return to CJH Home page What's New (and what's coming)  
 

We list below, with some comments,
our newest pages, most recent first.
For a complete list of pages, see our Site Map.
 Arnie Berger, webmaster
 

 

Our home page, in 2007 >

 

What's Coming Soon
Abraham Lincoln Nebel and the Alsbacher Document
An avid student of Cleveland Jewish history who is responsible for the discovery of and possibly the preservation of the oldest document in Cleveland's Jewish history.
The Alsbacher Family
The descendants of Moses Alsbacher (1805-1905), the leader of the group of 19 who came here from Unsleben Bavaria in 1839.
Howard Metzenbaum, as we knew him 
What's been published about Ohio's only Jewish Senator focuses on his political life. His daughter Susan Hyatt shares some recollections and pictures of a family man who worked for social justice at every level in the organized American Jewish community.
The Sogolovitz family 
Contributed by Nate Arnold. It will launch our family Gallery series - one page glimpses of a Cleveland Jewish family, with pictures and text contributed by a family member.
The Weidenthals: three journalists who changed Cleveland 
Maurice "Bud" Weidenthal, a journalist himself, writes about the three 19th century Weidenthal brothers: his grandfather Maurice and brothers Henry and Leo. 
The saga of the Eagle Street Synagogue 
Jeffrey Morris describes the chain of events that begins in 1906 when B'nai Jeshurun sells Cleveland's first synagogue building, and ends 80 years later when the land is sold to become part of our new baseball stadium
A virtual tour of old Jewish Cleveland
Nate Arnold, whose virtual tour first appeared on these pages in April 2010, enlarges and enriches it with much more information and many images of long-ago places.

