pony while her four younger brothers sit on its back. The Codden family of St. Paul were one of the founding families of Sons of Jacob Synagogue.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A reprint of a photograph of the Popkin family sitting at a dining table set with plates and glasses. Passover Seders begin with a retelling of the story of the deliverance of the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage. It includes foods symbolic of the years of slavery and flight from Egypt. Seders are family and community observances, held primarily in the home. The Popkin family lived in Duluth.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
An interior view of the Browning King clothing store with salesmen standing at a long counter. The store was located on the corner of 6th Street and Robert St. in St. Paul.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Likely members of the same family, these young people pose for a snapshot with their bicycle,on a hard-packed dirt street somewhere on the West Side of St. Paul.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
An African American woman places a baby upon a scale while workers look on. Other mothers holding children sit in chairs along the walls. The Emanuel Cohen Center provided recreation space and social services to the North Minneapolis Jewish community. The Center was names for Emanuel Cohen, an attorney and the Center's principle benefactor.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Portrait photograph of the Poalie Zion group wearing sashes which show support for the striking New York garment workers. Poale Zion was a Zionist-Socialist-Laborite group founded in Russia. Chapters of the organization were established in the United States, where they helped raised funds for Jewish immigration to Palestine.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A portrait photograph of Rabbi Solomon Silber. Rabbi Silber served as Kenesseth Israel's rabbi from 1902 to 1925. He, and members of his congregation, were instrumental in funding and building the Jewish Family Welfare Board and the Jewish Sheltering Home.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Horses pull a wagon down a street in Minneapolis. Raphael Weinberg and his son Ben owned Weinberg's Department store, located on Central Avenue in North Minneapolis. Weinberg's five daughters also worked in the store.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A photograph showing workers on the production floor of a hat factory. Many immigrants were employed in the textile and clothing manufacturing business.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Photograph of a woman using a measuring tape to measure the length of a skirt on Ida Blehart. Neighborhood House was founded by the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society. Neighborhood House was founded primarily to provide recreational, educational and social activities to residents of the West Side neighborhood. It maintained an active recreational program for girls in the neighborhood, teaching sewing, cooking and other domestic arts.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Portrait photograph of children attending a child's birthday party. The families represented by the children in this photo where children of the first generation of Jewish settlers that had arrived at the turn of the century, mainly from Lithuania by way of Superior, Wisconsin. The Jewish community in Range towns was relatively tight-knit. Each of the larger towns, including Virginia, Hibbing, Chisholm and Eveleth had a synagogue at one time or another, and much of the community life revolved around activities related to them.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Morris Mirsky, wearing a blacksmith's apron, stands beside a horse with an unidentified rider. Morris Mirsky owned and operated a blacksmithing shop at 261 Texas Street in West Side Flats in St. Paul. His home was next door to the shop. The "Texas Street Synagogue" was across from the shop.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Around the table are members of the Kaner, Shapiro, Milavitz, Hosen and Dorfman families. The Passover Seder celebrates the Jews passage to freedom from slavery in Egypt.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A man wearing a heavy apron stained with ink (the printer) and a man wearing vest and tie (proprietor) stand outside the entrance to the printing shop. Schwartz Printing Shop was the first Jewish-owned print shop in Minneapolis. It was located at 240 4th Avenue South.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Photograph of a scrap pile with a woman sitting in the foreground while a man can be seen standing in the background. Samuel Karon founded Northwestern Scrap Iron and Metal Company in Duluth.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Children sitting at desks in a classroom. A line of children stands at the back of the class with chalk poised in hands, ready to write on the chalkboard. Mr. Elijah Avin was engaged as principal in 1911: he can be seen at the back of the room. The Minneapolis Talmud Torah was located on 818 Bassett Place in North Minneapolis at the time this photograph was taken.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
The men in the picture represent the leadership of one of the most influential congregations in the City of Minneapolis at the time. Rabbi Silber is in the first row, middle.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A woman stands smiling behind a table at the Jewish War Veteran's booth. The Jewish War Veteran's organization was established after the Civil War to recognize Jewish military service in the nation's wars.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Adas Israel was formed in the 1890s by members of the Moses Montefiore congregation, an earlier Orthodox congregation comprised of Lithuanian Jews. By the turn of the century, there were close to 1,500 Jews living in Duluth, most of who were Russian or Eastern European. The men in the picture were observing Simchas Torah, the holiday marking the end of the weekly cycle of Torah readings.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Harry Goldie posed in fighting stance wearing boxing uniform. He was an exceptional boxer; the first boxing coach for the University of Minnesota; and the developer for the Calhoun Beach Club, a Minneapolis architectural landmark.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives