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Hebrew Union College (HUC), founded in Cincinnati in 1875, is the oldest institution of higher Jewish learning in the United States. Its founder, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900), was a leading proponent of Reform Judaism in America. In 1950, the college merged with the Jewish Institute of Religion (JIR), a liberal Jewish seminary in New York founded by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949) in 1922. A third center opened in Los Angeles in 1954 to serve Jewry on the West Coast and, in 1963, a fourth campus opened in Jerusalem. As of 2003, HUC-JIR educates rabbis, cantors, communal, and educational professionals. It also offers advanced academic training for scholars of all faiths. The holdings of the school’s Klau Library constitute one of the most extensive Jewish libraries in the world.
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On January 9, 1919, a group of eight men and three women, being led by the Holy Spirit, met at a house on Wallace Street to form a new black Missionary Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ohio. The group quickly raised $150 to make the down payment on a two-story brick building at 333 Chestnut Street being sold for $1,850. The building was occupied on March 25, 1919, and the name Pilgrim Baptist Church was suggested and accepted. On May 11, 1919, a special council requested admittance into the Western Union Baptist Association, a district association now affiliated with the Ohio Baptist General Convention. Requirements for admission were met and Pilgrim Baptist Church was recognized as a Missionary Baptist Church. In 2019, Pilgrim Baptist Church celebrated a centennial of faithfulness in Hamilton.
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St. Vincent-St. Mary High School is the oldest continuously operating, public or private, high school in Akron. With roots extending to the late 19th century, St. Mary High School graduated its first three students in 1901. St. Vincent High School opened in September 1907 in an effort to extend educational offerings beyond the eighth grade. The first class, comprising four students, graduated in 1910. The two schools merged in late 1972 to become a single co-educational college preparatory high school. “In the spirit of the Gospel, we are committed to educate the whole person,” the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School mission statement pledges, “to lead and to serve, enlightening the mind, developing the body, touching the heart and inspiring the soul.”
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On December 30, 1847, six educators met at the Summit County Courthouse to organize the first convention of the Ohio State Teachers’ Association, now known as the Ohio Education Association (OEA). The organizers Josiah Hurty (Richland County), Thomas W. Harvey (Geauga County), M.D. Leggett (Summit County), Lorin Andrews (Ashland County), William Bowen (Stark County), and Marcellus F. Cowdery (Lake County) hoped “to elevate the profession of teaching” and “to promote the interests of schools in Ohio.” In 1853, the General Assembly enacted the new association’s entire slate of proposals into law, thus ensuring free, universal, public education in Ohio. For 176 years, the Ohio Education Association has advocated for fair terms and conditions of employment for Ohio educators and for the betterment and improvement of public education for all students.
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Karamu House, Incorporated was established in 1915 as the Playhouse Settlement, one of Cleveland’s many settlement houses for migrant and immigrant communities. Initiated by the Men’s Club of the Second Presbyterian Church, in 1915 Oberlin College and University of Chicago social work graduates, Russell and Rowena Woodham Jellliffe were hired as the founding directors. Originally located at 2239 East 38th Street, the Playhouse Settlement offered children’s theater and other social, recreational, and educational activities. It soon developed a partnership with the Dumas Dramatic Club, a local African American theater company that later became known as the Gilpin Players. (continued on other side)
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In 1835, Dr. William Awl of Columbus and Dr. Daniel Drake of Cincinnati presented recommendations to the Ohio General Assembly to establish a school for the blind. Legislation, signed by then governor of Ohio Duncan McArthur on April 3, 1837, provided funding to create the first state-supported residential school for the blind in the United States. The Institution for the Education of the Blind opened July 4, 1837, with five students. A year later, the first permanent structure, housing 60 students, was built on a nine-acre tract of land on the eastern edge of the city, and that was followed in 1874 with a larger facility near Fulton and Main streets. The school was honored and recognized in 1937 as being one of the finest schools for the blind in the country. In 1953, a new school for the blind was built at its present location at 5220 North High Street.
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William and Abigail Cutter Woodward founded Woodward High School, the first public high school west of the Allegheny Mountains, on this site October 24, 1831. Concerned that the poor of Cincinnati had no avenues for education, the Woodwards donated land, time, funding, and expertise to this venture that brought the arts and sciences to “those who have not the means of procuring such advantages themselves.” Notables include Dr. Joseph Ray, principal, 1851-1855, author of several popular mathematics texts; Professor William McGuffey, author of the well-known readers and spellers; and William Howard Taft, Class of 1874, former U.S. President. From 1856-1863, the home of Levi and Catherine Coffin was also located on this site. Both were legendary abolitionishts who helped enslaved people escape to freedom in Canada. Levi is often referred to as the “President of the Underground Railroad.”
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The first women’s college chartered in the state of Ohio, Ursuline College opened in 1871 in downtown Cleveland as part of the educational mission of the Order of St. Ursula (O.S.U.). Founded in Italy in 1535 with an early presence in North America, this order established its first religious teaching community in Cleveland in 1850, led by foundress Mother Mary of the Annunciation Beaumont, O.S.U. The college’s growth prompted four moves in Cleveland and subsequently to the Pepper Pike campus in 1966. Ursuline holds the distinction as one of the first catholic women’s colleges in the United States organized and chartered explicitly for college education.
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