6 Things About Jewish North Dakota
Pioneers: A Jewish couple opened North Dakota’s first McDonald’s in 1968. Image by Thinkstock
1) 400 Jews live in North Dakota, fewer than any other state except South Dakota.
2) Born in Lithuania in 1860, Rabbi Benjamin Papermaster served as Rabbi of the Grand Forks, North Dakota Jewish community from 1891 until 1934.
3) North Dakota has two active synagogues — Temple Beth El in Fargo and Bnai Israel Congregation in Grand Forks.
4) In Devil’s Lake, Jews used to use the county courthouse for High Holiday services.
5) In 2006, Sons of Jacob, a Jewish pioneer cemetery near Devil’s Lake, was rededicated.
6) In 1968, a Jewish couple from Minnesota opened North Dakota’s first McDonald’s.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
