Cleveland

Introduction
Getting There
Getting Around
People
Neighborhoods
History
Government
Public Safety
Economy
Environment
Shoppping
Education
Health Care
Media
Sports
Parks and Recreation
Performing Arts
Libraries and Museums
Tourism
Holidays and Festivals
Famous Citizens
For Further Study

Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, North America

Founded: 1796; Incorporated: 1836
Location: Northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, United States, North America
Motto: Progress and Prosperity
Flag: Red left panel, white center panel with emblem, and blue right panel.
Flower: Carnation
Time Zone: 7 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Ethnic Composition: City—49% white; 47% black; 5% Hispanic origin (of any race); 21.7% of Cleveland's European Americans were of German ancestry; Irish, 12.5%; English, 9.1%; Italian, 7.1%; Polish, 6.1%; Slovak, 4.2%; French, 2.8%; Hungarian, 2.4%; Yugoslav, 1.6%; Scottish/Irish, 1.6%; Russian, 1.2%; Czech, 1.5%; and Dutch, 1.5%.
Elevation: 201 meters (660 feet) above sea level. Most of the city is on a level plain 18–24 meters (60–80 feet) above Lake Erie; an abrupt ridge rises 150 meters (500 feet) above the shore on the eastern edge of the city along its border with the community of Cleveland Heights.
Latitude and Longitude: 41°30′N, 81°70′W
Coastline: 22 kilometers (14 miles) on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
Climate: Hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. The climate is influenced by Lake Erie, which moderates both summer heat and winter cold.
Annual Mean Temperature: 10°C (50°F); January–3°C (27°F); July 23°C (73°F).
Seasonal Average Snowfall: 52 inches (132 cm); western suburbs, 45 inches (112 cm); eastern suburbs, 90 inches per year (230 cm).
Average Annual Precipitation (rainfall and melted snow): 32 inches (81 cm).
Government: Mayor and 21-member City Council
Weights and Measures: Standard US
Monetary Units: Standard US
Telephone Area Codes: 216 in the city; 440 and 330 in suburban areas
Postal Codes: 44101–44115; 44117, 44119–44122; 44126–44129; 44134, 44135, 44144

1. Introduction

Once renowned for the 1972 Cuyahoga River fire and identified as part of the "Rust Belt," Cleveland is no stranger to disaster and hardship. However, in the 1990s the city once called the "Mis-take on the Lake" earned a well-deserved new nickname—the "Comeback City." As a result of a downtown rehabilitation program, Cleveland entered the twenty-first century as a proud host to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Great Lakes Science Center, the Gateway sports complex, comprised of Jacobs Field, home baseball park for the Cleveland Indians, and Gund Arena, home court for the men's and women's basketball teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Rockers, and a new home football stadium for the new Cleveland Browns team.

2. Getting There

Cleveland is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes. The Cuyahoga River divides the city into an east side and west side. The area along the Cuyahoga River is known as The Flats. The Flats area was once the site of steel mills and other factories; when Cleveland's manufacturing sector suffered a downturn in the 1980s, The Flats area was redeveloped into an entertainment district with restaurants and nightclubs.

Highways

Three major interstate highways intersect in the downtown area: I-71 and I-77 run north-south connecting Cleveland with the Ohio cities of Columbus and Akron, respectively. I-90 runs east-west, linking Cleveland to Erie, Pennsylvania to the east and Toledo, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois, to the west. I-480 connects the eastern and western suburbs on a route south of the city; I-271 runs east of the city on a north-south route; and I-490 connects I-90, I-71, and I-77 away from their downtown merges.

Bus and Railroad Service

Greyhound Bus Lines provides daily service into downtown Cleveland, and to many cities in the Greater Cleveland area. Amtrak passenger rail service to points east and west is provided by the train called the Lakeshore Limited. The Capital Limited train travels to Washington, D.C. via Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Cleveland Population Profile

City Proper

Population: 505,616
Area: 200 sq km (77 sq mi)
Ethnic composition: 49% white; 47% black; 4% other
Nicknames: Mistake on the Lake (1960s and 1970s), Comeback City (1980s and 1990s)

Metropolitan Area

Population: 2,900,000
Description: Includes Cuyahoga County (where Cleveland is located), neighboring Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Geauga, and Lake Counties; and outlying Ashtabula County
Area: 9,360 sq km (3,613 sq mi)
World population rank ¹: 192
Percentage of national population ²: 0.6%
Average yearly growth rate: 0.4%
Ethnic composition: 72% white; 25% black; 3% other

1. The Cleveland metropolitan area's rank among the world's urban areas.
2. The percent of the total US population living in the Cleveland metropolitan area.

Airports

The largest airports serving the area are Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (served by 14 air carriers providing 11.5 million passenger arrivals/departures in 1996), Burke Lakefront Airport (commuter air service provided 219,512 arrivals/departures in 1996), and the Cuyahoga County Airport (providing business and general aviation services). Continental Airlines has the largest number of flights with over 300 daily departures.

Shipping

The Port of Cleveland, declared a foreign trade zone in 1990, is the largest overseas general cargo port on Lake Erie and is the third largest on the Great Lakes. Ships from the Atlantic Ocean enter the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway, which opened in 1959. The port handles about 13 million metric tons (14 million tons) of cargo annually.

3. Getting Around

Many of Cleveland's major roads were laid out along the paths of dried out creek beds or trails used by displaced Native Americans. City streets branch out from Public Square. Cleveland's tallest buildings surround Public Square. The streets that run west from Public Square all feature large bridges over the Cuyahoga River. There are 13 bridges in The Flats area, directly to the west of Public Square. West of the Cuyahoga River lies the neighborhood known as Ohio City, incorporated into the city of Cleveland in 1852.

Bus and Commuter Rail Service

Within the area, Cleveland's Regional Transit Authority (RTA) serves 59 million passengers annually. Its rail line consists of 54 kilometers (34 miles) of track connecting the closest suburbs with Public Square in the center of the downtown area. In 1988, Cleveland became the first city in the United States to have commuter rail service from downtown to the airport when RTA connected Public Square to Hopkins Airport. There is a loop bus route (fare is 50 cents) serving the downtown area from 6 am to 6:30 pm. In 1996, commuter rail service was extended to the newly developed waterfront area. The RTA operates 102 bus lines, 72 of which reach downtown.

Sightseeing

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad operates a 90-minute round trip through the Cuyahoga National Recreation Area to the south of the city of Cleveland. Sightseeing cruises on the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie are operated during the summer months, and dozens of marinas serve pleasure boaters of the area. A fleet of trolley cars known as Lolly the Trolley provide sightseeing tours.

4. People

In 1990, the population of the city of Cleveland was 505,616 (47 percent male, 53 percent female). The total population of the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area is 2.9 million, making it the fourteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Cleveland has a rich ethnic mix, with a population representing 60 ethnic groups from all continents. The city has the largest mix of Eastern Europeans of any city in the United States and has the largest concentrations of Slovaks (Slovakia), Slovenes (Slovenia), and Hungarians (Hungary). There are also large German, Irish, Polish, Italian, Czech, Croat, Russian, Puerto Rican, and Ukrainian communities. In recent years, Asians have also settled in the area, primarily Asian Indians, Filipinos, Koreans, and Chinese.

More than 60 languages are spoken in Cleveland. In 1994, languages other than English spoken at home (by percentage of households) included Spanish or Spanish Creole (24.1 percent), German (11.7 percent), Italian (9.8 percent), Polish (7.9 percent), South Slavic (7.8 percent), other Slavic (seven percent), French or French Creole (6.4 percent), Hungarian (6.1 percent), Arabic (3.4 percent), Greek (2.7 percent), Chinese (2.3 percent), Indic (2.3 percent), Korean (1.2 percent), and Japanese (one percent).

An estimated 40 percent of the metropolitan area's regular worshippers attend Catholic churches. The following denominations have significant membership among Clevelanders: Catholic (Roman and Eastern Orthodox), 534,785 members; Southern Baptist, 117,282; American Baptist, 28,176; United Methodist, 33,607; United Church of Christ, 21,146; and Jewish, 50,500. There are also significant numbers of other Protestant denominations, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus.

5. Neighborhoods

Little Italy, located on the city's eastern border with Cleveland Heights, is a thriving Italian neighborhood that in recent years has become an arts center. On the near east side, just to the north of midtown, is a small Chinatown. On the northeast side is the Slavic Village, and to the east is Hough, a largely African American neighborhood that was the site of violent riots during the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Van Sweringen brothers, real estate developers, purchased from a community of Shakers (the devout religious sect) a large tract of land about 16 kilometers (ten miles) east of Public Square. This land became the community of Shaker Heights, the first planned suburban community in the nation. To lure Cleveland's new and growing middle and upper classes into their community, the Van Sweringens bought a rail line and converted it to a commuter rail connecting their land with a downtown station they built. In 1996, the city received grants and loans of $22.6 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help build 400 new homes and renovate 65 homes in the Central neighborhood, a residential, industrial sector just east of the downtown.

