www.teachingcleveland.org
State of Jewish Cleveland 2014: Interview with Steven Hoffman, President of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland
Interviewed by Bob Jacob, Managing Editor of the Cleveland Jewish News
January 22, 2014
Presented by: Cleveland Jewish News Foundation, Teaching Cleveland Digital, and Siegal Lifelong Learning
From the Cleveland Jewish News January 24, 2012. Updated June 19, 2012
Written by Harry F. Lupold
MORMONS. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) has experienced 2 distinct periods of its history in northeast Ohio: the “Kirtland Era” of the early 19th century and the post-World War II era. During the Kirtland Era, the Saints gathered at specific geographic locations to “build up the Kingdom of God.” In the later period, the Latter-day Saints Church expanded beyond geographic confines. Joseph Smith, Jr. (called the Prophet) and 5 other men organized and incorporated the Church of Jesus Christ on 6 Apr. 1830 in Fayette, NY. (The phrase “Latter-day Saints” was added in 1838.) The church quickly attracted converts, many of whom became zealous missionaries, including Parley P. Pratt. A former Campbellite preacher from Ohio, Pratt helped to introduce Mormonism into the WESTERN RESERVE. In Nov. 1830 Pratt and Oliver Cowdrey preached the restored doctrines of Mormonism to the congregations of Pratt’s friend, Sidney Rigdon (another former Campbellite minister) in Mentor and Kirtland. Impressed, Rigdon read the Book of Mormon and admonished his congregations to carefully investigate its message. Conversion to Mormonism quickly followed for Rigdon and about 127 members of his flock. News of the Kirtland success reached Smith in western New York; in Dec. 1830 he received a revelation directing the New York Mormons to “assemble together in Ohio.” The next January, Smith and his family arrived in Kirtland, which soon became a physical and spiritual focal point for the Mormons.
Although Mormon activity centered in the counties east of Cuyahoga, proselytizing produced mixed results throughout the Western Reserve. In 1831 Mormon missionaries baptized John Murdock, a farmer who lived near Warrensville, who then preached throughout eastern Cuyahoga county. Eventually 55 residents were baptized because of his efforts.
Due to its reliance on lay priests and volunteers, the Church of the Latter-day Saints created new stakes and wards only when certain that a particular area could supply its own leadership and guidance. (A Mormon stake and ward are analogous to a diocese and parish respectively; a branch has fewer members than a ward.) Between 1831-38, 4 Latter-day Saints branches were established in MAYFIELD VILLAGE, ORANGE, STRONGSVILLE, and WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS The NORTH UNION SHAKER COMMUNITY also attracted the attention of the Mormons. In Mar. 1831 Smith directed Rigdon, Pratt, and Leman Copley to proselytize among the Shakers, who proved unreceptive; the effort was discontinued. Kirtland eventually lost its favored position. The attention of the Prophet, material goods, and people were increasingly diverted to Jackson County, MO, following a revelation in July 1831 designating that area as the new Mormon Zion. Economic problems in Kirtland caused disharmony during the mid-1830s: land speculation provided quick profits for some,, bankrupted others, and destroyed friendships. With the failure of the Kirtland Anti-Banking Safety Society, many local Mormons discounted Smith as a fallen prophet concerned only with generating capital to repay debts. Finally, persecution from local residents outside the Latter-day Saints Church increased over time. With the departure of the Prophet and many of the Saints from Ohio in 1838, the Kirtland Era came to a close. Over the next 10 years, the Mormons were expelled from Missouri, built Nauvoo, IL, and trekked westward to the Great Salt Lake Valley, beginning in 1847. For nearly 100 years following the establishment of the Mormon Kingdom in Utah, the church administered to a scattered membership in northeast Ohio through units known as missions.
In 1946 one Latter-day Saints branch encompassed not only Cleveland but also a large part of northeast Ohio. Members traveled from as far as the Pennsylvania border, Sandusky, and Hudson to attend Sunday services in a rented room in the Carter Hotel. The average attendance was 30. By 1986 the same geographic boundaries housed 2 stakes comprising 15 wards, and 3 branches, encompassing a total membership of over 4,800. At the stake level, 2 significant developments affected Cuyahoga County Mormons. In Oct. 1961 a large portion of northeast Ohio was organized into the Cleveland Stake, which administered to over 2,400 Latter-day Saints in 8 wards and 3 branches. In 1983 the Kirtland stake was organized, which took in the eastern portion of the Cleveland stake. With the boundaries running north and south through PUBLIC SQUARE, the Cleveland and Kirtland stakes included the western and eastern portions of Cuyahoga County, respectively.
For nearly 20 years following the end of World War II, the core of Cuyahoga County’s Mormon population consisted largely of transplanted westerners who moved into the Cleveland area because of job transfers, professional opportunities, and matriculations at local educational institutions. They helped strengthen a growing local body. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, most area Mormons lived on the city’s west side, and in 1947-48, steps were taken to build a meeting house there. A small 2-story structure was completed on Lake Ave. near Detroit Rd. in 1950. Increasingly, a significant portion of the branch’s population came to be composed of students attending Western Reserve Univ.’s School of Dentistry. These students and their spouses first congregated in the LAKEWOOD area and, later, in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS and SHAKER HEIGHTS Together with a small number of permanently relocated Mormons and a growing convert population, the student families comprised a viable east-side group of Latter-day Saints. In 1955 the Euclid Branch was organized, later renamed the Cleveland East Branch, which stretched from Public Square to the Pennsylvania border. While most of its members resided on or near Cleveland’s east side, there, were families, mainly converts, scattered throughout the far eastern portions of the branch. All of the meetings and activities took place in members’ homes and in several community buildings, including the Brainard Community Center, the MayfieldYOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSN., and public schools. Inability to find a suitable site for a meeting house stymied construction attempts throughout the late 1950s. In 1962 a parcel on Cedar Rd. in Mayfield, just west of SOM Center Rd., was purchased. The meeting house, begun in 1966, was completed in 1967. In 1969, after it had been fully paid for, the building was dedicated. The Cleveland East Branch became a ward in Oct. 1961, when the Cleveland Stake was organized. Since then membership growth and ward proliferation have taken place east of Cuyahoga County, as well as within its boundaries, including wards in Ashtabula (1968) and Kirtland (1977). In 1986 3 wards shared the eastern portion of Cuyahoga County, Mayfield, Shaker Hts., and Solon, including approx. 700 Latter-day Saints.
Following the student migration from the west side, the population of the Cleveland Branch was reduced to relocated westerners and local converts. Both populations grew, and by 1966 the Lakewood Chapel had become too small to house the west side branch. After selling the building to a Lutheran congregation, members of the Cleveland Branch worshipped and held social activities in community buildings and private homes for 2 years. In 1968 a new building was completed on Westwood Rd. in WESTLAKE. The building housed 2 wards and the offices of the Cleveland Stake. A second chapel was completed in 1979 on Rockside Rd. in SEVEN HILLS. Since individual branches of the Mormon church were established west of Cuyahoga County, in Lorain and Sandusky, in the 1950s, the proliferation of the Cleveland Ward occurred within the confines of western Cuyahoga County. In 1986 4 wards occupied the area, Cleveland, NORTH OLMSTED, Seven Hills, and Westlake, with approx. 1,200 Latter-day Saints. The postwar establishment of the Cleveland and Kirtland stakes and the subsequent organization of new wards within their boundaries indicated the numerical growth experienced by the area Latter-day Saints Church. The average ward had 300 members in 1986.
Harry F. Lupold
Lakeland Community College
Robert Psuik (dec.)
Arrington, Leonard J. and Davis Bitton. The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints (1980).
Backman, Milton. The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830-1838 (1983).
Last Modified: 21 Jul 1997 11:19:28 AM
Written by Kenneth Kusmer
AFRICAN AMERICANS. Cleveland’s African American community is almost as old as the city itself. GEORGE PEAKE, the first black settler, arrived in 1809 and by 1860 there were 799 blacks living in a growing community of over 43,000. As early as the 1850s, most of Cleveland’s African American population lived on the east side. But black and white families were usually interspersed; until the beginning of the 20th century, nothing resembling a black ghetto existed in the city. Throughout most of the 19th century, the social and economic status of African Americans in Cleveland was superior to that in other northern communities. By the late 1840s, the public schools were integrated and segregation in theaters, restaurants, and hotels was infrequent. Interracial violence seldom occurred. Black Clevelanders suffered less occupational discrimination than elsewhere. Although many were forced to work as unskilled laborers or domestic servants, almost one third were skilled workers, and a significant number accumulated substantial wealth. Alfred Greenbrier became widely known for raising horses and cattle, and MADISON TILLEY employed 100 men in his excavating business. JOHN BROWN, a barber, became the city’s wealthiest Negro through investment in real estate, valued at $40,000 at his death in 1869. Founded by New Englanders who favored reform, Cleveland was a center of abolitionism before the CIVIL WAR, and the city’s white leadership remained sympathetic to civil rights during the decade following the war. Black leaders were not complacent, however. Individuals such as Brown and JOHN MALVIN often assisted escaped slaves, and by the end of the Civil War a number of black Clevelanders had served in BLACK MILITARY UNITS in the Union Army. African American leaders fought for integration rather than the development of separate black institutions in the 19th century. The city’s first permanent African American newspaper, the CLEVELAND GAZETTE, did not appear until 1883. Even local black churches developed more slowly than elsewhere. ST. JOHN’S AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL (AME) CHURCH was founded in 1830, but it was not until 1864 that a second black church, MT. ZION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, came into existence.
Between 1890-1915, the beginnings of mass migration from the South increased Cleveland’s black population substantially (seeIMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION). By World War I, about 10,000 blacks lived in the city. Most of these newcomers settled in the Central Ave. district between the CUYAHOGA RIVER and E. 40th St. At this time, the lower Central area also housed many poor immigrant Italians and Jews (see JEWS & JUDAISM). Nevertheless, the African American population became much, more concentrated. In other ways, too, conditions deteriorated for black Clevelanders. Although black students were not segregated in separate public schools or classrooms (seeCLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS), as they often were in other cities, exclusion of blacks from restaurants and theaters became commonplace, and by 1915 the city’s YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSN. (YWCA) prohibited African American membership.HOSPITALS & HEALTH PLANNING excluded black doctors and segregated black patients in separate wards. The most serious discrimination occurred in the economic arena. Between 1870-1915, Cleveland became a major manufacturing center, but few blacks were able to participate in INDUSTRY. Blacks were not hired to work in the steel mills and foundries that became the mainstay of the city’s economy. The prejudice of employers was often matched by that of trade unions (see LABOR), which usually excluded African Americans. As a result, by 1910 only about 10% of local black men worked in skilled trades, while the number of service employees doubled.
Increasing discrimination forced black Clevelanders upon their own resources. The growth of black churches was the clearest example (seeRELIGION). Three new churches were founded between 1865-90, a dozen more during the next 25 years. Baptists increased most rapidly, and by 1915 ANTIOCH BAPTIST CHURCH had emerged as the largest black church in the city. Black fraternal orders also multiplied, and in 1896 the Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People was established (see ELIZA BRYANT VILLAGE). With assistance from white philanthropists (see PHILANTHROPY), JANE EDNA HUNTER established the PHILLIS WHEATLEY ASSOCIATION, a residential, job-training, and recreation center for black girls, in 1911. Blacks gained the right to vote in Ohio in 1870, and until the 1930s they usually voted Republican. The first black Clevelander to hold political office was JOHN PATTERSON GREEN, elected justice of the peace in 1873. He served in the state legislature in the 1880s and in 1891 became the first African American in the North to be elected to the state senate. After 1900 increasing racial prejudice made it difficult for blacks to win election to the state legislature, and a new group of black politicians began to build a political base in the Central Ave. area. In 1915 THOMAS W. FLEMING became the first African American to win election toCLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL.
The period from 1915-30 was one of both adversity and progress for black Clevelanders. Industrial demands and a decline in immigration from abroad during World War I created an opportunity for black labor, and hundreds of thousands of black migrants came north after 1916. By 1930 there were 72,000, African Americans in Cleveland. The Central Ave. ghetto consolidated and expanded eastward, as whites moved to outlying sections of the city and rural areas that would later become SUBURBS. Increasing discrimination and violence against blacks kept even middle-class African Americans within the Central-Woodland area. At the same time, discrimination in public accommodations increased. Restaurants overcharged blacks or refused them service; theaters excluded blacks or segregated them in the balcony; amusement parks such as EUCLID BEACH PARK were usually for whites only. Discrimination even began to affect the public schools. The growth of the ghetto had created some segregated schools, but a new policy of allowing white students to transfer out of predominantly black schools increased segregation. In the 1920s and 1930s, school administrators often altered the curriculums of ghetto schools from liberal arts to manual training. Nevertheless, migrants continued to pour into the city in the 1920s to obtain newly available industrial jobs. Most of these jobs were in unskilled factory labor, but some blacks also moved into semi-skilled and skilled positions. The rapid growth in the city’s black population also created new opportunities in BALDWIN RESERVOIR and the professions. Most black businesses, however, remained small: food stores, restaurants, and small retail stores predominated. Two successful black-owned funeral homes opened early in the century, the HOUSE OF WILLS (1904), founded as Gee & Wills by J. WALTER WILLS, SR., and E. F. Boyd Funeral Home (1906), founded by ELMER F. BOYD and Lewis Dean. Although the employment picture for blacks had improved, serious discrimination still existed in the 1920s, especially in clerical work and the unionized skilled trades.
