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 Caribbean 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

In 1880, the United States was home to only three percent of the world's Jewish population - some 500,000 Jews - nearly all German-speaking Jews who arrived starting in the 1830's and their children and grandchildren. Cleveland had only 3,500 Jewish citizens.

Our example is one line of descendants of Cleveland's first permanent Jewish settler, Simson Thorman. The only Jew in Cleveland, in July 1839 he met the Alsbacher party (ECH..) of 19 Jews from Bavaria and convinced 15 of them to come to Cleveland. The group leader Moses Alsbacher brought with him an ethical testament, the Alsbacher Document (Google books), which is written in Hebrew and Judeo-German (Yiddish) on its front and German on its back. German was the preferred language of the new American Jews of that time. For many years sermons, much of the prayer book and even congregational minutes would be in German. Discussions on issues such as what language should be used for sermons could split a congregation.

Russian and East European and Russian Jews 1880–1924

Starting in 1880, each year tens of thousands of Yiddish speaking Jews, many secular but most Orthodox, from Galicia and Russia would flee persecution, poverty and military conscription. Federal laws would cut off the flow of newcomers in 1924, but about 2.5 million Jews managed to come to the United States. And they stayed. Perhaps 80 percent of American Jews are descended from those who arrived in that wave of immigration.

Our example is the family of Schmuel and Mindel Klausner, who came to Cleveland from Russia in 1910. They, their nine children and their grandchildren made their way in patterns of residence, religious affiliation, education and work that were very characteristic of their times. More on the Klausner family.

Closer to our times are the arrival of Jews fleeing Germany just before World War II and immediately after.

We also hope to tell the story of remarkable transplantation of Telshe Yeshiva from Telshe (Telz), Lithuania to Wickliffe, Ohio in the 1940's.

Jews leaving Hungary at the time of the uprising against Soviet domination.

The wave of Soviet Jews arriving in the 1980's.
We have told, in Dr Louis Rosenblum's memoirs, the leadership role played 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. We are working to add one or two family stories of this wave of immigration.

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

Immigrants before and after the Holocaust Betty Gold's story