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Collections and Connecting
The year was 1986. There I was sitting in a small room in the basement of Hamline University’s library surrounded by 60 boxes of Minneapolis Jewish Federation records, which I was tasked with placing in order. Having taken several courses on archival practices as part of my master’s program in History, I set to work.
One of the things I learned going through the collection was that it wasn’t easy to create an organization that represented the entire community. For example, the Federation sent money to help alleged chicken farmers in Birobidjan, a marshy area in Siberia that Stalin designated as a Jewish autonomous region. Why were they supporting this in the mid-late 1940s? The donation was meant to keep Communists within the Federation big tent and wean them from giving directly to Communist-sponsored organizations. Still another way the Federation attempted to represent all segments of the Jewish community was through the studies it commissioned, which resulted in the building of Mount Sinai Hospital, the Minneapolis Jewish Community Center, and Torah Academy. I also found an uncashed check and a five dollar bill, which I returned.
Since those early days I, along with dedicated volunteers, have processed many collections, those of institutions like the Minneapolis Talmud Torah, of organizations like National Council of Jewish Women, and of individuals such as Ruth Peilen. Every collection can speak to us about the past. For instance, the Minneapolis Talmud Torah collection contains registration books from the 1920s and 30s that note names and addresses of students as well as occupations of parents. When used in a classroom setting, students can correlate the addresses with a map to discover for themselves just how dense a Jewish neighborhood the North Side really was. These 21st century children of doctors, accountants, and lawyers can ascertain that their forebears had much humbler occupations such as peddler, umbrella repairer, and second hand clothes dealer. The registration books are indeed the raw material upon which history is based.
This collection holds still more treasures. In the 1920s the Talmud Torah published students’ work in Hebrew containing stories, poems, and essays attesting to their fluency in the language. Finally the impact of the Talmud Torah is visible in the very active alumni club that conducted meetings in Hebrew and that had branches as far away as New York. An offshoot was the Alumni Athletic Club, which, in 1925, produced a play in Hebrew in order to purchase sports equipment.
The Federation and Talmud Torah archives are but two examples of collections that reflect the mainstream Jewish community. But there were other tributaries that added to the richness of the community’s history that we don’t have documented nearly as well. I became aware of this in the late 1980s when I participated in a Minnesota Historical Society initiative called the Radical History Project. It sought to gather together and consolidate all information about political movements to the left of the DFL.
I was responsible for documenting Jewish involvement. To my amazement I found hardly any former Jewish Socialists to talk to, let alone a Communist. The only records I recovered were scanty remains of the Workmen’s Circle, the old Jewish Socialist group.
Since that time I have noticed other holes in the archives. Missing as well are the records of the various Zionist groups that once existed and those of most Orthodox synagogues, past and present. There is nothing on Jewish criminals, writers, or visual artists, little on the GLBT community, or on radicals of the 1960s and 1970s. We are also sorely lacking in material about Jews from the Former Soviet Union.
My successor Susan Hoffman is aware of these gaps, and I know she will do all in her power to fill them. The last thing in the world either of us wants is to have an archive that creates the impression that our community was of one mind from the beginning. How un-Jewish that notion is.
Collecting is but one aspect of what the JHSUM has done in the 22 years I have worked here. Connecting people to the collections has been the greater challenge. “What do you do with all that stuff?” is a refrain I often heard. Through programming, exhibits, our journal, and even bike tours, we tried to make the materials in the boxes come alive and somehow “talk” to the participants. I was the interpreter. Our aim has been to connect people to their past and encourage them to understand how that past shaped the present and how it could inform the future.
Perhaps the most ambitious of our efforts in this regard was the Jewish Women’s exhibit, which opened in 1996. Based upon the premise that Jewish women had an especially large role to play in a region that had relatively few Jewish settlements of any size and few rabbis, we sought to show how women transported, transmitted, and transformed Judaism in the Upper Midwest. It was a joy to see how the exhibit was received in the community: Jews kvelled learning about their own history, one that did not focus on the Lower East Side of New York. One of my treasured moments was having a group of Russian Jews thank me and the Minnesota Historical Society for creating an exhibit that portrayed Jewish life so openly, something that could never have happened in their homeland.
Exhibits haven’t been the only way to convey our own history to an Upper Midwestern audience: The North Side video is an immense success, and our journals have featured material from our archives as well as historical essays written especially for us. The extensive programming that accompanied the Jewish Women’s Exhibit also connected people from every part of our community. For me, other notable programs were those focused on Jews who grew up in the Dakotas, on Jewish camps past and present, and on World War II.
Through JHSUM’s collaborative programming, I was given the opportunity to connect with practically every agency and organization in our community. Perhaps the most unique partnership was with the University of St. Thomas through their student service learning program. This project allowed the JHSUM to teach classes about the Jewish North Side on the college campus as well as at Ascension Parish, also on the North Side. We culminated that project with a program at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Next year JHSUM will unveil a K-12 curriculum which uses Upper Midwest Jewish history in every lesson plan. The outreach continues.
One of my greatest pleasures through the years has been connecting with our public. So many people have donated material to the JHSUM, attended programs, or made research inquiries of us, and some became volunteers helping in the archival work, creating programs, and serving on our board or as officers. I want to express my sincere thanks to all of these members and volunteers too numerous to mention by name. And I particularly want to acknowledge my husband Len, who was the unpaid and unsung tech support for many years. As our office staff expanded, I have been privileged to work with wonderful colleagues, and I will miss that camaraderie.
We could never have accomplished all this without the support of generous funders. Building an organization from the ground up takes vision, commitment, and deep pockets. We have been fortunate that a cadre of visionaries understood how important it was to collect our own unique history, connect that history to a Jewish and a non-Jewish public, and convey it to the next generation.
The year is 2008. As I sit at my desk at the Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives in the Elmer L.Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota, one thing is clear. What started as a humble enterprise with 60 boxes and a rookie archivist has grown into a professional and well-respected organization with a regional, national, and international presence. The stage is set. I’m looking forward to seeing where the past can take us next.
Linda Schloff Director of Collections, Exhibits and Publications Summer 2008
Gratitude to Four Retiring Board Members
JHSUM extends appreciation to four outstanding individuals for many years of dedicated service on the Board. “Each of these individuals made their mark and helped bring the Society to its current position of strength, growth and opportunity,” remarked Katherine Tane, JHSUM executive director.
Bernice Cowl Gordon served as membership vice president and made it her mission to bring in as many Life Members as possible. Her sales pitch included her heartfelt belief that becoming a Life Member of JHSUM was a privilege and she hoped others would feel the same way. She is a prolific author of family history, an award-winning community volunteer and established the Dr. Moses and Bernice Cowl Gordon Journal Endowment Fund at JHSUM.
Etheldoris Grais may be most famous around JHSUM for her marvelous gefilte fish recipe and accompanying stories caught on tape for the Unpacking on the Prairie exhibit in 1996. In fact, for many years she provided the Society’s main link with Jews on the Iron Range, having grown up in Hibbing speaking Finnish as her first language. She was an active member of the Board and worked tirelessly to connect the Society with other organizations in the Jewish and general communities.
Shirleymae Lane, a member of the Papermaster family, hails from Minot, North Dakota and attended the University of Minnesota. During her many years on the Board, she helped JHSUM maintain ties with both North and South Dakota Jewish communities. She contributed a great deal of material about her relatives, including the Papermasters and her parents, Zelda and Alex Epstein. She served as JHSUM’s corresponding secretary and many remember the diligence with which she wrote condolences and other letters on behalf of the Society.
Bob Rees has a long family history in Minneapolis that includes forebears who were founders of Temple Israel. Bob has great skill as a writer and marketer and shared those talents with JHSUM for many years as a board member and Co-Vice President of Membership, a role he shared with Bernice Cowl Gordon. His fine writing and PR materials helped the Society gain visibility in the community.
Israel At 60
Who is the most important Minnesota born Zionist you’ve never heard of?
Max Lowenthal was a lifelong defender of civil liberties and a prolific writer whose papers include correspondence relating to his 1950 exposé of the abuses of power in J. Edger Hoover’s FBI, his work on railroad bankruptcies and sedition laws, and his key role behind the Truman administration's recognition of Israel.
Photo courtesy of University Archives University of Minnesota
Read project archivist, Susan Hoffman’s comments which were part of Out of the Boxes and into the Archives: Celebrating the Life and Work of Max Lowenthal event which was held on March 14, 2008.
Freda and Frank Schochet Family Publications Fund Established at JHSUM
In the words of Frank Schochet, “It was about time I established this fund at the Jewish Historical Society. I want to play a part in its continuation.” For this nonogenarian, helping to strengthen the Jewish community in this way is a matter of principle. In fact, he explained, there are six Jewish principles that have guided his life, including “It is not up to you to finish the job. Neither are you free to withdraw from it," from Mishnah Avot 2:16. To Frank that means you need to get involved and trust that someone will come along and pick up where you leave off. “It’s because of this continuity that I am supporting the Jewish Historical Society.”
Freda and Frank Schochet celebrating with their relative Benzion Schochet
Frank Schochet’s Six Principles
I am the Lord thy G-d. - Shema
And you shall love thy neighbor as thyself. – Leviticus 19:18
It is not up to you to finish the job. Neither are you free to withdraw from it. –Mishnah Avot 2:16
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? –Rabbi Hillel
And if not now, when? – Mishnah Avot 1:14
From each person in accordance with which he has been blessed by G-d. – Deuteronomy 16:17
Saving Our Heritage: The Story of the Adath Jeshurun Windows
The Adath Jeshurun Congregation commissioned the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan for a new synagogue building in 1927. The neoclassical design they created at 3400 Dupont Avenue South in Minneapolis included numerous art glass windows for the façade, foyer, and the sanctuary, some spanning two stories. Chester Weston, a local man, who had studied with Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York, helped Jack Liebenberg with the design. The glass was created by the Weston & Leighton Art Glass Company, which Weston had formed about this time.
In 1993 the Adath Jeshurun Congregation sold the structure to the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis and moved two years later into their new synagogue in Minnetonka, Minnesota. In 2002 the First Universalist Church decided to remove the synagogue windows and replaced them with clear glass.
Etta Fay Orkin, Adath Jeshurun’s historian and a congregant, spearheaded an effort to save and restore the windows. Working with JHSUM members Norman Pink and Iric Nathanson, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission, the Minnesota Historical Society, Adath Jeshurun Congregation and the First Universalist Church, she was able to garner support for preservation and restoration for six of the windows. Benefactors included Theresa Berman, N. Bud and Beverly Grossman, Harry Lerner, James and Iric Nathanson, Etta Fay Orkin and Jon Rappaport. Additional funds were provided by the Lieberman-Okinow families, and friends of Etta Fay Orkin in honor of her 70th birthday.
The windows feature various Jewish symbols depicting holidays and other important concepts in the Jewish religion. The borders contain symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel, such as the tree for the Tribe of Asher, serpent for the Tribe of Dan, man carrying sacks for the Tribe of Issachar, and a ship for the Tribe of Zebulun.
The central cartouche of the window now located in the office of the Jewish Historical Society is dedicated to the holiday of Yom Kippur. It shows Cherubim on either side of a depiction of the Ark of the Covenant, which was stored within the Holy of Holies, and which only the priestly class of Kohanim could enter on Yom Kippur. The doves drinking in the vessel below are more difficult to explain. They may refer to the spirit of compassion or to the Jewish people; they may be references to sacrifices and ablution vessels used by the priests after leaving the Holy of Holies: They may be a reference to Jonah, whose Hebrew name means dove, and whose story is chanted every Yom Kippur during the Mincha service.
