Max M. Axelrod (February 22, 1911 – March 30, 2004) was a businessman, sports pioneer, and social welfare activist from

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 ...

. He is known for founding the '' Cleveland Jewish News'' and Lake Forest Country Club and his charitable work with the Jewish Welfare Fund Appeal,

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...

and the

United Negro College Fund UNCF, the United Negro College Fund, also known as the United Fund, is an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private historically black colleges and universities. ...

.Levy, David (July 10, 2003)
Cleveland Jewish News

Early life

Axelrod was born in

in 1911 to Russian immigrants Peter and Mary Axelrod. Peter Axelrod founded The Cleveland Dairy, as farming and the production of kefir was the family business in Russia. His great uncle was Russian

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

revolutionary Pavel Borisovich Axelrod , the founder of

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

, the official newspaper of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and inventor of keifer. Max Axelrod graduated from Western Reserve University during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

with degrees in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and law. Axelrod served in

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

with the U.S. Army in

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

and throughout the Middle East, as both a lawyer and an intelligence officer for the US government.

Career

Axelrod founded The Cleveland Concession Co. in 1929 and held concession contracts with venues such as The Cleveland Municipal Stadium, The Cleveland Arena, The Cleveland Convention Center, Old League Park, The Public Auditorium and the Akron Rubber Bowl. He also served concessions at special community events, such as the

Great Lakes Exposition The Great Lakes Exposition (also known as the World Fair of 1936) was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in the summers of 1936 and 1937, along the Lake Erie shore north of downtown. The fair commemorated the centennial of Cleveland's incorporation as a ci ...

in 1937. For three years, Axelrod was chairman of the

Cleveland Boxing Commission 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. m ...

and ran the Cleveland Arena. He was an avid supporter of young African-American boxers and legitimized the sport by moving it from underground, Mafia-run warehouses to the Cleveland Arena.RNN Staff (December 19, 201
Jake Lamotta, Inspiration for Raging Bull, dies at 95
Cleveland 19 News. The most notable of these boxing matches was Jake LaMotta vs.

Laurent Dauthuille Laurent Dauthuille (20 February 1924 – 10 July 1971) was a French boxer. Arriving in Montreal in the late 1940s, he was nicknamed the ''Tarzan of Buzenval.'' During his career Dauthuille beat notable fighters such as Jake LaMotta, Steve Be ...

in 1950. The fight was profiled in the 1980 film ''

Raging Bull ''Raging Bull'' is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir '' Raging Bull: My St ...

''. He bought several delicatessens in Cleveland, most famously the New Yorker Deli on Chester Avenue. In the 1960s, Axelrod partnered with

Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

owner George Steinbrenner in an attempt to buy the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

. The pair also worked together to restart the Cleveland Air Show in 1964. Axelrod founded and later served as president of Lake Forest Country Club in

Hudson, Ohio Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,110 at the 2020 census. It is a suburban community in the Akron metropolitan statistical area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, th ...

. Prior to WWII, country clubs didn't allow Jews or African-Americans to join, so Axelrod created his own that did not discriminate in employment or membership.

Jewish Community activism

In the late 1950s Axelrod began his social welfare and charitable work in the Cleveland area. He became a lifelong trustee of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. In 1972 he headed the Jewish Welfare Fund Appeal, helping to raise millions and making numerous trips to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

to serve on the board of the

National Conference of Christians and Jews The National Conference for Community and Justice is an American social justice organization focused on fighting biases and promoting understanding between people of different races and cultures. The organization was founded in 1927 as the Natio ...

. Together with Lloyd Schwenger and several other Cleveland community leaders, Axelrod founded the '' Cleveland Jewish News'' in 1964 and served as the paper's first president. Max is listed as "President Emeritus" in the papers history.

Legacy

Following his death in 2004, Axelrod's daughter Lisa Axelrod fulfilled his wishes by scattering his ashes below what was remaining of the wall of Old League Park in a private ceremony. Max wanted his final resting place to be where his business and love of the game first started. The City of Cleveland reopened the Old League Park to the public on August 23, 2014 as the Baseball Heritage Museum and Fannie Lewis Community Park at League Park.Tim Warinskey, "League Park reopens to a historic appreciation, beautiful restoration and hopeful future". (August 24, 2014
League Park Reopens
City of Cleveland Website. It features murals of the great Cleveland League and Negro league players who worked with Axelrod.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Axelrod, Max 1911 births Businesspeople from Cleveland 20th-century American Jews American people of Russian-Jewish descent 2004 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews