Below is a compilation of milestones related to our history over the last 200 years. Each milestone weaves Jewish history within the greater context of our community's development, and our country at large.
1821 | Oldest Jewish cemetery West of the Alleghenies (Chestnut St. Cemetery)
1824 | Oldest Jewish congregation West of the Alleghenies is officially established
1850 | First Jewish Hospital in USA founded
1854 | American Israelite is founded
1866 | Plum Street Temple dedication
1868 | Charles & Maximillian Fleischmann create first commercially produced yeast
1873 | First Jewish congregational union in America (Union of American Hebrew Congregations) and the oldest in continuous existence
1875 | Founding of Hebrew Union College
1877 | First Jewish Cincinnati Reds Player & Captain, Lipman "Lip" Pike
1882 | Justus Thorner first owner of the Cincinnati Reds
1883 | First four rabbis educated in USA ordained by HUC in Cincinnati
1883 | Elias Kahn establishes Kahn’s Meat Packing in Cincinnati
1889 | First Rabbinical Association / Central Conference of American Congregations
1896 | Jewish Welfare Fund (Jewish Federation of Cincinnati started)
1896 | Irwin Krohn and Samuel Fechheimer, founded the Krohn-Fechheimer Shoe Company, which produced Red Cross shoes
1896 | Jacob Frank establishes Frank’s Spice & Tea Company in Cincinnati
1900 | Two Jews battle to become mayor of Cincinnati (Alfred M. Cohen & Julius Fleischmann). Fleischmann is elected
1903 | Irvin F. Westheimer befriends a young boy in Cincinnati, OH; seeds are formed for the start of Big Brothers in Cincinnati
1915 | First American Mental Health Institute, the Psychopathic Institute (part of Jewish Hospital) was established
1916 | Setty Swartz Kuhn establishes Cincinnati’s Better Housing League
1917 | The Helen S. Trounstine Foundation was established
1920 | Frank’s RedHot Sauce goes on the market
1924 | Murray Seasongood founds the Charter Party, reorganizing City Counsel with non-partisan elections
1929 | Sidney Weil becomes majority owner of the Cincinnati Reds
1931 | The Trounstine Foundation becomes a division of the Community Chest, the predecessor of the United Way
1937 | Eden Park Greenhouse is renamed in honor of Irwin M. Krohn
1939 | Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus and others established what would become the Jewish Community Relations Council
1943 | Sydney 'Syd' Nathan founded King Records
1945 | David Lazarus becomes president of Federated Department Stores and moves headquarters to Cincinnati
1947 | Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus established the National American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati
1947 | David Frisch acquires franchise to open the first Frisch's Big Boy Drive-In restaurant, Big Boy One, on Central Parkway north of downtown Cincinnati
1961 | HUC President, Nelson Glueck, delivers benediction at John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration
1963 | HUC President, Nelson Glueck, appears on cover of Time Magazine for his work as a Biblical Archeologist
1972 | Ordination of the first woman rabbi (Sally Priesand)