A Tale of Two Documents
Our two oldest signed documents are the 1839 Alsbacher Document and the 1840 Israelitic Society's Petition for a Jewish section of the city cemetery. Which one should we know about?

The Signers of the 1840 Petition
A page with the names of the 17 signers to help descendants learn that their ancestor signed a recently discovered historic document.

The Discovery of the 1840 Petition
New page for information on the discovery of and possible display of the petition for a Jewish section of Erie Street Cemetery.

Anshe Chesed Becomes Reform   5/28/24
1907  Rabbi Louis Wolsey becomes its leader and Anshe Chesed joins the Union of American Hebrew Congregations

Willet Street Cemetery Graves   5/08/24
Images of headstones at Cleveland's first Jewish cemetery.

Celebrating the Modern Exodus   3/28/2024
Requesting Seder material on the freeing of Soviet Jews to be shared with congregations and families.

Jewish Members of Cleveland City Council   2/06/2024
Our 2011 page was updated on learning that Cleveland has a Jewish member of City Council: Rebecca Maurer (Ward 12).

Bird's-eye View of Cleveland 1877   1/06/2024
This not-to-scale drawing shows our first two congregations, listed as "Congregational churches".

Death of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver  11/23/2023
His sudden death on Thanksgiving Day 1963 stunned his congregation and the Jewish world.

A Charles Eisenman Award for the CCSA  10/23/2023
Updated 3/27/24 because The Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism, no longer active, is not eligible for this award.

Willet Street Cemetery Deed - 1840   7/06/2023
The record of Josiah Barber transferring land for the first Jewish burial ground to the Israelitic Society.

Headstone of Alexander Kahnweiler 6/28/2023
Best image we have found, taken in 2007 by Paul Klein.

The Great Defection of 1866   6/24/2023
Cleveland had only two congregations, one with twice as many members as the other. Then on June 21, 1866 they became equal in size.

Alexander Kahnweiler Documents   6/15/2023
Documenting more about the man who was Cleveland's first Jewish burial and a superb image of his headstone. .

Simson Thorman Time Line   6/07/2023
Major events in the life of Cleveland's first Jewish settler and long-time community leader.

Council of Jewish Women Holocaust Oral Histories   4/21/2023
The stories of 136 survivors, liberators and righteous Gentiles are now on the U S Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

Founding of Federation of Jewish Charities   3/23/2023
Newspaper accounts of the November 16, 1903 founding of what would evolve to be our Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

Warner Brothers: Film pioneers and movie moguls 1/4/2023
Gail Greenberg writes about Harry, Sam, Albert and Jack Warner from Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

Holocaust Memorial Program 2017  5/16/22
Mark S Frank shares a photo and a copy of the 2017 program, with a history of the memorial and list of those named on it.

Workmen's Circle Photo Gallery  1/21/22
Mitchell Rose shares the memory of the 1927 Workmen's Circle National Convention. More old Arbeter Ring images to follow..

Siegel, Shuster and Superman  12/12/21
Cleveland's and Glenville Neighborhood's Own. The two Jewish boys, sons of immigrants, who created Superman.

Seat Licenses for the Synagogues of Anshe Chesed 11/25/21
License documents for sanctuary seats in 1842, 1888 and 1814.

Portrait of Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver  10/05/21
Added to our Rabbis collection, a 1979 portrait of Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver by photographer Herb Ascherman.

Play Ball Alta Weiss!  9/06/21
Alta Weiss (1890 - 1964), a pitcher on otherwise all-male teams, who played semi-pro baseball. By Gail Greenberg

Fashioning Cleveland's Union-Made Clothing  8/20/21
Unionization and employment practices in our garment industry, once second only to New York. By Gail Greenberg

Confirmation in 1923  6/25/21
Jewish congregations - Orthodox, Conservative and Reform - all had their largest-ever Confirmation classes.

Corrigan Gate at Mayfield Cemetery  4/19/21
A plaque honoring the service of Patrick Corrigan, and our own thanks for his help over more than 20 years.

WOMEN    Gail Greenberg, editor   12/21/20
This new resource now includes essays on
▪ Rabbi Sally Jane Priesand: America's First Woman Rabbi
▪ Lt. Col. Rae D. Landy: Nursing Pioneer
▪ Rebecca Aronson Brickner: Educator and Community Leader
▪ Dorothy Snell Fuldheim: Journalist and Broadcasting Pioneer

Hanukkah in Cleveland  12/18/20
Newspaper coverage of Cleveland Hanukkah observance, many on the public display and lighting of menorahs.

A new resource page - WOMEN  10/21/20
Links to resources about Cleveland Jewish women and their changing roles in Jewish life, on our pages and elsewhere.

Northeast Ohio Jewish History   9/18/20
Our Facebook group is changing its name to more accurately fit its focus on Cleveland and Northeast Ohio history.

Max Kalish (1891 - 1945) renowned sculptor   8/13/20
Best remembered for his creation of Cleveland's statue of Abraham Lincoln speaking at Gettysburg.

Second Destruction of Orthodox Synagogues   6/12/20
Professor Ira Robinson's essay on Rabbi Israel Porath's March 28, 1945 commentary in the Yiddish Velt.

Aaron J Marx - Cleveland's First Jewish Policeman  5/22/20
Linda Silverman Shefler writes about her great-great-grandfather, Aaron J Marx (1834 - 1901), a Civil War veteran.

Yom Kippur 1887 - A Synagogue Tour  5/13/20
A Plain Dealer a reporter tells of his visits to five temples with his "Hebrew" guide.

Morison Avenue Bath House and Mikveh  4/30/20
Gail Greenberg writes about Glenville’s Morison Avenue Russian Turkish Bath House and Mikvah.

What inspired the design of The Temple?  3/20/20
How the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem may have influenced the design of The Temple in University Circle.

Building The Temple in University Circle  1/09/20
Gail Greenberg's story of the design and construction of one of this important sacred space. With a gallery of plans and images.

Abba Hillel Silver Chair in Jewish Studies  11/07/19
How the chair was funded and the five scholars who have held it.

A new Historical Marker: A MODERN-DAY EXODUS  9/21/19
The marker at Beth Israel — The West Temple will honor the founding here of the campaign to free Soviet Jewry and Cleveland's resettlement effort.

Wharf on Merwin Street  9/08/19
Where Cleveland's first Jews and other immigrants landed.

Memorial Tablets at the Orphan Asylum  7/20/19
What happened to the tablets with the names of benefactors of the old orphan home on Woodland Road?

The West Side Synagogues  3/23/19
For nearly a century the small number of Jews living west of the Cuyahoga River have sustained a synagogue.

Poem - America  2/10/19
Silver's best known poem: "America"" (1923) and its origin.

In The Time of Harvest   2/08/19
A collection of essays published in honor of Abba Hillel Silver on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

The Willson Avenue Temple   9/06/18
The Temple (Tifereth Israel) moved to Central Avenue and East 55th Street (then Willson Avenue) in 1894, after nearly 40 years downtown.

Maurice Maschke - Republican County Leader   (coming soon)
Born in 1868, from living above the family grocery store. to Harvard, then a lawyer. For 20 years the leader of the Cuyahoga County Republicans.

Jewish History Sources - 16,000 Index Cards   (8/01/18)
Created in 1954-56 these cards were the sources for Lloyd Gartner's book "History of Cleveland's Jews" and are available to researchers today.

Cleveland's first Jewish burial   (7/21/18)
Early in August 1840, when the body of a peddler named Kahnweiler was brought to Cleveland, the community did not yet own a burial ground.

The 1904 convention of American Zionists   (5/29/18)
About 400 Zionist delegates went "west" to Cleveland, meeting from June 3 - 7, 1904. About 2,000 attended the public sessions.

When we said Kaddish twice   (5/13/18)
We were at a burial service at Mount Olive Cemetery on the terrible morning of 9/11 and said Kaddish twice.

The First American Bat Mitzvah   (2/14/18)
Judith, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan's oldest daughter, was the first, on Saturday March 18, 1922. We include her personal account of that important day.

First Bat Mitzvah Ceremony in Cleveland   (1/26/18)
It was exactly 27 years after America's first Bat Mitzvah ceremony in New York that Park Synagogue celebrated our city's first congregational Bat Mitzvah celebration.

For older entries, see our What's Not So New page.