This window was donated by Julius Shanedling in 1928 in memory of his wife Annie Myers Shanedling, who had died 1925 at the early age of 47. Funding for restoration of the Yom Kippur window was provided by the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation in memory of Jay and Rose Phillips. It was a fitting gesture because Jay Phillips chanted the story of Jonah at Adath Jeshurun for many decades. Click here for more information about the Shanedling Family from Virginia Minnesota.
Two windows depicting Pesach and Shabbat are now in the Beit Knesset on the Barry Family Campus, one is installed in the Judaica Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one is installed at the Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minnetonka, and another has been gifted to the Congregation.
Florence Karp was born in New York in 1906. Her family moved to South Dakota soon after she was born. When Florence was 16, the family moved again to Minneapolis, where her father became the first superintendent of the Jewish Home for the Aged. She worked her way through the University of Minnesota, graduating Cum Laude in Music and Sociology in 1926. In 1927 she married Paul Kunian. As Kunian’s beauty salons became successful and grew into a national chain, Paul encouraged Florence to become involved in community work.
Florence dove in to her work energetically, becoming the first Israel Bonds chairperson, and fundraising for the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, the American Cancer Society, March of Dimes and American Heart Association. When the state of Israel was established in 1948, Florence hosted the community celebration, which starred Eddie Cantor, at her home on Dean Parkway. In 1953, and again in 1974, she met with David Ben-Gurion in Israel. She helped fund Israel’s world renowned Hadassah Hospital, and Hadassah founder Harriet Szold visited Florence in Minneapolis. Five generations of her family are life-time Hadassah members—Florence’s mother, her daughter Diana, and Diana’s daughter and grand-daughter, Antoinette and Odessa.
Florence was recently honored at a Hadassah luncheon for her lifetime of service with the organization, and she joked that when she was introduced “…they acted like the Queen of England had arrived! They all rose and applauded me!” Her mantras for her children and grandchildren, and by extension all of those whose life she touched, are “Volunteering builds character” and “Live every day of your life, and love every day that you live.”
Do you remember monthly drives across the Iron Range to join other teenagers at B’nai Abraham Young Judaea meetings in Virginia, Minnesota? Do you remember Simchat Torah marches around the B’nai Abraham sanctuary followed by the Ladies’ Aid treat of thick corned beef sandwiches and caramel apples? The newly organized Friends of B’nai Abraham Synagogue would love to hear your stories of Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, B’nai B’rith and Hadassah programs, and other special anniversaries and events that you celebrated at B’nai Abraham.
Built in 1909 and recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, B’nai Abraham is the only remaining synagogue of the once vibrant Iron Range Jewish community. Although it closed its doors in the late 1990s for lack of congregants, the building still houses many treasures, including its original Aron HaKodesh (ark), memorial plaques, and beautiful stained glass windows.
To share yourstories and learn more about the efforts to preserve B’nai Abraham, call Ann Shanedling Phillips at 612-377-5075.
Genealogy Corner by Bill Wolpert (Reprinted from Fall 2005 Generations )
JewishGen: Internet Resources for Tracing Your Roots
Many of us doing genealogical research find ourselves tracing family roots back to the "old country." Before you start buying plane tickets and travel guides, however, be sure to check tools that are available on the Internet.
In previous columns I have mentioned the website JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy (www.Jewishgen.org). Using databases available on JewishGen, you can find important information such as birth, death and marriage records; passports and passenger manifests; Holocaust victim and survivor lists; cemetery burial lists; community Yizkor (memorial) books and business directory lists; U.S. consular records from overseas and foreign consulate records; names mentioned in newspapers; tax records, donors lists and more. JewishGen includes databases from Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Poland, Latvia and Belarus.
JewishGen provides an efficient way for researchers to pool their resources instead of having to contact various archives individually in languages they might not even know. Since JewishGen is supported by donations, more lists become available throughout the year as funds are contributed for translating and processing. It is worth checking back even if you have searched the JewishGen website before. If you are unable to find what you are searching for using the online databases and are interested in delving further on your own, check out JewishGen’s discussion groups for tips and advice posted by independent researchers.