Black leadership underwent a fundamental shift after World War I. Prior to the war, Cleveland’s most prominent blacks had been integrationists who not only fought discrimination but also objected to blacks’ creating their own secular institutions. After the war, a new elite, led by Fleming, Hunter, and businessman HERBERT CHAUNCEY, gained ascendancy. This group did not favor agitation for civil rights; they accepted the necessity of separate black institutions and favored the development of a “group economy” based on the existence of the ghetto. By the mid-1920s, however, a younger African American group was beginning to emerge. “New Negro” leaders such as lawyer HARRY E. DAVIS and physician CHARLES GARVIN tried to transcend the factionalism that had divided black leaders in the past. They believed in race pride and racial solidarity, but not at the expense of equal rights for black Clevelanders. The postwar era also brought changes to local institutions. The influx of migrants caused problems that black, churches were only partly able to deal with. The Negro Welfare Assn., founded in 1917 as an affiliate of the National Urban League (see URBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER CLEVELAND), helped newcomers find jobs and housing. The Phillis Wheatley Assn. expanded: a fundraising drive among white philanthropists made possible the construction of its 9-story building in 1928. The Cleveland branch of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP, est. 1912), led by “New Negroes,” expanded, with 1,600 members by 1922. The NAACP fought the rising tide of racism in the city by bringing suits against restaurants and theaters that excluded blacks, or intervening behind the scenes to get white businessmen to end discriminatory practices. The FUTURE OUTLOOK LEAGUE, founded by JOHN O. HOLLY in 1935, became the first local black organization to successfully utilize the boycott.
The Depression temporarily reversed much of this progress. Although both races were devastated by the economic collapse, African Americans suffered much higher rates of unemployment at an earlier stage; many black businesses went bankrupt. After 1933, New Deal relief programs helped reduce black unemployment substantially, but segregated public housing contributed to overcrowding, often demolishing more units than were built. Housing conditions in the Central area deteriorated during the 1930s, and African Americans continued to suffer discrimination in many public accommodations. The period from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s was one of political change for black Clevelanders. Although migration from the South slowed to a trickle during the 1930s, the black population had already increased to the point where it was able to augment its political influence. In 1927 3 blacks were elected to city council, and for the next 8 years they represented a balance of power on a council almost equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. As a result, they obtained the elections of HARRY E. DAVIS to the city’s Civil Service Commission and MARY BROWN MARTIN to the Cleveland Board of Education, the first African Americans to hold such positions. They also ended discrimination and segregation at City Hospital. At the local level in the 1930s, black Clevelanders continued to vote Republican; they did not support a Democrat for mayor until 1943. In national politics, however, New Deal relief policies convinced blacks to shift dramatically after 1932 from the Republican to the Democratic party. After World War II, Pres. Harry Truman’s strong civil-rights program solidified black support for the Democrats.
World War II was a turning point in other ways. The war revived industry and led to a new demand for black labor. This demand, and the more egalitarian labor-union practices of the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), created new job opportunities for black, Clevelanders and led to a revival of mass migration from the South. The steady flow of newcomers increased Cleveland’s black population from 85,000 in 1940 to 251,000 in 1960; by the early 1960s, blacks made up over 30% of the city’s population. One effect of this population growth was increased political representation. In 1947 Harry E. Davis was elected to the state senate, and 2 years later lawyer Jean M. Capers became the first black woman to be elected to city council. By the mid-1960s, the number of blacks serving on the council had increased to 10; in 1968 Louis Stokes was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives; and in 1977 Capers became a municipal judge for Cleveland. The postwar era was also marked by progress in civil rights. In 1945 the CLEVELAND COMMUNITY RELATIONS BOARD was established; it soon developed a national reputation for promoting improvement in race relations. The following year, the city enacted a municipal civil-rights law that revoked the license of any business convicted of discriminating against African Americans. The liberal atmosphere of the postwar period led to a gradual decline in discrimination against blacks in public accommodations during the late 1940s and 1950s. By the 1960s, both hospital wards and downtown hotels and restaurants served African Americans.
Despite these improvements, however, serious problems continued to plague the African American community. The most important of these was housing. As the suburbanization of the city’s white population accelerated, the black community expanded to the east and northeast of the Central-Woodland area, particularly into HOUGH and GLENVILLE. Expansion, however, did not lead to more integrated neighborhoods or provide better housing for blacks. “Blockbusting” techniques by realtors led to panic selling by whites in Hough in the 1950s; once a neighborhood became all black, landlords would subdivide structures into small apartments and raise rents exorbitantly. The result, by 1960, was a crowded ghetto of deteriorating housing stock. At the same time, segregation in public schools continued, school officials routinely assigned black children to predominantly black schools. In 1964 interracial violence broke out when blacks protested the construction of 3 new schools, as perpetuating segregation patterns. Frustration over inability to effect changes in housing and education, coupled with a rise in black unemployment that began in the late 1950s, finally ignited the HOUGH RIOTS for 4 days in 1966. Two years later, the GLENVILLE SHOOTOUT involved black nationalists and the police; more rioting followed. The resulting tension and hostility did not entirely destroy the spirit of racial toleration in Cleveland, however, as evidenced by the 1967 election of lifelong resident Carl B. Stokes as the first black mayor of a major American city (see MAYORAL ADMINISTRATION OF CARL B. STOKES). Since then, blacks have continued to be the most influential group in city council. The city again elected an African American mayor, Michael White, in 1989.
As migration from the South ended, Cleveland’s African American population stabilized in the 1970s and 1980s. Although the ghetto expanded into EAST CLEVELAND, fair housing programs and laws made it possible for middle-class blacks to have greater choice of residency. Eastern suburbs such as SHAKER HEIGHTS and CLEVELAND HEIGHTS absorbed large numbers of black residents by the 1970s, but managed to maintain integrated populations. In addition, some of the more blatant causes of the riots–such as the small number of black police officers–were partially resolved. But fundamental problems remained. Inner-city residents suffered high levels of crime, infant mortality, and teenage pregnancy in the 1970s and `80s, but the most significant obstacles for black Clevelanders remained economic in nature. The movement of black women into white-collar jobs after 1970 was more than counterbalanced by the growing unemployment or underemployment of black men, as good-paying industrial jobs declined or shifted to the suburbs. At the same time, the declining city tax base undercut funding for the public schools, making it more difficult for African American children to obtain the necessary skills demanded in the emerging post-industrial society. For many black Clevelanders in the late 20th century, economic progress had not kept pace with improvements in the political realm.
Kenneth L. Kusmer
Temple Univ.
Davis, Russell. Black Americans in Cleveland (1972).
Kusmer, Kenneth L. A Ghetto Takes Shape (1976).
Last Modified: 21 Jul 1997 01:26:36 PM
Written by Said Kabalan
ARAB AMERICANS. Cleveland’s Arab population, although among the smaller ethnic groups, has a clear identity and historical development since Arabs began arriving here in the 19th century. In 1995 there were approx. 35,000 Americans of Arab descent in Greater Cleveland. The term Arab requires clarification. As with most peoples, language is the defining factor; an Arab-American is one whose ancestral tongue is Arabic. But unlike many nationalities, whose members trace their origins to a single country or province, Arab immigrants have come from a large region of western Asia and northern Africa comprising 22 countries. Most Arab immigrants to Cleveland, however, like those to the rest of the U.S., came from Greater Syria. The Arab world, although predominantly Muslim, has a significant Christian minority, and most of the earlier Arab immigrants were Christian, learning about the U.S. from American Protestant missionaries in the 19th century. However, adherents of the various branches of Islam, including the Druze, also came. It was ca. 1875 when Arab immigrants began entering the U.S. in significant numbers. Most made a living peddling dry goods; many subsequently became storekeepers, importers, and manufacturers. This initial wave of immigration lasted until the Quota Acts of 1921-24 drastically restricted the entry of many nationalities, including Arabs, into the country.
