The Educational League (f. 1897) was initiated by members of B'nai B'rith, Baron de Hirsch Lodge of Cleveland, Ohio, as an independent organization whose mission was to provide Jewish orphans with financial aid for higher education. Based in Cleveland and chartered in the State of Ohio, the league's operation covered twenty states in the central United States. Candidates for financial assistance as well as the organization's Board of Governors and its contributing members, were drawn from this region. Throughout the life of the league, the following prominent Clevlanders held the office of President: Martin A. Marks, Dr. Samuel Wolfenstein, Rabbi Moses Gries, and Albert A. Benesch. It is not known when the league ceased operation; it functioned at least through February 1966, as evidenced in these records.
Although its original purpose was to aid orphans, by the end of its second decade the league extended the category of eligible recipients to include any Jewish student in need. About this same time an on-going internal debate over the nature of the aid provided to students was resolved in favor of requiring that money advanced was to be a repayable oan, rather than a grant. Between the first disbursement of funds in 1899 and the last noted in these records in 1964, approximately 350 students were assisted in studies leading to careers such as the rabbinate, medicine, engineering, law, teaching, social work, music, and art.
Starting in the late 1920s, the league, in a retreat from its former twenty-state regional role, concentrated exclusively on assisting students from the Cleveland, Ohio, area or out-of-town students attending Cleveland-area schools. About this same time the league joined with the Jewish Welfare Federation of Cleveland and the Cleveland Section of the National Council of Women (each with a longstanding involvement in providing student loans) to coordinate the review and approval of loans to Cleveland Jewish students. This alliance was known as the Joint Conference on Educational Fund Loans (ca. 1930-1945) and as the Joint Educational Loan Committee thereafter.
The Educational League Records, 1897-1966, consist of correspondence, minutes, reports, and beneficiary files.
The Educational League Records are of value to researchers interested in the development of Jewish philanthropy for student loans in Cleveland, Ohio, and throughout the central region of the United States from 1899-1966 as well as Jewish genealogy from the same era.
The collection is arranged in two series.
Processed by Lou and Evy Rosenblum in 1994.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4667 Educational League Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Peter Goldstein, 1992; and Jewish Vocational Service, 1993.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.