Exhibits
As part of our mission, JHSUM creates exhibits on various topics in Upper Midwest Jewish History and we have made a number of these exhibits available online. Here is a list of our online exhibits and a short description of each. Click an exhibits title if you’d like to view it. Enjoy!
- Hollywood on the Prairie
When Academy Award-winning directors, the Coen Brothers, needed to recreate 1960s Jewish life in St. Louis Park for their next film, they contacted JHSUM. Photos of St. Louis Park houses and businesses from JHSUM collections provided location scouts with the authentic look of a 1960’s neighborhood. And JHSUM helped costume and set designers see the lives of Jewish teenagers through pictures of after-school activities.
- Jewish Lawyers Exhibit
The Jewish Lawyers Project consists of oral interviews with lawyers in the upper Midwest, most of whom entered practice after World War II. The interviewees were a diverse group that included successful practitioners in large and small firms and a variety of practice areas, judges and social justice crusaders.
- Leonard "Butch" Levy
Leonard Levy, better known as “Butch”, was a football and wrestling standout at the University of Minnesota. He served in the Navy during World War II, and afterwards played football for the Los Angeles Rams. His athletic versatility enabled him to wrestle professionally during the off-season. When his athletic career ended, he went on to be a successful insurance agent and securities salesman.
- Old Lives, New Lives: Soviet Jewish Women in Minnesota
Learn about the circumstances that shaped these women’s lives in the Soviet Union and how they have proceeded to build their lives anew in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- Rabbis in Top Hats: An Early 20th Century Cultural Phenomenon
Rabbis in Top Hats highlights one example of how Orthodox men from the Old Country assimilated into new American culture—donning top hats.
- Russian Veterans Oral History Project
These personal stories are part of the history of European Jewish migration to America encompassing German Jews in the mid nineteenth century, Jews from Czarist Russia who arrived at the turn of that same century and the beginning of the twentieth, and the smaller settlement of post-World War II refugees.
- Saving World War II Memories: the Upper Midwest Jewish Story
This online exhibit showcases photos, journals, letters, uniforms and memorabilia from the war period.
- The Great Patriotic War
They survived World War II and the Holocaust.
They outlived Stalin’s barbarism.
They experienced the Cold War—from the other side.
Now, they are rebuilding their lives, right here in Minnesota.
These are their remarkable stories. - The Shanedling Family of Virginia, Minnesota
Julius Shanedling was a pioneer of Virginia, Minnesota.
- Too Short? Jews and Sports In Minnesota
Sports have always been important to Jewish Minnesotans whatever their physiques and height limitations.
- Unpacking On the Prairie: Jewish Women in the Upper Midwest
Check out our award winning exhibit.
