Starting in 1654, America's coastal cities, first New Amsterdam then north to Newport and south to New Orleans, saw the first wave of Jewish migration — Jews arriving from Portugal and Spain, many having first found refuge in the Carribean or in South America. Not founded until 1796, Cleveland saw none of these first American Jews. Since that time, Cleveland has enjoyed its share of all the subsequent waves - large and small - of Jewish immigration to America.

These pages will try to document these immigrations by showing an illustrated history of the generations of a successful family of those times.

German Jews of the early and mid 19th century

Our first example is one line of descendants of Cleveland's first permanent Jewish settler, Simpson Thorman.

Later pages will include two later waves of Sephardic immigration, and the huge inflow of East European Jewry from roughly 1890 until the early 1920's when restrictive immigration laws severely limited Jewish immigration. Closer to our times are the arrival of Jews fleeing Germany just before World War II, Jews leaving Hungary at the time of the uprising against Soviet domination, and the wave of Soviet Jews arriving in the 1980's.

We plan to create pages about two bright chapters in 20th century Cleveland Jewish history, both related to immigration. First, the amazing transplantation of Telshe Yeshiva from Telshe (Telz), Lithuania to Wickliffe, Ohio in the 1940's; second the leadership role played from 1963 until 1983 by a small band of Cleveland Jews, largely "west siders," to improve the lot of Soviet Jews and open doors for them to find new lives here and in Israel.

References

Two sources will be frequently cited:

• MT = Merging Traditions Judah Rubenstein (d. 2003) with Jane Avner
  Published in 2004 in cooperation with The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland and The Western Reserve Historical Society, it is the essential book for an appreciation of our Jewish History. Extensively illustrated with treasures from Cleveland's Jewish archives, kept at WRHS.

• ECH = Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, which has many biographies of leaders of Cleveland's Jewish community and brief histories our leading institutions. Where shown, ECH is an active link to a page on their website. Click on it to read their online entry.

Related web content

Two notable Sephardic Jews in Cleveland's early years were Daniel Levi Peixotto (1800 - 1843), born in Amsterdam, who came to Willoughby in 1835 to teach medicine and his son Benjamin Franklin Peixotto (1834-1890) was a prominent figure in Cleveland Jewish life in the period 1850 - 1866.

Overview of U.S. Jewish immigration history

Cleveland's effort to free Soviet Jewry