Dorothea (Deborah) Weidenthal

Her surname was anglicized to LEVI to maintain its German pronunciation. (MM-87) Will #7748 Died 10 Aug. 1888 leaving husband, Bernard and son, Nathan. Filed by Leopold Levi Oct. 1892. (MM-59) Buried Willet St. Cemetery. (MM-69) Section 11, Lot 866, Grave 1

David Attride

"Bernard Weidenthal later married Leopold Levy’s 19-year-old sister and he also had a fabric store."

1849 A little group of Czechs arrived in Cleveland, including Willi Hesky and his sister. Bernard Weidenthal came from Bohemia with his widowed mother, Mrs. Rebecca Neumann Weidenthal, and her children, Charlotte, Fannie, and Leopold; and Joseph Loewy and his daughter, Dorothea. Weidenthal purchased a residence on Woodland Avenue to which he took his bride, Dorothea Loewy. Hesky went west in early manhood, and his sister married a farmer near Sandusky.

According to the advertisements, the fireplace was on the way out, and the cooking stove was featured as a great new blessing to the meal-maker. A gas-manufacturing plant had been built and pipes were laid to provide street lighting for Cleveland. One by one the smoky lamps were removed and the first street lights were installed, brightening Superior Street from the river to Erie, the Public Square, and Water, Merwin, and Bank streets. On December 8, the lights were turned on, and citizens gathered under the lamp posts to enjoy the novelty.

The glory of the stars and moon And comets, too, may pass; Then let 'em go — however soon. For Cleveland's burning gas! http://books.google.com/books?id=IT1NVT1vEwUC&pg=PA219&lpg=PA219&dq...

The Jewish Independent, Friday, September 03, 1937; Page: 13

100th ANNIVERSARY OF ARRIVAL OF FIRST JEWISH SETTLER IN CLEVELAND TO BE CELEBRATED BY CLEVELAND COMMUNITY OCT. 24-31-STORY OF THE PIONEERS

When young Simson Thorman of Unsleben, Bavaria, in the year 1837 reached the tiny city of Cleveland, located mainly in the valley of the Cuvahoga, and the hillside streets, another chapter in the cosmopolitan growth of Greater Cleveland had its beginnings. With Simson Thorman's coming opens the history of the Cleveland Jewish community. The closing of the span of the century that has lapsed since then, and the achievements of the Jews of Cleveland both as a community and as an integral factor in the city's remarkable civic and industrial expansion will be commemorated during the week of Oct. 24 to 31. The celebration will be conducted under the auspices of the Cleveland Jewish Community Council. A Centennial Committee named by the Council is now completing plans tor the observance.

Simson Thorman was twenty-six years of age when he arrived in the New World and journeyed from the coast to his home in the Middle West Cleveland as a city was then in its earliest infancy In the year 1836 attaining a population of 5,000 it had taken the legal steps which transformed it from a village into a citv. Other pioneers soon after the arrival of S Thorman, left Bavaria because " of oppressive legislation and unsettled European conditions, and proceeded to Cleveland. Among the earliest Jewish settlers in the little city were Aaron Lowentritt of Schoeningen, Bavaria,; Samson Hoffman, of Unsleben who arrived with his family in 1839; Simon Newmark, of Wilmersdorf, Bavaria; Moses Alsbacher, of Unsleben, Bavaria; Gerson Strauss and S. L. Colman, of Geroden, Bavaria; and Kalman Roskopf, of Gustfeld, Bavaria.

Pioneer Thorman was Cleveland's first Jewish bridegroom, as well at its first Jewish settler. Miss Regina Klein, sister of Abraham Klein, another pioneer settler who came to Cleveland in 1840, from Unsleben, Was his bride. The marriage was solemnized in New York City. Samuel Thorman, son of Simson Thorman, was the first Jewish chid born in Cleveland. The other children born to Cleveland's first Jewish settler were: Mrs. Joseph Erlanger, Mrs. Philip Schloss,.

Mrs-Kaufman Hays, Mrs. Jacob, Wienei, Mrs. M. Wiener, Frank Thoiman , IJudah Thorman and Simon lnorman. , ,„„„, Simson Thorman served as a member of the City Council in 1865 and (1866. He died in Terre Haute, Ind land was buried in old Willet Street Cemetery, Cleveland. His remains [were later transferred to Maynela [Cemetery. . . . t iie Mr. Thorman was prominent in tne earliest Jewish communal lite in Cleveland. He was a leader-in the establishment of the firs J^iBh ^ ligious organization of Clevelana and in the formation of the fi s It was Cleveland B'nai B'rith lodge. at the home of Samson Hoffman , Seneca Street( W. 3rd and Cham plain Avenue) that the first gathei , lings of the tiny Jewish commumty [took place. The Israehtische_ Sot*ty ¦as the first Jewish congregation was named, was created in his home ana was headed by Simson Thoiman as chairman and Isaac Hoffman son oi iSamson Hoffman as spintuaMcau f er. In the party of the Hoffman I during the long, "f^^ojTere Ifrom the Old World in 1839 Simson Thorman Aaron Lowentritt Moses Alsbacher hmily to arnve m U cIand t „„s „„ S,e n (n > ^ ^^ Uoa(.n. »- 0 ' -^ ,Wf --M "y " HOffn ""' ha m Hoffman (wife <>f lsaa °' Kcl>CCC '""...Hir. „„„,„ ,,

son, Isaac H°^',C nbaum, and • mAI other streets in this section. a, The pioneers of the earliest years made the journey across the Atlan-Uc in sail boat*, the trip lasting six : v k t w0(.ks „r more. From New York to (hc noy was by Mw weeks or more. From New York to Cleveland the journey was by stage coach. . y.i i i Among the settlers m Cleveland after sail-boat and stage coach journeys, were Moses Alsbacher and his wife, who reached the city in 1840. Their first home was in the Hats. I~iter they moved to the Woodland-E. 22nd Street section. Mr. Alsbacher was a charter member of IUorcth Israel Congregation, now the Temple. His death occurred in 1870. , „ Isaac Alsbacher, son of Moses Alsbacher, was the second Jewish child born in Cleveland He was born in 1840. His wife I^ecca Klein Alsbacher, was the daughter ol Abraham Klein, brother-in-law of Simson Thorman. Mrs. . Alsbacher was born in Cleveland in 1849 in a home located at Broadway and the present E. 9th Street. After their marriage, the young couple, in 1869, moved into their newly erected home, 2241 Woodland Avenue which is still occupied by their children. Mr Alsbacher was the proprietor ol a wholesale meat market. The wife of Pioneer Abraham Klein was Caroline Goldsmith Klein.

Her brothers, Theodore and Frederick Goldsmith came to Cleveland in , in the late 40's and were active the city's Jewish communal me. In addition to Mrs. Alsbacher , the following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Klein: Ju bus Klein David Klein, Rose Klein Heller, El i zabeth Klein Rosenthal, Mrs. Yetta Bloch. Another early settler was Falk Klein, brother of Abraham Klem, who married Fannie Hays, sistei ot Kaufman Hays and Joseph Hays. The following children were born to Falk and Fannie Klein: . Rebecca Klein Mayer, Henry . Klein Judah Klein, Belle Klein Lichtenstadtei . _ Samuel Loeb Colman arrived »n Cleveland in 1840 after a voyage of 63 days on a sailing vessel, in Cleveland " occurred his marnag Miss Ella Strauss, who had joined I her brother, Gerson Strauss, in this city. Mr. Colman became the proprietor of a clothing and dry goods store at 24 Prospect Street in the early 40's.

In 1846 Manuel Halle pioneer Jewish philanthropist and an early Cleveland financier and merchant, who passed away Nov. 24 ,1932 at the age of 101, arrived in Cleveland. He was then fourteen years of age and had arrived in New York from Welmars, Bavaria, some months before. While employed as a clerk in the City Mill Store, he became acquainted with John D Rockefeller 'and formed a friendship at that time that was to be of life long duration. In 1863 he married Miss Augusta Weil. At the time of his marriage he was a partner of William C Schofield in the Schofield Refineries.

With his brother, Moses Halle, who was the father of Salmon P. and Sauel H, Kalle, he opened Cleveland's first Halle Store under the name of M and M Halle, on the old Water St. In 1891 Samuel H and Salmon P Halle founded the Halle Bros. Co.

In the year 1849 Mrs. Rebecca Neumann Weidenthal of Hostitz, Bohemia, and two sons and two daughters arrived in Cleveland. He son Abraham Weidenthal.had preceeded them to Cleveland. In 1847 he had left Hostitz, settling first in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Two years later he came to Cleveland. With his mother on the journey fromBohemia were her sons, Bernhard and Leopold Weidenthal, and her two daughters, Charlotte and Fanny.

Mrs. Weidenthal passed away in 1863 and is buried in Willet St Cemetery. In 1865 her son, Emanuel, came to the US from Miskolzc, Hungary, where he had resided for a number on years. In 1867 his wife Julie Kretch Weidenythal, and their five children arrived. The oldest of the children was Maurice Weidenthal, who became the first editor of The Jewish Independent in 1906. With Mrs. Weidenthal and her children on the journey from Europe were her father, David Loeb Kretch, and her sisters, Lena, Therese, Charlotte, Hannah, and Fanny. The late Abraham Weidenthal's son, J.H. Weidenthal, now 81, was born in a house on lower Broadway, that had been moved from the site of the old Bethel in the flats.

On the same boat in which Rebecca Weidenthal sailed were Joseph Loewy and three sons, Leopold, Ignatz and Albert and bhis daughter Dorothea, who later became Mrs. Bernhard Weidenthal. The Party landed at Baltimore and journeyed by rail to Portsmouth, O. From Portsmouth they made the trip to Cleveland by way of the Canal.