Rather than being driven from the Old World by oppression and starvation, Arabs were drawn to America by economic opportunity; many originally planned to return home after making their fortunes. The political destabilization in the Near East with the approach of World War I, and some dissatisfaction with the hegemony of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, provided additional but secondary incentives for going abroad. The first Arab immigrant to arrive in Cleveland, about 100 years ago, is said to have been a peddler from the East Coast. The city annual report first recorded Arab immigrants in Cleveland in 1895, listing 12 individuals. That source indicates that between 1895-1907, 241 Arab immigrants came to Cleveland, the majority men who worked as peddlers, factory laborers, or in construction. Many, after saving enough money, established small businesses, particularly grocery stores, fruit stands, restaurants, dry goods stores, and contracting firms. Increasingly, they brought wives, children, and other family members to the U.S., especially around World War I. The U.S. census of 1910 listed 497 individuals under the category “Turkey in Asia” (Asian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, most of whom were Arab); in 1920, the number was 1,320. Nearly all of these immigrants came from Syria, especially from that part which today is the separate country of Lebanon. In Cleveland they initially settled in the Haymarket district and across the CENTRAL VIADUCT in TREMONT. However, as they and their descendants prospered, they moved to various areas of Cleveland and its suburbs. The U.S. Census, figures for individuals from Syria and Palestine were 1,180 in 1930 and 1,068 in 1940, probably indicating movement out of Cleveland proper rather than a decrease in the area’s Arab population. Partially because of this quick dispersal into the American mainstream, characteristic of Arab immigration to the U.S., and partially because of the relatively small number of people involved compared to such groups as the ITALIANS, POLES, andHUNGARIANS, no real Arab neighborhood developed in Cleveland.
The second large wave of Arab immigrants came to Cleveland after the founding of Israel in 1948 and consisted primarily of displaced Palestinian Arabs. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Jawlon Hts. of Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt after the Six Day War of 1967, ensured that the immigration would continue. Intercommunal strife and, after 1975, civil war in Lebanon spurred a new Lebanese migration as well. In addition, a number of students from Arab countries enrolled at Cleveland universities, becoming at least temporary members of the Arab community. By 1960 Cleveland’s Arab population had increased to 1,841, with most individuals coming from Lebanon, Egypt, the occupied west bank of Palestine, and Syria. The figure for 1970 was 832, reflecting the general decline in Cleveland’s population during the period. However, by 1990 over 900 Arab immigrants lived in Cleveland, bearing witness to a new influx from the Middle East. Many of the new arrivals chose to live on the city’s west side, and by the mid-1990s a number of small food shops and restaurants serving the Arab community were located along Lorain Ave., west of W. 117th St. Estimates for the total number of Arab-Americans (including individuals of American birth and mixed parentage) residing in Greater Cleveland during the 1970s and 1980s varied from 15,000 to 35,000. This more recent wave of Arab immigration differed from the earlier one. First, the motivation was often political rather than economic, with at least some of the immigrants planning to return home when conditions permitted. Second, these later immigrants were on the average better-educated; many came with the education and experience to enter academia and the professions, or with sufficient funds to start small businesses. Third, the religious background of the new immigrants was more varied, with more Muslims, as well as Coptic Christians from Egypt.
Religious institutions provided the primary medium of self-identification for the Cleveland Arab community, lacking as it did a specific neighborhood or great numbers, and tending as it did toward assimilation. The Syrian Christian groups established their own churches early on, in 1906 founding ST. ELIAS CHURCH (Byzantine Catholic), initially serving all Arabic-speaking Cleveland Christians; then establishing ST. MARON (Maronite Catholic), whose parish, was created in 1915. The other important Syrian rite, the Antiochian Orthodox, did not officially found its church, ST. GEORGE ANTIOCHIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, until 1926, although the Arab Orthodox community had conducted services in several locations, including GRAYS ARMORY, for several years. In 1928 the congregation purchased and opened a church at 2587 W. 14th St. in Cleveland. The Druze community in Cleveland has no organized place of worship; however, its religious society, Al-Bakorat Ud-Durziet, was founded in 1916 to provide spiritual and material aid to the Druze community, and its membership embraces all persons of the Druze faith in the Cleveland area. The ISLAMIC CENTER OF CLEVELAND of Cleveland was founded in 1967 to serve the area’s Muslims, many of whom were of Palestinian origin. In 1995 the center built a new mosque in PARMA. The latest of the Arab community’s religious groups was the Coptic Christian church. With Egyptians having migrated to Cleveland in significant numbers only after the middle of the 20th century, it was not until 1971 that a Coptic church, St. Mark Coptic Orthodox, was officially established, and not until 1975 that its first full-time pastor (Fr. Mikhail E. Mikhail) was appointed. St. Mark, located in Parma, serves the Coptic Christians not only of Cleveland but of Ohio and the surrounding region as well.
The Cleveland Arab community has also founded social, political, and other clubs, although relatively few compared to other ethnic groups of similar size. Among the earliest organizations, dating from the 1930s or before, were the AITANEET BROTHERHOOD ASSN., the Zahle Club, the Syrian Boys Club, the Syrian American Club, and the LEBANESE-SYRIAN JUNIOR WOMEN’S LEAGUE. Clubs whose memberships had roots in a certain village or city, such as the Aitaneet Brotherhood, were founded by immigrants with strong ties to the homeland; thus, the more recent American Ramallah Club, a Palestinian organization. Other social and cultural clubs included the ARAB SOCIAL CLUB, Arabian Nights, and the Union of Arab Women; service organizations include the Stars of Lebanon Christian Society and local chapters of the American Lebanese-Syrian Associated Charities and the United Holy Land Fund. The most noteworthy development of the post-1965 period was the growth of political and educational organizations in response to events in the Near East and their coverage in the American news media and policies of the U.S. government, both widely perceived as anti-Arab. In the late 1960s, the Middle East Relief Committee began raising donations to aid Palestinian refugees, and subsequently, as the Cleveland Middle East Foundation, involved itself, apolitically, in welfare and educational activities both at home and overseas. The Cleveland Council on Arab-American Relations was founded as a political organization in the early 1970s, changing, its name to the Greater Cleveland Assn. of Arab-Americans in 1973; it became closely associated with the Natl. Assn. of Arab-Americans, established to give Arab-Americans a national political voice. In Dec. 1991 AACCESS-OHIO (the Arab American Community Center for Economic & Social Services in Ohio) was established to provide a variety of services to the Arab American community and to promote a better understanding of Arab culture by the general community.
Typically, Arab immigrants to the U.S. have tended to assimilate easily into the American mainstream. What ethnic self-awareness there was tended to be fragmented. The Arab-Israeli conflict, and its repercussions in the U.S., have perhaps done more to forge a heightened sense of common identity among Arab-Americans than anything else. Whether overseas rivalries within the Arab bloc and internal sectarian conflicts, especially in Lebanon, will be reflected here in new divisiveness within the Arab community, or whether the centripetal force of a common linguistic and cultural heritage will be strong enough to withstand such tendencies, remains a question for the future, which the size and composition of future Arab immigration to Cleveland will undoubtedly help determine.
Said Kabalan
Macron, Mary Haddad. Arab Americans and their Communities of Cleveland (1979).
Last Modified: 10 Jul 1997 02:03:47 PM
Written by Dr. John J. Grabowski
TURKS immigrated to Cleveland in two distinct periods. The first Turkish immigrants were part of a movement of various ethnic groups from the former Ottoman Empire to the United States which began in earnest in the 1890s and ceased in the early 1920s with the advent of new, restrictive immigration laws and the almost simultaneous rise of the modern Turkish Republic from the remains of the Ottoman state. The second wave of immigration began in the early 1950s and was a consequence of closer diplomatic and military relations between the United States and the Turkish Republic.
Among the peoples who emigrated from the Ottoman Empire, the Turks are characterized by the fact that they or their families were Muslim and their language Turkish. This differentiates them from the Christian groups, such as the Armenians or Greeks, who came from the Empire or Arabic speaking Muslims who also emigrated from Ottoman Turkey.Talat Halman, in the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, provides the following definition: “The term Turk or Turkish designates a person born in the Ottoman Empire before 1923 or in the Turkish Republic after 1923, who is Muslim or whose family was Muslim, who was raised in a Turkish speaking household and who identifies as a Turk.”
Given the variety of peoples who emigrated from the Ottoman Empire and the fact that United States immigration statistics for that country were not sub-categorized by “ethnicity” until the late 1890s it is difficult to ascertain the number of Turks who came to the United States in the late nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century. Estimates now range between 25,000 and 50,000. Determining the number of Turks resident in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County is equally problematic as the Federal Census also does not delineate by ethnicity. For example, the census lists two people born in Turkey in Cleveland in 1870 and forty-one in 1900. The numbers increase substantially afterwards: for 1910, 748 Clevelanders listed their birthplace as Turkey (there were a total of 754 in Cuyahoga County); in 1920 there were 661 in Cleveland (county figures are not given); and in 1930, 468 in Cleveland (528 total in Cuyahoga County). However, these figures are of all ethnicities (Turkish, Armenian, Arab, Jewish or Greek) from the Ottoman Empire or, after 1920, the modern Republic of Turkey. The 1910 census, which lists languages spoken provides the first reliable number of Turks living in the city. In 1910, 28 Cleveland residents spoke Turkish. The figures for Turkish speakers in the city and county are yet to be extracted from the 1920 and 1930 census records.
A review of the census itself then shows most of the early Turkish speaking people in Cleveland to be from the Ottoman Balkan provinces rather than from Asia Minor (Anatolia, the heart of modern Turkey). This seems to fit a pattern in which Balkan “Turks” constituted the majority in Turkish communities in the Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. This differs from , Turkish communities in Massachusetts and Detroit where the bulk of the immigrants came from Anatolia proper.
As was the case elsewhere in the United States, this early Turkish community was almost entirely male. Most worked as wage laborers in area factories. The center of population by the 1910s was in the area of Bolivar and Eagle Street. Later the community moved out along Woodland Avenue between East 28th and 30th Streets. By the early 1940s, what remained of the community had moved east near to the intersection of East 51st and Woodland.
As a very small Muslim minority within a predominantly Christian city, the early Turks were compelled to create their own culturally supportive institutions. On January 7, 1918, they incorporated an Islamic association (its name have been given either as The Association of Islamic Union of Cleveland or the Association of the Islamic Lodge of Cleveland) “…to foster social relations and solidarity among the Moslems.” In that year the Association purchased a burial plot in Highland Park Cemetery in which a number of the early settlers have been interred. Into the 1940s, a series of coffee shops, such as Ramadan Kamils, and a delicatessen — Mustefa’s delicatessen at 5211 Woodland — served as meeting places for the community, both for the Association and also for socializing.
Many of the early Turks moved out of Cleveland with those of Anatolian origin often moving back to Turkey, most usually after the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Overall, the early Turks in the United States had one of the highest return rates (an estimated 80.5 percent) of all immigrant groups. Return was occasioned in part by the fact that a Muslim marriage was almost impossible in Cleveland, as was the case then throughout the United States. Those men who did marry took their brides largely from first or second-generation Christian immigrant groups. By the early 1950s, perhaps a dozen or two dozen early Turks remained in Cleveland.
It was at that point that the second phase of Turkish immigration to the city began. Unlike the first, it was, and is comprised largely of highly trained and skilled immigrants, essentially the sons and daughters of the westernized, secular Republic established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Turkey’s entry into the NATO alliance in 1952, and the activities of the Marshall Plan within Turkey provided the impetus for this new Turkish emigration of doctors, students, and academicians. Dr. Abdullah Okutan came to Cleveland from Istanbul in 1952 to work in the Sunny Acres Hospital. When he arrived he found one other Turkish doctor in the city along with a handful of the early Turks, some of whom still resided downtown near the old center of Turkish settlement.
By 1965 an estimated 100 Turks lived in Greater Cleveland, the majority of them employed with or being trained by area universities and hospitals, including Western Reserve University, and the Cleveland Clinic. In that same year, the revision of the , American immigration law opened the door to increased numbers of immigrants from Turkey and other nations. The increased flow of immigrants led to the establishment of the Turkish American Association of Northeastern Ohio (TASNO) on January 3, 1977. Since that time it has served as the voice and advocate for the local Turkish American population. TASNO has sponsored language schools, created a Turkish dance troupe, and has sponsored or hosted the visit of cultural and performing groups from Turkey. TASNO has also served as the community’s voice in issues, such as those relating to Turkey itself and those that bear upon the Turks resident in the United States.
Currently, the Turkish population of northeast Ohio is estimated at about 1,000 (an estimated 500,000 Turks live in the United States). That population differs vastly from the first group of immigrants. It includes a number of students pursuing higher education at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. It is gender balanced with most of the men and women engaged in medicine, research, or education. Geographically, most Turks live in the city’s eastern or southern suburbs. Within those areas there is no specific Turkish “neighborhood.” Like other contemporary national and immigrant groups in Cleveland, the Turks become most visible when they gather for national holidays, such as the Republic Day on October 29th or when they take part in larger festivals, such as the annual Folk Festival, that focus on diversity in the community.
John J. Grabowski
Turkish American Society of Northeastern Ohio Records. WRHS.
