CJH - Jewish members of Cleveland's City Council

Jewish Members of Cleveland's City Council

On May 24, 2010, a ceremony was held at Cleveland's City Hall to commemorate Jewish American Heritage Month. Framed photographs of three early Jewish councilmen were presented by the Maltz Museum, and accepted to be hung in City Council's chambers.

Thanks to Martin Hauserman, Chief City Archivist who has been very helpful in furnishing much of what appears below. As some information is from my own research, I accept responsibility for any errors. Notes labeled ECH are from the online Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.

Cleveland's City Council was always ward-based, with a varying number of wards. Most neighborhoods became ethnic enclaves. The nationality-based Catholic parishes reinforced that pattern. The ward-based method of electing Council members promoted diversity in representation and assured immigrants of someone who could speak their language and help them deal with the city. There was a reform-minded period of At-Large representation from larger areas, but it lasted only ten years (1923 - 33).

A few of the biographies below include examples of a long-honored Council custom that a member who resigns can name his successor.

We're glad to report that one Jewish former City Council member has email.

More:
see ECH - City Council
see slideshow on City of Cleveland website

Simson Thorman, (1811-1881), Cleveland's first Jewish resident, was also its first Jewish member of City Council. He served one term, 1865 - 1867, representing Ward 4 - which today is mostly part of Ward 5 and some of Ward 3.

Bavarian-born Simson Thorman was Cleveland's first permanent Jewish settler. His encouragement brought 19 more settlers from Unsleben to Cleveland in 1839. He was a founder of many Jewish organizations including the Willet Street Cemetery, Cleveland's first synagogue, and Bnai B'rith.

Thorman's many descendants - his wife Regina had ten children who survived infancy - have played key roles in Cleveland's economic and cultural life and in its Jewish community. This website has several pages about Simson Thorman and one line of his descendants. click here.

See ECH - Simson Thorman

photo courtesy Western Reserve Historical Society

Kaufman Hays (1835 - 1916) Elected to City Council in 1886.

Born in Germany, Hays came to Cleveland in 1852, worked in retail stores, joined Simson Thorman in his hides and wool business in 1860 and married Thorman's daughter Lizzie the following year.

A banker by the time he was elected to City Council, Hays headed the Finance Committee and is said to have saved the city's credit. In 1888 he was elected vice-president of council. He was a founder of Cleveland Worsted Mill Company. Hays also served (1867-71) as president of Tifereth Israel. In 1885 his daughter Belle married Martin Marks, who would be Tifereth Israel president for 23 years. In 1898 his daughter Frances married Moses Gries, the Tifereth Israel rabbi.

See ECH - Kaufman Hays

photo 1900 - courtesy Western Reserve Historical Society

Dr. David Bennett Steuer (1866 - 1959) served three terms for the First District. 1895 - 1901 and was President of the Council in his last year of office. First District covered Wards 1-4 as a part of either a 10 or 11 District, 40 or 42 ward Council from 1891 to 1903.

Born in Hungary in 1866, he came to Cleveland with his father in 1879. His education was extraordinary for the times: Calvin College, the Cleveland School of Pharmacy, MD from Western Reserve University (1895) and three years of post graduate work Europe. When he returned to Cleveland he resumed practice as a specialist in internal medicine. Dr Steuer was on the staff of Mount Sinai Hospital for 14 years. He served as President of the Hungarian Benevolent and Social Union, founded in 1881.

See Online Biographies - Dr David B Steuer

photo - Thanks to his granddaughter Nancy Friedman

Harry Bernstein (1856 - 1920) served one term representing Ward 13: 1903 -1905. In his day (1880 to perhaps 2005) he was one of the most effective ward bosses, delivering the immigrant vote to the Republicans.

He was an immigrant himself, having been brought to Cleveland in 1868 from Russia-Poland by his parents. Educated in the public schools, he was 25 years old - and probably wise in the ways of the city - when the great wave of Jewish immigration began in 1881. "Czar Bernstein", as he was often called, was also an entrepreneur. He owned Yiddish theaters, a saloon, a hotel, and more. His political power waned as other groups moved into his ward and Jewish voters moved steadily east and out. Physical evidence of his influence can be seen in our Bernstein's Elbow page. Though he was from Russia-Poland, he served as President (1916-17) of the Hungarian Benevolent and Social Union. His funeral in 1920 was attended by 900 persons and he was praised for his many good works. See ECH - Harry Bernstein.
See CJN story - Al Bernstein remembers his grandfather (1983)

Maurice (Bernstein) Bernon (1885 - 1954) served one term - 1908-1909 - representing the 15th Ward on lower Woodland Avenue. A Democrat, he was only 23 years old when his term began.

Born in Cleveland in 1885, son of immigrants from Russia-Poland, he entered the Western Reserve Law School at 18 (an undergraduate degree was not needed) and earned his law degree in 1908. He went on to a distinguished career in public service as a member of the Ohio Senate 1913-14, Assistant Attorney General, Ohio 1917-18 and a Judge in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court 1920-24. He was the first campaign chairman of the Jewish Welfare Fund.

See ECH - Maurice Bernon.

photo courtesy Western Reserve Historical Society

Alex Bernstein was elected to Ward 15 and served 1910-1912; later in Ward 12, January, 1912-January, 1916; He then became Director of Public Service. The only photo we found shows him at an Indians game in League Park in 1916 and is captioned "Mayor Davis and his cabinet." He is in the back row at the right. See the full photo at Cleveland Memory.

Alfred Benesch (1879 - 1973) served as a Councilman-at-Large in District 4 1912-1914. At the time the City was divided into four districts. District 4 was the northeast area of the city. He was then appointed Public Safety Director by Mayor Newton D. Baker.

Benesch held many other posts for the city, the school district and the state, He was a Trustee of The Temple and a founder of the Benesch law firm.

On our Abba Hillel Silver pages he is seen as the man responsible for bringing Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver from Wheeling West Virginia to Cleveland. Learn more on these pages ,,,

See ECH - Alfred Benesch

photo: 1903, Harvard Law School graduation

Herman Finkle (1891-1952) was elected in November, 1917 and served 18 terms. He died in office in 1952. Also known as "Little Napoleon of Ward 12".

Born in Detroit he moved to Cleveland at 11. He was a law partner and brother-in-law of ward leader "Czar" Harry Bernstein. Re-elected 17 times, he became Republican floor leader. In his early years on Council he was associated with land, patronage, and financial scandals. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to oust him. His behavior seemed to change in the mid-1930s. His interests extended to city-wide problems such as street lighting, establishing health centers, mass transportation, airport development, and minority-rights issues. Finkle's expertise was in city finances and he served many years as chairman of the powerful finance committee. By the 1940s, many, including the Citizens League, lauded him as a respectable political leader. He declined to run for mayor several times, and was still a member of Council at the time of his death.

See ECH - Herman Finkle.

Photo 1950: courtesy City Council Archives

Abner Goldman served as Councilman at Large, 1/1926 - 1/1930 in the 4th District of the Proportional Representation plan. The Maltz Museum has examples of Ku Klux Klan literature directed against his candidacy.

George Pillersdorf (1904 - 1973) served as Councilman 1933 - 1936

Graduate of Adelbert College and Law School of Western Reserve University.

A Republican, he had served a special counsel to Ohio attorney general. President of Cuyahoga County Bar Association 1969-70. After service on City Council he practiced law. Ran (unsuccessfully) for Ohio Senate in 1940.

In 1970-71 he served as a Judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court Judge, having been appointed by Republican Governor James Rhodes.

Pillersdorf, who lived near Shaker Square, was a founder and president of Balfour Lodge B'nai B'rith and a member of Fairmount Temple.

photo: Cleveland Jewish News

Harry Jaffe (1908-1999) Ward 25 Served 1939 - 1957, except for war years.