What's New
Mayfield Cemetery deeds (8/18/2011)
The three real estate deeds (1887 - 1890) that established Mayfield Cemetery and its joint ownership by Tifereth Israel and Anshe Chesed.
Two early confirmations  (6/23/2011)
We find, display and comment on two Plain Dealer reports on confirmation ceremonies: one in 1864 at Anshe Chesed and one in 1868 at Tifereth Israel.
Cleveland's  Holocaust Memorial (5/10/2011)
Kol Israel Foundation's memorial in Zion Memorial Park was dedicated in 1961.
The Jewish Scene radio broadcasts  (3/02/2011)
Starting in November 1978, for more than 21 years these community-sponsored Sunday radio broadcasts won many awards and had an audience that reached 60,000.
This Tempting Freedom [pdf]  (2/10/2011)
In 1973 Allan Peskin PhD, Professor of History at Cleveland State University, wrote the best history of the city's first Jews and Anshe Chesed, its first synagogue. With his permission we asked CSU to digitize and web-publish this out-of-print book.
The Jewish Orphan Asylum  (1/14/2011)
Professor Gary Polster, author of "Inside Looking Out", the book about the Jewish Orphan Asylum, provides a page on the institution founded by B'nai Brith in 1868 for Jewish orphans of the Civil War. We know it today as Bellefaire - JCB.
Jewish members of Cleveland City Council  (1/10/2011)
The toughest page on this site. When first published in May 2010 it had nine names. After online research, visits to the city's archives, plus suggestions received, it now tells about 28 of them. We think we've found them all.  (Famous Last Words)
1899 - Jewish leaders fight for political reform  (12/22/2010)
They rent a hall to pursuade Jewish voters to vote for a reform mayoral candidate. Rabbi Moses Gries says "Don't be subjects of the Czar" - the Czar being ward boss Harry Bernstein. The next day's Plain Dealer told the story in incredible detail.
The Rise and Fall of Czar Bernstein 1907        (12/10/2010)
A Plain Dealer Sunday Supplement story about Harry (Czar) Bernstein, Republican political boss and entrepreneur, and his fall from wealth and power.
A 1920 directory of Jewish Cleveland  (11/21/2010)
Doing some heavy searching we found the American Jewish Yearbook for 1920-21. We've captured the Cleveland pages so you can get a sense of organized Jewish life here 90 years ago.
What Elie Wiesel told the Dalai Lama  (10/15/2010)
Years ago the Dalai Lama asked Elie Wiesel how the Jewish people survived without a homeland. Because Wiesel's reply speaks to the purpose of these pages, it's now at the top of our "About This Website" page.
Federation moves east - a chronology  (9/22/2010)
In 2008 we added pages to show the nine offices Federation has used since it began in 1903 - all of them downtown. Our new page links to press releases and newspaper accounts that outline the great 2008 debate about moving east, the Board's decision of 9/11/2008, and the move to Beachwood. No commentary - just the facts.
The Eagle Street Synagogue building around 1928   (9/7/2010)
Railroad historian Drew Penfield found this sad picture of Cleveland's first synagogue building, now being used as part of a freight depot.
Annual review of website History pages  (8/31/2010)
We believe that organizations that tell their history well inform new members, show how they have adapted over the years and recognize their past leaders and donors. This year's survey of Jewish organizations finds improvement, though there are still some, including one more than 100 years old, whose pages say nothing.
The Tannersville photo taken in 1906   (8/17/2010)
For years I had been looking for the photo of "Abe" Silver at his first Zionist meeting. He is at the 1906 national conference in the Catskills, only 13 years old, in knickers. Then Marshall Weinberg, a grandson of Zvi Hirsch Masliansky, mailed me a Zionist newspaper printed in 1936. In it was this precious photo.
Zvi Hirsch Masliansky's Eulogy  (8/06/2010)
In 1943 Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver gave a eulogy for the man who had been his oratorical inspiration. We show the handwritten notes for it. From the Silver Archives at WRHS.
Leonard Case's great gift to Cleveland's Jews  (7/20/2010)
Why, in 1843, did Leonard Case Sir, a Protestant, give The Israelitic Society (Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple) land for its first synagogue? This is the first time the full story of the gift has been told. We find reasons going back to 1750. How we learned about it is an incredible chain of old-time story-telling and modern technology.
CJN's new Digital Archive    (7/5/2010)
The Cleveland Jewish News Digital Archive, a searchable resource, has every CJN issue since its first one in 1964. It's a wonderful (and almost free) new tool for anyone who want to learn more about the stories of their families or their organizations.
Abba Hillel Silver's funeral   (6/15/2010)
We show the four-page description of the service, with the eulogies and prayers, that The Temple mailed to its members a few weeks after his funeral, and add brief bios of the seven participants in the service.
Abba Hillel Silver's gravesite  (5/25/2010)
He is buried in a beautiful, simple space in Mayfield Cemetery, marked by a huge granite boulder: wife Virginia on one side, son Daniel Jeremy Silver on the other.
Former B'nai B'rith building on East 55th Street lost by fire  (5/20/2010)
Here, on February 24, 1917, 24-year-old Abba Hillel Silver gave a speech that all the trustees of The Temple heard. They immediately decided to bring him to Cleveland.
Our first three cemeteries  (5/10/2010)
This page, developed with Nate Arnold, began with our attending the rededication of Fir Street Cemetery, then to Willet Street, and last to Mayfield Cemetery.
Bernstein's Elbow   (5/01/2010)
Around 1900 Harry (Czar) Bernstein, the Jewish ward leader had so much influence that a bend was made in a street to leave his saloon undisturbed.
Site Map   (4/15/2010)
With more than 250 pages it was time for a one-line-per-page Table of Contents.
Virtual Tour of Old Jewish Cleveland   (4/8/2010)
Nate Arnold, who has led many all-day bus tours of old Jewish Cleveland, "scripted" this virtual tour of the old neighborhoods and their "shuls".
Congregation Brith Emeth and Rabbi Philip Horowitz   (3/30/2010)
Professor Alan Levenson, our favorite teacher at the Siegal College of Jewish Studies, left for an endowed chair at the U. of Oklahoma. He let us publish his essay on this Reform congregation (1959-1986) and Philip Horowitz (1922-2002), its founding rabbi.
The Temple at University Circle starts new life   (3/19/2010)
On March 19, 2010 it was announced that The Temple at University Circle will start a new dual life as the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center of CWRU, with The Temple continuing to use its Sanctuary for High Holy Day worship and life cycle events. Our page was up that day, noting that no page had given us more pleasure.