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Non-Jewish neighbors restore west side Jewish cemetery
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BY: Lila Hanft Staff Reporter
“From my earliest childhood, I have memories of walking by the Fir Street cemetery,” recalls Judge Raymond L. Pianka of the Cleveland Municipal Housing Court.
“It was the first cemetery I’d ever seen, and a number of the stones were written in Hebrew (and Yiddish), which was quite a cultural experience” for the young Catholic boy.
The second-oldest Jewish cemetery in Cleveland, Fir Street Cemetery was founded by the Liberty Aid and Hungarian Aid Societies. Hence, most of the Jews buried there are of Hungarian, Lithuanian, Polish or Russian descent. The first burial probably took place in 1862. Three congregations n Hagidosh Hagadol Synagogue, Park Synagogue, and B’rith Abraham n buried their dead in Fir Street, which was also known as the Peach Street cemetery. The last burial there was in 1969.
The Fir Street cemetery is at the heart of Cleveland’s Ward 17, where Pianka has lived his entire life. As city councilman for Ward 17 in the 1990s, he sought a solution to the cemetery’s deterioration. But it wasn’t until this year that Pianka was able to pull together all the pieces n money, volunteers, support and guidance n to repair the cemetery.
“It is a very old cemetery, and most of the families of the people buried there are gone,” he says. Headstones had fallen over or been pushed over. Neighbors wished it were better maintained, and there were occasional acts of vandalism.
In 1999, local historian Vicki Blum Vigil described the grounds of the Fir Street Cemetery as “more broken glass than grass.”
Several months ago, Pianka raised the initial funding for renovations from a small family foundation. Then he approached the neighborhood’s Lorain-Fir Block Club. “I spoke with people at the community block club, and they were enthusiastic” about cleaning up and repairing the property, he says.
Of the three founding Jewish congregations, only Park Synagogue is still in existence. Pianka consulted with Kenneth Anthony, executive director of Park, on a number of details before hiring landscapers to trim trees and a stonemason to raise the fallen gravestones.
Members of the nearby, newly renovated Calvary Reformed Church on W. 65th also joined the community project. On Nov. 17, Rev. Dean Van Farowe, his mother, and children joined Pianka and a group of volunteers, most of them non-Jews, at the cemetery, where they planted 1,000 daffodils and an equal number of tulips.
Vigil, the historian, was on hand to help out, as was Anita Rothschild, a descendant of the Rothschilds buried in the Fir Street Cemetery.
There’s more work to be done. Lorain-Fir block club recently received a $5,000 grant from the Community Connections program of The Cleveland Foundation, which Pianka says they’ll use to “have a landscape architect look at the place” and advise them on the planting of new ornamental trees. A new wrought iron gate is being designed by a craftsman in Transylvania.
“It’s a small way to honor our neighbors n neighbors who have never given anybody a bit of trouble,” Pianka says, smiling.
lhanft@cjn.org
What: The Fir Street Cemetery, Cleveland’s second-oldest Jewish cemetery
Where: 6015 Fir Ave.
Size: 0.9 acres, about 850 graves
Notable residents:
Herman Sampliner (1835-1899), founder of the B’nai Jeshurun Congregation.
Harry “Czar” Bernstein (1856-1920), owner of Perry Bank and the Perry Theatre, and city councilman allied with Mark Hanna.
Moses A. Adelstein (1813-1903), organizer of Cleveland’s first Russian synagogue and first free Jewish cemetery, Lansing Cemetery.
Isaac Goldman (1858-1919), Cleveland’s first Jewish building contractor.
Fanny Jacobs (1835-1928), founder of Park Synagogue’s sisterhood.
Rabbi Gershon Ravinson (1848-1907), a 10th-generation rabbi who became a leading scholar of Talmud.
Reverend Elias Rothschild (1858-1914), a kosher butcher with a reputation for offering meals and beds to the down-and-out. Rothschild is believed to have saved the Hebrew Free Loan Society when it ran into financial difficulty.
