The Minneapolis Jewish Federation, or simply Federation as it is familiarly called, was first founded in 1930 in order to coordinate fundraising and social service planning and delivery within the Jewish community. Its first local beneficiary agency was the Talmud Torah, a community Jewish educational supplementary school. The remainder of the funds raised was sent to national or international causes—hospitals, orphanages, and yeshivas. The organization concentrated on fundraising during its early years, a task made difficult by the Depression. It created the Minnesota Jewish Council in order to combat anti-Semitism in the late 1930s. It attempted to act as the coordinating body for anti Nazi protests during the late 1930s and into the 1940s. As Federation expanded, it added separate support divisions—in 1946 a Women's Division was announced, and in 1978 the Young Leadership Division began.
