Educational League (Cleveland, Ohio)

The Educational League was initiated by members of B'nai B'rith, Baron de Hirsch Lodge of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1897, 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. Presidents of the League included Martin A. Marks, Dr. Samuel Wolfenstein, Rabbi Moses Gries, and Albert A. Benesch. It's original mission soon expanded to include any Jewish student in need. Money advanced was to be a repayable loan, rather than a grant. Beginning in the late 1920s, the League concentrated exclusively on assisting students from the Cleveland area, or out-ot-town students attending Cleveland area schools. Around the same time, the League joined with the Jewish Welfare Federation of Cleveland and the Cleveland Section, National Council of Jewish Women to coordinate the review and approval of loans. This alliance was known as the Joint Conference on Educational Fund Loans (ca. 1930-1945), and as the Joint Educational Loan Committee thereafter.