“Sophie Wirth, the Camp That’s Near the Lake” with Laura Weber

Between the world wars, hundreds of poor Eastern European Jewish immigrant residents of St. Paul’s West Side flats eagerly boarded trains or buses for a pleasurable and healthy vacation at White Bear Lake, home to Sophie Wirth Camp. Based on extensive additional research conducted since the WBLAHS presentation in 2022, this talk will explore the role played by the upper Midwest’s first kosher camp, founded as a vacation rest home for overtired mothers and their children, within the Twin Cities Jewish community and beyond.

Laura Weber writes on Minnesota’s Jewish and cultural history. She is a former editor of Minnesota History, the quarterly of the Minnesota Historical Society.