Adas Israel Congregation, Duluth

When Adas Israel Congregation was founded, in 1885, by Lithuanian immigrants, members met in a house on St. Croix Avenue in what is now the Canal Park area of Duluth. It incorporated in 1899.

Adath Jeshurun Congregation, Minnetonka

Known for being the oldest Conservative congregation west of Chicago, Adath Jeshurun has been a mainstay of the Twin Cities Jewish community for well over a century. Though rooted in South Minneapolis, the congregation moved to Minnetonka in 1995 to accommodate its growing membership.

American Jewish World

Founded in 1912 by Rabbi Samuel Deinard as part of an effort to unify the German and Eastern European Jews of Minnesota, the American Jewish World newspaper celebrated its centennial in 2012.

B'nai Abraham Congregation, Minneapolis

B'nai Abraham Congregation grew out of the Romanian Jewish community that developed in South Minneapolis in the 1880s. The congregation prospered until the neighborhood's Jewish population shrank after World War II. A move to St. Louis Park in the early 1950s rejuvenated membership, and B'nai Abraham merged with Mikro-Tifereth in 1972, creating a new congregation: B'nai Emet.

B'nai Abraham Synagogue, Virginia

Dedicated in 1909, the red brick synagogue of Virginia's B'nai Abraham congregation was called the most beautiful religious building on the Iron Range. In the early twentieth century, the synagogue was the heart of Virginia's Jewish community. A declining congregation forced the synagogue to close its doors in the mid-1990s. However, community support and renovations have made B'nai Abraham a center of Virginia's cultural life once again.

B'nai Emet Synagogue, St. Louis Park

The product of multiple mergers between some of the Minneapolis area's oldest congregations, B'nai Emet Synagogue held worship services at its St. Louis Park location from 1972 until 2011. The synagogue enjoyed a moment in the spotlight as a shooting location for a 2009 Coen Brothers film before joining with Minnetonka's Adath Jeshurun Congregation in 2011.

Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis

The Basilica of Saint Mary was first known as the Pro-Cathedral of Minneapolis. It cost one million dollars to build and held its first Mass in 1914. In 1926, the Catholic Church made it the first basilica in the United States.

Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka

In 1895, the Polish immigrant community in Winona raised funds to construct St. Stanislaus Kostka, the grand church dominating the city’s skyline. The church, which still serves the East End parish, was listed on the National Register in 1984 and elevated to a minor basilica of the Catholic Church in 2011.

Bet Shalom Congregation, Minnetonka

Bet Shalom Congregation has offered worship services affiliated with Reform Judaism since 1981. Originally based in St. Louis Park, the congregation moved to Hopkins in 1985 and to Minnetonka in 2003.

Beth El Synagogue, St. Louis Park

Founded in 1922, Beth El was the last synagogue to be formed on the North Side of Minneapolis. It was the only one to affiliate with Judaism's Conservative movement. In the 1960s, Beth El, like other North Side synagogues (all of them Orthodox), moved to St. Louis Park.

Beth Jacob Congregation, Mendota Heights

Beth Jacob Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located in Mendota Heights. It was formed in 1985 when Sons of Jacob, St. Paul's second-oldest synagogue, merged with a group of young worshipers who came together in 1984.

Brin, Fanny Fligelman (1884–1961)

Fanny Fligelman Brin devoted her life to the causes of world peace, democracy, social justice, and Jewish welfare. Her long career as a peace activist included involvement with the National Council of Jewish Women, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, among others.

Burning of Brown’s Chapel AME, Hastings

Sometime past midnight on Friday, November 1, 1907, “the ringing of a fire bell rang out,” as reported in the Hastings Democrat. Brown’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) was engulfed in flames. The little white frame church that had stood on the corner of Fifth and Sibley Streets had been established by the Black residents of Hasting’s community. Two weeks prior, they had celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of “having a place of their own."

B’nai Israel Synagogue, Rochester

Small Jewish communities arose at the turn of the twentieth century in several southern Minnesota market towns. In each, Jews gathered for religious purposes. But it was only in Rochester that a formal synagogue, B’nai Israel, was established. The founding of Mayo Clinic in 1905 created a need for a local congregation that could serve Jewish patients. After almost a century of holding worship services in former residences, B’nai Israel built its first synagogue building in 2008.

Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery

The Carson Mennonite Brethren Cemetery, surveyed and platted in June 1900, has 185 recorded burials as of 2017. Some graves have been relocated from other sites.

Carty, Rev. Denzil A. (1904–1975)

Rev. Denzil Angus Carty was an Episcopal priest and civil rights leader who fought against discrimination in Minnesota—particularly in the City of St. Paul. He was the rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul for twenty-five years, from 1950 until his retirement in June 1975.

Cathedral of St. Paul

There have been four Roman Catholic cathedrals in St. Paul. The first three were built between 1841 and 1858. The fourth, and the most architecturally distinctive, opened in 1915. Since then, no building in the Twin Cities has approached it in ambition or magnificence.

Church of St. Columba, St. Paul

The Church of St. Columba in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood is the only Minnesota work by the Chicago architect Francis Barry Byrne. Architectural historian and critic Larry Millett calls it “a high point of modern church architecture in the Twin Cities.”

Crown College

Crown College, like other biblical colleges in Minnesota, seeks to provide a Bible-based education for Christian leadership. Teaching is focused on training lay people for Christian service. Crown is one of only four colleges in the United States affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination.

Danebod

Part of a Danish settlement near Tyler, the Danebod church and folk school have been a center of Danish American life for over a century. Danebod is a Danish word meaning "one who mends or saves the Danes." The Danebod community is home to programs that preserve, teach, and celebrate Danish American culture on the Minnesota prairie.

Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, Minneapolis

Dar Al-Hijrah was founded in 1998 in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis and is the oldest Somali mosque in Minnesota. It signals the latest of many phases of immigration to the state, from Scandinavians and other Europeans in the nineteenth century to East Africans in the 1990s and 2000s. The congregation has a unique commitment to civic education and advocates for the idea that Islam is compatible with democracy through its sister organization, the Islamic Civic Society of America.

Dorcas Circle, Carson Mennonite Brethren Church

The Dorcas Circle, organized in Cottonwood County's Carson Township in 1936 and later known as the Women’s Mission Society (WMS), served as the backbone of the Carson Mennonite Brethren Church’s strong missions program. Working in supportive capacities, members of the circle impacted church and community life without taking on pastoral roles.

How Jews Have Shaped the State

From Exclusion to Integration: The Story of Jews in Minnesota

Writer and historian Laura Weber explores more than 150 years of Jewish history to reveal stories shaped by immigration, resistance to antisemitism, and eventual integration.

Greenfield Lutheran Church

Harmony’s Greenfield Lutheran Church traces its history to 1856, when Norwegian immigrant families began holding religious services in the settler-colonist community of Greenfield Prairie. In 1913, a brick church was built a half mile to the north in Harmony. It became the congregation’s permanent home and one of the city’s most beautiful architectural landmarks.

Hennepin, Louis (ca.1640–ca.1701)

Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollect friar, is best known for his early expeditions of what would become the state of Minnesota. He gained fame in the seventeenth century with the publication of his dramatic stories in the territory. Although Father Hennepin spent only a few months in Minnesota, his influence is undeniable. While his widely read travel accounts were more fiction than fact, they allowed him to leave a lasting mark on the state.

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