Source: Vicki Blum Vigil, Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols, and Stories, Gray & Co Publishers, 2007.
“It was the first cemetery I’d ever seen, and a number of the stones were written in Hebrew (and Yiddish), which was quite a cultural experience” for the young Catholic boy.
The second-oldest Jewish cemetery in Cleveland, Fir Street Cemetery was founded by the Liberty Aid and Hungarian Aid Societies. Hence, most of the Jews buried there are of Hungarian, Lithuanian, Polish or Russian descent. The first burial probably took place in 1862. Three congregations n Hagidosh Hagadol Synagogue, Park Synagogue, and B’rith Abraham n buried their dead in Fir Street, which was also known as the Peach Street cemetery. The last burial there was in 1969.
The Fir Street cemetery is at the heart of Cleveland’s Ward 17, where Pianka has lived his entire life. As city councilman for Ward 17 in the 1990s, he sought a solution to the cemetery’s deterioration. But it wasn’t until this year that Pianka was able to pull together all the pieces n money, volunteers, support and guidance n to repair the cemetery.
“It is a very old cemetery, and most of the families of the people buried there are gone,” he says. Headstones had fallen over or been pushed over. Neighbors wished it were better maintained, and there were occasional acts of vandalism.
In 1999, local historian Vicki Blum Vigil described the grounds of the Fir Street Cemetery as “more broken glass than grass.”
Several months ago, Pianka raised the initial funding for renovations from a small family foundation. Then he approached the neighborhood’s Lorain-Fir Block Club. “I spoke with people at the community block club, and they were enthusiastic” about cleaning up and repairing the property, he says.
Of the three founding Jewish congregations, only Park Synagogue is still in existence. Pianka consulted with Kenneth Anthony, executive director of Park, on a number of details before hiring landscapers to trim trees and a stonemason to raise the fallen gravestones.
Members of the nearby, newly renovated Calvary Reformed Church on W. 65th also joined the community project. On Nov. 17, Rev. Dean Van Farowe, his mother, and children joined Pianka and a group of volunteers, most of them non-Jews, at the cemetery, where they planted 1,000 daffodils and an equal number of tulips.
Vigil, the historian, was on hand to help out, as was Anita Rothschild, a descendant of the Rothschilds buried in the Fir Street Cemetery.
There’s more work to be done. Lorain-Fir block club recently received a $5,000 grant from the Community Connections program of The Cleveland Foundation, which Pianka says they’ll use to “have a landscape architect look at the place” and advise them on the planting of new ornamental trees. A new wrought iron gate is being designed by a craftsman in Transylvania.
“It’s a small way to honor our neighbors n neighbors who have never given anybody a bit of trouble,” Pianka says, smiling.
lhanft@cjn.org
What: The Fir Street Cemetery, Cleveland’s second-oldest Jewish cemetery
Where: 6015 Fir Ave.
Size: 0.9 acres, about 850 graves
Notable residents:
Herman Sampliner (1835-1899), founder of the B’nai Jeshurun Congregation.
Harry “Czar” Bernstein (1856-1920), owner of Perry Bank and the Perry Theatre, and city councilman allied with Mark Hanna.
Moses A. Adelstein (1813-1903), organizer of Cleveland’s first Russian synagogue and first free Jewish cemetery, Lansing Cemetery.
Isaac Goldman (1858-1919), Cleveland’s first Jewish building contractor.
Fanny Jacobs (1835-1928), founder of Park Synagogue’s sisterhood.
Rabbi Gershon Ravinson (1848-1907), a 10th-generation rabbi who became a leading scholar of Talmud.
Reverend Elias Rothschild (1858-1914), a kosher butcher with a reputation for offering meals and beds to the down-and-out. Rothschild is believed to have saved the Hebrew Free Loan Society when it ran into financial difficulty.
Source: Vicki Blum Vigil, Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols, and Stories, Gray & Co Publishers, 2007.
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