Martha Muir (Dieter) was born in Glasgow, Scotland on August 16, 1824. When she was about eighteen years old, she immigrated to the United States with her sister's family and settled in Ormo, Wisconsin. She married Jacob Dieter on July 21, 1859 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She lost her husband during the Civil War and she died on January 17, 1904.
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
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 of Robert Lazarus, who played violin with both the Chicago and Oakland (CA) Symphony Orchestras during the 1920s. After his professional playing career ended, he opened a violin repair shop in downtown St. Paul.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Jonathan, Judy, and David Lebedoff stand behind a display of folded paper animals. Judy holds an instruction book on how to make the paper animals. Martin and Mary Lebedoff lived on the North Side of Minneapolis. The triplets were born in April of 1938.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Studio portrait of the Schmitt Brothers of Shakopee. The men are lined up oldest to youngest. Seen from left to right are George Schmitt, Peter Schmitt, Al Schmitt, and Andrew Schmitt.
Group of potato buyers in Anoka County in 1905. Left to right: Charles Galup, Charles Larkin, George Porter, Fred Larkin, George Morrill, James Mahaney, Albert Pratt, Mascot George Ehlen.
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
Photograph of Rachel Calog sitting in a chair. Rachel Bella Calof is the author of "My Story", an autobiographical account to her marriage to Abraham Calof and their efforts to homestead and raise a family on the plains of North Dakota at the turn of the century. Despite desperate hardships, the Calof's raised nine children, and Rachel was a driving force in the establishment of the regional school district. After 23 years outside Devil's Lake, the Calofs moved to St. Paul in 1917. Rachel begin her autobiography in 1936, which she wrote in longhand. The manuscript was "discovered" in the American Jewish Archives in the early 1990s, and published in 1995 as "Rachel Calof's Story".
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Amo Township Red Cross Auxiliary with two ladies in the front row holding a sign with the name of their organization. Four rows of ladies all dressed in floor length, dark colored dresses.
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
Portrait of the D. A. Noble family including their six children: Mrs. C.D. Richmond, Mrs. T.F. Lewis, Jessie Noble, Mrs. S.A. Brown, Mrs. Gilbert Edwards and David A. Noble.
The Lipschultz family sitting on a blanket outdoors. Frema Lipschultz is flanked by her two daughters, Rose (left) and Ruth (far right), and her two grandchildren, Harold and Maurice.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives