CJH - Minutes of Tifereth Israel Congregation June 21, 1866

	The Great Defection of 1866
The minutes of the meeting of Tifereth Israel which accepted the membership petition of 34 former members of Anshe Chesed

Tifereth Israel congregation usually approved new members at trustee meetings. But in this instance, we believe as a welcoming gesture for the new members may have been there, and also in celebration, the petition for membership of 34 former members of Anshe Chesed was accepted at a special meeting of the congregation held on Thursday evening, June 21, 1866.

These photographs of the handwritten and bound minutes of that meeting are courtesy of The Temple - Tifereth Israel. Taken by its archivist Jane Rothstein on June 23, 2023.

The top of the page shows the last action of the previous meeting, one which may have been important to families with children coming over from Anshe Chesed: the decision to start a Sabbath and Sunday school.

The minutes of this special congregation meeting on Thursday evening, June 21, 1866 include the text of the petition, the names of the 34 petitioners and the motion to hire Rev. G. M. Cohen as Cantor.

That Isaac Hoffman was the first signer is of special importance, for he can be regarded as the Jewish core of the Alsbacher Party of 15 whose arrival in 1839 created a Jewish community here. Isaac had brought with him a small Torah scroll, led the first religious services, was Cleveland's first shochet and for years was the only mohel in Northeast Ohio. We also find Moses Alsbacher, the leader of the group that left Unsleben Bavaria, and M. (Meyer) Thorman, Simson Thorman's brother who arrived in 1839.

Not joining is Simson Thorman, who had been a founder of Anshe Chesed and its president for many years. He would join at a later time, as evidenced by the rabbi of Tifereth Israel in 1881, Dr. Aaron Hahn, officiating at his funeral.