Moses J. Gries

He spent the next two years studying in New York City, and when he was thirteen he was successfully accepted into Hebrew Union College.

When he was twenty-one, he graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Letters degree and was ordained a rabbi by Hebrew Union College.

A charter member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he served as assistant secretary from 1893 to 1894, treasurer from 1909 to 1911, vice-president from 1911 to 1913, and president from 1913 to 1915.

Politically progressive and active in religious affairs, he was a founder of the Citizens League of Cleveland, the Council Educational Alliance in 1899, and the Federation of Jewish Charities in 1903.

He protested pogroms and urged aid for Eastern European Jewish immigrants, but he was removed from them and denounced Zionism.