Finding aid for the Cleveland Jewish History Sources, Series II

History of Cleveland Jewish History Sources

Cleveland Jewish History Sources, Series II includes materials related to the support of a planned volume on the history of Cleveland, Ohio, Jewry. The research for that volume was conducted between 1954 and 1956 and was supported by the American Jewish History Center (AJHC) of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The planned volume materialized in 1978 with the publication of Lloyd P. Gartner's History of the Jews of Cleveland (Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society and Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, 1978, 1987).

MS 4621 Cleveland Jewish History Sources consists of over 16,000 index cards containing information about Cleveland's Jewish community obtained primarily from newspapers. These cards have been arranged into fourteen broad categories: Arts; Charities; Clubs and Societies, Various; Community Services; Economic Life; Education; Political Affairs; Population; Sermons and Lectures; Social Life; Synagogues; Synagogue Related; Umbrella Organizations, and Zionism.

Sources for this information, which cover the span from the early nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, were researched by one team at the AJHC in New York City and another in Cleveland. AJHC researchers culled Cleveland related information from the national Anglo Jewish press; Cleveland researchers Jack Herman (Rabbi, Community Temple) and Judah Rubinstein (subsequently, Research Director, Cleveland Jewish Federation), extracted information from local sources, including the general press, the Anglo Jewish press and Jewish communal records.

While MS 4621 Cleveland Jewish History Sources functions as a partial index to the local Jewish press, Cleveland Jewish History Sources Collection, Series II includes background materials for the planned publication project such as correspondence and interviews. In addition, the unpublished papers on aspects of Cleveland Jewish history offer the researcher different perspectives and ideas for other sources.

Scope and Content

Cleveland Jewish History Sources, Series II, ca.1953-1958 and undated, consist of correspondence, notes, scholarly papers, and transcripts of interviews.

This collection is of value to those studying Cleveland, Ohio, Jewish history and historiography. Those interested in the work undertaken by the AJHC and Cleveland-area researchers in order to create this collection will find these documents to be useful. The transcripts of interviews with Mabel Fischer, Alfred Benesch, Leo Weidenthal, and Leon Wiesenfeld are of value to those seeking firsthand accounts of Jewish life in Cleveland or information about Jewish involvement in the fields of education and journalism.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

For additional information concerning the creation and implementation of this collection, the researcher should consult MS 4563 Container 5, The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland Records. For the collection itself, the researcher should consult MS 4621 Cleveland Jewish History Sources.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5111 Cleveland Jewish History Sources, Series II, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of Shoshana Herman in 2003.

Processing Information

Processed by Jessica Marra and Sean Martin in 2012.

Detailed Description of The Collection