By ELANA WARREN / Assistant Editor
David Blumenfeld may well have experienced the American Dream. He left Latvia and arrived in the United States with his parents and siblings in 1884, uneducated and impoverished. He struggled for years but worked hard and became successful.
He remained an active and observant Jew throughout his life, but he prioritized his business, keeping his store open on Saturdays, as he had deemed religiosity to be a reason for his father’s lack of success. After 20 years of moving and failed ventures, he became the owner of a successful store in St. Paul, and he continued to grow his business from there and joined the middle class.
Blumenfeld also became a writer of poetry and novels. He wrote an unpublished family biography, A Continent of Glory: The Diary of a 19th Century Jewish Immigrant.
A Continent of Glory, written in 1922, had been lost for more than 50 years — between Blumenfeld’s death in 1956 and its discovery by a great-grandson in 2008 — and reveals a detailed account of his family’s life, with information about the Russian Empire and Jewish tradition.
Blumenfeld also included his personal insights, such as “There has come over the country … a wave of self-indulgence coincidently with the great wealth that came to us.”
The work is semifictionalized, but his story and “quest for success” provides a look into his parents’ life, his life and the time. Plus, the now published book includes commentary from Blumenfeld’s descendants in the style of the Talmud (commentaries to the side of the main text).
The Upper Midwest Jewish Archives at the University of Minnesota houses Blumenfeld’s documents — citizenship papers, typewritten manuscripts, typed and handwritten longform poetry and handwritten diaries. And an exhibit on 19th-century Jewish life based on Blumenfeld’s book opened in July at the Tukums Museum in his hometown of Tukums, Latvia.
“There are no longer any Jews living in that town, but thanks to his book the town historian has researched the Jewish life of the time, and has put together a comprehensive story of our family, and the Jewish community there,” Frederick Hertz, Blumenfeld’s great-grandson, said in an email to the Jewish World.
Hertz, a St. Paul native now living in California, recently returned from a visit to the exhibit, which will remain open through July 12, 2026. Earlier this year for Hineni, the adult learning program at the Talmud Torah of St. Paul, Hertz presented on the discovery of his family story, his great-grandfather’s personal history and how this exploration has affected his own life and values.
Hertz said he hopes to continue sharing his family’s story with the Twin Cities Jewish community. He has also contributed to a website dedicated to Blumenfeld’s book and story, FindingDavidBlumenfeld.com, which includes reflections from family members, photo galleries and scans of the original diary.
In his reflection, “David’s Quest for Success,” Hertz wrote: “Discovering the story of David’s quest allows his path to emerge as a framework for accomplishment that has, or so it seems, guided my own evolution. Keeping the inner spark alive, balancing tradition and modernity, rebounding from disappointments, maintaining a constant beam on a sense of what it means to be successful, and having the flexibility necessary to find new paths when one road has become blocked — all of these have been vital ingredients for my own recipe for success.”
(American Jewish World, Sept. 2025)