In 1994, the cost of housing in Cleveland was the second lowest among large cities in the country. In the greater Cleveland area, the average price for a single family home in 1994 was $104,400, compared to $161,600 nationally. Among the 18 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, Cleveland residents also had the lowest average mortgage payments.

In 1989, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless was established to provide housing for the estimated 12,000 homeless people in the greater Cleveland area.

6. History

In 1682, King Charles II of England ceded a large tract of land west of Pennsylvania to the colony of Connecticut that became known as the Western Reserve. In 1796, Moses Cleaveland, an executive with the Connecticut Land Company, was sent to survey the reserve with the possibility of developing it. Cleaveland arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where it empties into Lake Erie, and recognized that it would make an excellent site for a port. He laid out a plan for a small village, named the town after himself and returned to Connecticut, never again to set foot in the city that bore his name. (The "a" was dropped from the city name somewhere along the way. Popular stories hold that a newspaper writer either ran out of space or "a"s, thereby changing the name of the city permanently.)

The area turned out to be inhospitable, mainly because the Cuyahoga River was a nesting ground for mosquitoes and frequently flooded. By 1800, only seven people lived in the town Cleaveland had laid out. In 1803, Ohio became a state, the first state that never had been a colony. Growth was slow until the digging of the first stages of the Erie Canal in 1827, which opened the tiny frontier town to commerce. By 1850, the city had grown to 30 times its 1820 population. By 1860, it had become a well-established haven for new immigrants, and half its population that year was foreign born. During and following the Civil War (1861–65), Cleveland became a prosperous industrial city due to the discovery of large iron ore deposits and the establishment of the Standard Oil Company by John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), soon to become the richest man in the world. Steel, shipping, and coal companies also flourished and created a class of rich merchants who built up the city with their wealth.

The Great Depression of the 1930s devastated the Cleveland economy, but World War II (1939–45) revived industry, and Cleveland companies recruited new workers to fill its expanded industrial capacity from among southern blacks and white Appalachians. The middle class, however, began moving out of the city into suburbs, as was the pattern nationally, and the inner city of Cleveland began to decline. By the 1960s, much of the city had sunk into poverty, and in 1966 the primarily black neighborhood of Hough erupted in riots that made national headlines. Three years later, the Cuyahoga River, saturated with a century of industrial pollutants, caught on fire. The image of a burning river, broadcast around the world, became an image that the city of Cleveland would find difficult to shake. Its reputation was further tarnished during the 1970s when it suffered a devastating fiscal crisis causing it to declare bankruptcy in 1976.

Beginning in the 1979, with the election of George Voinovich as mayor, Cleveland's business and civic leaders began revitalizing the downtown area, hoping to reverse the now decades-long population flight. In 1985 Standard Oil of Ohio built a new corporate headquarters building on Public Square. (The building is now known as the BP Building, after British Petroleum, the company that bought Standard Oil.). Other new buildings soon followed and The Flats area along the Cuyahoga River—the site of the river fire—was redeveloped as a district of restaurants and bars. When Michael R. White was elected mayor in 1989, the downtown rehabilitation continued. Notable is the construction of a downtown sports complex called Gateway, comprised of Jacobs Field, a baseball park for the Cleveland Indians, and Gund Arena, home court for the men's women's basketball teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Rockers. Development along the lakeshore included the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum designed by I. M. Pei (1917–), the Great Lakes Science Center, and a new home football stadium for the new Cleveland Browns team in 1999.

7. Government

The city's chief executive is the mayor, elected to four-year terms on a non-partisan ballot. Michael R. White (Democrat) was elected mayor in 1989, reelected in 1993 and again in 1997. The legislature is a City Council; its 21 members are also elected on a non-partisan ballot to four-year terms. (Until 1980, the mayoral and council terms were two years.)

8. Public Safety

In 1996, Cleveland had six police districts with 1,791 sworn officers; 26 fire stations with 957 uniformed fire fighters; and 18 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulances with 224 uniformed employees. In 1994, there were 137 homicides; 751 rapes; 3,924 robberies; 2,947 aggravated assaults; 8,008 burglaries; 12,931 larcenies; 9,062 auto thefts; and 801 cases of arson.

9. Economy

Historically, Cleveland was a major industrial and manufacturing center. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the local economy suffered, leaving Cleveland and many other midwestern cities, in an economic recession. During the 1980s, Cleveland lost 11.9 percent of its population when workers moved to take new jobs in the south and west. (During this period industrialized cities of the Midwest and Northeast were labeled the Rust Belt, and their counterparts in the South and Southwest, the Sun Belt.) Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing into the 1990s, however, Cleveland made the transition from an industrial economy to a services-based economy. In 1995, in fact, 28.8 percent of the workforce in the Cleveland metropolitan area was engaged in services, compared to 20.6 percent in manufacturing. Wholesale and retail trade employed 23.6 percent that year and 12.8 percent worked for local, state, and federal government.

In 1995, Cleveland was home to 95 companies with revenues exceeding $100 million. Among the largest employers in the area (1994) were the U.S. government (18,500); Ford Motor Company (10,896 employees); Catholic Diocese of Cleveland (10,000); Cleveland Clinic Foundation (9,900); Cleveland Board of Education (9,673); Cuyahoga County Government (9,232); MetroHealth System (8,328); City of Cleveland (8,226); University Hospitals (7,640); State of Ohio (7,630); LTV Steel Company (7,500); Riser Foods (6,500); First National Supermarkets (6,451); Centerior Energy (6,200); Goodyear Tire and Rubber (5,937); and Ameritech (5,309).

10. Environment

Cleveland's most vital natural resource is Lake Erie, the fourth-largest lake in the United States and the twelfth-largest lake in the world. It is 388 kilometers (241 miles) wide and contains 500 trillion liters (132 trillion gallons) of water. The cities that grew up around Lake Erie—Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Buffalo, New York—all spewed pollutants into Lake Erie from the early 1900s. In the late 1800s, vast deposits of salt were discovered beneath the lake, and the commercial enterprises continue to extract salt from mines about two-and-a-half kilometers (one-and-a-half miles) beneath the surface of Lake Erie. In 1970, pollution was so heavy that the governor of Ohio suspended fishing on Lake Erie because of mercury contamination of fish. Since then, environmental laws and downturn in industrial activity along the river have resulted in improved health of the river and Lake Erie ecosystems. In the 1990s, fishing was a favorite pastime. Fishers on Lake Erie catch as many fish as fishers on the other four Great Lakes combined.

The Cuyahoga River was one of the most polluted rivers in the country and actually burned in 1952, when a huge fire caused $1.5 million in damage, and again in 1969. The Cuyahoga River fire of June 22, 1969, elicited national headlines and created a national image of Cleveland as a polluted industrial wasteland.

11. Shopping

Clevelanders employed in retail and wholesale trade number 261,500. In the 1980s and 1990s, two major malls—Tower City Center and The Galleria at Erieview—opened in the business district, combining to contain approximately 160 popular specialty shops and restaurants. In total, there are over 625 retail outlets in the downtown section of Cleveland. Another downtown indoor shopping area is The Arcade, built in downtown Cleveland in 1890. It was the first indoor shopping mall in the United States.

On the near west side of Cleveland, the Ohio City neighborhood is home to beautifully renovated Victorian houses, restaurants, coffee houses, and the historic West Side Market, an enclosed produce, meat, and bakery market. It is the largest covered farmer's market in the United States. Almost every suburban community in the Cleveland area has a shopping strip or indoor mall.

12. Education

In the 1993–94 school year, Cleveland Public Schools enrolled 73,633 students, with a per-pupil expenditure of $6,017. Fifty percent of the system's students fail to graduate high school, but 51 percent of those who graduate go on to college. Students enrolled in suburban school systems demonstrate higher average graduation rates.

Cuyahoga County has 33 public school systems and 22 private schools. Public/private partnerships in education include Project SMART (School of Manufacturing and Automotive Related Technologies), which helps students learn real-world skills for existing industrial jobs. It is administered by the Cleveland Public Schools, Cleveland State University, and the non-profit group Cleveland Education Partners.

The 22 universities and colleges (five public, 17 private) in greater Cleveland include Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll University, and Oberlin College. Enrollment at colleges and universities in the metropolitan area is 143,000.

13. Health Care

Cleveland is home to some of the finest medical facilities in the country, including the Cleveland Clinic (which pioneered open heart surgery and organ transplants), University Hospitals (affiliated with Case Western Reserve University), St. Vincent Charity Hospital (pioneered development of heart-lung machines), and Metropolitan General Hospital (specializing in burn treatment). The health care industry employs 125,000 workers (11 percent of the workforce) and generates $9 billion for the local economy. The Cleveland area has 9,000 physicians and 22,000 professional health care workers.

