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The Discovery of the 1840 Petition |
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The Discovery of the 1840 Petition |
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The joy of identifying the oldest document signed by our pioneer Jews. |
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The Archives of
Cleveland City Council have helped this website
tell many stories of Cleveland's Jewish history,
but none more important than this one. On
August 1, 2017 Martin
Hauserman, who retired in January 2020, as Chief
Archivist of the City Council Archives sent an email
to me and Jeffrey Morris, now Manager of
Mayfield Cemetery. He wrote that while doing
research on another subject he had found a
document whose scanned image was attached to the email. His
question: "Is this
of interest?" I read the
old handwritten document and recognized the names of its
signers. First
was S (Simson) Thorman, then A (Aaron) Lowentritt
and I
(Isaac) Hopferman
(later Hoffman). This document was from our first Jewish
organization, the Israelitic Society. For 177 years
it had been
out of sight and unknown, not reported in
any newspaper or history. The Israelitic Society petition to Cleveland City Council for a Jewish section of the city cemetery on Erie Street is our oldest Cleveland Jewish historical document. |
| The author, holding the document for the first time, at the Archives of Cleveland City Council, October 17, 2018 |
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Dated May 5, 1839, the Alsbacher Document is the farewell letter written in Unsleben, Bavaria by teacher Lazarus Kohn to Moses and Yetta Alsbacher and the others leaving for America. In German, Hebrew and Yiddish it asks them to keep their Jewish faith in a land of tempting freedom. It was signed by the other Jews in Unsleben. It is our oldest document, though it was written to Cleveland's pioneers, not written by them. Dated April 1, 1840, the Israelitic Society Petition is very different. It was a bold request by new Americans to their local government, not an ethical hope expressed to departing friends. It was signed here by our first settlers, not by those who stayed behind in Bavaria. Both documents were long hidden from view. The 1839 Alsbacher document was discovered in 1936, 97 years later, by Abraham Lincoln Nebel when he interviewed Rena Alsbacher, granddaughter of Moses Alsbacher. The 1840 Petition was not identified and shared until 2017, a delay of 177 years. Our web page was the first to tell its story.
Where is the Alsbacher Document?
Rena Alsbacher gave
the document to Judah Rubinstein at Federation which,
many years later, made it part of the Jewish Archives at the Western Reserve Historical
Society. Since the Maltz Museum opened in 2005
a copy has been on display at the start of its permanent
exhibit.
Where we might see
the
1840 Petition some day? The Maltz Museum This document should be in the permanent exhibit at The Maltz Museum, near the Alsbacher Document. That was the view of its former Executive Director, David Schafer. Until then, it could be displayed outside the permanent exhibit. Jewish Federation of Cleveland
The Israelitic Society was our first communal
organization. In 1903 a central Jewish funding
organization was formed, which has evolved to
today's Jewish Federation of
Cleveland. How fitting it would be for this
first evidence of an organized Jewish community to
be displayed in Federation's home, the
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in
Beachwood. Shown in the first floor exhibition -
meeting space,
it would be seen by many visitors. How to explain the framed petition?
Here's an example of an
explanation that might be included in the framed
petition or displayed nearby.
Thanks to Martin Hauserman and Chuck Mocsiran, the former and current Archivists of Cleveland City Council, for their help. |
