The Ambassador in Avondale, Ohio: Jewish Discrimination in Two Directions

View of the Ambassador from Gholson Ave. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

Photograph courtesy of Ohio State Historic Preservation Office.

The Ambassador in Avondale, Ohio is a court apartment building designed in a Mediterranean Revival style. In 1929, Jewish immigrant Julius Lipsky built The Ambassador in response to a middle-class movement away from Downtown Cincinnati. Jewish Cincinnatians were part of this exodus. Many resettled in the Avondale neighborhood. These Jewish community members often chose, and later left, Avondale because of discrimination. However, this discrimination went in two directions. While some white Christian Cincinnatians targeted the Jewish community, some Jewish Cincinnatians discriminated against their Black neighbors.

A Question to Consider

What larger patterns brought you to your current neighborhood?

Migrating to Avondale

Though the Ambassador apartment building is only a sentence in Jewish Cincinnati’s long story, it shows the community’s relationship with discrimination, migration, and assimilation. We can trace these themes to Julius Lipsky (1897-1983), the building’s original owner. His family immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1906.

Like many European countries, Russia has a long history of hostility and violence toward its Jewish inhabitants. For example, Russian Jews could not own property or have certain jobs. Jewish communities in Russia also suffered pogroms, or large-scale antisemitic violence. These attacks occurred for centuries. They were common through the early 20th century when Lipsky's family left Russia. In the comparatively welcoming city of Cincinnati, Lipsky became a successful businessman. He eventually owned a grocery, saloon, and four tenement houses. In 1929, he opened The Ambassador apartments.

Lipsky’s building marked the first chapter of large-scale Jewish migration from Cincinnati's center to its suburbs. He built The Ambassador in Avondale, a wealthy town just outside Cincinnati’s center. Upper-middle class Jews came to Avondale as early as 1890. They were unwelcome in other affluent neighborhoods like Clifton and Hyde Park. There, Gentlemen’s Agreements kept Jews from moving in. Gentlemen’s Agreements are informal. Real estate agents and landlords refuse to sell to specific groups in a neighborhood. Also, formal tactics legally prevented Jewish people from buying or renting homes. Restrictive covenants are one example. They are agreements in a house’s deed that keep an owner from selling a house to specific people.

Significant Jewish migration to Avondale did not begin until the 1920s. Cincinnati’s Jewish middle-class grew and streetcar routes expanded. The Ambassador catered to these trends. The apartment building was more affordable than the large, single-family homes already in Avondale. But it still offered light, space, and other amenities.

Learn More About the Migration

Map of Jewish migration from Cincinnati’s central city to its suburbs. The first Jewish hub in the city was the central business district. It is closest to the Ohio River. The next hub was the West End from about 1900-1925. Moving further away from the river, much of Cincinnati's Jewish community went from the West End to Avondale where they largely stayed from 1926-1950. From around 1951-1970, much of the community moved from Avondale to the Roselawn Cluster. The movement from the Roselawn Cluster diverges. One group went to the large Northeast Cluster beginning in about 1971. At the same time, another group moved to Northwest Cluster.

Changing Demographics

From the 1920s until World War II (WWII), around 60% of Avondale’s population was Jewish. Synagogues, kosher butchers, and traditional bakeries lined its streets. After WWII, Jewish residents began leaving Avondale. Some young Jewish families moved deeper in the suburbs as they searched for newer houses. (See map of Jewish migration.) Other Jewish residents moved out after more Black neighbors moved in.

White movement away from cities into suburbs is called “white flight.” In this instance, white flight is a loaded term. In detail, white Christian society often discriminated against Jewish people, especially in housing. Informal agreements, contracts, and hateful language harmed Jewish buyers and renters. For example, an apartment building in Cincinnati displayed a dehumanizing sign saying, “No Jews or Dogs Allowed”[1]. Such housing discrimination was not unique to American Jews.

Black and Jewish Cincinnatians shared similar housing struggles. They both faced Gentlemen’s Agreements and restrictive covenants. The director of Cincinnati’s Jewish Community Council (CJCC) noted these connections. He also saw some clear differences. Jewish Cincinnatians could live in public housing without such racial restrictions. Black Cincinnatians could not. He found that “Jews can usually find residence in any quarter of the city” [2]. Black Cincinnatians could not. Realtors kept them from moving into neighborhoods without a Black population.

Avondale was one of the few suburbs Black Cincinnatians could move to. There were Black families as early as 1848. In the 1930s, the city government pushed Black residents out of their homes in Cincinnati’s West End. Some displaced Black West Enders moved into Jewish parts of Avondale. This change helped trigger Jewish flight from the neighborhood.