The city of Cleveland's Department of Public Health employs 320 people and has an operating budget of $24 million. In 1995, the department provided flu shots to 2,500 senior citizens, tested 5,000 adults for HIV/AIDS, screened 42,855 children for lead poisoning, and increased the number of patients served at health centers from 23,728 to 36,938. The infant mortality rate in inner-city neighborhoods served by the Department was 16.3 per 1,000 live births in 1993.

14. Media

The Cleveland Designated Market Area (CDMA) comprises 1.47 million households, the fourteenth-largest media market in the U.S. (CDMA is defined as all counties in which Cleveland television stations receive a majority of total viewing hours.) Cleveland has network affiliate television broadcasters for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. There are over 100 media companies in the area, and 25 am and 34 FM radio stations, including six college radio stations. The top ten radio stations reach an average adult audience of 344,197 daily. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland's principal daily newspaper and Ohio's largest daily newspaper, has a circulation of 1,002,892. Cleveland Magazine and Northern Ohio Live, regional arts and entertainment magazines, have a combined circulation of 241,000; a weekly newspaper reporting on the business community is Crain's Cleveland Business.

15. Sports

Cleveland has professional major league baseball (the Indians), men's basketball (the Cavaliers), women's basketball (the Rockers), hockey (the Lumberjacks), and indoor soccer (the Crunch) teams. Cleveland's National Football League team, the Browns, was relocated in 1996 to Baltimore, Maryland, where the name was changed to the Ravens. Cleveland kept the rights to their NFL team name (Browns), and a new Browns team began playing in Cleveland in 1999.

The Indians won the World Series in 1920 and 1948. In 1995 and 1997, the Indians won the American League pennant, but lost in the World Series to the Atlanta Braves (1995) and the Florida Marlins (1997).

Gund Arena, home to professional men's and women's basketball, professional hockey, and the site of numerous concerts and special events, opened in August 1994; it is one of the first buildings designed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, with 200 seats for the disabled. There are 3,300 parking places at the arena, more than 10,000 parking spaces within a ten-minute walk.

About one hour west of Cleveland in Sandusky lies Cedar Point amusement park. To the southeast, in Aurora, Six Flags Ohio (formerly Geauga Lake) amusement park and Sea World of Ohio are popular summer attractions.

16. Parks and Recreation

The Cleveland Metroparks system, known as "The Emerald Necklace," consists of 19,000 acres of parks that surround the city. The system includes 12 separate reservations and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, all within 15 minutes of downtown. Parks within the city of Cleveland itself have 163 tennis courts, 41 swimming pools, and 156 baseball diamonds. There are six separate park facilities on the shore of Lake Erie in the greater Cleveland area. In the city itself, the largest is Edgewater Park, which has 274 meters (900 feet) of beach. There are over 200 public and private golf courses and 35 bike trails in the area.

The 32,000-acre Cuyahoga National Recreation Area covers 35 kilometers (22 miles) of the Cuyahoga River was established in 1974, and features hiking and nature programs. About 32 kilometers (20 miles) east of the city is The Holden Arboretum, one of the world's largest museums of trees and shrubs.

17. Performing Arts

Cleveland is host to a thriving music, theater, and film community. The Cleveland Orchestra (TCO), founded in 1918, is considered one of the finest orchestras in the world. TCO performs during the concert season at Severance Hall, which opened in 1931, and during the summer at Blossom Music Center. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, designed by I. M. Pei (1917–), opened on the lakeshore in downtown in 1994. The Polka Hall of Fame, located in Euclid, celebrates Polka Month (November) each year with an induction ceremony and a weekend-long program of concerts and events. The Cleveland Play House, the oldest repertory theater in the United States, operates three stages in a large theater complex. Karamu (Swahili for "a place of joyful gathering") House is the oldest U.S. theater producing plays written by African Americans. In the downtown business district, the Playhouse Square area includes four theaters: the Ohio, home to the Great Lakes Theatre Festival; the State, home to Cleveland Opera and Cleveland Ballet; the Palace, home to large touring Broadway shows; and the Allen. There are 175 movie theaters in the greater Cleveland area. The Cleveland International Film Festival, held each spring, is nationally renowned.

18. Libraries and Museums

The Cleveland Public Library is the second largest municipal library in the United States. It was the first library in the country to allow users to take the books off the shelves themselves (without asking a librarian for help). In 1997, the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library opened the Louis Stokes Wing, a 48,865-square-meter (526,000-square-foot) building.

The 29-branch Cuyahoga County Public Library has the seventh-highest circulation rate in the United States. The Cleveland Area Metropolitan Library System (CAMLS) is a consortium of 77 public, academic, hospital, corporate, and school libraries.

Downtown Cleveland features the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; the Great Lakes Science Center and Cleveland Clinic Omnimax Theatre; the William G. Mather Museum, a 188-meter (618-foot) ore freighter; and the USS Cod, a World War II submarine.

University Circle is a 500-acre area on Cleveland's east side, six kilometers (four miles) east of Public Square. A Loop Bus provides transportation between the points of interest in University Circle, including Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Children's Museum, Cleveland Health Museum, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra), the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Dittrick Museum of Medical History, the Temple Museum, Western Reserve Historical Society, and Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum.

The Cleveland Museum of Art holds one of the world's finest collections, consisting of more than 30,000 works produced over 5,000 years of world history. Founded in 1916, the collection is housed in a beaux-arts building designed by the Cleveland architectural firm of Hubbell and Benes and is situated on a 15-acre public park designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers firm. Highlights of the museum's collection include Van Gogh's Poplars at Saint-Remy, Picasso's La Vie and Harlequin with Violin, Michaelangelo's The Crucifixion of St. Anthony and Degas' The Dancers. The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art is housed in a former Sears & Roebuck store adjacent to the Cleveland Play House.

South of Cleveland in Canton, Ohio, is the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where memorabilia of professional football and its players is displayed. Between Cleveland and Akron, Hale Farm and Village depicts nineteenth-century rural life in Northeast Ohio.

19. Tourism

In 1995, Cleveland had 12,621 hotel rooms and attracted some seven million domestic visitors. Five-hundred-thousand visitors toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, one of the city's largest national and international draws since its opening in 1994. For conventions, the downtown offers the Cleveland Convention Center, the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, and the I-X Center.

20. Holidays and Festivals

March
St. Patrick's Day Parade
Buzzard Day, Cleveland Metroparks Hinckley Reservation, celebrating annual migration of the turkey vulture

April
Cleveland International Film Festival
Tri-C Jazz Fest, Cuyahoga County Community College
Revco-Cleveland Marathon and 10-K race

April-May
I-X Indoor Amusement Park with ten-story ferris wheel

June
Parade the Circle Celebration, University Circle, first Saturday in June
Summer Art Walk, Little Italy

July
Cleveland Orchestra Concert on Public Square

August
Feast of the Assumption, Little Italy
Twins Day Festival, Twinsburg, southwest of Cleveland

September
National Air Show, Burke Lakefront Airport

October
Sweetest Day (October 10) was first celebrated in Cleveland
Columbus Day Parade

November
Polka Festival Weekend (Thanksgiving Weekend) and Polka Hall of Fame induction

21. Famous Citizens

Famous citizens born in the Cleveland area include:

Charles Brush (1849–1929), inventor of the arc light.

Hart Crane (1899–1932), modernist lyrical poet.

Jesse Owens (1913–80), Olympic athlete, set a world record for the 100-yard dash when he was a senior at East Tech High.

Adella Prentiss Hughes (1869–1950), founder and first manager of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Bob Hope (b. 1903), actor and vaudevillian.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, creators of Superman, the comic book hero, while students at Glenville High in 1933.

Dorothy Fuldheim (1893–1989), the first woman television news anchor, beginning in 1947.

Alan Freed (1922–65), radio disc jockey who coined the term "rock and roll".

Paul Brown (1908–91), coach of Cleveland Browns football team.

Carl B. Stokes (1927–96), grandson of a slave who defeated Seth Taft, grandson of President William H. Taft, in the November 13, 1967, election to become the first black mayor of a major U.S. city.

Toni Morrison (b. 1931), born in Cleveland-area community of Lorain, winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for literature and the 1993 Nobel Prize for literature.

Famous citizens who resided in Cleveland include:

John D. Rockefeller (b. New York, 1839–1937), founder of Standard Oil of Ohio, richest man in the world and philanthropist.

George Szell (b. Hungary, 1897–1970), internationally renowned conductor and music director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Elliot Ness (1903–57), famed crime fighter, stationed in Cleveland 1934–1942.

22. For Further Study

Websites

City of Cleveland Home Page. [Online] Available http://www.cleveland.oh.us (accessed on January 15, 2000).

Crain's Cleveland Business. [Online] Available www.crainscleveland.com (accessed on January 15, 2000).