Bernhard Weidenthal was active in the early life of the Anshe Chesed Congregation. In June, 1S51, Lazarus Wolf and family arrived in Cleveland from Germany. Their first home was on Woodland Avenue. Later the family moved to Orange Street. Mr. Wolf joined the Anshe Chesed Congregation and often occupied the pulpit as cantor. Elias P. Wolf, now eighty-six years of age and residing with his daughter, Mrs. Ueva Wolf Feigenbaum at 2477 Overlook Road, was the third of live children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lazarus Wolf, lie was born in Cleveland, Aug. Hi, 1S51. He was confirmed by Rabbi G. M. Cohen of the Anshe Chesed Congregation in his second confirmation class on June 11, IS(M. Lazarus Wolf passed away in 1882.

From Bohemia in I854 came Mr. and Mrs. Herman Rosenwasser. Ten children were born to these pioneer Clevelanders. Of these, the following were born abroad and were brought bv their parents to this countrv. Edward, Elizabeth (Mrs. Elizabeth Feil), Sarah, Marcus, Joseph, Andrew, Mrs. Charles Singer, and Nathan. Frank and Charles were born in the United States. Edward Rosewater achie\ed national fame as editor of the Omaha Pee. In earlv manhood he was a telegraph operator, during the period of the Civil War. It was Edward Rosewater who sent President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation over the wires. In IS(>4 he married Leah Colman, daughter of S. L. Colman, pioneer Clevelander.

Other members of the Rosewater familv achieved great distinction in their ' chosen careers. Dr. Marcus Rosenwasser and Dr. Nathan Rosewater, were prominent physicians, the former serving as president of the Cleveland Board of Health. Andrew Rosewater was city engineer of Omaha for three terms and played an important part in the building of the Union Pacific Frank Rosewater Mrs Rebecca Neumann Weidenthal Abraham Weidenthal was a brilliant writer on economic subjects.

Two pioneer residents of Cleveland, destined to achieve national fame as statesmen and as leaders, made an early impress upon the city's Jewish cultural and communal life in the vears immediately following. Simon Wolf and Benjamin F. Peixotto, both of whom lived in Cleveland in this period, here formed a friendship that was to direct their lives and to influence the course of Jewish events in the United States.

Both were prominent in the city s cultural life; both studied law while residing in Cleveland, and both were leaders in the early activities of the B'nai B'rith including the establishment of the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home. In 1SS1 President Garfield named Simon Wolf Consul General to Egypt. During the administration of President Grant, Simon Wolf had been a leading advocate of the appointment of Peixotto to the post ot United States Consul at Bucharest. Roumania. an office in which the pioneer Clevelander displayed his great zeal for the cause of his oppressed coreligionists in Roumania. It is believed that it was his presentation of the situation in Roumania that led Disraeli to direct his influence at the Berlin Congress, to the plan of stipulating that Roumania acquire status as a kingdom only upon the condition that civil and political rights were granted the Jews of Roumania. Peixotto was an editorial writer for the Plain Dealer while he lived in Cleveland. He was one of the teachers in the Tifereth Israel Hebrew and Sunday School, on Huron Road, in 1858. His death occurred in New York in 1890. Simon Wolf passed away in 1923. A number of the institutions which have made their impress upon Cleveland's Jewish religious, welfare and cultural life had their beginnings in the years in which the first Jewish settlers were arriving. The outgrowth of the gatherings in the home of Samson Hoffman was the organization of Israelitsch Society with a membership of twenty, in the year 1839. In 1842 a group seceded and formed the Anshe Chesed Society. One group worshipped in a a hall on South Water Street and the other in a hall on Farmer's block, Prospect Avenue. Rev. Asher Lehman was spiritual leader of the Anshe Chesed Society. A reunion of the two groups and the new organization adopted the name Anshe Chesed Israelitsch Society. With the establishment of this organization m 184G began the history of the present Euclid Avenue Temple Congregation. The Tifereth Israel Congregation, now worshipping in the Temple, Ansel Road and E. 105th Street, was formed by seceders from the Anshe Chesed Congregation in 1850. S. L. Stearn was the first spiritual leader of the Anshe Chesed Congregation. Its first president was Frederick Goldsmith.

In 1865 the B'nai Jeshurun Congregation, now worshipping in the Temple-on-the-Heights was organized under the leadership of Herman Sampliner. The sixteen pioneer members worshipped in the earliest period of the congregation's existence at the Sampliner home. The congregation grew with the arrival of pioneer Jewish settlers from Hungary. The Anshe Emeth Congregation was organized m 1870 by earliest pioneers arriving from Poland and Lithuania. Its first synagog was located near the Central Market. The Beth Hamidrash Hogodal was organized shortly after the establishment of the Anshe Emeth. The Cleveland Jewish Center Congregation (Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo) was created by the merger of the Anshe Emeth and Beth Tifilo Congregations. The Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home, Montefiore Home, Mt. Sinai Hospital and other welfare institutions now a part of the city's communal life, had their beginnings in the efforts of the city's early Jewish settlers and expanded to modern proportions through the service of their descendants working jointly with those who arrived in later years to build up the great Jewish community that has come into existence within the past one hundred years of Cleveland's history.