Access and Provenance
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder Listing
Subject Tracings
Appendix

A Finding Aid to the

Moses J. Gries Papers

1850-1934 1.6 Linear ft.

Manuscript Collection No. 53

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The MOSES J. GRIES PAPERS were presented to the American Jewish Archives by Gries's sons, Lincoln Hays Gries and Robert Hays Gries, both of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1948, 1950 and 1961.

Property rights are assigned to the American Jewish Archives. Literary rights to the materials authored by Moses Gries are held by the Gries heirs. Literary rights to material authored by others are held by the individuals or his/her heirs. Questions about literary or copyrights should be addressed to the Director of the Archives.

The Gries Papers are open to all users and available in the reading room of the American Jewish Archives.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH top

Moses J. Gries was born in Newark, New Jersey on January 25, 1868, the son of Jacob and Katharina Frances Holzer Gries. In 1881 he was accepted at the Hebrew Union College (HUC). For the next eight years he participated in classes at HUC while also attending classes at Hughes High School and at McMicken College (now the University of Cincinnati). In 1889 Gries received a Bachelor of Letters degree from the University of Cincinnati and was ordained a rabbi at Hebrew Union College.

Gries began his rabbinical career at the Mizpah Congregation in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He remained there until the autumn of 1892 when he became a rabbi of Cleveland's Tifereth Israel Congregation (the Temple) -- position he retained for the next twenty-five years.

Gries's association with Tifereth Israel Congregation was illustrious -- both for the growth of the congregation and the development of radical Reform Judaism. Soon after assuming his post in Cleveland, Gries supervised the congregation's move from Huron Street into a new Temple on the corner of Central and Fifth Streets. During the twenty-five year period when Gries was rabbi the Temple's membership increased 500%. And at one point during his tenure, the Temple's Sabbath School was the largest in the world.

Tifereth Israel Congregation, under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Gries, embodied many of the radical Reform principals of the day: the Temple was one of the first to have women on the Board of Trustees, the Temple's services were held on Sunday, there was little Hebrew in the liturgical services and the Torah was not read from the scroll. Gries encouraged the Temple and its services to be open to all -- Jew or non-Jew, poor or rich, young or old. He advocated further that a temple be more than just a place for worship or religious instruction -- he wanted it to become a center of all congregational and communal life. Thus Tifereth Israel Congregation became one of the first, if not the first, congregation to advocate and conduct an "open temple."

Gries was also involved in many other activities -- both locally and nationally. He was a charter member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and he held many CCAR offices from Assistant Secretary (1893- 1894) through President (1913-1915). Gries was a founder and on the first Board of Trustees,(1902) of Cleveland's Federation of Jewish Charities. He helped found and was first president of the Cleveland Council of Jewish Women (1893-1896). He founded the Jewish Religious Education Association of Ohio and was named its first president (1906-1908). He served as president of the Ohio Rabbinical Association and of the Cleveland Council Educational Alliance (1904). Gries was a member of the HUC Board of Governors and of the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee. He participated in the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Excelsor Club, the City Club and the local B'nai B'rith Lodge. In 1910 Gries published the Jewish Community of Cleveland, a history of Cleveland's Jewry.

In 1916 Gries shocked his congregation by announcing his intention to retire in 1917, after his 25th anniversary at Tifereth Israel. In June 1917 Gries preached his last sermon at the Temple and thereafter withdrew from active rabbinical life.

A year and a half later, on October 31, 1918, Rabbi Moses J. Gries died in Cleveland, Ohio, He was survived by his wife, Frances Hays Gries, whom he married in June 1898, and by his two sons, Robert Hays Gries (b. 1901) and Lincoln Hays Gries (b. 1905).

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE top

The MOSES J. GRIES PAPERS, 1850-1934, consist of correspondence, sermons and addresses, newspaper clippings, certificates and personal memorabilia, which reflect Gries's rabbinical career and activities. Also included in the collection is the nineteenth century correspondence and documents of Gries's parents. The collection is divided into four series:

A. CORRESPONDENCE
B. DOCUMENTS AND MEMORABILIA
C. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS
D. SERMONS AND ADDRESSES

SERIES A. CORRESPONDENCE, 1891-1934, contains correspondence between Gries and many well-known individuals concerning rabbinical, religious, political as well as personal concerns. Much of the material in this Series consists of letters to Gries commenting on the various occasions in Gries's life and career: There are congratulatory letters on his marriage to Fannie Hays (1898) and on his 10th (1902), 15th (1907), 20th (1912) and 25th (1917) anniversaries at Tifereth Israel. There are letters of support when Gries was considering expanding his lecture field into the Lyceum Circuit (1899). There are letters of regret upon the announcement of his retirement (1916) and upon his actual retirement (1917). And there are sympathy letters to the Gries family upon Moses J. Gries's death (1918). The correspondence after 1918 deals with various memorial tributes to Gries along with the correspondence of Gries's son, Robert, concerning his father. The Series is chronologically arranged.

