Abstract
Mr. Arnold tells of the Anshe Chesed congregation in Cleveland from its' beginnings in the 1800's and original temple in the Market District (Progressive Field). Later, the congregation built a temple on Scovill Avenue and later at Euclid Avenue and East 82nd Street (the current Liberty Hill Baptist Church). By the 1950's much of Cleveland's Jewish population moved to the heights and congregations sought new temple locations near their home. The Anshe Chesed congregation purchased land in Beachwood and built the Fairmount Temple. Mr. Arnold describes the facility in relation to those that preceded it for the congregation.
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Interviewee
Arnold, Nate (interviewee)
Interviewer
Lanese, James (interviewer); Valore, Kenneth (interviewer)
Project
Sacred Landmarks
Date
7-6-2011
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
26 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Nate Arnold Interview, 2011" (2011). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 127004.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/366
Transcript
James Lanese [00:00:01] Good afternoon. My name is Jim Lanese. I’m joined by Ken Valore to conduct an interview for the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities to document the history of the Fairmount Temple. The interview is being held at the Fairmount Temple. Nate, could you please introduce yourself and your affiliation with the congregation?
Nate Arnold [00:00:22] My name is Nate Arnold. I’m a member of the congregation and have been a member for almost 50 years. My family background goes back to the 1920s with the congregation, although part of the time while I was being raised, we belonged to another congregation. The history of Jewish Cleveland has always fascinated me, as has the history of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple. [00:00:50] Our name in Hebrew is Anshe Chesed, which means gentlemen of loving kindness. And that was our original name when the congregation was started.
James Lanese [00:01:00] And speaking of those early beginnings, could you give us a brief trace of where in Cleveland and how the congregation started and how it grew to be located here in Beechwood?
Nate Arnold [00:01:16] Okay. The first Jewish settler in Cleveland was one Simpson Thorman, who was originally from Unsleben, Bavaria. He moved to the United States to St. Louis, and eventually wound up in Cleveland. He was a fur trader, young man, 22, 23 years old, single. And he bought property in Cleveland and set up his fur trading business here, selling furs to garment manufacturers. So saw this was a good place to make money. Industry was good here, good place to live, and it reminded him of Bavaria. So he wrote letters back to his family in Unsleben, and eventually a group of his friends and relatives came to Cleveland. And they came in 1839 and established the first Jewish community in Cleveland, about 15 or 20 of them. They were all young, in their 20s. At that time, Cleveland was about 6,000 population, and everybody lived in the Market area, which was down where Quicken Loans Arena and Progressive Field are today. That was the Market area. So in 19- I’m sorry, in 1839, 1839, they began to meet at various houses, and they formed a small society with about 20 members. And it’s what we call a minyan. In order to pray in the Jewish religion, you have to have at least 10 men above 13 years old. And that’s called a minyan. And so they had their first minyan, and they met at somebody’s house and started to have services. And eventually more people came, and some people came from Bavaria and brought a Torah with them. And the Torah is still available to our congregation here. They carried it over the Allegheny Mountains on the back of a mule and brought it to Cleveland. And as things would happen by 1840, two, the congregation split. The board of trustees had an argument and they had probably 60, 70 members. And they split into two congregations and they were arguing about how to have services. The splitting congregation became Tifereth Israel eventually, and that congregation is still very active in Cleveland. But they were apart. Then they came back together again and then they split again. So by 1844 we were Anshe Chesed congregation. And by 1845, enough money was raised. There were enough Jewish people in Cleveland to build a building, small building, and they traded some land. And for the cost of about $1,500, they dedicated a building in 1846. Building was about 35 foot by 50 foot by 28 foot high, and it had a stone basement in it. And this became the Anshe Chesed congregation. It was located on Eagle Street, so it became known as the Eagle Street Congregation. They functioned there for many years. And during that time, from about 1845 till about 1870, there was a change in Judaism. A new wave had come about, starting in Germany. It was called the Reform movement and it was the Enlightenment. It was the new era of Judaism, which fit in quite nicely for young people moving to America. They moved away from the very strict rules of prayer, of diet, keeping kosher and so on, and became a little bit more liberal. Liberalism started and they, by 1859, the congregation, okay, so in 1859, there were 120 families that belonged to the congregation. And it was already part of the Reform movement, which at that time was really centered in Cincinnati as it is today, and was mostly made up of German Jews. And up until about 1850, the only Jewish people in Cleveland either came from Germany, some started to come from Hungary and a few from Poland, but the vast majority were German. And down in Cincinnati, as I understand it, a lot of them moved in that area because they thought the Ohio River looked just like the Rhine. And so it’s very- After all, if you’re going to move to a different city, a different country, you want something familiar, you to want, want it to be kind of familiar. You don’t want to go to something completely strange. And the United States was big enough that all of these settlers could find places here that reminded them of Europe. So by 1860, 1862, the congregation had a full time rabbi, had teachers here, and it was time to expand. So they bought a piece of property way out on Scoville Avenue and East, what became East 25th Street. It was called Henry Street at the time. And they raised enough money to build a new magnificent large structure that would Last them forever It would be the building and the neighborhood that would go on for hundreds of years. It was the epitome- And the building was eventually dedicated in 1887. The dedication attracted over 4,000 Clevelanders. And the main sanctuary, the main room where they prayed in, was 72ft wide and 140 feet long. It had 182 pews with seating for a capacity of 1500 people, which was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, religious building in the city of Cleveland. When they moved from Eagle Street to Scovill Avenue, the Halle family, who owned- Originally they owned a dry goods store, but eventually owned a department store, donated a huge chandelier that hung in the middle of the main sanctuary. And it was lit by gaslight. When they moved. They moved on a Friday evening, early in the evening, and they moved into the room, and the gaslight was turned down low. Rabbi opened up the Torah, and he was reading from in the beginning in Genesis. And when he came to the part, let there be light, somebody turned the valve and the gaslight, the entire sanctuary lit up. There was a big gasp among the people. And because it was a momentous occasion, it was covered by the newspapers. And the next day, the Cleveland Plain Dealer headlines, new church, Jewish church opens. And this fabulous miracle took place in the building. The rabbi at that time was Rabbi Machol, who was German-born. And the sermons were given in German. When they moved to the new building, he started delivering sermons on Friday night in English. Saturday morning he would talk in German, Friday night in English. So English was brought into it. Plus, men and women were allowed to sit together. Up until this time on Eagle street, they were Orthodox, so that men and women in the Orthodox sect do not sit together. Now, men and women and families could sit, and they actually sold pews. Family would buy a pew, have their name with a brass plate on it, and that was their place in the synagogue to sit. And the congregation grew. Of course, it was at that time, it was out in the suburbs, and it was really the place to belong. However, in the turn of the century, a new rabbi came. In 1907, Rabbi Wolsey came to Cleveland, and Rabbi Machol became rabbi emeritus. And the two of them then pushed for possible movement out to, well, the ultimate suburban location, which turned out to be 82nd and Euclid. They bought property out there, and the cornerstone was laid for the Euclid avenue Temple in 1910. And it was on Euclid Avenue, so they called it Euclid Avenue Temple. But still the Anshe Chesed congregation. Now a huge building was built out there. And in 1924, an addition was added to- It was a very wonderful building, well-functioning building, and is still standing today. Eagle Street, of course, was torn down many, many years ago. And then eventually they built Progressive Field. The Scovill Avenue Temple was torn down to build- Eventually to build Tri-Cuyahoga Community College. The Euclid Avenue Temple still stands, and it’s the Liberty Hill Baptist Church to this day. And that’s where the famous Tiffany windows are. Well, as things would Happen in the 1920s, after World War I, people started to get automobiles. And by 1940, when the war broke out, people, people were. Everybody had a car. There was no place to park. They never thought about putting in a parking lot down on Euclid Avenue. Also, a new rabbi came in 1925. That was Barnett R. Brickner. Rabbi Brickner was a very famous rabbi. He used to be on the radio in Cleveland. He had a weekly broadcast where he would talk and give his sermons and so on. He met with President Roosevelt during World War II. He was very active in the war effort. There was a debate in, I think it was around 1940. He debated Clarence Darrow, and they debated the subject is man and machine? And Rabbi Brickner won the debate by a university poll taken and therefore won the acclaim of the entire community. He also instituted something called the YPC, the Young People’s Congregation, because young people were coming into the congregation newly married with young kids. And he wanted something where they would come to the temple and be a part of it and become active, even though they were in their 20s and 30s. And that was his idea. And to this day, the YPC still functions within this congregation. So it’s a congregation within