The Bellefaire Orphanage was a Jewish

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

founded in 1868 as an orphanage for children who lost their parents in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, making it one of the oldest orphanages in the US. The orphanage was established by the Midwest division of

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peopl ...

, an international Jewish social service organization. B'nai B'rith purchased a building that had been built by Dr Seele as the Cleveland Water Cure Establishment in 1848. This building originally "was a combination sanitarium and resort for the treatment of various ailments and diseases through

hydropathy Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...

" "enjoying regional popularity for nearly 2 decades", before being sold in 1868 to the B'nai B'rith organisation, and initially being called the Jewish Orphan Asylum. From 1868 to 1918, the Jewish Orphan Asylum "was the home for 3,581 mostly immigrant eastern European boys and girls. Established originally to serve orphaned and destitute Jewish youngsters from 15 midwestern and southern states", and "was located on over seven acres of land near Fifty-fifth Street and Woodland Avenue." In 1919, as part of the transformation to a more humane place to live, the name was changed to Jewish Orphan Home. "In 1929 the orphanage was relocated to a site in University Heights, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, where it was built as a cottage-type orphanage and renamed Bellefaire. Bellefaire continued as an orphanage for Jewish children until 1943, when it became a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed children".

References

{{authority control Jewish orphanages Orphanages in Ohio Buildings and structures in Cleveland Jews and Judaism in Ohio Jews and Judaism in Cleveland

Further reading

References