Seeing Jewish flight from Avondale, the CJCC held an event. The event was meant to convince Jewish neighbors to stay as Black neighbors moved in. In addition to the event, the CJCC distributed resources about integration. A notable resource is a poster titled, “Neighbor, where are you running to?” The poster was distributed to Jewish neighbors in Avondale. It was meant to convince them to stay as “all men are entitled to decent homes” and “nobody wants to be forced into a ghetto.”[3] The CJCC's actions show how some parts of Cincinnati’s Jewish community challenged their prejudice. They did this by relating to a common experience of exclusion. Regardless, many of Avondale’s Jewish residents left by 1970.

Jewish Discrimination, Jewish Assimilation

After leaving Avondale, Jewish Cincinnatians created a new Jewish community in Roselawn. Almost two-thirds of Cincinnati’s Jewish population lived there by 1970. As time wore on, Jewish residents moved further into the suburbs once again. This shift was likely because of believed “decline” in Roselawn schools as they became increasingly Black [4].

Jewish Cincinnatians could move further into the suburbs because of assimilation. Assimilation is when cultural practices change to fit within a dominant culture. Cincinnati’s Jewish population no longer needed nearby cultural spaces because of assimilation. For example, fewer Cincinnati Jews kept Kosher. Demand for neighborhood Kosher butcher shops thus decreased. Assimilation also connected to acceptance. Jewish people were more welcome in non-Jewish neighborhoods as they assimilated.

Suburban spread changed Jewish Cincinnati. Jewish institutions moved from Avondale and Roselawn to deeper suburbs like Amberley Village. Yet Jewish Cincinnatians have moved further out than their religious institutions. Many Jewish residents now live in neighborhoods without Jewish institutions. Generally, they must drive to take part in religious life.

A Personal Perspective on Place: Rosalyn Friedman

Rosalyn (Roz) Friedman grew up in Avondale, the same neighborhood as the Ambassador. Upon starting high school in 1954, her family moved to a street that was half in Roselawn and half in Springfield Township (Edgemont). Roz has lived in her Edgemont home ever since. Moving from Avondale to the Roselawn area was not unique to Roz’s family, but staying was.

Roz’s story and that of the Ambassador are entangled with the history of Jewish Cincinnati. As you listen, consider how both stories frame the ways in which people impact neighborhoods: How are they the same and how are they different?

• Rosalyn Friedman Audio Clip

  
  

  This audio clip comes from an interview between Rosalyn Friedman and Maya Goldenberg. The interview was recorded on June 29th, 2024. It was edited for clarity and continuity. The views expressed in this clip are those of Rosalyn Friedman and do not represent the views of the National Park Service. Music track “Lissa” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue), acquired under Creative Commons.

  Credit / Author:

  Maya Goldenberg

  Date created:

  06/29/2024

  Audio Transcript

  Roz: [00:00:01] UPBEAT MUSIC IN BACKGROUND: My name is Rosalyn Friedman. I am 86 years old. I grew up in Amberly until until I was 16. Then my family moved to Springfield Township, which is on a street that is half in the city and half out. The half that is in the city is called Roselawn. My area is called Edgemont. [00:00:19][18.4]

  Roz: [00:00:28] MUSIC ENDS: My parents were born here. My grandparents came to the United States, and they they did what everybody else did. They were escaping from pogroms and revolutions. And my grandfather didn't want to go into the stars army. My mother had nine siblings, so four were born here, six were still in Europe, and her father came here, like in 1900 or something, and he worked to bring them here. It took six years. And they came that way, came through Ellis Island, I believe. So my mother was born in Cincinnati, my father in Dayton. My mother's sister set them up. She was living or working in Dayton, and she set them up. And as soon as people who--she was born in the West End, probably downtown--but as soon as people had cars, they moved up to the suburbs. And the first suburb was Avondale. That was the first one we went to, everybody went to. Some may have gone other places, but most of the people I think went there. And I did live in Avondale. [00:01:23][54.8]

  Roz: [00:01:25] Avondale was all Jewish people on my street. I went to school. My friends were Jewish. See, I lived in a very in there. It was all Jewish people. The big change for me came when I went to Walnut Hills. That's where a big change in my life came, because at Walnut hills you were going with people from all over the city. It wasn't a territorial school. And so I was mixing with people who came from very wealthy families. And they they were like third generation college people. I was first generation. They were very, uh as I said, they came from private schools. So it was a whole different thing, but that that's a good thing. That was very good because it was a highly motivational school. You strive to be a straight-A student because everybody wanted to go to Ivy League colleges. I knew I wasn't going to an Ivy League college, but th e atmosphere there was totally different. And so it was no longer a Jewish atmosphere. It was a mixed atmosphere that was part of it, that I was going to be going to Walnut Hills, so I had to move somewhere else. [00:02:25][60.0]