Homepage maintained by local newspaper and television station. [Online] Available www.cleveland.com (accessed on January 15, 2000).

Government Offices

City Hall
601 Lakeside Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 664–2000

Community Relations Board
(216) 664–3290

Mayor's Office
601 Lakeside Avenue Suite 202
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 664–2220

Tourist and Convention Bureaus

Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland
50 Public Square, Suite 3100
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(800) 321–1001
(216) 621–4110

Greater Cleveland Growth Association
200 Tower City Center, 50 Public Square
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(216) 621–3300

The New Cleveland Campaign
1809 East Ninth Street, Suite 1020
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(216) 574–8940

Publications

Call and Post (African American newspaper)
1949 East 105th St.
Cleveland, OH 44115

Cleveland Magazine
1422 Euclid Avenue, Suite 730
Cleveland, Ohio 44115

Crain's Cleveland Business
700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310
Cleveland, OH 44113–1230

Northern Ohio Live
11320 Juniper Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Nueves Horizontes magazine
(serving the Hispanic community)
2012 West 25th Street, Suite 717
Cleveland, Ohio 44113

The Plain Dealer
1801 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
(216) 999–5000

Books

African American Heritage Trail of Cleveland Tour Guide. Cleveland: National Association of Black Journalists, Cleveland Chapter, 199?.

Cameron, Patience. Cleveland on Foot: A Guide to Walking and Hiking in Cleveland and Vicinity. Cleveland: Gray & Co., 1995.

Cleveland, A City Built on Strong Neighborhoods: A Comprehensive Guide to the City's Thirty-six Neighborhoods. Cleveland: LIVE Pub., 1996.

Cleveland Fact Book. Cleveland: Greater Cleveland Growth Association, 1997.

A Galaxy of Cleveland's Black Stars, 1796–1996: A Bicentennial Activity Book for Children, Ages 7–12. Cleveland: New Day Press, 1996.

Grabowski, John J. Sports in Cleveland: An Illustrated History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Johnston, Christopher. ed. Best Things in Life: 236 Favorite Things about Cleveland (by Clevelanders). Cleveland: Gray & Co., 1994.

Peacock, Nancy. Kidding Around Cleveland: A Fun-filled, Fact-Packed Travel and Activity Book. Sante Fe, New Mexico: J. Muir Publications, 1997.

Springstubb, Tricia. Cleveland for Kids. Cleveland: The Cleveland Arts Consortium, 1993.

Van Tassel, David D., and John J. Grabowski, ed. The Dictionary of Cleveland Biography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Van Tassel, David D., and John J. Grabowski, ed. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 2nd ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Stoffel, Jennifer, and Stephen Phillips. Cleveland Discovery Guide: Greater Cleveland's Best Family Recreation. Cleveland: Gray & Co., 1994.

Wickham, Gertrude Van Rensselaer. The Pioneer Families of Cleveland 1796–1840. Salem, Massachusetts: Higginson Book Co., 1993.

Videorecordings

Cleveland Neighborhood Development Corporation. Cleveland Neighborhoods: Weaving the Fabric of the City. Cleveland, OH: The Corporation, [199–?]. One 15-minute videocassette.

CLEVELAND

CLEVELAND , city situated in Northeast Ohio on Lake Erie. Its metropolitan area has the largest Jewish population in the state (81,500 in 1996). Jewish settlement began in the 1830s, when Daniel Maduro Peixotto (1800–43) joined the faculty of Willoughby Medical College in 1836 and Simson Thorman (1812–1881), a trader in hides, came from Unsleben, Bavaria, settling permanently in Cleveland in 1837. The opening of the Ohio and Erie canals and the development of stage routes provided countless economic opportunities for new immigrants, and Thorman must have written to his family in Unsleben; in 1839 a group of 19 departed on the sailing ship Howard and 15 made the trip to Cleveland, arriving in July of that year, joining two other men who had emigrated from Unsleben.

Community Life to 1865

The Unsleben group arrived in America prepared to continue Jewish observance. They carried with them an ethical testament, known as the Alsbacher Ethical Testament, written by their teacher in Unsleben, who implored them not to forsake their heritage. Simson Hopferman (later Hoffman) served as a ḥazzan and shoḥet. They had a Sefer Torah, and with enough men to form a minyan, established the Israelitic Society in 1839. In 1840 the group purchased land on Willett Street for a cemetery, and more Jewish settlers arrived. There were two married and five single women with the Howard group, and marriages and births quickly followed.

In 1841 internal divisions led to the formation of a second congregation, Anshe Chesed (today known as Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple). The two groups reunited temporarily, but split again in 1850, when a group of some 20 dissidents left to establish Tifereth Israel (today known as The Temple – Tifereth Israel). Rabbi Isadore Kalisch (1816–1886), later coauthor with Isaac Mayer *Wise of the first American Reform prayer book, Minhag America, led the new congregation. Both congregations moved towards reform before the Civil War.

In addition to the congregations, there were six communal organizations that were established before the end of the Civil War, including a local chapter of B'nai B'rith (1853), the Hebrew Benevolent Society (1855), the Young Men's Literary Society (1860), the Jewish Ladies Benevolent Society (1860), the Zion Singing Society (1861), and the Hungarian Aid Society (1863). These reflected the growth of the Jewish community to approximately 1,000 individuals, 78% from German states (primarily Bavaria), and 19% from the Austrian Empire (primarily Bohemia). Benjamin Franklin Peixotto (1834–1890) was a founder of some of these organizations; while living in Cleveland, he owned a clothing factory and wrote for the local newspaper, The Plain Dealer, before leaving the area.

Most of Cleveland's Jews through the Civil War were laborers, peddlers, or small merchants, but even then they were gravitating toward the garment industry, which was to become the nation's second largest concentration of such businesses. Several Jewish firms made uniforms for Civil War soldiers, including Sigmund Mann and Davis and Peixotto & Co. Some 38 men from Cleveland served in the Civil War, including Joseph A. Joel, later known for his comic description of a wartime Passover seder published in the Jewish Messenger in 1862.

From 1865 to the 1890s

The Cleveland Jewish population grew from approximately 1,000 at the close of the Civil War to 3,500 in 1880. During this period the pioneering families and newer settlers established congregations and cultural institutions, built businesses, and were active in public affairs and politics. B'nai Jeshurun and Anshe Emeth (both still in existence in 2004 with the latter known today as Park Synagogue) were founded, respectively, by Hungarian and Polish immigrants in 1866 and 1869, while the earlier congregations, Anshe Chesed and Tifereth Israel, continued to grow. The Jewish Orphan Asylum (today known as Bellefaire) was established by B'nai B'rith in 1868 to care for the region's Civil War orphans. The Hebrew Immigration Aid Society (1875) and Montefiore Home to serve the aged (1881) were formed to complete services to a growing community. The Jewish elite enjoyed the Excelsior Club (1872). The Anglo-Jewish press began with the Hebrew Observer in 1889; four years later the Jewish Review appeared, and the two merged as The Jewish Review and Observer in 1899. The Jewish Independent was founded in 1906.

Members of the community were successful in business and public affairs. Kaufman Hays (1835–1916) began as a peddler, and in 1894 took over the Cleveland Worsted Mills. Other major clothing manufacturers were Joseph and Feiss, Richman Brothers, Printz-Biederman, and Kaynee. The major department stores, Halles, The May Company, and Sterling Lindner, were owned or managed by Jews.

Jewish participation in general community life took many directions. By 1892 a number of Jewish merchants were members of the Cleveland Board of Trade, whose president that year was Frederick Mulhauser, a mill owner. Rabbi Moses J. Gries (1868–1918) was a trustee member of the Society of Organized Charities, founded in 1881. Baruch Mahler and Peter Zucker were presidents of the Board of Education (1884–85 and 1887–88), and Kaufman Hays was vice president of the City Council in 1888. Louis Black, of Hungarian origin, served as United States consul in Budapest under presidents Cleveland and Harrison. Joseph C. Bloch became the first Jewish judge in Cleveland.

The 1890s through World War i: The Impact of East European Immigration

The Jewish population of Cleveland increased greatly from the 1880s on, as East Europeans fled pogroms and economic hardships. In 1890 the Jewish population was over 5,000 and by 1900 it was 20,000; at the end of the immigration period the estimated Jewish population of Cleveland was between 90,000 and 100,000. Clustered in the Woodland Avenue/55^th Street neighborhood, the East Europeans worked as peddlers, in small businesses, and as employees in the clothing industry dominated by the established firms of the preceding immigrant generation. The new settlers were more attached to Orthodox traditions, and decidedly poorer, putting a strain on the existing social institutions. The Cleveland Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (founded in 1894) created an ambitious social settlement house through the Council Educational Alliance in 1899. To prevent duplication of efforts in activities and fundraising, in 1903 the established leadership created the Federation of Jewish Charities. In spite of these efforts, there were tensions between the newcomers and the earlier settlers. The East Europeans created their own institutions, including the Yiddishe Velt, a newspaper established by Samuel Rocker in 1911, a Jewish Relief Society (1895), an Orthodox Home for the Aged (1906, today known as Menorah Park Center for Senior Living), and the Orthodox Orphan Home. An attempt to create an Orthodox hospital failed when the existing Mt. Sinai Hospital (founded in 1903) agreed to provide kosher food. Numerous landsmanshaften also helped new immigrants adjust to Cleveland life, and at least 25 small Orthodox congregations could be found in the neighborhood, often associated with their members' place of origin in Europe. Yiddish theater flourished in the community; one of the theater owners, Harry "Czar" Bernstein (1856–1920), was also a colorful Republican ward boss.

