Mount Sinai Hospital, located at Chicago Avenue at 22nd St in Minneapolis, opened its doors in February 1951 with the aims to provide a place for Jewish physicians who had been denied admitting privileges at other city hospitals, making it the first private non-sectarian hospital in the community to accept members of minority races on its medical staff. The auxiliary was formed in 1950 to support the hospital. In their five-year review report, the Auxiliary illuminated their mission by saying: “When a group of people give a hospital to the City, their job is not finished, it has just begun. They must continue to work for the hospital. Their work is three fold: building good public relations between the hospital and the city, personal relations between its members, and giving service to the hospital both in funds and volunteer work. The Mount Sinai Women’s Auxiliary was formed by women who wanted to be a part of this program.” The group began by providing services such as a gift shop, coffee shop, beauty shop and baby photo services. Their annual fundraising balls and books sales were popular, and over its forty-one year history raised over one million dollars for the hospital. The auxiliary folded when the hospital merged with Metropolitan Medical Center and subsequently closed its doors in 1991.
From the guide to the Mount Sinai Hospital Auxiliary Records, 1945-1991, (University of Minnesota Libraries. Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives. [umja])
