Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the American Jewish World newspaper is being digitized by the Upper Midwest Jewish Archives at the Libraries — making it “available online for people across the Midwest, indeed across the world..."

In August 2017, “A Campus Divided: Progressives, Anticommunists, Racists, and Antisemitism at the University of Minnesota 1930-1942,” opened in Elmer L. Andersen Library. This exhibit sparked a controversy and began in a conversation.

For Archivist Kate Dietrick, a Zoom webinar on "Saving Your Family History" was a great way to reach a group of people who may not typically think of visiting the archives, while also answering the questions she fields regularly from individuals.

Each May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a month where we celebrate Jewish Americans who have helped weave the fabric of American history, culture, and society. This year, the theme is Jewish contributions to American music, which provides the Upper Midwest Jewish Archives an opportunity to shine a light on a unique local group of musicians in St. Paul, Minnesota who have been making music for 90 years.

This past fall, the Upper Midwest Jewish Archives received a new donation of the papers of local rabbi Kassel Abelson. The papers are now organized and ready for researchers to peruse, standing as a testament to Abelson’s career as rabbi of Beth El Synagogue for 40 years.

By the time the exhibit went up in August, the topic had been with us for three years and I had completely lost perspective. Would anyone else find A Campus Divided interesting? We had built it, would they come? It turned out that attention for the A Campus Divided was beyond anything we had experienced before, as thousands of people flocked to Andersen Library to view the exhibit.

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a time set aside to recognize and celebrate Jewish American achievements and contributions to our country. To celebrate, we've included some highlights in this blog post of examples from the Libraries' Upper Midwest Jewish Archives.

"Minnesota’s Synagogues: A History Map" is a project that aims to map every synagogue and cemetery in Minnesota from the first, Mount Zion Temple in 1856, to the present, but also with our timeline slider, we aim to map which synagogues were at which location when.

Four ledger books from the 1880s have been digitized, making available for the first time this rich history Temple Israel, the oldest synagogue in Minneapolis.

The Immigration History Research Center Archives, with our colleague Immigration History Research Center, celebrates 50 years this fall at the University of Minnesota.

Despite our closed stacks, we encourage and embrace wide use of our collections to the community at large. We meet our researchers and provide one-on-one service to get you the materials you need. Since September 2014, Andersen Library has welcomed nearly 1,300 researchers into our reading room. We have also conducted nearly 200 instruction events to students and community members, with nearly 3,900 attendees.

The Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives at the University of Minnesota has recently acquired the Adath Jeshurun Congregation records. Comprised of more...

By Kate Dietrick, Assistant Archivist, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives Next week begins the Jewish holiday of Passover, or Pesach, the commemoration...

By Ellen Engseth, Curator of Immigration History Research Center Archives and Head, Migration and Social Services Collections Joining the staff of Archives and Special Collections...

by Kate Dietrick, Processing staff and Curator of the Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives. This summer the Children's Literature and Research Center was thrilled to receive...

By Kate Dietrick, Curator, Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives When one imagines early Jewish immigrants coming to America, the image that pops to mind is...