B’nai Israel Synagogue on Cottonwood Street, and Montefiore Cemetery at the corner of Gateway Drive and Columbia Road were listed to the National Register of Historic Places (Ref # 11000745) in 2011. The Art Deco-designed synagogue is the work of the firm of local master architect, Joseph Bell DeRemer and his son, Samuel Teel DeRemer. This 1937 synagogue replaced the State’s first Jewish temple built in 1892 and was located on Second Ave S, now in the general vicinity of the Grand Forks Senior Center.
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An excerpt from the National Register Nomination by Steve Martens:
The synagogue serves as a religious structure and place of assembly for cultural activities. Together with its associated cemetery, these paired resources embody Jewish traditions and provide significant testimony to the cultural diversity of Grand Forks. They reflect broad patterns of American religious history, coupled with the history immigration, entrepreneurship, and cultural adaptation. Historical events contributing to the establishment of an influential Jewish (mostly-immigrant) community in Grand Forks and the construction of the new synagogue in 1937, reflect the solid core of a unified immigrant cultural complex. Grand Forks was home to the largest Jewish community in the state of North Dakota in the late 1800s. Rabbi Benjamin Papermaster’s steady hand and guiding wisdom played a crucial part in the successful acculturation and continuity of Grand Forks’ Jewish families.
North Dakota’s first synagogue for the Children of Israel congregation, built in 1892.