SERIES B. DOCUMENTS AND MEMORABILIA, 1850-1918, contains certificates of membership and graduation, deeds, invitations, programs for events in which Gries participated, Gries's will along with various testimonial books presented to Gries or to his family. Also included in Series B are photocopies of documents and correspondence of Gries's parents, Jacob and Katharina Gries, which trace their marriage (1851) and imigration from Hungary to the United States (1857). The originals of this material are located in the Rare Documents File of the American Jewish Archives.

SERIES C. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS, 1899-1919, contains original and photo- copies of newspaper clippings, chronologically arranged. The clippings docu- ment Gries's various activities and report on the subject and content of many of his sermons and addresses.

SERIES D. SERMONS AND ADDRESSES, 1893-1917, contains manuscript copies of many of Gries's sermons and addresses, Rabbi Gries's views on Reform Judaism, anti-Semitism, political and social reform and international affairs are seen in these sermons and addresses. The Series is chronologically arranged. To complement this arrangement the Appendix of this Inventory presents an alphabetical listing of the sermons and addresses in this Series along with their dates.

The Subject Tracings of this Inventory serve as a selective index to many of the people and subjects found in the MOSES J. GRIES PAPERS.

BOX AND FOLDER LISTING top

Box  Folder    Contents

SERIES A. CORRESPONDENCE

1    1         1891-1898 May.
     2-3       1898 June [congratulatory messages upon marriage of Moses J.
                    Gries and Fannie Hays Gries].
     4         1899-1910
     5         1911-1913
     6         1914-1916
     7         1917-1918 Oct.
     8-9       1918 Nov. [sympathy letters to the Gries family upon the death of Moses J. Gries]

2    1-2       1918 Nov. [sympathy letters to the Gries family upon the death of Moses J. Gries]
     3         1918 Dec.-1934
     4         Not dated

SERIES B. DOCUMENTS AND MEMORABILIA

     5         Correspondence and documents of Gries's parents, 1850-1870
     6         Documents [certificates, deeds, will, etc.], 1879-1918
     7-8       Invitations, programs and other personal memorabilia 
                    Tribute and In Memorium books
     9         1907, Tribute book from members of the Temple
     10        1912, Tribute book from members of the Temple
     11        1916, Tribute Uniongrams from children of the Temple Sunday School
     12        1916, Tribute book from the Executive Committee of the Central Conference of 				American Rabbis

3    1         1917, Tribute book from members of Griles's confirmation                   				classes [1897?-1915]
     2         1917, Tribute book from Cleveland Council of Educational                   				Alliance and Cleveland Council of Jewish Women
     3         1917, Tribute book from children of the Temple
     4         1918, In Memorium book from Hebrew Union College Alumni                    				Association
     5         1918, In Memorium book from the Union of American Hebrew                   				Congregations
     6         1918, In Memorium book from members of the Temple
     7         1918, In Memorium book from the Cleveland Federation of Jewish Charities
     8         1918, In Memorium book from the Cleveland Citizens Savings
		            Bank and Trust Company
     9         1918, In Memorium book from the Cleveland Council Educational Alliance and the 				Cleveland Council of Jewish Women

SERIES C. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS

4    1         1889-1899
     2         1901-1908
     3         1909-1916
     4         1917-1919
     5         Not dated

SERIES D. SERMONS AND ADDRESSES

     6         1893-1902
     7         1903-1905
     8         1906-1912
     9         1913-1917
     10        Not dated

SUBJECT TRACINGS top


Note: This list represents a selective guide to some of the persons and
subjects in the MOSES J. GRIES PAPERS.  It is selective in that it only
attempts to draw attention to the more significant items in the collection. 
It does not list every subject or individual nor does it indicate every
location of a listed subject or individual in the collection.  This list must
be used in conjunction with the Box and Folder List of this Inventory. 
References are to boxes and folders, i.e., 1/7 means Box 1, Folder 7. Often
the date of the listed item is in parentheses following the box and folder
notation; this will further help the researcher to locate the item within the
folder.

