Gerson, Eleanor Rosenfeld, 1916-

Eleanor Rosenfeld Gerson continued her family's tradition of activism in Jewish and other educational, philanthropic, and social service organizations in Cleveland, Ohio. She served as a trustee and chairperson of the School on Magnolia, an alternative school, from 1973-1982. In 1985 the school was renamed the Eleanor Gerson School. Other organizations she was active in included the American Civil Liberties Union of Greater Cleveland, the Women's Community Foundation, the Jewish Family Service Association, the Jewish Community Federation, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland, the Heights Area Project, and the Cleveland Scholarship Program. Eleanor Rosenfeld married Benjamin Gerson in 1937, and had four children. She was the great-granddaughter of Edward Lazarus and Henrietta Wilmersdorfer Rosenfeld, who had immigrated to New York City from Uhlfeld, Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. Their son, Louis Rosenfeld, married Frederica Fatman, daughter of Joseph Fatman, in 1874. Joseph Fatman and his brother, Aaron, were owners of the firm of Fatman and Company, tobacco dealers. In December 1862, they were among the thirty Jewish merchants ordered out of Paducah, Kentucky, in the Department of the Tennessee by General U.S. Grant's Order Number 11. Eleanor Gerson's parents, Edward Lazarus and Bertha Rosenfeld, moved to Cleveland from New York City in 1925. Edward was an executive in his father-in-law Emanuel Rosenfeld's firm, Grabler Manufacturing Company. He was also active on the boards of many Jewish social service organizations. Bertha Rosenfeld was a founder of the Council of Jewish Women's Jewish Big Sister organization, and was active in other Jewish and women's groups. Bertha's parents, Emanuel and Lena Rosenfeld, came to Cleveland in the 1870s from Germany and were members of Temple Tifereth Israel. Lena Rosenfeld was an active member of the Cleveland Section, National Council of Jewish Women and The Temple's Women's Association.