For most of this nation - Christian Americans - Lincoln's assassination came on Good Friday, the commemoration of the day Jesus Christ died. Many Christians thought that Lincoln, like Jesus, had died for us.

For many American Jews, news of Lincoln's death in the early morning of Saturday April 15, 1865 came when they were in their synagogues on the morning of the Shabbat of Passover. To hear of the death of the man who freed the slaves at this time, when the Jewish people were celebrating their own freedom from slavery, was shattering. We read accounts of rabbis who broke down in tears announcing the terrible news to their congregants, comparing the late president to Moses.
 
After lying in state for three days Lincoln's coffin and the just exhumed coffin of his third son William, who had died in 1862 and would be re-buried in Springfield next to his father, were placed on a special funeral train. After stops in six cities it arrived at 7:00 am Friday April 29, 1865 in Cleveland,. It would depart for Columbus at midnight.

There were no Jewish newspapers in Cleveland to record Jewish reactions to his death and participation in the funeral observance, but we know of two instances.

• Robert Dauby Gries, in his recently published story of his family, tells of Simpson Thorman, as a city council member (the first Jewish member of council, it should be noted), being included in a civic honor guard.
   

• The Plain Dealer describes the inclusion of the International Order of B'nai B'rith in the procession. People came from far and wide. Estimates of participation range up to 100,000, at a time when the city's population was about 65,000. In 1865 there were several Cleveland newspapers, but only the Plain Dealer's archives are online. Presented below are some clippings and links to its coverage of that visit. A Democratic newspaper, the Plain Dealer opposed Lincoln's election and re-election, but no suggestion of that can be found in its reporting of his death and funeral.

The funeral procession was organized into six divisions, each with an assistant marshal. The April 27, 1865 Plain Dealer story of organizations participating in the parade shows the I.O.B.B. (International Order of B'nai B'rith) in the fifth division, incorrectly listed as the I.O.O.B. Society. Each division would assemble on a different street. Bands were brought to Cleveland so each division would have one.

Mayor George Senter's proclamation asked that restaurants be open to accommodate the many visitors, but all other businesses to close, that buildings along the parade route be draped in black, that no alcohol or ale be served, and that decorum be observed throughout the day.

Lincoln's open coffin lay in this pagoda-like structure on Cleveland's Public Square.
Two lines of mourners would file by, all day and evening, a line on each side.
Although it was a rainy day, a temporary flooring of wood planks allowed
 tens of thousands to pay their respects to their fallen president.