Jewish Community of North Minneapolis

Images of America: Minnesota

by Rhoda Lewin

The stories of the Jewish community of North Minneapolis are an important part of the rich and diverse mosaic of North Minneapolis history. By 1936, there were more than 16,000 Jew in Minneapolis, and 70 percent of them lived on the North Side. The Jewish Community of North Minneapolis presents an intriguing record of the earliest beginnings of Jewish communities in the city. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the cultural, economic, political, and social history of this community, from the late 1800s to the present day. The Jews in North Minneapolis enjoyed a busy social and cultural life with their landsmanschaften, and shopped together at the kosher butcher shops and fish markets, grocery stores and bakeries, clothing stores, barber shops, restaurants, and other small businesses that had sprung up along Sixth Avenue North and then Plymouth Avenue. Including vintage images and tales of the community-Hebrew schools, synagogues, and social groups-this collection uncovers the challenges and triumphs of the Jewish community.

Genres: History

130 pages, Hardcover

First published December 5, 2001

Reviews

[CTEP]

Among the things I learned at the Oak Park Corps Day was that North Minneapolis was once a Jewish neighborhood. As a Jew working in North Minneapolis, I found this very interesting, so I decided to research it and read Rhoda Lewin's "Jewish Community of North Minneapolis."


I learned a lot from Lewin's book, but I can't say I'd recommend it. It's written for a Jewish audience (the first-person plural is in most chapter titles, i.e. "Where We Lived and Shopped") in a way that might discourage other readers from picking it up. There are archival documents and pictures after each chapter, but many seem unnecessary, like a 2001 picture of former North Side residents at Mystic Lake Casino. The book is also quite short.


The book's main defect is that it is only interested in North Minneapolis inasmuch as it relates to Jews. The part covering the early twentieth century is the best, because at that time NoMi was heavily Jewish, and the anecdotes about immigrant life and culture from that period are neat. But while the book addresses the fact that many Jews moved out of the neighborhood after World War II, mostly to St Louis Park, it offers no explanation as to why. It generally avoids topics that might be uncomfortable to Jewish readers.


There is also an interesting chapter that questions Minneapolis' former reputation as the "antisemitism capitol of the United States". It documents plenty of prejudice, but by 1961, when the city still had that reputation, Arthur Naftalin was elected mayor of Minneapolis, the first (and only) Jewish person to hold that office. Naftalin was mayor during the riots on Plymouth Avenue in 1967.


Again, this book has some interesting material, but isn't worth searching out because of its slightness and insidery approach.

[Icknay Abbecray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of cool photographs, and some of the history is interesting. The writing is a bit dry in some sections and relies a little heavily on referencing the names of those who lived there without any real context. This would probably be a much more interesting read to someone with Jewish ancestry in the metro area, but overall I still liked it.