  Roz: [00:02:26] So we moved to Springfield Township. Our street is divided in half. Half of it is Roselawn. My half is Springfield Township, and the name of the area within Springfield Township is Edgemont. But, I don't know why all different people moved from Avondale. People had different reasons. M y Street was all Jewish. It was apartments and houses. And then one by one, I guess they started to move. And there was a woman named Helen Ehooden. And she, in the 1960s was, trying to break that color barrier in the Avondale area. And she had been a victim of anti-Semitism in Norwood, where she grew up. And she became known for trying to sell houses to black people. And that was how it really started with her. She really started all that in Avondale. And then it went on. She had been in it very much of a, human rights activist, and she just thought that the black people should have a place to live in that that time they were pretty much stuck in, downtown, I guess West End. And some real estate people did not want to sell to her. I mean, take her on for because, they knew that she would try to sell it to black people. So a lot of people, you know, there was a lot of controversy about that. I remember hearing that. By then, I was already gone. I was, 1956, I was in Springfield Township, but I always heard about it. And at the time when I heard that, I figured, "That must be a nasty woman. Look what she's doing" because she caused so many problems from that. The white flight. So that was, I think it's, I had always heard that she had started it. I didn't know her personally or anything, but, I realize now and later that that was not the case. [00:04:11][105.4]

  Roz: [00:04:12] She really, genuinely believed in open housing, and she became the first president of Housing Opportunities Made Equal. She was successful in that class action against the practice of steering homebuyers to areas by race. This all happened in that area. And, she handled deals for black families buying homes in white neighborhoods. Well, when other realtors would not. So there it was, the fact that people started moving away from Avondale and then Roseland and from Roseland. They went on into their out in the far northeast right now. Yeah, some people needed more space, but I'm not sure that was the main reason. They were moving because they were afraid of black people. I knew some people that lived on one of those nice streets and one time, and I was probably, I don't know how old I was when I heard this, but I overheard some things about they were having a meeting on that street of people that I knew, because I think it was the state treasurer, Ken Blackwell, had moved on to their street with his wife, who was the superintendent of public education, and they were having some secret meetings to decide what they should do. Well, nobody moved away, I have to tell you that. I just thought when I heard about it, I thought to myself, was Senator Blackwell or State Treasurer Blackwell. He traded down when he came to your street, I'll tell you. But the street had very they had nice people. There were doctors on the street. There were people of affluent people. They just were afraid of a black person moving into the neighborhood. And that made me so crazy. You see, I have this feeling. I can't take that. But that's the kind of thing you were facing. People having little secret meetings on their streets. I mean, you know, it didn't happen where I was living, but I see it's a little bit complicated because in in Edgemont, where I live, the people didn't move away because of black people. They they died. All the people that were there when we moved in had passed away eventually. And so that and the children got married and moved on. That is really what happened to the people in my area. And we were still there. We happened to still be there. But we're half black and have white right now, those 12 houses that I mentioned because all the people died, moved away. As far as the rest of the streets, I don't know. [00:06:26][134.4]

  Roz: [00:06:27] What one time the lady from our city synagogue, and this is really long time ago, I never before I noticed any problems that people talk about. We were at some kind of big event. I don't know, it was at UC or someplace. And, I think it was a Jewish event of some sort. And this lady came over to me. She goes, "Where do you live?" Now I know her from the synagogue, vaguely. And I told her, she said, "Well, aren't you afraid?" I said, "Afraid of what?" And I gotten that question many times. I have. There was another lady, I don't know if she went to our synagogue, but I saw her one day at one of the bar mitzvahs or something, and she came over and she said, "Do you still live there?" Like there was some where I was living in Hell or something, and I said, "Yes, until the day I die." I would get ask a lot of questions, but I think it all comes boils--if I had to tell you what it boils down to, it boils down to having self-confidence. If you're self-confident, you don't have to worry about anything in this world. [00:07:24][56.6]

  [00:07:24] UPBEAT MUSIC RESUMES AND FADES OUT.

Transcript

Roz: [00:00:01] UPBEAT MUSIC IN BACKGROUND: My name is Rosalyn Friedman. I am 86 years old. I grew up in Amberly until until I was 16. Then my family moved to Springfield Township, which is on a street that is half in the city and half out. The half that is in the city is called Roselawn. My area is called Edgemont. [00:00:19][18.4]

Roz: [00:00:28] MUSIC ENDS: My parents were born here. My grandparents came to the United States, and they they did what everybody else did. They were escaping from pogroms and revolutions. And my grandfather didn't want to go into the stars army. My mother had nine siblings, so four were born here, six were still in Europe, and her father came here, like in 1900 or something, and he worked to bring them here. It took six years. And they came that way, came through Ellis Island, I believe. So my mother was born in Cincinnati, my father in Dayton. My mother's sister set them up. She was living or working in Dayton, and she set them up. And as soon as people who--she was born in the West End, probably downtown--but as soon as people had cars, they moved up to the suburbs. And the first suburb was Avondale. That was the first one we went to, everybody went to. Some may have gone other places, but most of the people I think went there. And I did live in Avondale. [00:01:23][54.8]

Roz: [00:01:25] Avondale was all Jewish people on my street. I went to school. My friends were Jewish. See, I lived in a very in there. It was all Jewish people. The big change for me came when I went to Walnut Hills. That's where a big change in my life came, because at Walnut hills you were going with people from all over the city. It wasn't a territorial school. And so I was mixing with people who came from very wealthy families. And they they were like third generation college people. I was first generation. They were very, uh as I said, they came from private schools. So it was a whole different thing, but that that's a good thing. That was very good because it was a highly motivational school. You strive to be a straight-A student because everybody wanted to go to Ivy League colleges. I knew I wasn't going to an Ivy League college, but th e atmosphere there was totally different. And so it was no longer a Jewish atmosphere. It was a mixed atmosphere that was part of it, that I was going to be going to Walnut Hills, so I had to move somewhere else. [00:02:25][60.0]

Roz: [00:02:26] So we moved to Springfield Township. Our street is divided in half. Half of it is Roselawn. My half is Springfield Township, and the name of the area within Springfield Township is Edgemont. But, I don't know why all different people moved from Avondale. People had different reasons. M y Street was all Jewish. It was apartments and houses. And then one by one, I guess they started to move. And there was a woman named Helen Ehooden. And she, in the 1960s was, trying to break that color barrier in the Avondale area. And she had been a victim of anti-Semitism in Norwood, where she grew up. And she became known for trying to sell houses to black people. And that was how it really started with her. She really started all that in Avondale. And then it went on. She had been in it very much of a, human rights activist, and she just thought that the black people should have a place to live in that that time they were pretty much stuck in, downtown, I guess West End. And some real estate people did not want to sell to her. I mean, take her on for because, they knew that she would try to sell it to black people. So a lot of people, you know, there was a lot of controversy about that. I remember hearing that. By then, I was already gone. I was, 1956, I was in Springfield Township, but I always heard about it. And at the time when I heard that, I figured, "That must be a nasty woman. Look what she's doing" because she caused so many problems from that. The white flight. So that was, I think it's, I had always heard that she had started it. I didn't know her personally or anything, but, I realize now and later that that was not the case. [00:04:11][105.4]

Roz: [00:04:12] She really, genuinely believed in open housing, and she became the first president of Housing Opportunities Made Equal. She was successful in that class action against the practice of steering homebuyers to areas by race. This all happened in that area. And, she handled deals for black families buying homes in white neighborhoods. Well, when other realtors would not. So there it was, the fact that people started moving away from Avondale and then Roseland and from Roseland. They went on into their out in the far northeast right now. Yeah, some people needed more space, but I'm not sure that was the main reason. They were moving because they were afraid of black people. I knew some people that lived on one of those nice streets and one time, and I was probably, I don't know how old I was when I heard this, but I overheard some things about they were having a meeting on that street of people that I knew, because I think it was the state treasurer, Ken Blackwell, had moved on to their street with his wife, who was the superintendent of public education, and they were having some secret meetings to decide what they should do. Well, nobody moved away, I have to tell you that. I just thought when I heard about it, I thought to myself, was Senator Blackwell or State Treasurer Blackwell. He traded down when he came to your street, I'll tell you. But the street had very they had nice people. There were doctors on the street. There were people of affluent people. They just were afraid of a black person moving into the neighborhood. And that made me so crazy. You see, I have this feeling. I can't take that. But that's the kind of thing you were facing. People having little secret meetings on their streets. I mean, you know, it didn't happen where I was living, but I see it's a little bit complicated because in in Edgemont, where I live, the people didn't move away because of black people. They they died. All the people that were there when we moved in had passed away eventually. And so that and the children got married and moved on. That is really what happened to the people in my area. And we were still there. We happened to still be there. But we're half black and have white right now, those 12 houses that I mentioned because all the people died, moved away. As far as the rest of the streets, I don't know. [00:06:26][134.4]