Many of the East European immigrants brought with them a trade-union outlook. The years before World War i were the high point of Jewish labor activity, particularly in the garment industries, where a series of strikes, not all successful, took place. A notable example of Jewish trade unionism was the Jewish Carpenters' Union Local No. 1750, chartered in 1903. In 1910 William Goldberg began his lifelong leadership of the union and became a prominent figure in Ohio labor circles. Years later the garment workers' union and the carpenters' local lost their Jewish character as Jewish occupations shifted to the professions, service industries, and business enterprises. Unique expressions of Jewish economic activity were the Cleveland Jewish Peddlers' Association, formed in 1896, and the Hebrew Working Men's Sick Benefit Association.

Jewish Life through World War II

With the East European influx into Cleveland also came enthusiasm for Zionism. While Reform rabbis Moses Gries and Louis Wolsey opposed the movement, Zionist groups of all political persuasions proliferated, especially after two new rabbis were installed at the Reform congregations, Abba Hillel *Silver (1893–1963) and Barnett R. *Brickner (1892–1958). Many national conferences were held in Cleveland, notably the 1921 meeting that led to a schism between the factions headed by Louis *Brandeis and Chaim *Weizmann. *Hadassah, the women's Zionist organization, was established in Cleveland in 1913, and a Cleveland nurse, Rachel (Rae) Landy (1884–1952), along with New Yorker Rose Kaplan began visiting nurse services in Palestine that year. Zionism also affected Jewish education. Abraham H. *Friedland (1892–1939), brought from New York to direct the Talmud Torah supplementary school system, infused Hebrew language and Zionist philosophy into its educational curriculum. He also headed the Bureau of Jewish Education (founded in 1924) until his death in 1939.

After World War i, the Jewish community migrated east of the Woodland neighborhood: Glenville, a city neighborhood northeast, became a center of middle-class life with Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform congregations, and boasted a much admired public school system which had illustrious graduates such as U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum (b. 1917) (d-Ohio) and Joe *Shuster (1914–92) and Jerome *Siegel (1914–1996), creators of the comic hero Superman. Mt. Pleasant-Kinsman, to the southeast, larger geographically but less densely Jewish, had only an Orthodox synagogue and was noted for its working-class and Yiddish-language atmosphere, with trade union headquarters and organizations such as the Workmen's Circle. The more affluent began settling in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, and in 1926 B'nai Jeshurun, which had joined the Conservative movement, built an impressive structure in Cleveland Heights, where it was known for the next 55 years as Temple on the Heights.

The events of the 1930s – economic depression and increased local and international antisemitism – moved the Jewish community in various ways. First, the Federation of Jewish Charities underwent an effective reorganization, creating a Welfare Fund to coordinate fundraising and a Community Council to mediate local disputes and represent the Jewish community to the general public. Second, the nonsectarian League for Human Rights, led behind the scenes by Abba Hillel Silver, strongly reacted to events in Europe by boycotting German-made products, monitoring the German-American Bund and other such organizations' local activities, and providing an organized response to German student exchange in Cleveland. Several Jewish Clevelanders, including David Miller (1908–1977) and Morris Stamm (1904–2000), served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.

By the eve of World War ii, Cleveland Jewry had fewer internal disagreements as the more recent immigrants had acculturated and the leadership of major organizations was no longer exclusively in the hands of the earlier families' descendants. Although there was never a Jewish mayor of Cleveland, Jews were active in local politics and in the judiciary. Alfred A. *Benesch (1879–1973) served for 37 years on the Cleveland Board of Education, Maurice Maschke (1868–1936) was a Republican leader between 1900 and 1940, and judges Samuel H. *Silbert (1883–1976) and Mary Belle Grossman (1879–1977) had long periods of service on the bench.

World War ii and the Establishment of the State of Israel

Of the 8,500 Cleveland men and women who served in the armed forces during World War ii, over 200 lost their lives. In 1943 Rabbi Barnett Brickner was selected by the National Jewish Welfare Board to serve as executive chairman of the Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities and traveled throughout the war theaters. The Telshe Yeshiva was relocated in Cleveland, its rabbis escaping Europe prior to its destruction. Several thousand Holocaust survivors settled in the metropolitan area after the war was over.

In 1945 David *Ben-Gurion met with 17 Americans at the Sonneborn Institute to discuss strategies in anticipation of establishing the State of Israel. Among them was former Cleveland law director Ezra Z. *Shapiro (1903–1971), who would later immigrate to Israel to head *Keren Hayesod. Continuing his activist role in rallying the community to the Zionist cause, Abba Hillel Silver dramatically addressed the United Nations in 1947 calling for a Jewish state. Over the years, after the establishment of the state, the Israeli landscape would become dotted with schools, synagogues, community centers, parks, and businesses bearing the names of Cleveland-area philanthropists and Zionists, including Max Apple, the Mandel, Ratner, and Stone families, and the Cleveland sections of zoa, Hadassah, Na'amat usa, Amit Women, and the Histadrut.

Post–World War ii through the 1970s

The trickle of families into the Eastern suburbs accelerated after World War ii, and the bulk of the population relocated to Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, South Euclid, University Heights, and Beachwood despite some restrictive covenants that were overturned. Institutions quickly followed, leading to the merger of no fewer than 15 smaller Orthodox congregations into Taylor Road Synagogue, Warrensville Center Synagogue, Green Road Synagogue, and Heights Jewish Center. The massive Cleveland Jewish Center, originally Anshe Emeth, relocated from Glenville into an architecturally notable building in Cleveland Heights designed by Eric Mendelsohn, and became known as Park Synagogue. This congregation had joined the Conservative movement earlier in the century after a fierce legal battle. The Reform movement experienced growth in the suburbs as well. Two new congregations, Emanu El and Suburban Temple, were founded. Arthur J. *Lelyveld (1913–1996) led Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple from 1958 to 1986. Active in the civil rights movement, Lelyveld was severely beaten in Mississippi in 1964, and also officiated at the funeral of slain civil rights worker Andrew Goodman. At the Temple-Tifereth Israel, Daniel Jeremy Silver (1928–1989) became senior rabbi upon the death of his father, Abba Hillel Silver; he oversaw that congregation's building of a satellite structure in the suburbs, published several scholarly works, and was instrumental in establishing the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Although a 1962 book called Cleveland "a city without Jews," this was not strictly accurate, as Beth Israel-The West Temple served the Jews living on Cleveland's West Side. This small congregation made several important contributions to Cleveland's Jewish history. Scientists were important in its founding, among them Abe Silverstein (1920–2002), who worked at the nearby nasa Lewis Research Station and contributed to the Mercury and Apollo programs of the U.S. space effort. One of the congregation's students, Sally *Priesand, went on to become the nation's first female rabbi, and in 1963 three of its members founded the Cleveland Council on Soviet Antisemitism, the first known advocacy group in the Soviet Jewry movement which would eventually lead to some 6,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union settling in Northeast Ohio.

This was an extremely productive time for the Jewish Community Federation, which in 1951 merged its two divisions, the Jewish Welfare Federation and the Jewish Community Council. Under the leadership of Sidney Z. Vincent (1912–1982) and Henry L. Zucker (1910–1998), the Federation was the first in the nation to directly fund day school education (to the Orthodox Hebrew Academy), pioneered leadership training courses, and developed a comprehensive approach to building endowment funds. Cleveland was subsequently known as the most successful city in the United States in per capita fundraising as well as a training ground for future federation directors. In later years, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Seattle, and New York, among others, would be headed by individuals who started their careers in Cleveland.

The workforce moved from the labor unions into the professions, service industries, light manufacturing, and banking. Fewer spoke Yiddish, and the longtime Yiddish newspaper ceased publication in 1952. In 1964 the two English-language newspapers became the Cleveland Jewish News, which continues as an independent publication.

1975 to 2006

In the last quarter of the 20^th century and into the 21^st, the Cleveland Jewish community has been concerned with geography and identity. The numbers appear to have remained constant; although a 1987 population survey showed a decline to 65,000, the 1996 survey estimated the population to be 81,500, casting some doubts on the previous survey's methodology. The inner ring eastern suburbs house nearly half of this population, yet movement to more affluent areas farther east continues, including institutions. A concerted effort by the Jewish Community Federation to slow population movement from Cleveland Heights has succeeded to some extent in keeping several centers of Jewish life viable. In Cleveland Heights, the Taylor Road area is home to kosher stores, the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland (a reconfigured Bureau of Jewish Education, founded earlier in the century), several Orthodox synagogues, including a Taylor Road Synagogue with a much smaller membership, and two large Orthodox day schools. Hebrew Academy, Cleveland's first day school, continues to thrive in its Taylor Road location, while the ultra-Orthodox-built Mosdos Ohr Hatorah's girl's division is close by. Park Synagogue (Conservative) has its main sanctuary several blocks away, and a new egalitarian traditional congregation purchased Sinai Synagogue, whose members now meet farther east in University Heights. Chevrei Tikva, a congregation reaching out to gays and lesbians (founded in 1983), also meets in Cleveland Heights. In University Heights, Fuchs Mizrachi School (founded in 1983) has grown rapidly to over 300 students, from preschool through high school in a Zionist, Orthodox setting.

Another center of Orthodox life flourishes in the Green Road area, the border between Beachwood and University Heights. Green Road Synagogue moved here in 1972, later joined by Chabad of Beachwood and Young Israel in reconverted houses. In the late 1990s, Chabad, Young Israel, and the Hebrew Academy proposed building plans for an Orthodox campus in this location, which were accepted, rejected, and then accepted with modifications during a period of contentious discussions noted nationally as an example of dissension within the Jewish community. The Jewish Federation created a task force, B'Yachad/Together, to try to heal some of these rifts. The Beatrice Stone Yavne School for Girls has since been built, as has the new Young Israel building, with Chabad under construction at this writing. The Green Road area also has kosher food stores, restaurants, and gift shops.

The Laura and Alvin Siegal College of Jewish Studies, formerly housed on Taylor Road, moved to a new building in Beachwood, which it shares with the Agnon School, a community day school. This campus also houses the Mandel Jewish Community Center in its only remaining building now that the Cleveland Heights jcc has been sold; the eastern satellite of Temple-Tifereth Israel; and the new (2005) Milton and Tamar Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, a collaborative effort of the Temple-Tifereth Israel, the Jewish Community Federation, and the Maltz family, with many artifacts and documents from the Cleveland Jewish Archives collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Slightly to the east in Pepper Pike are B'nai Jeshurun and the Gross Schechter School, both associated with the Conservative movement.

Despite continued strength in the inner suburbs, buildings housing Jewish institutions continue to be constructed in suburbs farther east, with a new branch of the Cleveland Hebrew Schools under construction in Solon, Montefiore Home's assisted living facility in Bainbridge, along with several small congregations.

Mt. Sinai Hospital, after a near century of providing outstanding health care, research breakthroughs, and opportunities for Jewish physicians, was sold to a for-profit health care system that eventually dissolved the hospital. Jewish physicians and scientists have increasingly made their mark at the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and Case Western Reserve University, where earlier Albert *Michelson (1852–1931) won a Nobel Prize in 1907, and Harry Goldblatt (1891–1977) made notable contributions in the field of renal hypertension. Philanthropic dollars have constructed major buildings at each of these facilities, including the Lerner Research Building and the Sam and Maria Miller Emergency Room at the Cleveland Clinic, the Mandel School of Advanced Social Services, the Peter B. Lewis Building of the Weatherhead Business School and the Wolstein Research Building at Case Western Reserve University, and the Horvitz Tower at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital. In the business world, the Stone and Weiss families continue to lead the American Greetings Corporation, the Ratner family heads Forest City Enterprises, a major construction firm, and Peter Lewis' Progressive Insurance Company employs over 14,000 workers.

In politics, Beryl Rothschild, Harvey Friedman, and Merle Gordon served as mayors of University Heights and Beachwood; in addition to Howard Metzenbaum in the U.S. Senate, Eric Fingerhut has represented the district in Ohio state government. Milton A. Wolf served as ambassador to Austria during the Carter administration.

Contributions to the Arts and Popular Culture

Cleveland Jews have enriched the cultural life of the community in many areas. In literature, Martha Wolfenstein, Jo *Sinclair, Herbert *Gold, Jerome Lawrence, and more recently, Alix Kates Shulman, Susan Orlean, and Harvey Pekar worked in Northeast Ohio. David Dietz was a noted science writer, while David B. Guralnik (1920–2001) was the chief editor of Webster's New World Dictionary for more than 40 years. Abraham H. Friedland, Libbie Braverman (1900–1990), and Bea Stadtler (1921–2000) wrote in the field of Jewish education. In the visual arts, Max Kalish (1891–1945), William *Zorach (1887–1966), and Louis Loeb were sculptors, Abel and Alex Warshawsky were painters, and Louis Rorimer (1872–1939) was influential in interior design. In music, Nikolai Sokoloff (1886–1965) was the first conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra; composer Ernest *Bloch (1880–1959) was the first director of the Cleveland School of Music and Arthur *Loesser (1894–1969) and Beryl *Rubinstein (1898–1952) led the piano departments at the school. Cleveland has also been called the birthplace of rock and roll music, beginning with the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, led by disk jockey Alan *Freed (1922–1965). Dorothy Fuldheim (1893–1989) was the first woman in America with her own television news program. Some Cleveland Jewish individuals and families have long been interested in professional sports. Max Rosenblum founded a professional basketball team in the 1920s. Members of the Gries family, Art *Modell, and Alfred Lerner all owned or shared in the ownership of the Cleveland Browns football team.

bibliography:

S. Cline, "Jews and Judaism," in: D.D. Van Tassell and J.J. Grabowski (eds.), Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (1996); L.P. Gartner, History of the Jews of Cleveland (1978); J. Rubinstein, "Cleveland," in: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1972 edition; J. Rubinstein and J. Avner, Merging Traditions: Jewish Life in Cleveland, Revised Edition (1978, 2004²); N.E. Schwartz and S. Lasky, "Jewish Cleveland before the Civil War," in: American Jewish History, 82 (1994), 1–4.

[Jane Avner (2^nd ed.)]

Cleveland: Economy

Major Industries and Commercial Activity

Diversified manufacturing is a primary economic sector, resting on a traditional base of heavy industry in particular. Consistent with a nationwide trend, the services industry—transportation, health, insurance, retailing, utilities, commercial banking, and finance—is emerging as a dominant sector. Cleveland serves as headquarters to 11 companies on the Fortune 500 list, both industrial and non-industrial. These firms are, in order of their Fortune 500 rank: National City Corp., Eaton Corp., Parker Hannifin Corp., Sherwin-Williams Co., KeyCorp, Nacco Industries, American Greetings Corp., Ferro Corp., Medical Mutual of Ohio, Applied Industries Technologies, and Lincoln Electric Holdings. Cleveland is also home to nearly 150 international companies from 25 different countries.

Manufacturing has traditionally been the primary industry of northeast Ohio. It remains so today, although the local economy has suffered along with the rest of the nation during the recession of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Dubbed "Polymer Valley," the metropolitan Cleveland area has the largest concentration of polymer companies in the United States; for example, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the world's largest tire company, is headquartered in nearby Akron. The area's other manufacturing companies are engaged in such areas as the automotive industry, fabricated metals, electrical/electronic equipment, and instruments and controls.

Supported by the manufacturing industry is the science and engineering field. More than 168 engineering companies are located in the Cleveland metro area. These firms engage in civil engineering, construction, and the burgeoning field of information technology, which employs approximately 73,500 area workers. Among the local institutions of science and engineering are the Cleveland Engineering Society, the Cleveland Society of Professional Engineers, the Great Lakes Science Center, the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center, ASM (American Society for Metals) International, and the engineering schools of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, and the University of Akron.

Cleveland's research base for the biotechnology and biomedical industry has tripled in recent years, from $50 million to $150 million. More than 100 biotechnology firms are located in northeast Ohio, along with more than 100 research laboratories. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation has the nation's largest hospital-based department of biomedical engineering. Area colleges offer training in biomedical or bioscience technology; among them are Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Lakeland Community College, and the University of Akron.

Items and goods produced: automobile parts, bolts and nuts, machine tools, paints and lacquers, rubber and oil products, chemicals, rayon, foundry and machine shop products, electrical machinery and appliances, men's and women's clothing, iron and steel

Incentive Programs—New and Existing Businesses

Local programs

The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) was formed in 2003 through the merger of the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, and Cleveland Tomorrow. GCP provides access to local and state business incentives and job training programs. It can link businesses with a variety of assistance including international trade, business financing, tax credits and abatement programs, technology transfer, labor force recruitment, and training and market data. GCP is also affiliated with Growth Capital Corp., which provides financing assistance to businesses in northeast Ohio to facilitate business expansion, new facility construction, and equipment purchases. Neighborhood Progress Inc. is a non-profit organization that offers up to $5 million per year in low-interest funds to develop Cleveland's neighborhoods.