Last Modified: 14 Mar 2005 12:09:23 PM
Written by Dr. John J. Grabowski
RUSSIANS. Cleveland’s Great Russian community has never been very large. Even in the 1980s, it was difficult to accurately estimate the number of Great Russians in the area, because many ethnic groups, such as the BELARUSIANS and CARPATHO-RUSYNS, have derived from regions under the control of Tsarist Russia or the Soviet Union and have thus been enumerated as Russians or are popularly considered Russians by the general populace. Even the city’s preeminent “Russian” symbol, ST. THEODOSIUS RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL, was built not by Great Russians but by Carpatho-Russians. Indeed, in the 1980s all of the Russian Orthodox churches in the region had mixed congregations that probably included Great Russians. Great Russians began arriving in the city in small numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those who came before World War I were largely political refugees, often of a radical bent, who were at odds with the tsarist government. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the nature of Russian immigration to Cleveland reversed entirely as former supporters of the tsar came to constitute the major portion of the local Great Russian immigration. Even with the impetus of the revolution, the city’s Russian community is estimated to have consisted of only 5,000 persons at most by 1932.
No real Great Russian neighborhood evolved in Cleveland, although a small community could be found near E. 30th and Woodland Ave. by 1912. Its focal point was the radical Russian Workingman’s Club. The tendency of the Russians to scatter throughout the community was strengthened by the nature of the postrevolutionary immigrants, who tended to be skilled and highly literate and therefore able to assume employment and residence in various sections of the city. Organizations within the new group of immigrants were few. Some did gather atHIRAM HOUSE social settlement. A Russian Circle was begun at the Intl. Institute of the YWCA in the 1930s; the 64 Russians enrolled at the YWCA lived in areas as diverse as LAKEWOOD, PARMA, and CLEVELAND HEIGHTS In the 1930s, the city did have a branch of the liberal national organization the Russians Consolidated Union of Mutual Aid. Several local organizations started by the Soviet Union in Cleveland during the 1930s, including the Friends of the Soviet Union at E. 55th and Euclid and the Russian American Institute in the Erie Bldg., may have appeared Russian to the general onlooker, but they failed to garner any membership from the local Russian community. Instead, they, like the radical Ukrainian Labor Temple in the TREMONT area, tended to attract American radicals or those from ethnic groups such as the HUNGARIANS and UKRAINIANS. Given the difficulty of, emigration from the Soviet Union, Cleveland’s Great Russian population received little replenishment until the 1970s, when, by virtue of international pressure and agreements between the USSR and U.S., a number of Russian Jews migrated to the U.S. and to Cleveland. Many of them took up residence in the Jewish community of Cleveland Hts. and, because of their numbers and language, formed what could be considered a Russian-speaking community, with much of its activity centered in the COVENTRY VILLAGE BUSINESS DISTRICT. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, a renewed immigration began from all areas of the former communist state. This led to an increased flow of Russians of all faiths, Jewish, Orthodox, and Protestant, to cities such as Cleveland. As of this writing, the nature of the Russian population of Cleveland continues to evolve and that population is now larger than at any time in the city’s past. Over 1,300 people of Russian birth lived in Cleveland and Cleveland Heights in 1990 while over 30,000 local residents claimed Russian as their primary ancestry in the census of that year.
John J. Grabowski
Western Reserve Historical Society
Telberg, Ina. “Russians in Cleveland” (Master’s thesis, WRU, 1932).
See also SOVIET IMMIGRATION.
Written by Dr. John J. Grabowski
RUSSIANS. Cleveland’s Great Russian community has never been very large. Even in the 1980s, it was difficult to accurately estimate the number of Great Russians in the area, because many ethnic groups, such as the BELARUSIANS and CARPATHO-RUSYNS, have derived from regions under the control of Tsarist Russia or the Soviet Union and have thus been enumerated as Russians or are popularly considered Russians by the general populace. Even the city’s preeminent “Russian” symbol, ST. THEODOSIUS RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL, was built not by Great Russians but by Carpatho-Russians. Indeed, in the 1980s all of the Russian Orthodox churches in the region had mixed congregations that probably included Great Russians. Great Russians began arriving in the city in small numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those who came before World War I were largely political refugees, often of a radical bent, who were at odds with the tsarist government. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the nature of Russian immigration to Cleveland reversed entirely as former supporters of the tsar came to constitute the major portion of the local Great Russian immigration. Even with the impetus of the revolution, the city’s Russian community is estimated to have consisted of only 5,000 persons at most by 1932.
No real Great Russian neighborhood evolved in Cleveland, although a small community could be found near E. 30th and Woodland Ave. by 1912. Its focal point was the radical Russian Workingman’s Club. The tendency of the Russians to scatter throughout the community was strengthened by the nature of the postrevolutionary immigrants, who tended to be skilled and highly literate and therefore able to assume employment and residence in various sections of the city. Organizations within the new group of immigrants were few. Some did gather atHIRAM HOUSE social settlement. A Russian Circle was begun at the Intl. Institute of the YWCA in the 1930s; the 64 Russians enrolled at the YWCA lived in areas as diverse as LAKEWOOD, PARMA, and CLEVELAND HEIGHTS In the 1930s, the city did have a branch of the liberal national organization the Russians Consolidated Union of Mutual Aid. Several local organizations started by the Soviet Union in Cleveland during the 1930s, including the Friends of the Soviet Union at E. 55th and Euclid and the Russian American Institute in the Erie Bldg., may have appeared Russian to the general onlooker, but they failed to garner any membership from the local Russian community. Instead, they, like the radical Ukrainian Labor Temple in the TREMONT area, tended to attract American radicals or those from ethnic groups such as the HUNGARIANS and UKRAINIANS. Given the difficulty of, emigration from the Soviet Union, Cleveland’s Great Russian population received little replenishment until the 1970s, when, by virtue of international pressure and agreements between the USSR and U.S., a number of Russian Jews migrated to the U.S. and to Cleveland. Many of them took up residence in the Jewish community of Cleveland Hts. and, because of their numbers and language, formed what could be considered a Russian-speaking community, with much of its activity centered in the COVENTRY VILLAGE BUSINESS DISTRICT. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, a renewed immigration began from all areas of the former communist state. This led to an increased flow of Russians of all faiths, Jewish, Orthodox, and Protestant, to cities such as Cleveland. As of this writing, the nature of the Russian population of Cleveland continues to evolve and that population is now larger than at any time in the city’s past. Over 1,300 people of Russian birth lived in Cleveland and Cleveland Heights in 1990 while over 30,000 local residents claimed Russian as their primary ancestry in the census of that year.
John J. Grabowski
Western Reserve Historical Society
Telberg, Ina. “Russians in Cleveland” (Master’s thesis, WRU, 1932).
