Category: Immigration and Ethnicity

UZBEKS. Uzbeks form a prominent and growing part of Greater Cleveland’s larger community of immigrants from the former USSR. They also comprise the largest Central Asian community in the metropolitan area. Before the 1990s, there was no Uzbek or Central Asian community in Cleveland.

VIETNAMESE. The Cleveland Vietnamese community is primarily made up of individuals and families who formerly were citizens of the Republic of South Vietnam. Some fled their native land to escape the violence which ravaged their war-torn homeland. Others left after the war had come to an end, to escape oppression at the hands of the victorious Communist regime which ultimately had gained control over their homeland.

VON BAEYER, ERIC (5 January 1909-2 February 1990) was a prominent physician who established the department of radiology at FAIRVIEW PARK HOSPITAL.

The VORWAERTS TURNER HALL was built at Willson and Harlem streets (1622 E. 55th) in 1893 by members of the Turnverein Vorwaerts, a German cultural and gymnastic group established on 18 May 1890.

WAECHTER UND ANZEIGER (The Sentinel & Advertiser) was Cleveland's longest-lived ethnic daily and one of the city's major newspapers in its own right. It began on 9 Aug. 1852 as Waechter am Erie (Sentinel on the Erie), a German weekly founded by Heinrich Rochette, Louis Ritter, and JACOB MUELLER.

WEISS NOODLE CO., a family-owned business which manufactured and marketed "Mrs. Weiss' Noodles" for over 70 years, was founded by Hungarian immigrants Gaspar and Bertha Weiss in 1923, who sold Bertha's homemade noodles to Cleveland's better restaurants. As sales increased, the company expanded operations several times before establishing a plant at 2101 Woodland Ave. in 1937.

WELSH. See BRITISH IMMIGRATION.

WELSH WOMEN'S CLUB OF CLEVELAND. See BRITISH IMMIGRATION.

WELSH WOMEN'S CLUB OF WEST CLEVELAND. See BRITISH IMMIGRATION.

WELSH, REV. ROBERT J., S.J. (June 6, 1936 - August 30, 2018) left his mark on multiple generations of students at ST. IGNATIUS HIGH SCHOOL, Cleveland’s Jesuit High School for young men.

WEST SIDE IRISH AMERICAN CLUB. See IRISH AMERICAN CLUB WEST SIDE.

The WESTERN FRATERNAL LIFE ASSN. is a Czech-American fraternal-benefit society based in Cedar Rapids, IA. Known until 1971 as the Western Bohemian Fraternal Assn., the organization was founded in 1897 by lodges of the Czech-Slavonic Benevolent Society which left that organization to form a new association that admitted women as equal members and based insurance premiums on the age of the policyholder.

WIADOMOSCI CODZIENNE (Polish Daily News) was founded in 1914 by S. A. Dangel and Paul Kurdziel. Cleveland's first Polish daily, it was an outgrowth of the weekly Narodowiec (Nationalist, 1909-14). Coming under the sole control of Kurdziel by 1921, it was edited by Thos. Siemiradski from 1918-37.

The WILHELM PLOTZ MACHINE & FORGE CO. is a family-operated manufacturing business. Now owned and managed by the 4th generation in 2005, the firm has been in operation since 1888. In April 1888, Wilhelm Ploetz (the "e" was later dropped), a German immigrant, opened Plotz Iron Works Water Street (W. 9th St.), north of the old Pennsylvania Railroad Depot. The firm did blacksmith work as well as tool and die making.

WOMEN'S WELSH CLUBS OF AMERICA. See WELSH HOME.

The WORKMEN'S CIRCLE, or Arbeiter Ring, is a secular Jewish fraternal organization founded to build a better world, foster cultural Jewishness, and offer friendships. Part of the national Workmen's Circle, started in 1900, the first Cleveland branch (#79) was chartered in 1904 to work for social legislation.

WZAK radio began broadcasting on 26 May 1963 as an ethnic radio station. Founders included Joseph and Elizabeth Bauer, who operated the station, and Xenophon Zapis. It was the first full-time ethnic radio station in Cleveland, and it offered programming in 17 foreign languages, including programs in Hungarian, German (hosted by the Bauers), Greek (hosted by Zapis), Arabic, and Hindi.

Die YIDDISHE VELT (Jewish World) was Cleveland's principal Yiddish-language newspaper for over 40 years. It had been preceded by the Yiddishe Tegliche Presse (Jewish Daily Press), founded on 1 May 1908 by SAMUEL ROCKER, Adolph Haas, and Jonas Gross. Rocker sold out 2 years later and then brought out the Jewish World in 1911.