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
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 portrait photograph of Rabbi Albert Minda. Rabbi Minda succeeded Rabbi Samuel Deinard at Temple Israel after Deinard's death in 1921. Minda was a graduate of Hebrew Union Collage, and served Temple Israel until his retirement in 1963. Minda was an exceptional leader, presiding over the construction of a new synagogue in 1929, the founding of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation in 1949, the Minneapolis Urban League and The Minneapolis Roundtable of Christians and Jews. In Minnesota's Centennial year--1949--he was designated as one of the "Hundred Living Great [sic] of Minnesota."
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Portrait photograph of Rabbi Joseph Hurvitz and his wife, Rebbetzin Rae Hurvitz. Known in his St. Paul Lowertown community as "Der Roiter Rov" (the Red Rabbi), Rabbi Hurvitz lead the Sons of Jacob and Adath Yeshurun congregations from the 1910s through the 1950s. Though he was a traditionalist, he consciously used both English and Yiddish in worship and congregational gatherings to help validate his immigrant congregants sense that both languages and the cultures they represented were of equal importance in their new home.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
A portrait photograph of Rabbi Samuel Deinard. Deinard was Rabbi at Shaari Tov, later known as Temple Israel, and a committed Zionist. He also served as the editor-in chief of the American Jewish World, the Twin's Cities foremost English-language Jewish newspaper; and in the Department of Semitics at the University of Minnesota.
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