Article on Cleveland’s Sacred Architecture written by Timothy Barrett
ARCHITECTURE, SACRED. Of the hundreds of sacred structures in Cleveland, there are several of national importance. ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH (ded. 1838) is one of the earliest examples extant in the nation of the Gothic Revival style. Ethnic influence is readily identifiable in the 13 onion domes atop ST. THEODOSIUS RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL. Architecturally, PILGRIM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH (ded. 1894) expresses the late-19th-century American Protestant church’s concern for social reform and functional efficiency. Unusual engineering is noted in the concrete dome of PARK SYNAGOGUE (ded. 1950 aka ANSHE EMETH (PARK SYNAGOGUE)) by internationally known architect Eric Mendelsohn. Not to be overlooked are some of the outstanding furnishings that lend a distinctive quality to local sacred buildings. Noteworthy is the imported wooden statuary by 19th-century German sculptor Josef Dressel, installed during the early 1890s in the Church of St. Stephen (ded. 1876). The Von Beckrath tracker-action pipe organ installed in 1956-57 at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (ded. 1873) is one of the first Baroque Revival organs built in this country. Fine examples of the stained glass of Louis C. Tiffany and noted Cleveland artist Toland Wright are to be found throughout Greater Cleveland (see CHURCH OF THE COVENANT, Presbyterian, ded. 1911).
Most early Cleveland churches were of a boxlike rectangular plan lacking columns, center aisles, chancels, or anything that might impede the sight or sound of the preacher or reader. Stylistically, most of these meeting-hall structures were commensurate with Cleveland’s young population and were modest expressions of the reserved Federal and Greek Revival styles. The few churches that were constructed in the Gothic form in this country during the first half of the 19th century were by either Roman Catholic or the ritualistically attuned Protestant Episcopal congregations. Since the early settlers of Cleveland were primarily of English lineage, the first Gothic Revival edifices here were by Episcopal builders; e.g., Trinity Church (ded. 1840) and Grace Church (ded. 1848). The first Roman Catholic church, Our Lady of the Lakes (ST. MARY’S ON-THE-FLATS, ded. 1840), displayed pointed windows, but the building itself was of the popular Greek Revival style.
By mid-century, the country had tired of the classic austerity of the Greek Revival idiom and turned to romanticized picturesque forms of other, more exotic past styles. Despite the innate exotic characteristics of the pointed or ogee arch, the use of the Gothic form remained limited primarily to Roman Catholic and Episcopal structures. Another architectural form became fashionable that used all the popular “medieval” vocabulary but was fenestrated with round arches. The Romanesque Revival, as it is sometimes called, presented a romantic but, politically neutral edifice and became popular for all denominations from the late 1840s to the early 1870s; e.g., Second Presbyterian Church (blt. 1850-52), Old Stone Church (ded. 1855), Plymouth Congregational/First Baptist Church (erected 1853), St. Mary’s of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church (ded. 1865), ST. MALACHI CHURCH (ded. 1871), and the German Reform Church (cornerstone 1868). Since a specific Jewish sacred architectural form historically never evolved on its own, it was common for the design of a synagogue to reflect the fashion of its time and locale. During Oct. 1845, the CLEVELAND HERALD announced that the first local synagogue (ANSHE CHESED, whose cornerstone was laid that year) was “to be built in nearly the same style as the Baptist Church.” When it was completed in 1846, it reflected the then-popular Romanesque Revival style.
After the Civil War, symbolism was slowly and sparingly reintroduced into American Protestant sacred buildings. The simplified symbolism that arose in the Protestant churches was usually confined to focal points such as the sanctuary, stained glass, and furnishings, and was as much decorative as it was symbolic. It was this reinterpretation of symbolism, including the lancet arch, that finally made the Gothic Revival an acceptable sacred style for all religious sects. The Gothic Revival idiom would remain popular for sacred buildings for the remainder of the 19th century and throughout most of the 20th. A few 19th-century examples include Franklin Ave. Methodist Church (ded. 1870),FRANKLIN CIRCLE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST) (ded. 1883), and Zion Evangelical & Reformed Church (ded. 1885). Running concurrently with the rise of Gothic form during the 1870s was the Richardsonian Romanesque, named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson of Boston. With its round, arched, massive designs, Richardsonian Romanesque was openly adopted by most Protestant American churches, since it was promoted as an American form designed by an American architect. National interest in American-produced entities was also evident in the preference for the American-invented stained glass (by John La Farge and Louis C. Tiffany) used in the Protestant sects over the traditional, more translucent cathedral glass that remained a staple in ritually oriented churches.
The Richardsonian Romanesque style was often coupled with another American phenomenon, the “Akron Plan.” Developed in 1868 by Louis Miller for the First Methodist Church of Akron, the Akron Plan served the Protestant desire for a space where all could see and hear. It was designed as a Sunday school space contiguous with the sanctuary or auditorium. The Sunday school included a circumscribing balcony, with the floors of both levels pitched to give an uninterrupted view of the speaker. Sliding walls were placed so that portions of the gallery or space under the galleries could be closed off from the general auditorium. There are some sterling, local examples of the Akron Plan, such as Bolton Presbyterian Church (ded. 1894), EUCLID AVE. CHRISTIAN CHURCH (ded. 1908), and NORTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (ded. 1887). North is unusual in that the sanctuary and Sunday school are combined in the same space.
America’s pragmatic attitude is also evident in these Richardsonian/Akron Plan structures, which housed many functions under 1 roof, including the auditorium, the Sunday school, social rooms for education and recreation, libraries, and swimming pools. A pertinent factor in these multifunctional buildings is that these extra-religious services were opened to the entire public regardless of religious affiliation. The Reform Jews were part of this movement, as is evidenced in the Richardsonian Romanesque-inspired second synagogue for Tifereth Israel (occupied 1894). They also addressed social needs by opening several services of this functionally diverse building to the public. Of course, ritually oriented denominations were interested in social needs, but because of cultural differences, they were inclined to remain ethnically exclusive. The efficient Akron Plan church was as foreign to them as the English language, and they continued to build their religious centers with separate buildings, each serving a different function.
Usually, only 1 or 2 styles dominated American architecture at any given time during the 19th century, but by the last quarter of that century and for the next 50 years, antiquarian eclecticism, as exemplified by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, ruled the day. America freely borrowed and mixed several styles from many antiquarian European and Classic Colonial American forms. People of English lineage tended to emulate English sacred monuments; e.g., AMASA STONE CHAPEL (ded. 1911) is strongly akin to St. Cuthbert, Somerset, England (ca. 1430). The so-called military tower of TRINITY CATHEDRAL (ded. 1907) bears a resemblance to the tower from the crossing of Wells Cathedral, England (13th century). Both Church of the Covenant (ded. 1911) and St. Peter Episcopal Church (ded. 1930) are said to be modeled after simple English and Scottish country churches. Interesting variations appeared, including First Methodist Church (1905), where the traditional Latin Cross floor plan is truncated and capped by an overscaled, squat Gothic tower, in an apparent attempt to present a more academically Gothic exterior while retaining the open central interior plan typical of a late-19th-century Protestant church. EPWORTH-EUCLID UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (ded. 1928) is an unusual combination of English and French Gothic, mixed with elements of the Art Deco period.
