ABOUT THIS BOOK Jewish Life in Cleveland in the 1920s and 1930s by Leon Wiesenfeld This book, published in 1965, is best understood by its subtitle: “Memoirs of a Jewish Journalist”. It is not a history, but rather Leon Wiesenfeld’s accounts of some events, written from his perspective, which appeared in his Jewish Voice Pictorial. Wiesenfeld was more than a journalist. He championed the Jewish people and fought their enemies. He worked for an inclusive Jewish community, with cooperation between the “assimilated Jews” and the Yiddish-speaking Jews he wrote for who in the 1930s were the majority of Cleveland’s Jews. He was a passionate Zionist and a supporter of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver. Wiesenfeld (Feb. 2, 1885 – March 1, 1971) was born in Rzeszow, Poland and worked for Polish and German publications before coming to America. He worked briefly in New York for Abraham Cahan's Jewish Daily Forward before coming to Cleveland in 1924. For 10 years he was the associate editor of the Yiddishe Velt (Jewish World), Cleveland's principal Yiddish-language newspaper, before becoming its editor in 1934. In 1938 he left to establish an English-Yiddish weekly Die Yiddishe Stimme (Jewish Voice) which failed after about a year. He then started an English language annual, Jewish Voice Pictorial, which endured into the 1950s. (From the entry in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.) The book’s introduction was written by Moses Zvi Frank, a long-time Jewish journalist. Frank’s review of the book in the Indiana Jewish Post of May 7, 1965 notes that he translated it from chapters Wiesenfeld had written in Yiddish. The digital publication of this hard-to-find book will give some glimpses into Cleveland’s Jewish history not available elsewhere. Thanks to Arnold Berger, the ClevelandJewishHistory.net website editor, for his assistance. Jeffrey Morris Beachwood, Ohio December 26, 2016 HOW TO READ THIS BOOK This book is published complete in what has become the standard Portable Document Format (.pdf) created years ago by Adobe. Thus the customary PageDown (next page), Ctrl+End (go to last page) and Ctrl+Home (go to first page) will work. It has been created with two additional features that will help you find specific pages. Searching The document is searchable. Use the Search feature in the program you use to read .pdf documents: Adobe Reader, Nuance PDF, and many others. A fast way to display a Search pop-up window is to press the Control and F keys at the same time. An example: To search for “Germany” press Ctrl+F then enter Germany or germany. You could also enter German or german which will find German, Germany and Germanic. Bookmarks There are bookmarks that go directly to the start of each chapter. There may also be bookmarks for topics within a chapter. Click on Bookmarks in the menu of the program you use to read .pdf documents. An index will display at the side of the document. Click on the page or chapter you want to read. If your program doesn’t use bookmarks, consider using a newer program such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. ------- Leon Wiesenfeld JEWISH LIFE IN CLEVELAND IN THE 1920s AND 1930s The best way of looking ahead is by looking back. Jewish Life In Cleveland In The 1920s And 1930s The Memoirs of a Jewish Journalist By LEON WlESENFELD Published by The Jewish Voice Pictorial 2821 Mayfield Road Cleveland, Ohio 44118 To my dear ESTHER wife, friend, companion who for 55 years stood with me through thick and thin to share in my often troubled life. CONTENTS The Aim and Purpose of This Book • VII The Man and His Town (Introduction) X The Incessant Silver-Goldman- Brickner-Zionist Struggle 1 The Intense Struggle Against Nazism in Cleveland in the 1930's 13 12,000 Fill Public Auditorium to Protest Persecutions of Jews 18 Reaction of Our Christian Friends to Our Anti-Nazi Struggle 27 Mayor Burton First High Official to Grant Recognition to Nazis 32 The Depression and the Conduct of Our Charitable Institutions 48 The Founding of the Jewish Welfare Fund 60 The Rabbis Goldman - Benjamin Fight Over The Jewish Center 67 CONTENTS Rabbi Goldman Leaves Cleveland for Pulpit in Chicago 76 The New Federation of Jewish Organizations and Synagogues 86 Perpetual Meat' Scandals Are Brought to Court 101 Orthodox Orphan Asylum Decides to Close It's Doors 105 Mayor of University Heights Not in Favor of Bellefair Orphan Home 113 The Founding of the Jewish Convalescent Hospital 117 Other Organizations I Helped to Organize 121 My Extremely Hard Life in The Jewish World 124 What We Accomplished by Our Magazine 142 THE AIM AND PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK HE present book consists of a series of articles written by me over T a period of three years and published in The „Jewish Voice Pictorial. In these articles I endeavored to present, as honestly as I could, life and movements in the 1920's and 1930's among the Jews of Cleveland and in particular among the Cleveland Jews of the East Side. Those years may not have been the most gloriOus ones in the life of the community, but they were years of develoPment and, cer- tainly, the most exciting and, perhaps, in a certain Sense, even the most productive ones. I therefore thought that an account of those years might provide interesting and possibly illuminating material for the readers. As to that, I have not been mistaken. Beginning with the first article, which was written on the occa- sion of the 25th anniversary of the Cleveland Zionist Society, to the very last one, the articles made an impression and aroused interest in Jewish circles and among Jewish and non-Jewish readers of the magazine. Despite that moral success, it would ordinarily not have occurred to me to incorporate the series of articles into a book. What induced me to undertake this step was the resolution adopted by the Jewish Welfare Community to produce a history of Cleveland Jewry, which was long in planning. As first conceived, the project called for cover- ing the whole history of the Jewish community in Cleveland from 1837, when the German Jewish immigrant Simon Thormann first VII viii settled in the city, to our own time. Unfortunately, the Federation later changed its plans and decided to publish only a half-history, that is until 1913, before World War I. The modification of the original resolution, resulting from pres- sure brought abotit from certain influential individuals, convinced me that we still do not have a united Jewish community in Cleve- land, despite all Protestations. It was pretty clear to me that the decision to limit the history to the pre-World War I was motivated by prejudice and by the tendency to ignore, as far as possible, the East European element, which not so long ago constituted the ma- jority of the community, and which, in its own way, made a great contribution to the cities Jewish life. History, as we know, is not written every day, especially the history of an indiVidual locality or community. There was the like- lihood that very many years would pass before another project would be undertaken to write the history of Cleveland Jewry and that by that time the life and endeavors of the Jewish masses on the East Side would be' entirely forgotten. No record would then remain for the future historian. In order to help prevent such a travesty I have decided to repro- duce my articles in the form of a book. The articles do not in any way embrace the full era of Jewish life on the East Side. But they do reflect one of its important and liveliest periods. That which is reflected on the pages of this book contains in- teresting material, to be sure, but more importantly, it constitutes the authentic brief history of Cleveland Jewry. Such books are not unusual in historic literature. They have been written in various periods in other cities in America and many other countries, and not only in dealing with Jews. The small histories have ever been and still are of great importance as contributions to larger histories. There is no doubt in My mind that this book will make such a contribu- tion. At the'same time it may influence the men and women of the Jewish Welfare Community to reconsider their decision in favor of IX their original plan to prepare a full history rather than stop in the middle of the way. There is still time since the history has as yet not been produced. But it will eventually be at some later time. The importance of books of this sort in general and for the Jews in America in particular was recently, indirectly, confirmed by such an authority as is Dr. Salo Baron, for thirty years Professor of Jewish history at Columbia University and the foremost Jewish his- torian of our day. In an address before the 35th conference of Jewish clubs in the United States and Canada, Dr. Baron complained that because of the absence of authentic sources, much of Jewish history is incomplete and much of Jewish communal planning is based on conjuncture and surmise rather than on known facts. The result is a lot of mere noise without solid achievements. Dr. Baron concluded his address with a call to the leaders of American and Canadian Jewry to combine their efforts for the sake of securing the necessary documents on the basis of which an intelligent evaluation could be made of the reality of Jewish life in America without exception.