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 The Discovery of the 1840 Petition                             

The joy of identifying the oldest document signed by our pioneer Jews. 

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to Cleveland City Council for a Jewish section of the city cemetery on Erie Street is our oldest Cleveland Jewish historical document.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

The two documents compared

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 original will remain in the City Council Archives, downtown. Here are some places where a copy might be displayed.

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.
 

In 1840 Cleveland was a town of 6,000 residents with only 30 Jews. Learning that the city cemetery on Erie Street was expanding, as the Israelitic Society they asked for a Jewish section. Their brave act was not known until August 1, 2017 when this petition was discovered in the Archives of Cleveland City Council.


Arnold Berger   August 24, 2017
Revised September 14, 2024

Thanks to Martin Hauserman and Chuck Mocsiran, the former and current Archivists of Cleveland City Council, for their help.

The petition and its history     •      The signers of the petition

 

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