State programs

The state of Ohio offers a number of incentives designed to encourage new companies and retain existing businesses. Tax credit programs include those for job creation, machinery and equipment investment, export, research and development franchise, and technology investment. Ohio also offers a property tax abatement for areas identified as enterprise zones, and sales tax exemptions for research and development.

Job training programs

Ohio Industrial Training Program (OITP) is a state program that can provide assistance to a business through a competitive grant award. Funds are used to reimburse the incurred eligible training costs. OITP may assist a company up to a maximum of one-half of the project's total eligible training costs. The Ohio Job Training Tax Credit is offered to businesses engaged in manufacturing and other specified service industries. Career Service Centers offer customized training programs designed to meet the needs of a specific business, as well as other ongoing skill training for current or new employees; these Career Service Centers are operated by Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College, and David N. Myers College.

Development Projects

In March 2004 Site Selection magazine ranked the Cleveland area, with 96 projects, the 10th in the nation for number of new and expanded corporate facility projects. Among these corporate projects were the expansion of Minolta's Cleveland facility, which added 25,000 square feet; the $4.5 million expansion of U.S. Cotton's facility; and a new, 5,000-square-foot distribution center for Netflix Inc.

The Milton & Tamar Maltz Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005. The $13.5 million, 24,000-square-foot facility will house displays, interactive exhibits, and a 60-seat theater. Groundbreaking will begin in September 2005 on a six-year, $258-million expansion and renovation of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Western Reserve Historical Society will spend $30 million to create an additional 100,000 square feet of space to house its car and plane collection. Euclid Avenue is undergoing a $168 million renovation between the downtown Public Square and the Playhouse Square Center; construction is scheduled for completion in 2007.

Economic Development Information: Greater Cleveland Partnership, Tower City Center, Ste. 200, 50 Public Sq., Cleveland, OH 44113; telephone (216)621-3300; toll-free (888)304-GROW; fax (216)621-4617; email [email protected]

Commercial Shipping

Cleveland is at the center of the nation's largest concentration of industrial and consumer markets. The city of Cleveland is home to more than 100 offices of motor freight carrier companies and there are many others located throughout the metropolitan area. Three railroads—Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad—serve the region. More than 1,200 miles of highways connect the region with other U.S. markets, and the World Trade Center Cleveland assists companies with international business ventures. Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport is served by 11 cargo-only carriers.

The Port of Cleveland, the largest overseas general cargo port on Lake Erie and third largest port on the Great Lakes, serves more than 50 countries, shipping cargo to and receiving cargo from 120 ports around the world. The Port is also the site of Foreign Trade Zone #40, an area where foreign goods bound for international destinations can be temporarily stored without incurring an import duty. Every service for shippers—banking, insurance, customs, stevedoring, and storage—is available from experienced firms. Each year the port handles 13 to 15 million tons of cargo, primarily semi-finished products, machinery, and such bulk cargo as iron ore, stone, cement, and salt. The port was visited by 898 ships in 2003.

Labor Force and Employment Outlook

The following is a summary of data regarding the Cleveland metropolitan area labor force, 2004 annual average.

Size of nonagricultural labor force: 1,073,400

Number of workers employed in . . .

construction and mining: 44,600

manufacturing: 151,900

trade, transportation and utilities: 200,100

information: 20,200

financial activities: 81,100

professional and business services: 132,800

educational and health services: 164,700

leisure and hospitality: 92,400

other services: 44,200

government: 141,600

Average hourly earnings of production workers employed in manufacturing: $18.64

Unemployment rate: 6.3% (March 2005)

Cost of Living

Cleveland's taxes are moderately high. According to the strategic plan presented by the Greater Cleveland Partnership in September 2004, "we are strangling ourselves with high taxes both on individuals and businesses." The report goes on to say that "local and state tax rates place many Cleveland suburbs among the highest-taxed communities in the country."

The following is a summary of data regarding several key cost of living factors in the Cleveland area.

2004 (3rd Quarter) ACCRA Average House Price: $253,363

2004 (3rd Quarter) ACCRA Cost of Living Index: 103.4 (U.S. average = 100.0)

State income tax rate: Ranges from 0.691% to 6.980%

State sales tax rate: 7.0% (food and prescription drugs are exempt)

Local income tax rate: 2.0%

Local sales tax rate: 7.5%

Property tax rate: basic rate ranges from 96.5 to 183.40 mills per $1,000 of assessed value

Economic Information: Greater Cleveland Partnership, Tower City Center, Ste. 200, 50 Public Sq., Cleveland, OH 44113; telephone (216)621-3300; toll-free (888)304-GROW; fax (216)621-4617; email [email protected]

Cleveland: Recreation

Sightseeing

One of Cleveland's most popular attractions is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the world's only facility dedicated to the living heritage of rock and roll music. Situated on the shores of Lake Erie, the museum houses six floors of costumes, interactive exhibits, and original films, along with the most extensive collection of rock and roll artifacts and memorabilia in the world. Adjacent to the Rock and Roll Hall on North Coast Harbor is the Great Lakes Science Center. Visitors can explore the wonders of science, the environment, and technology via more than 400 interactive exhibits. Located inside the center is the six-story OMNIMAX theater, with supersized images and digital sound that allows viewers to feel as though they were actually in the film.

North America's largest collection of primate species is housed at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and RainForest, located five miles south of downtown. The zoo has more than 3,300 animals from around the world, including 84 endangered species, and occupies 168 rolling, wooded acres. The two-acre RainForest is home to more than 600 animals and 10,000 plants from the jungles of the world, and features a 25-foot waterfall and simulated tropical storm.

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center is the only NASA facility north of the Mason-Dixon line. Named after the Ohio astronaut, it presents programs on space exploration, aircraft propulsion, satellites, and alternative energy sources. Two of Cleveland's best-known monuments are the Garfield Monument in Lakeview Cemetery and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, which resembles the original shrine in France and is located 10 miles east of the city.

Seasonal amusement parks located in Greater Cleveland Geauga Lake and Cedar Point, known for its world-record-breaking collection of roller coasters and rides, (located 63 miles from Cleveland, in Sandusky, Ohio). Sandusky is also home to Kalahari Resort, the largest indoor waterpark in Ohio.

Arts and Culture

University Circle, located four miles east of downtown, boasts the largest concentration of cultural institutions and museums in the country. Within one square mile, visitors will find more than 40 non-profit institutions including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Children's Museum of Cleveland, HealthSpace Cleveland, Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), which, in honor of its 35th anniversary, changed its name from the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art in 2003.

Museums located outside of University Circle include the Hungarian Heritage Society, the Shaker Historical Society and Museum, the Steamship William G. Mather Museum, and the Dunham Tavern Museum, the oldest Cleveland museum building on its original site. The Milton & Tamar Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005.

The Cleveland Orchestra, considered one of the nation's top orchestras, plays a season of concerts at Severance Hall from September to May; the summer season is scheduled at the open-air Blossom Music Center from June to August. Blossom also hosts opera, classical, pop, jazz, rock, and folk concerts during the summer months. The Cleveland Chamber Music Society and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony offer a schedule of chamber music each year. The Cleveland Institute of Music presents hundreds of concerts by faculty, students, and visiting artists, and the Cleveland Pops Orchestra performs music from motion pictures and Broadway shows. The internationally acclaimed Cleveland Quartet gives performances throughout the world. The nation added its eighth House of Blues with the 2004 opening of Cleveland's concert club.

Two dance companies perform in Cleveland: Dance Cleveland and North Coast Ballet Theatre. Cleveland's three opera companies, Opera Cleveland at the State Theater, Lyric Opera, and Cleveland Institute of Music's Opera Theater, stage operatic presentations.

Cleveland supports a number of theater companies. Cleveland Play House, the country's first professional resident company, presents a season of classical drama and new works. Playhouse Square Center, with its five beautifully restored circa 1920 theaters, is the nation's second largest performing arts center. The Ohio Theatre is home to the Great Lakes Theater Festival; the others host touring Broadway shows, musicals, concerts, opera, and ballets. Karamu House, from the Swahili for "a center of enjoyment, a place to be entertained," has earned a national reputation as a center of African American culture.

Festivals and Holidays

Cleveland schedules a full calendar of annual events. Each January, Cleveland organizes a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, followed two months later by a festive St. Patrick's Day Parade through downtown. The Cleveland International Film Festival also takes place in March with nearly than 200 film screenings. The state's largest environmental event is EarthFest, held in April at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. The Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show, the largest outdoor flower show in North America, takes place in May at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.