Roz: [00:06:27] What one time the lady from our city synagogue, and this is really long time ago, I never before I noticed any problems that people talk about. We were at some kind of big event. I don't know, it was at UC or someplace. And, I think it was a Jewish event of some sort. And this lady came over to me. She goes, "Where do you live?" Now I know her from the synagogue, vaguely. And I told her, she said, "Well, aren't you afraid?" I said, "Afraid of what?" And I gotten that question many times. I have. There was another lady, I don't know if she went to our synagogue, but I saw her one day at one of the bar mitzvahs or something, and she came over and she said, "Do you still live there?" Like there was some where I was living in Hell or something, and I said, "Yes, until the day I die." I would get ask a lot of questions, but I think it all comes boils--if I had to tell you what it boils down to, it boils down to having self-confidence. If you're self-confident, you don't have to worry about anything in this world. [00:07:24][56.6]

[00:07:24] UPBEAT MUSIC RESUMES AND FADES OUT.

How does the Ambassador Matter?

Jews like Lipsky migrated to the U.S. from places where they experienced severe discrimination. As white Christian neighborhoods could exclude Jewish people, discrimination affected Jewish migration inside the U.S. too. However, Jewish migration inside the U.S. was not a simple story in which Jews only experienced discrimination. As they became more assimilated, some discriminated against others. For example, many Cincinnati Jewish community members moved away from increasingly Black neighborhoods.

With all this information in mind, why does the Ambassador matter? It is not only a prime example of a Mediterranean Revival style Court Apartment building. The Ambassador also shows the complicated relationship between Jewish migration and discrimination during the early 20th century. American Jews could both experience and participate in discrimination. There is enough space in history to hold both truths.

---

This article was written by Maya Goldenberg, a NCPE Intern at the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, through a cooperative agreement with the National Council of Preservation Education.

Notes and Bibliography

Notes

[1] Charles Posner to Arnold Forster, “Annual Survey on Housing,” 18 June 1951, MS-202, Box No.19, Folder 5, Jewish Community Relations Council (Cincinnati, OH) Records, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH. 

[2] Ibid. 

[3] “Neighbor, Where Are You Running To?” [poster], MS-202, Box No.19, Folder 5, Jewish Community Relations Council (Cincinnati, OH) Records, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH. 

[4] D. P. Varady, S.J. Mantel Jr., C. Hinitz-Washofsky, and H. Halpern, “Suburbanization and Dispersion: A Case Study of Cincinnati’s Jewish Population,” Geographical Research Forum, no. 3 (May 3, 1981): 10. 

Bibliography

Almendarez, Jolene. “Revisiting Roselawn’s Time as a Booming Jewish Community.” WVXU, June 7, 2021. https://www.wvxu.org/community/2021-06-07/revisiting-roselawns-time-as-a-booming-jewish-community. 

Giglierano, Geoffrey J., and Deborah A. Overmyer. The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Historical Society, 1988. 

Hussein-Wetzel, Deqah. “Avondale Neighborhood: A Neighborhood with a Rich Black and Jewish History.” Cincinnati Sites and Stories. Cincinnati Preservation Association, 2021. https://stories.cincinnatipreservation.org/items/show/43. 

Jackson, Eric. “West End Neighborhood: A Dense African American Neighborhood That Experienced One of the Most Devastating Mid-Century Urban Renewal Transformations in the Country.” Cincinnati Sites and Stories. Cincinnati Preservation Association, n.d. https://stories.cincinnatipreservation.org/items/show/35. 

Marcus, Jacob R. [Invitation to Community Relations Meeting.] Jewish Community Relations Council (Cincinnati, OH) Records. Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH. 

McTurner, Bobbie, and Beth Sullebarger. “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: The Ambassador.” NPGallery. National Parks Service, May 14, 2014. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=0180ac09-9369-4a27-b3a4-301f139a8d20. 

Posner, Charles. “Annual Survey on Housing.” Jewish Community Relations Council (Cincinnati, OH) Records. Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH. 

Varady, D. P., S.J. Mantel Jr., C. Hinitz-Washofsky, and H. Halpern. “Suburbanization and Dispersion: A Case Study of Cincinnati’s Jewish Population.” Geographical Research Forum, no. 3 (May 3, 1981): 5–15.