Voices of America

Beginning in 1882, many Russian and Eastern-European Jews who fled to the United States settled in the "West Side Flats" in St. Paul, Minnesota. The area once stretched from the banks of the Mississippi River to the cliffs of the West Side Hills, about 320 acres in all, but has since fallen victim to the vagaries of the mighty river and the progress of "urban renewal." The Lost Jewish Community of the West Side Flats: 1882-1962 takes the reader on a pictorial tour down memory lane. The families, houses, businesses, streets, and synagogues-all vanished now-are brought back to life through vintage photographs from the archives of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the private collections of many former residents. This is a memoir of a historic neighborhood that can no longer be visited.

The roots of the Jewish community of St. Paul, MN, were established in 1849, with the arrival of two American-born brothers from Pennsylvania. From these early pioneers the community grew and spread. Through the medium of historic photographs and stories, this book captures the remarkable evolution of the Jewish people of St. Paul. It is a story of the cultural, religious, economic, and everyday life of St. Paul Jews.

These pages bring to life the people, events, neighborhoods, and institutions that helped shape and transform today's Jewish community. These photographs, derived from the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Ramsey County Historical Society, paint a poignant and vivid picture of Jewish life in St. Paul. In addition to recalling the establishment of Mt. Zion and Sons of Jacob, the first two major synagogues in St. Paul, this book displays the distinct impact that prominent Jews of the community, such as Abram Elfelt, Judge Isaac N. Cardozo, and Isador Rose, had on the shaping of St. Paul.

The years 1930 to 1970 were a time of rapid change in the American farming industry. Following World War II, the wave of mechanization demanded a major shift in attitude and skills. The small family farm started expanding. There was more competition for land, fence lines disappeared, the threshing ritual was replaced by combines, corn cribs gave way to corn dryers, hydraulic power replaced muscles, and chemicals began replacing cultivators. The family farm was changing more drastically that anyone ever dreamed. With nearly 100 vintage images and personal stories, Growing Up On A Minnesota Farm relives the era of this major agricultural revolution and takes the reader on a journey that will define a time of momentous change. From the introduction of the steel-wheeled D John Deere, to the conservation and frugality necessary during the Great Depression, a period lost to technology is relived through the pages of this book. We learn what it means to "take good care of the land, and it will take care of you."