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Memories of synagogues
P A G E 2
“We used to have a bazaar and a dinner where we served the non-Jewish community, anywhere from 700 to 800 people, this handful of Jewish women... I spent more time at the Temple than I did at home for many years.”
Dorothy Mosow Hurwitz, oral history, 1995. Hurwitz lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
“I like the way it is so casual and people come in with their strollers, and people are talking here, and people are davening [praying]
there... It’s not hard to be behind the mekhitzah [screen separating men and women] because I was developing intense friendships with the women.”
Carol Porter Berlin, oral history, 1994. Berlin was speaking of Adas Israel synagogue in St. Paul, where her family worshipped during the time they lived in St. Paul. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
“I can’t say that women bring any one thing to their pulpits except for being women, which I think is a powerful statement for Judaism — that women are on the bimah [platform holding the desk from which the Torah is read], they are in the boardroom, they are reading Torah, they are taking their own learning seriously.”
Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, oral history, 1995. Abrahamson and her husband, Martin Zinkow, currently serve as rabbis at Mount Zion Congregation in St. Paul, MN. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
top photo: Stained-glass window, B’nai Abraham Synagogue, Virginia, MN, 1909. The women of B’nai Abraham synagogue raised $700 to pay for this window. Photograph by G.W. Tucker Studios, Virginia, MN, 1996.
inset photo: Traditional Jewish foods were a great hit with the predominantly Norwegian residents of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
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