JewishGen offers links to many useful genealogical search tools. Benefiting from the Mormon’s interest in genealogy, for example, you can connect to the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Family History Library database for Poland. You will need to input a town name or latitude and longitude degrees, and the database will identify what records can be ordered for viewing at a local LDS Family History Library. Visit the Mormons’ website (www.FamilySearch.org) for more records and resources.
JewishGen also links to Stephen Morse’s one step Ellis Island database search (www.stephenmorse.org). At Morse’s website, you can find one-step search engines for ports of entry other than Ellis Island, including Baltimore, Galveston and Philadelphia. Stephen will be speaking at the JHSUM annual meeting on September 18th. I hope to see you there.
Minneapolis isn't even in the Bible : Reflections on a Panel Discussion Celebrating 150 Years of Jewish-Catholic Relations in St. Paul by Dr. Ellen Narotzky Kennedy December 10, 2004
1950 photo of surviving members of the first Federation board. (left to right) John Z. Gelman, Rabbi Albert G. Minda, Dr. Moses Barron, Rabbi David Aronson, Mrs. James Kantrowitz, Amos S. Deinard, Albert H. Heller Jr., Leo H. Frisch, Benjamin C. Zalkind, henry B. Cohen, Rabbi S.I. Levin
The stock market crash of 1929 was less than six months old, but Minneapolis Jewish leaders were not deterred. In February 1930, they launched an ambitious effort to raise $65,000 for a broad array of Jewish causes. Known as “One campaign for all needs”, the 1930 drive marked the origins of the umbrella organization that would later be known as the Minneapolis Jewish Federation.
In its February 28, 1930 issue, the American Jewish World explained that the federation plan, “while new to Minneapolis, has been in use by many Jewish communities through the country for several years and has been found to be a logical and economic method of collecting funds for various causes that deserve assistance.”
“Not only are contributors better satisfied with making only one contribution for all the causes during the year, but the cost of collecting has been found to be smaller and the proportionment of funds more fair and satisfactory to the causes benefiting from the fund,” the Jewish World reported.
In addition to such local institutions as the Talmud Torah, the Emanuel Cohen Center and the Jewish Family Welfare Association, the list of the campaign’s recipients included several national Jewish health and social service agencies and a group of international organizations aiding Jewish settlers in Palestine.
The campaign’s leaders, who would later incorporate as the Federation’s first board of directors, decided to kick off the 1930 fund raising campaign with a dinner at Nicollet Hotel on March 2. The Jewish World reported that the campaign would continue for one week or more after the dinner “until every Jewish man and women in the city has been approached by the campaign solicitors.”
The campaign’s chairman, Arthur Brin, launched the fund raising effort with an impassioned plea to the Jews of Minneapolis. “Does not the suffering of your fellow Jews bring a lump to your throat when you think of their plight?” Brin asked rhetorically. "Does not the perpetuation of Judaism and Jewish interests mean anything to you? Do you not wish to see the religion, cultural and ideals of your forefathers which have enriched humanity, live on and on through the coming age?
“Can you as a Jew fail to give your hearty, generous support to this wonderful cause? Of course you will not fail--- no Jew as every failed to meet his obligations to his brothers yet. YOU will not fail now,” Brin declared with great fervor.
At the March 2 dinner, Temple Israel's Rabbi Albert Minda delivered the principal address. “No crisis in Jewish history has left a more indelible mark on the memory and consciousness of the Jew than his bondage and enslavement in Egypt..” Rabbi Minda said. “And out of this crisis in Egypt there was born a social philosophy of life, a passion for social justice and a social vision that made the Jew champion the weak, the underprivileged, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the immigrant and the stranger—as his eternal cause.”
“Tonight, as we begin our federation campaign, I rejoice that Israel of today has not forgotten its social philosophy born of crisis,” he declared.
