The earliest arrivals were German Jews who came when the territory was newly created. By the 1880s they were joined by immigrants from eastern Europe. Many settled in small towns or walked the roads as peddlers. Some found homes in the Iron Range towns of Virginia and Hibbing, but the majority lived in the Twin Cities. Gradually, as they clustered in neighborhoods, founded synagogues and community organizations, and sought to create Jewish homes, the two groups merged. A hundred years later, the process was repeated when immigrants from Russia arrived.

Authors Hyman Berman and Linda Mack Schloff discuss such community leaders as activist Fanny Brin, rabbi and newspaper editor Samuel Deinard, and educator Dr. George J. Gordon in the context of local and international challenges to the Jewish community.