a congregation, and they have separate services and they have things for the kids. And the idea is to raise your children through the congregation until they become young adults. And when they get married, and a lot of people, when they first get married, what do I need to belong to a synagogue for? Plus, they don’t have much money. And where synagogue dues might be a thousand dollars, you could join YPC in those days for 35, $40 a year. So it was. It was an incentive until the kids started Sunday school. So that was something that Rabbi Brickner started, among many, many other things. But, okay, now comes World War II, of course. Euclid Avenue Temple had many people in the war effort as well as every other organization in Cleveland. But after World War II, people came back to Cleveland, and that was when the boom started and the move to the suburbs. By 1950, many of the Jewish families had moved out of the Glenville and Kinsman areas and moved into Cleveland Heights, University Heights, Shaker Heights, some into Beachwood and so on. And the Euclid Avenue Temple. They had to drive down there and there was no place to park. And the thought was, when it was built was that it would be the center, like the epicenter of Judaism in Cleveland, because you had Glenville to the north, Kinsman area to the south, and to the west was the Woodland area. All very populated with Jews. And of course, to the east, Cleveland heights. Well, by 1950, the move was out to the Heights area. So some land was purchased from the Hendershot family on Fairmount Boulevard. 32 acres to build a synagogue. And the congregation went to the city of Beechwood, to the council and building commission and applied for a building permit. And the building permit was denied. And there were excuses given that it was too much for the city of Beechwood, Traffic and a lot of different problems. And they persisted. They said there has to be reason that we can build here. I mean, we’re- We’ll do what you want. We’ll. We’ll make one entrance off of Fairmont Boulevard. We’ll put in plenty of parking, so it’ll be complete off street parking. We’ll make it pleasing to the community building and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So by 19, was it 1952 or so, the building permit was issued. Finally, actually, it was 1955. January 7, 1955, a building permit was issued after it was appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, went all the way to the Supreme Court. And it was a good five or six years of fighting in the court in order to get permission to build here. Building was designed. The original building was designed by Percival Goodman from New York, working with an architect by the name of Sigmund Braverman, who lived here in Cleveland. Did you want to ask me questions or anything?
James Lanese [00:17:08] No, go ahead.
Nate Arnold [00:17:09] Okay. The building was laid out on one level, not a multilevel building. The only other level in the building is the basement in two parts of the building. One part to hold the utilities and storage area, and another because the building does. The land slopes back a little bit. And so there is an activities room at the far end of the building, the main sanctuary. The main sanctuary seats 1,000 people, but has a sliding wall in the rear of the main sanctuary. And the wall opens up into a social hall which is used for banquets Dinners, et cetera, et cetera. But also it has room for 600 additional chairs that are stored in the basement and they’re brought up. And they are all cushioned, fabric covered chairs brought up on tracks so that you have a sanctuary that totally seats 1600 people. There’s also a small chapel that seats, normally seats 150 with another meeting room in the rear of the chapel with a sliding wall that has room for an additional 150 chairs, providing 300 seats for services in that room. And it’s a fully functioning chapel with its own organ. There is an organ in the main sanctuary. There’s room for a choir in both places. And there is, in addition to that, an auditorium. The auditorium seats 800 people and is a fully functioning theatrical auditorium with theatrical lights. It also has an organ in it for services in there. But you can also have plays and concerts. It’s a very large stage and there are even large orchestras like Suburban Symphony Orchestra that has concerts there in that room. And it has a full sound system, lighting system, etc. Etc. And the congregation rents out the auditorium from time to time as an additional source of revenue. So we have good parking, a good functional auditorium, and it’s attractive to the community and a lot has made use of it. As we go down the hall, we come to. The first thing we come to is a library. And the new library was added in, in 1980. I believe it was 1980, when there was an addition built. And we don’t call it a library, but rather we call it a learning center because it’s much more than a library. And we have a full time librarian. It’s all computerized. People can come in and take out books on Judaism. They can use it for research. And there’s also a section of the library where on Saturday morning we might have a Torah study, where we study the Torah and we have a little service back in there because we do consider ourselves people of the book. And so the library, the learning center are very, very important to us. We also have large classroom area. Yes.