Rabbi Mind's stirring words helped generate $22,000 in pledges at the March 2 dinner. In the weeks following, 150 volunteer solicitors spread out through the Jewish community to collect an additional $18,000 for the Minneapolis Federation. While the new umbrella organization fell short of reaching its $65,000, the $40,000 total represented a respectable showing for the 1930 campaign.
Three years later, as the Great Depression took hold in Minnesota, the Federation was able to raise just under $20,000.
But the Federation soon rebounded and continued to grow over the next seven decades. In 2003, the Minneapolis Jewish Federation plans to raise $25 million for 22 local organizations and several dozen national and international agencies.
Nursery school at the Emanuel Cohen Center, circa 1945.
In January 1922, the Minneapolis Talmud Torah was a busy place. Each week, more than 30 different recreation groups and social clubs met in the school's overcrowded building at 8th and Fremont.
Five years earlier, the Talmud Torah had started providing social services for the local Jewish community as hordes of impoverished Jewish immigrants kept pouring into Minneapolis' Near Northside.
But the new community service programs were starting to overwhelm Talmud Torah and distract the teachers and their students. A large sign in the front hall urged club members to refrain from noisy activities during school hours. Soon, school's leaders came to realize that the social service programs needed a home of their own, so the Talmud Torah could carry on its educational mission in peace and quiet.
Gradually, plans for a new Jewish community agency began to take shape. In 1924, the Jewish Family Welfare Association was able to purchase a new building for the Talmud Torah's social service programs, using the bequest from the estate of Emanuel Cohen, a prominent local attorney. In his later years, Cohen had become concerned about the rise in Jewish juvenile delinquency and left money in his will to establish a northside youth center.
The new facility, a large mansion at 909 Elwood, was named the Emanuel Cohen Center, in honor of the building's benefactor. The newly reorganized agency spun itself off from the Talmud Torah and soon embarked on an ambitious effort to serve all age groups in the Jewish community, from pre-schoolers to senior citizens.
In 1940, the Center built a new facility at 1701 Oak Park Avenue, around the corner from its original location on Elwood. The Center would continue to occupy the Oak Park building for the next 23 years.
In 1959, as the Jewish exodus out of North Minneapolis gained momentum, the Emanuel Cohen Center merged with the Park Jewish Youth Services and the Jewish Camping Association to form the Jewish Community Center of Greater Minneapolis. In 1963, the JCC severed its physical link to the Northside when it relocated to temporary space in the former Meadowbrook School in St. Louis Park. The JCC remained at Meadowbrook until 1969 when it moved to its current building at 4330 South Cedar Lake Road.
Bernice Cowl Gordon served as membership vice president and made it her mission to bring in as many Life Members as possible. Her sales pitch included her heartfelt belief that becoming a Life Member of JHSUM was a privilege and she hoped others would feel the same way. She is a prolific author of family history, an award-winning community volunteer and established the Dr. Moses and Bernice Cowl Gordon Journal Endowment Fund at JHSUM. 
Etheldoris Grais may be most famous around JHSUM for her marvelous gefilte fish recipe and accompanying stories caught on tape for the Unpacking on the Prairie exhibit in 1996. In fact, for many years she provided the Society’s main link with Jews on the Iron Range, having grown up in Hibbing speaking Finnish as her first language. She was an active member of the Board and worked tirelessly to connect the Society with other organizations in the Jewish and general communities.
Shirleymae Lane, a member of the Papermaster family, hails from Minot, North Dakota and attended the University of Minnesota. During her many years on the Board, she helped JHSUM maintain ties with both North and South Dakota Jewish communities. She contributed a great deal of material about her relatives, including the Papermasters and her parents, Zelda and Alex Epstein. She served as JHSUM’s corresponding secretary and many remember the diligence with which she wrote condolences and other letters on behalf of the Society.
Bob Rees has a long family history in Minneapolis that includes forebears who were founders of Temple Israel. Bob has great skill as a writer and marketer and shared those talents with JHSUM for many years as a board member and Co-Vice President of Membership, a role he shared with Bernice Cowl Gordon. His fine writing and PR materials helped the Society gain visibility in the community.
