Wiesenfeld, Leon

Leon Wiesenfeld (1885-1971) was born Leib Wiesenfeld in Rzeszow, Galicia (now Poland), on February 7, 1885. In 1906, following five years in the United States where he gathered information about the difficulties facing Polish Jewish immigrants, he embarked on a career in journalism, writing for Yiddish, Polish, and German language newspapers in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1912(?), he founded a Yiddish weekly newspaper, Justice, which he edited until the outbreak of World War I when he joined the Austrian army. Following the war, Wiesenfeld founded another Yiddish weekly, Yiddishe Folkzeitung ( Jewish People's Newspaper ), which was dedicated to combating anti-semitism in Poland.

Wiesenfeld married Esther Amsterdam, a school teacher from his home town of Rzeszow, in 1911. The couple immigrated to the United States in 1920, settling first in New York City where Wiesenfeld joined the staff of the Jewish Daily Forward. He left the Forward after only a few months because he disagreed with the newspaper's socialist and non-Zionist editorial policies. Wiesenfeld then worked for the Jewish World of Philadelphia and the Jewish Journal in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1925, Wiesenfeld arrived in Cleveland, Ohio where he became associate editor of the daily newspaper, Die Yiddishe Velt (The Jewish World), which was published and edited by Samuel Rocker. In 1935, Wiesenfeld became editor of the newspaper. He quit Die Yiddishe Velt in 1938 and with the encouragement of friends, including Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, founded a weekly newspaper, Die Yiddishe Stime (The Jewish Voice) . This venture was ill-fated and Wiesenfeld was forced to cease publication after only six issues. Following the failure of Die Yiddishe Stime, Wiesenfeld was able to gather enough financial support to publish an Anglo-Jewish quarterly magazine, The Jewish Voice Pictorial . The new publication was loosely patterned after Life and Look magazines and was designed to appeal to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences. The magazine was successful and Wiesenfeld continued to edit, publish and distribute it in a seven state region until his retirement in 1966.

Wiesenfeld played an active role in the Cleveland Jewish community outside the field of journalism. He helped establish several organizations including the Jewish Welfare Fund Appeal, the United Galician Jews of Cleveland, the Jewish Community Council, the Kinsman Jewish Center, the Kiever Hebrew Aid Society, and the Histadrut Campaign of Cleveland. With Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and others, he helped organize the Cleveland Zionist Society, serving on its board of directors. Wiesenfeld was also a member of the American Jewish Congress and the League for Human Rights.

Sandra Amsterdam, a niece of Esther Wiesenfeld, immigrated to the United States in 1938 from Poland and lived with the Wiesenfelds until the end of World War II. During the war, she married Walter Lowy. Sandra Amsterdam Lowy's family remained in Poland during the war. Her father, Adolf, was a Soviet prisoner until 1945, spending five years in a forced labor camp. He returned to Poland after the war to discover that his wife, Helena, and his children (except Sandra and a son, Josef) had been killed in the Holocaust.

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Leon Wiesenfeld

From the guide to the Leon Wiesenfeld Papers, 1911-1971, (Western Reserve Historical Society)