Baker, Newton D. 1/7 (1914, 1916); 1/8(1917); 1/9
Berkowitz, Henry 1/5 (1902); 1/6 (1912); 1/7 (1916 Oct., Nov.)
Burton, Theodore E. 1/7 (1914)

Central Conference of American Rabbis 1/5 (1907); 1/6 (1911); 4/9; 4/10
Chattanooga, Tennessee -- Mizpah Congregation 1/1 (1892, 1893, 1894)
Cleveland, Ohio -- Committee to Study Educational Facilities 1/7 (1914)
Cleveland, Ohio -- Council Educational Alliance 1/5 (1907); 1/6 (1913); 3/2,
     3/9
Cleveland, Ohio -- Tifereth Israel Congregation (The Temple) 1/2 (1892); 1/5
     (1910); 2/8; 2/9; 2110; 3/3; 3/6; photographs of Tifereth Israel's
     confirmation classes,(1897?-1915)3/1

Deutsch, Gotthard 1/5 (1902)

Enelow, Hyman Gerson 1/5 (1909); 1/6 (1913); 1/7 (1916)

Gries, Jacob and Katharina (parents of Moses J. Gries) 2/5 
Gries, Moses J.
     concerning his ability as a lecturer 1/5 (1899)
     last will 2/5
Grossmann,Louis 1/5 (1902); 1/6 (1911); 1/7 (1916)

Heller, Maximilian H. 1/5 (1899); 1/7 (1916 Oct., Nov.)
Hirsch, Emil G. 1/2 (1898); 1/5 (1899)

Immigrants and Immigration (up to 1924) 1/1

Krauskopf, Joseph 1/5 (1899); 1/6 (1912); 1/7 (1910); 1/9 

Landman, Isaac 1/7 (1916)

Manner, Jane 2/1
Morgenstern, Julian 1/7 (1916) 2/1; 2/3 (1921)

New York, New York -- Madison House 1/6 (1913)

The "Open Temple" 4/2 (1902-1903); 4/10

Philipson, David 1/7 (1916)
Photographs of Cleveland's Tifereth Israel's confirmation classes, (1897?-1915) 3/1

Rosenau, William 1/7 (1916); 2/2

Schulman, Samuel 1/6 (1912)
Solomon, Walter Leo 1/6 (1913)

Thwing, Charles F 1/5 (1899, 1902); 1/7 (1916); 2/2

Wise, Stephen S. 1/7 (1916); 2/2; 2/3 (1920)
Wise, Isaac Mayer 1/5 (1899 May 10 -- photocopy)
Wolsey, Louis dispute with Gries concerning Reform Judaism 1/5 (1909-1910);
     4/3(1909-1910)

APPENDIX top

Note: This list presents an alphabetical list of the sermons and addresses in
Series D of the MOSES J. GRIES PAPERS. Within the collection the sermons and
addresses are chronologically arranged. Thus the dates following the name of
the particular sermon or address will locate it within the Papers.


"America and Zion" 1904 Oct. 30
"The American" 1904 Nov, 27; n.d.
"Am I My Brother's Keeper?" 1902 Dec, 7 
"As Others See Us" 1893 Nov, 12
"As We See Ourselves" 1893 Nov. 5
"The At-Onement" 1908 Oct. 4
Atonement services 1902 Oct. 10; 1905 Oct. 9; 1908 Oct, 4 and 5; 1912 Sept.- 20; 1913 Oct. 10 and 11; n.d.

"Business and Men" 1903 Dec. 27

Central Conference of American Rabbis n.d,
     to Executive Committee 1914 May 8
     President's address 1915 June 29
     Round table discussion n.d.
"Chanukah and Christmas" 1902 Dec. 28
"Chanukah or Christmas" 1906 Dec, 23
"Charity" 1904 June 5
"Charity -- My Religion" 1905 Oct. 9
"Children" 1902 Nov. 16
"Christian and Jew" 1906 Mar, 18
"Christianity's Debt to Judaism (reply to Dr. Bradley)" 1915 Feb. 28 
"Church and Minister" 1903 Dec. 20
Cleveland Chamber of Commerce 1913 Mar, 9
     on 51st anniversary 1899 June 6
Cleveland -- Council Educational Alliance, dedication address 1909 Sept. 8
Cleveland -- Elks, memorial address 1905 Dec. 3
"Cleveland in 1903" 1903 Jan. 4
"Cleveland -- The Ideal City?" 1913 Feb. 25 
Cleveland -- The Temple
     Gries's 10th anniversary address 1902 Nov, 23 
     Gries"s 25th anniversary address 1917
Cleveland -- Unity Church, Citizens Thanksgiving Service 1902 Nov, 30
"Co-Operation in Charities" 1896 Dec. 30 
"Crisis in Religion" 1908 Feb. 16

"The Faith by Which to Live" n.d.
Feast of Tabernacles 1902 Oct, 19
Franklin, Benjamin 1906 Jan. 14
"The Future of the Temple" 1902 Nov. 29

"The Gods" 1893 Nov. 19
"Golden Rule of Judaism" 1903 Nov. 15

Hay, John 1905
"Home and Parent" 1903 Dec. 13
"How to Love Thy Neighbor" 1903 Nov. 22 
"How to Remember the Dead" 1905 Oct, 9
"Humanity in the Bible -- A Comparison and Contrast" n.d.