June brings the Parade the Circle Celebration, featuring an art parade and free admission to University Circle facilities. Visitors can join in Cleveland's annual July birthday bash in the Flats with riverfront festivities and performances as well as an amazing fireworks and laser light show. Samples of savory ribs, live entertainment, and family fun are on the menu at the New Cleveland Rib Burnoff in July. Cleveland showcases its diversity at summer festivities such as the Irish Cultural Festival, Puerto Rican Friendly Days, the Annual Polish Heritage Festival, and the Cleveland Pride Parade & Festival, celebrating the lesbian-gay-bi-transsexual community.

The week-long Cuyoga County Fair in August features rides, exhibits, and shows. An unforgettable Labor Day weekend event is the Cleveland National Air Show at Burke Lakefront Airport. Art meets technology at the Ingenuity Festival, taking place at various downtown locations in early September; running nearly simultaneously with this event is Taste of Cleveland, at which food from more than 30 local restaurants can be sampled. The Johnny Appleseed Festival at Mapleside Farms, and the Midwest Oktoberfest are among the area's many fall festivals. The Christmas season marks its start with the annual Holiday Lighting ceremony on downtown's Public Square the day after Thanksgiving.

Sports for the Spectator

Cleveland is a major-league sports city with major-league sports facilities. Gund Arena hosts NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, the WNBA Cleveland Rockers basketball, and the American Hockey League's Cleveland Barons, as well as more than 200 family events and concerts each year. State-ofthe-art Jacobs Field is home to Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians. The Cleveland Browns professional football team, named for their first coach, the legendary Paul Brown, is part of the National Football League's American Conference and play home games at the lakefront Cleveland Browns Stadium. Indoor soccer action is brought to fans by the Cleveland Force at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center. The Cleveland Junior Lumberjacks play youth hockey at the Metroplex. The Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland is held over three June days at the Burke Lakefront Airport. Thistledown Race Track offers thoroughbred racing and Northfield Park schedules harness races.

Sports for the Participant

Cleveland's Metroparks system, consisting of 20,000 acres in 15 parks that surround the city's core, represents one of the nation's largest concentrations of park land per capita. Facilities are available for hiking, cycling, tennis, swimming, golf, boating, and horseback riding. Winter activities include cross-country skiing, tobogganing, ice skating, and ice fishing. Downhill skiing is available at three nearby resorts. Greater Cleveland encompasses more than 70 public and private golf courses. One hundred miles of Lake Erie shoreline, as well as inland lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams, make fishing a favorite pastime; the annual catch in Lake Erie equals that of the other four Great Lakes combined. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cleveland Lakefront State Park, Huntington Beach, and Mentor Headlands State Park are popular summer spots for water sports enthusiasts. The Cleveland Marathon and 10K is held downtown in May.

Shopping and Dining

More than 600 retail businesses are located in downtown Cleveland. The elegant Tower City Center offers shopping and dining at more than 100 establishments. ETON, situated on Chagrin Boulevard, houses retail and dining establishments amid fountains, gardens, and sculptures, and recently underwent a $50 million expansion and renovation. Just west of downtown Cleveland is the new Crocker Park, a $450 million shopping center that encompasses 12 city blocks in Westlake. Unique shopping opportunities can be found throughout the city, such as: Antique Row on Lorain Avenue which attracts antique buyers; the Arcade, a nineteenth-century marketplace containing more than 100 shops and restaurants; and West Side Market in nearby Ohio City which sells fresh fish and meats, vegetables and fruits, baked goods, cheeses, and ethnic foods.

Visitor Information: Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland, 3100 Terminal Tower, 50 Public Sq., Cleveland, OH 44113; telephone (216)621-4110; toll-free 800-321-1001; fax (216)623-4499; email [email protected]

Cleveland: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

The Cleveland Municipal School District, administered by a seven-member nonpartisan board that appoints a superintendent, enrolls the largest student population of any Ohio school system. It is one of 31 districts in Cuyahoga County. More than 300 businesses and other organizations have joined in a partnership with the city's 121 schools; one of these is NASA John H. Glenn Research Center.

Cleveland's schools experienced academic, financial, and structural crises in the mid-2000s. In 2004 the high school graduation rate was only 40.8 percent, while only 11.3 percent of residents achieved a college degree. Worsening the situation, the Cleveland Municipal School District had a $36 million operating deficit; in order to rectify the shortfall, the board of education planned to close a number of schools and lay-off part of the workforce for the 2005–2006 school year. In June 2002, prompted by the collapse of a school gym roof, a $1.5 billion Facilities Plan was approved to replace or renovate each school in the district within 10-12 years.

The following is a summary of data regarding Cleveland public schools as of the 2004–2005 school year.

Total enrollment: 73,943

Number of facilities

elementary schools: 59

K–8 schools: 31

middle schools: 13

senior high schools: 19

other: 2

Student/teacher ratio: 16.5:1

Teacher salaries average: $45,156

Funding per pupil: $8,950

More than 30 parochial and private schools offer a range of educational alternatives at the pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, and secondary levels in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Among them is the University School, a more than 100-year-old kindergarten-through twelfth-grade independent day school for boys.

Public Schools Information: Cleveland Municipal School District, 1380 E. 6th St., Cleveland, OH 44114; telephone (216)574-8000; email [email protected]

Colleges and Universities

Cleveland State University (CSU), predominantly a commuter institution, enrolls more than 16,500 students. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in 60 fields, including doctoral programs in regulatory biology, chemistry, engineering, urban studies, and urban education. CSU's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law is the largest law school in Ohio. Case Western Reserve University offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional education in 60 areas of study such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, law, management, and applied social sciences; it is a major research institution ranking among the best in undergraduate engineering and business programs. Cleveland College of Jewish Studies is one of only five colleges in North America to be accredited as an institution of higher Jewish learning.

The Cleveland Institute of Art offers a five-year bachelor of fine arts program. The Cleveland Institute of Music grants baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various music fields in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University, which provides the academic curriculum. Other colleges in Cleveland include David N. Myers University, formerly known as Dyke College, and Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), which is the city's largest college and the fourth largest in the state. Offering career education leading to an associate degree and enrolling more than 22,000 students at its Metropolitan, Eastern, and Western campuses, CCC's programs include allied health, business technologies, engineering technologies, early childhood education, law enforcement, and mental health.

Among the colleges and universities enrolling more than 1,000 students and located in the surrounding area or within commuting distance of Cleveland are Baldwin-Wallace College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, Lakeland Community College, Lorain County Community College, Oberlin College, University of Akron, and Ursuline College, which is the oldest Catholic women's college in the nation.

Libraries and Research Centers

Approximately 90 libraries are operated in Cleveland by a diverse range of public agencies, private corporations, and other organizations. The Cleveland Public Library maintains a main facility (recently restored), 28 branches, a Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and a Public Administration Library in City Hall. The Cleveland Public Library, said to be the nation's second largest municipal library, has more than 9 million items that include more than 3 million volumes, more than 6,000 current periodical titles, 4 million microforms, 1 million photographs, 137,000 sound recordings, 173,000 maps, 97,000 videos and DVDs, as well as computer software and CD-ROMS. The library is a depository for federal, state, international, local, and United Nations documents. The Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped offers 11,000 Braille titles, 150,000 cassettes, and 48,000 discs; the library also includes material on visual and physical disabilities in their collection.

In 2003 the Ohio Center for the Book was dedicated at the main Cleveland Public Library, enabling it to serve the entire state. That year the library system became the first in the nation to offer eBooks to patrons. The Langston Hughes branch was the recipient of an Ohio Historical Marker in December 2003 in honor of its namesake, the Cleveland poet James Mercer Langston Hughes.

The Cuyahoga County Public Library, which houses nearly 3 million books, operates four large regional libraries, 22 branch libraries, and two mini libraries in communities throughout the county. The Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History maintain reference libraries. As a major research institution, Case Western Reserve University maintains holdings of more than 1.5 million books, nearly 14,000 periodical subscriptions, and approximately 35 special collections in such fields as literature, history, philosophy, urban studies, psychology, and the sciences; six departmental libraries are also located on campus. The Cleveland Health Sciences Library is operated by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Medical Library Association. Other colleges and universities, as well as several corporations, hospitals, and religious organizations, maintain libraries in the city.

More than 400 public and private research centers are based in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Among them are the John H. Glenn Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Cleveland Clinic Educational Foundation, and the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Institute. In 2003 Case Western Reserve University was awarded an $18 million grant to create the Wright Center of Innovation to focus on fuel cell research. University Hospitals represents the largest concentration of biomedical research in Ohio. Greater Cleveland's medical community as a whole receives more than $100 million in research dollars from the National Institutes of Health each year, making Cleveland a leading center nationwide for biomedical research and spending.

Public Library Information: Cleveland Public Library, 325 Superior Ave. NE, Cleveland, OH 44114-1271; telephone (216)623-2800; fax (216)623-7015; email [email protected]