Born in Russia, Harry Jaffe graduated from Ohio State and the U of Michigan and WRU Schools of Law (1933) and was elected to City Council in 1939. He left for service as an Army officer in World War II. He was re-elected while in the service. (His younger brother Solomon served in his place. He returned to Council after the war. With Councilman Frank Carr he initiated the comprehensive Fair Employment Practices Ordinance that made it illegal to discriminate based on race, creed, color or national origin. He served on Council until 1957.

When he left Council in 1957 he was appointed to the Cleveland Municipal Court by Republican Governor C. William O'Neil. In 1963 he became a Common Pleas Judge, retiring in 1997 when he was 89 years old. Judge Jaffe told the CJN that he had performed 1,821 marriages during his career.

Read obituary from CJN Archive 1976 CJN story by Nina Liston
Photo 1950: courtesy City Council Archives

Solomon Jaffe Ward 25 Served 1942 - 1946.

Harry Jaffe's older brother who took appointed in 1942 to take his bother's Harry's place on City Council while Harry was in the US Army, and then elected in his own right in 1944.After his brother's return from the Army, "Sol" did not run and Harry was elected again.

< 1981 picture of Harry Jaffe (l) and his brother Solomon Jaffe (r) CJN

photo: Cleveland Jewish News

Irwyn Metzenbaum (1912 - 2002)
Represented Ward 27 from January 1949 to January 1952

Brother of Howard Metzenbaum
Once ran (unsuccessfully) for the Ohio Senate

Owned and operated an income tax service on Broadway Avenue for 30 years.
Past president of former Jewish Recreational Council.

Read obituary in the CJN Archive (2002)

Photo 1950: courtesy City Council Archives

Joseph Horwitz (1915 - March 1999)
Ward 10 councilman 1950 - 1958
Served as first chairman of Council's Urban Redevelopment Committee
Last Jewish Cleveland City Councilman from Glenville.

Obituary in CJN Archive

Photo 1950: courtesy City Council Archives

Merle R Gordon (1970 - )
Ward 15 councilwoman Feb 3, 1997 - May 23, 2005
Merle Gordon grew up in Lakewood, Ohio and in Beth Israel - The West Temple. After graduation from Hampshire College she became an assistant to James Rokakis, councilman for West Side Ward 15 (Old Brooklyn and Brooklyn Centre). In February 1997, when he was elected County Treasurer, he chose Merle, then 27, to complete his term. She was elected by her ward in November 1997 and again in November 2001. She rose to become chair of the Public Health Committee ('98-'01) and Chair of Community & Economic Development Committee ('01-'05). In May 2005 Merle Gordon stepped down to attend Harvard's Kennedy School of Government receiving an MPA in 2006. She is the last (should we say "latest"?) Jewish Cleveland City Council member. She works in healthcare, managing the community programs for Kaiser Permanente and lives in Cleveland's Shaker Square neighborhood. (Thanks to Michael Bennett for calling her service to our attention and to Merle Gordon for editing her "bio".) Yes, she has email.


Cleveland's 1951-52 Annual Report told of a growing, prosperous city with a population of 985,000 (now 431,000) in a county of 1,385,000 (now 1,275,000). Its back cover showed all 32 council members and was the source for our photos of Herman Finkle, Joseph Horwitz, Harry Jaffe and Irwyn Metzenbaum.

If you can add to this page on Cleveland's Jewish City Councilmen, please contact us.

Paul Klein, who played a major role in our Simpson Thorman materials, has sent us these additional names: Arthur J. Halle, Max P. Goodman, Milton S. Grossman, councilman 1932-34, Isadore Kuttnauer, 16th ward (died 1934), Ben Windecker, member for 30 years (died 1913) and David J. Zinner, elected 1905. (8/24/2010)