"The Immigrant" 1906 Jan. 21; n.d.
"In Darkest Ghetto' 1904 Apr. 3
"In Darkest Ghetto and the Way Out' 1904 Apr. 10
Installation of Rabbi Wolsey 1907 Aug. 30
"Intelligent Service to God and State" 1904 Mar, 20
"In the Beginning--God" 1903 Nov, 1
"In the Image of God--Man" 1903 Nov. 8 
"Israel's Destiny" 1904 Dec. 7
"Is the Bible the Word of God?" 1912 Oct. 6 
"Is the World Growing Better?" 1917 May 6

"The Jew and America" 1905 Nov, 26.
"The Jew in America" 1904 Apr. 17 
"The Jew of History" 1906 Mar. 25 
"A Jewish Message" n.d.
"The Jewish ReformationH 1909 Nov, 14
"The Jew Through the Centuries" n.d.
"Jews and Russia" 1905 Nov. 19
"A Judaism for Free America" 1910 Oct, 3
"The Justification of the Radical" 1893 Dec. 17

"Life's Sacrifices and Service" 1905 Sept. 30 
"The Life Worth Living" 1917 May 13
Lincoln, Abraham 1904 Feb. 7; 1908 Feb. 12; 1915 Feb, 12

McKinley, William 1901 Sept.
"The Making of Public Opinion" 1916 Jan. 23 
"Men" 1902 Nov. 2
"The Message of Judaism" 1906 Sept, 9
"The Message of Judaism to the Modern World" 1902 Oct, 16 
"essage of the Jew" 1902 Oct. 19
"The Message of the New Year' 1905 Sept. 29
"Message of the Old Year, 1905, to the New Year, 1906" 1905 Dec. 31 
"odern Jewish Problems" 1914 Feb. 22
"The Most Effective Sermon" CCAR round table discussion n.d.
"My Religion -- God and Man" (farewell address to the Temple) 1917 May 20

National Council of Jewish Women 1900 Mar. 7
"The Need for Social Service" 1902 Dec. 14
New Year services 1905 Sept. 29 and 30; 1910 Oct, 3; 1911 Sept. 21 and 22
     1913 Oct. 1 and 2

"The Open Temple, Rabbi Gries and" n.d.
"The Out-Reaching Synagogue" 1907 Oct. 27

"The Passover of Freedom" 1917 Apr. 8
"Peace" 1905 Jan. 8
"The Place of the Jew in the Modern World" 1911 Sept. 21
"The President and the Czar" 1905 Mar, 5
"Problems of America -- the Citizen" 1904 Nov. 6
"Problems of America -- the Laborer" 1904 Nov, 13
"The Problem of Judaism in America" 1917 Apr. 29
"The Problem of the Jew in America" 1917 Apr. 15

"Rabbi Gries and the Open Temple" n.d.
"The Religion of Israel" n.d.
"Remarks of Rabbi Gries on the Synod" n.d.
"Remember and Keep a Sabbath" 1904 Jan. 3
"Righteousness Exalteth a Nation" 1910 Nov. 8
"Right Living" 1908 Oct. 5
"Russia and Her Jews" 1905 Nov. 12

"The Sabbath School and the Unaffiliated" (address before the Central Conference of American Rabbis) n.d.
Schiff, Jacob (on his 70th birthday) 1917 Jan. 14
"The Service of Synagogue and Church to the World" 1911 Feb. 26
"Settlement Work Among Jews" 1902 May
"Shall We Remain Jews?" 1902 Nov. 2
"A Solution for the Problem of Poverty" (address at the annual banquet of the
     Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities) n.d.

"Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" 1904 Jan. 17
"Thou Shalt Not Covet" 1904 Jan. 31
"True Social Service" 1902 Dec. 21
"The Truth About Russia" 1906 Feb. 4

"The Union [of American Hebrew Congregations]; Its Past and Its Future" 1907
     Jan, 15

"Washington and Lincoln" 1906 Feb. 17
"What Does the World Think of Judaism?" 1917 Apr, 1
"What It Means to be a Citizen" 1903 Oct, 25
"What It Means to be a Jew" 1903 Oct. 11
"What It Means to be an American" 1903 Oct. 18
"What Jews Believe About God and Man" 1904 Oct. 17
"What Jews Believe About Life and Death" 1904 Oct. 24
"What Jews Believe About Sabbath and Sunday", 1904 Dec. 11
"What Jews of Today Believe" 1906 Apr. I
"Will Anti-Jewish Prejudices Ever Cease?" 1906 Mar. 11
Wise, Isaac Mayer n.d.
Wolsey, Louis, installation 1907 Aug. 30
"Women" 1902 Nov. 9

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