James Lanese[00:21:08] I want to interject a question related to that.
Nate Arnold [00:21:11] Sure.
James Lanese [00:21:13] Thinking back to the history of the congregation and its various sites, did you- Do you- Are you aware that- Was this always a- This focus on the library and learning center and so forth?
Nate Arnold [00:21:27] Yes.
James Lanese [00:21:28] Was that always the focus of the congregation in previous-
Nate Arnold [00:21:32] Absolutely. In fact, even more so at the very beginning, because when the first Eagle Street Temple was built, it was purposely built so that when you entered, you stepped up four or five steps so that you could also Go down four or five steps to the basement. The basement area was a school, school rooms down there. Then you went up to the sanctuary. The Board of Education in Cleveland was not started yet. They may have had a one room schoolhouse and so on. So we had our own school. It was considered at the time a public school. It was almost like, or not a public school, private school. And so we had not only the rabbi, but other people that taught there and taught secular subjects. And there’s some of the writings where the. In the first building there was a man. He was known as the shamash. Shamash is word for janitor, caretaker. Part of his job was to make sure there was kindling wood in all of the classrooms so that they could have a fire in there so that it would be warm for the kids to study down there. When they moved out to Scovill Avenue again, there were classrooms in the building and a library to service all of this at Euclid Avenue. The original building was dedicated in 1912, and 12 years later, in 1924, they added a whole wing that was called the educational wing and huge library there with a full time librarian there. I don’t know if there was a full time librarian at Scoville Avenue. I have not found that in the records where they talk about that. The rabbi at the time, Rabbi Machol, was university trained in Germany and he was so learned that he not only spoke English, Hebrew and German, but he also spoke Latin and Greek, the classical languages. And he was offered a position at the School of Theology at Yale University and turned it down to stay here with his congregation. So education has always been extremely important to us.
James Lanese [00:23:51] And obviously that’s manifested itself with your facility here.
Nate Arnold [00:23:56] Absolutely. It starts when children are two years old, three years old, whenever they, they get them into the preschool, they start right, right away teaching them things about Judaism in the preschool as well as a, you know, babysitting service, glorified babysitting. But there’s education involved and they have familiarity with the synagogue. Plus the rabbis go down there and spend time with them, read to them and so on. So there’s- It’s starting right at the beginning and hopefully all the way through. We have a program of senior adult education here. There’s lectures on Tuesday afternoon right here in the Simon Lounge. There are various study groups at night for adults when they come and study. You might study Israel, might study Bible, besides the Saturday morning study group.
James Lanease [00:24:53] You had mentioned that your congregation numbers about 5,000?
Nate Arnold [00:24:57] 5,000 people. 4,000, really, I think right now. At the maximum we went up to 5,000. The maximum was 2,200 families. So we figure an average of three, two to three persons per family, because you have, you know, widows and et cetera, and divorced people. But right now, the Congregation is about 1500 families.
James Lanese [00:25:20] Do other congregations surrounding or available in Cleveland and suburban area, do people follow their congregation through primarily family ties, or are there aspects of the congregation that would appeal to someone here versus another?
Nate Arnold [00:25:27] It could be any number of things, Some people are traditional, so they might go to the conservative movement. Sometimes people are attracted from the reform movement to orthodoxy, and they may become very orthodox. My story itself is probably- [recording ends]
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Comments
Due to card capacity limitations, this is the initial part of the Fairmount Temple interview, Phase 2 will follow.