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.

Jews originally from Hungary and Germany were the first to settle in Duluth, beginning in 1869. They established a Reform synagogue in 1891 called Temple Emanuel. When the Mesabi Iron Range opened for mining in the 1890s, Duluth thrived as a business center, and Eastern European Jews fleeing persecution began arriving in the city.

These Eastern European immigrants founded three Orthodox synagogues in Duluth during the 1890s and 1910s. The first was Tifereth Israel (Splendor of Israel), today Temple Israel. It was followed by Adas Israel (Congregation of Israel) and B'nai Israel (Sons of Israel). After its founding, Adas Israel was the largest of Duluth's synagogues, with about one hundred member families. B'nai Israel started out with around fifteen member families, but the congregation grew to about two hundred members at its peak. When B'nai Israel dissolved in 1930, some of its members joined Adas Israel.

The cornerstone of Adas Israel's current synagogue, at the corner of East Third Street and Third Avenue East, was laid in 1901. The address soon gave rise to its nickname, "the Third Street shul" (the Yiddish word for synagogue). Services were held in the basement until the entire building was completed and dedicated in 1902. About fifty families made up the membership in 1901. Male members led the worship services until a rabbi was hired in 1902.

Adas Israel's building's exterior featured two stair towers capped with low domes in the Byzantine/Moorish style. A striking feature inside was the two-story, wooden Ark of the Covenant, where the Torah scrolls were stored. The first words of each of the Ten Commandments appear in Hebrew on tablets above the ark. A non-Jewish craftsman built the ark at a local lumberyard.

The Moses Montefiore Hebrew School formed in 1905 and was housed in Adas Israel's vestry rooms. The school was incorporated in 1908. Five years later, having outgrown its space in the synagogue, the school moved into a house next door. The two-story frame house had been converted into four classrooms, three club rooms (for boys, men, and women), a kitchen, a dining room, and a large auditorium. The school's name was later changed to Talmud Torah. In 1954 it was renamed the Ida Cook Hebrew School to honor the woman who pioneered Jewish education in Duluth.

A split within Adas Israel's membership in 1906 resulted in the formation of a new congregation, which first rented space in a Swedish church. When this group moved into the Talmud Torah building, it was known as the Talmud Torah Congregation. It dissolved in 1935.

Duluth's Jewish population reached its peak—nearly four thousand—in the 1930s. By 1940, this was down to 2,633 individuals, including 827 families. Four years later, the Jewish population of Duluth was 2,530 individuals, including 659 families.

Extant contracts show that rabbis and cantors were hired for a year or two during the 1940s. For instance, in 1947, Rabbi Benjamin Silman of Passaic, New Jersey was hired jointly by Adas Israel and Shaare Tzadek (Gates of Righteousness), another Orthodox congregation, which had been founded in 1906. "His opinion on purely religious matters shall be final," the contract declared. Some members of Shaare Tzadek joined Adas Israel when that synagogue closed its doors on East Ninth Street in 1967.

In 1970, the Jewish population of Duluth was 1,100. Three years later, the Jewish Federation and Community Council recommended that all of Duluth's Jewish groups consolidate in the Jewish Education Center. Built in 1951 at the corner of East Second Street and Sixteenth Avenue East, the center was home to the Ida Cook Hebrew School and social activities. Adas Israel declined to move; Temple Israel, however, Duluth's remaining Jewish congregation, did move to the Center (Temple Israel had formed in 1969, the result of a merger between Temple Emanuel and Tifereth Israel).

In the 2010s, Adas Israel continued to operate from its 1902 building at East Third Street and Third Avenue East. Members of the seventy-five-person congregation led services, which were conducted in the traditional Orthodox style. On September 9, 2019, a fire destroyed the building, though firefighters managed to save eight of the fourteen Torah scrolls inside. Investigators determined that the fire's cause was arson unrelated to a hate crime.