Prototypes such as the Roman Pantheon represent, among other things, an image of stability. Local sacred edifices influenced by this monument include First Church Christ Scientist (ded. 1931), Second Church Christ Scientist (ded. 1916, until the 1980s the 77th, St. Play House), Fifth Church Christ Scientist (ded. 1926), and B’NAI JESHURUN (ded. 1905–SHILOH BAPTIST CHURCH in 1993). At the turn of the century, there was a trend by older congregations to choose a prototype that reflected their religious or national origins. Several Roman Catholic churches followed this pattern. The exterior of the Church of St. James (ded. 1935) was based on Cefalu Cathedral, and its interior on Monreale Cathedral, both from Sicily. St. Agnes Church (ded. 1916, demolished 1976) had a facade patterned after that of St. Gilles-du-Gard (ca. 1140), a Romanesque structure in the south of France. The facade of St. Colman Church (ded. 1918) is reminiscent of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral see of the bishop of Rome. Historical American forms also became popular. The American Colonial Georgian church form with its white-columned pedimented portico and slender spire or ogee-hooded cupola grew in use to rival the Gothic style as the leading form for sacred structures throughout the 20th century; e.g., Plymouth Congregational Church (ded. 1923) andARCHWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST (ded. 1928).
Jewish structures of this period were also eclectic. Since many of the earliest-known synagogues were eastern in architectural form, 20th-century Jewish congregations often borrowed some of these ancient concepts. An early local example of this trend was seen in the eastern horseshoe arches designed throughout the facade of the Anshe Chesed Congregation (aka Scovill Temple, ded. 1887, now demolished). More than any other form, the dome, supposedly eastern in origin, became a favorite theme dominating many early 20th-century synagogues; e.g., the next Anshe Chesed Congregation site (aka the Euclid Ave. Temple, ded. 1912), B’NAI JESHURUN (aka the Temple on the Heights, ded. 1926), and the third structure of TIFERETH ISRAEL (aka the Temple, ded. 1924). Although the dome was commonly used, it was never solely identified as a Jewish architectural form. During the same period, other non-eastern idioms were incorporated; e.g., Anshe Emeth Synagogue (ded. 1904) is in the Gothic form, and OHEB ZEDEK Synagogue (ded. 1905) is Romanesque in form.
This eclectic environment was a timely setting for the development of a transplanted ethnic architectural expression. Several of the Central and Southern European groups who began arriving in large numbers during the 1880s were, by the 20th century, financially ready to build permanent churches. The exotic, nationally identifiable onion domes of the Russian, Rusin, Syrian, and Ukrainian churches did not seem as culturally foreign to the eclectic tastes of 20th-century America. Consequently, among the many ethnic peoples who settled in Cleveland, this group of sacred structures is perhaps the closest example of authentic 1st-generation ethnic architecture: St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral, (ded. 1911), St. Valdimar Ukrainian Orthodox Church (ded. 1924), and Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church (ded. 1910).
The Depression and World War II precluded the construction of many new sacred structures during the 1930s and 1940s. It was not until the suburban development of the early 1950s that new houses of worship sprang up in response to the expansion of urban centers such as Cleveland. The conservative approach dominated sacred building through the mid-1960s. It was basically a continuation of some of the eclectic attitudes of 19th- and 20th-century America, which retained architectural religious motifs both universally and nationally symbolic. The American Colonial Georgian style became the most popular expression of the conservative movement; e.g., Parma South Presbyterian Church (ded. 1950), St. Martin Episcopal Church (ded. 1956), and Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian (ded. 1964). During the 1950s and early 1960s, many descendants of Southern and Central European immigrants moved to the suburbs, but they maintained an unusually long allegiance to their first houses of worship in the inner city. As that changed and they began to build in the suburbs, many of the new Byzantine and Orthodox churches retained the traditional onion-dome form. In some cases, the chief difference between the churches built during the early 20th century by the 1st-generation immigrants and those built by their 3rd-generation offspring is the use of contemporary building materials; e.g., St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church (ded. 1985) and St. Sava Eastern Orthodox Church (ded. 1982).
The opposite fashion is sometimes referred to as the modern movement. It began shortly after the turn of the century and was articulated by schools of design such as the Bauhaus. The austere designs of the modern movement were first seen in commercial and domestic structures, and did not find their way into sacred architecture until after World War II. The first truly modern and perhaps the most significant sacred structure built in Greater Cleveland is Park Synagogue (ded. 1950), built by renowned architect Eric Mendelsohn. Its lines are simple and details minimal, yet religious symbolism was not sacrificed. Here again the composition is dominated by a dome, bearing eastern connotations and symbolizing the protective heavens of God. At Park Synagogue, Mendelsohn has spiritually circumscribed the congregation within a symbol of heaven, a conceptual function of the dome, with earth seen in the changing seasons through the building’s glass walls.
Other designs favored reducing symbolism to simplified emblems affixed to streamlined basilica or box forms. These sacred structures suggest a greater kinship to secular post-World War II modern buildings in their adherence to the modern postulate “Form follows function.” Such a religious edifice became more a secular assembly hall, sometimes accompanied by a campanile or bell tower form; e.g., the Roman Catholic Church of the Gesu (ded. 1958), St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic, Church (ded. 1957), and BETH ISRAEL-WEST TEMPLE (ded. 1954). As utilitarian vernacular forms evolved to house the suburban middle class (the Cape Cod, bungalow, and ranch styles), a vernacular sacred form has also appeared. It is usually based on a rectangular or basilica plan enclosed by a gabled roof. The pitch of the roof ranges from nearly flat, like that of the ranch-style homes that surround it, to extremely steep, the A-frame becoming a muted echo of the lancet arch of the Gothic style.
By the mid-1960s, with the occurrence of such events as the 2nd Vatican Council in Rome and a movement toward ecumenical cooperation between some religious sects, a strong focus on congregational participation developed. In order to bring the congregation closer to the ceremony, a circular or round seating configuration gained favor. This arrangement dictated that the exterior shell be based on a central plan, in contrast to the common rectangular plan. Of course, a central plan had been used by many Protestant and Jewish houses of worship since the 19th century. As a result, whether in a square or round format, the central plan dominates many designs for the newest sacred structures. Many of the more recent (1970s-90s) sacred structures present a boldly abstract exterior design. When religious symbolism is retained, its presence is usually illusive, lending a more secular appearance to the sacred structure, e.g., B’nai Jeshurun (Pepper Pike, ded. 1980) and St. Pascal Baylon Roman Catholic Church (ded. 1971). Even though Greater Cleveland did not produce any nationally recognized innovations in sacred architecture, its importance can be seen in the diversity of houses of worship built by more than 46 different nationalities in Cleveland.
Timothy Barrett
Barrett, Timothy H., et al. Sacred Landmarks: A Selected Exhibit of Existing Ecclesiastical Structures in Cuyahoga County(1979).
“Libbie Braverman” Chapter written by Alan Bennett, The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910-1965 edited by Carol K. Ingall
Libby Braverman was a Cleveland Jewish educator who greatly influenced Jewish education in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s.
Her Encyclopedia of Cleveland History bio is here