Emanuel Marcuson

Great grandaughter Wilma Wolfenstein did some research in 1999 and found:

Born in Bohemia and immigrated around 1850. Elected Hazan (cantor) in 1851 to an unnamed synagogue in Augusta, Georgia. A year later he appears to have been located at a post in Montgomery Alabama.

A publication called The Occident referred to him as one of the earliest Talmudic scholars in the US and is considered very erudite though never ordained a rabbi. He traveled from city to city to assist at various small congregations around the country. 1852-53 Pittsbugh at Beth Israel.

Meets Fanny Weidenthal and marries in April 1854. She was 38. Then he moved to Portsmouth, OH. First child born in 1855. (Moses) A year later, Aaron. 1857 elected Shochet (ritual slaughterer) and Hebrew teacher in Nashville Tn. Later in St Paul, Minneapolis. 1863 See "The Jews of Toronto" By Stephen Speisman. Appears to have been reprimanded for drunkeness while on the job at the Toronto Hebrew Congregation. Resigned in 1865 "to the relief of many".

• Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Nov 18 2021, 16:45:46 UTC

Cleveland Jewish News, Friday, May 27, 1988; Page: 27

In search of great-grandfather: adventure in genealogy

By ARLENE BLANK RICH President, Cleveland Jewish Genealogy Society

Wilma Miller Wolfenstein, formerly of Cleveland and now- of Pittsburgh, contacted me because she was interested in the history of her family. However, what started out as a search for her great-grandfather's final resting place ended up reuniting many Cleveland residents with their long-lost family. Wilrna knew that her maternal great-grandfather, Emanuel Marcuson, had emigrated to the U.S. from Bohemia and had married Fannie Weidenthal in Cleveland (1854). Emanuel and Fannie had three children: sons Moses and Aaron Marcuson and a daughter, Mary Marcuson Bruml. Wilrna had always been told that Emanuel Marcuson was an itinerant rabbi. What she didn't know was where he was buried.

I followed all the regular research procedures: necrology files, funeral, Probate Court, cemetery and marriage records. 1 consulted old city directories, as well as The Western Reserve Historical Society and The Cuyahoga County Archives. I interviewed all the surviving Weidenthal and Marcuson (Marcusson) relatives I could locate in the Cleveland area. The two family lines felt that they were related, but no one knew how.

The late Leo Weidenthal, son of Emanuel, was one of the Cleveland Weidenthal descendants. Leo was a Cleveland newspaperman who, for many years, served as editoi of The Jewish Independent. A very detailed article had been written on Leo at the time of the merger of the Independent and the Jewish Review and Observer into the Cleveland Jewish News, and I was hoping to find that article in the CJN files. Alas, that article wasnt in Leo's file, but I did find other information. In Jewish Archives Concurrently, I discovered that The Western Reserve Historical Society Library had a Bruml Family Tree on file in their Jewish Archives. I studied the document, hoping to learn something more about Mary Marcuson BrurnPs father, Rabbi Marcuson. Although Mary's personal ancestral line: wasn't covered in the Bruml history, Idid learn that Mary was borninNashville,Tenn. in 1858.

While my son was at his pfe-confirmation class at Temple Emanu El the following Sunday morning, I On Wednesday evenjng, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Cleveland will present Miriam Weiner, certified Jewish genealogist. She will deliver the Jacob Blank Memorial Genealogical Lecture oil the topic, "Exploring Your Jewish Roots." The program is open to the public at nominal admission cost. For information, call Arlene Rich at 449-2326.

browsed through the history section of Emanu El's Sindell Library..'. hoping to find a book on the Jews of Nashville. I came across a non-descriptive titlecTbook, 5 Families and 8 Young Men by Fedora S. Frank. The inside cover stated, "Nashville and her Jewry - 1850-1861." With trembling fingers, I turned to the index in the back of the book looking for the name Emanuel Marcuson. I did a double-take when I found an entry listing "E. Marcusson." I read that Wilma Wolfenstein's greatgrandfather was a rabbi in Nashville, Tenn. from 1857 to 1859!

Ida Cohen Selevan, Judaica librarian at Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, was able to provide me with information about the whereabouts of Rabbi Marcusson from 1851 to 1864. By consulting the index of The Occident, an Anglo-Jewish paper edited and published by the Rev. Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, Mrs. Selevan was able to follow Marcusson's itinerant career. I now had definitive proof that Wilma Wolfenstein's great-grandfather was a. traveling rabbi, although I never did find out where he was buried. Sine* those beginnings, our Cleveland Jewish Genealogical Society has been able to dig up many more pertinent facts about the widespread Weidenthal-Marcuson-Bruml clan. We found a number of interrelations of people who had no idea they had family here. Some members of our society found they were third cousins, with intricate relationships in the line of their great-grandmothers. Although many people think of genealogical research as dry-as-dust research through old records, this research can be a real adventure - with serendipitous findings around every corner.

https://columbusjewishhistory.org/histories/history-portsmouth-ohio...

"... it was reported in The Occident, a monthly Jewish newspaper printed in Philadelphia, that a Jewish congregation had been formed in Portsmouth. Emanuel Marcuson of Pittsburgh was hired by the nascent community as a religious leader and shochet.[13] Shochet, the Hebrew word for slaughterer, is a kosher butcher. Emanuel, while never ordained as a rabbi, was a noted scholar of Jewish religious law. He was married to Frances and their first child, Moses was born in Portsmouth. By 1857, however, Emanuel and Frances left Portsmouth with their children after Emanuel accepted a position with Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville. "