Category: Immigration and Ethnicity

NOVY SVET (New World) was organized 16 Sept. 1950 to provide Cleveland with a Czech-language daily newspaper after the demise of the SVET-AMERICAN. Edited by John Kratky and Anton Sustr, it was first located at 12020 Mayfield Rd.

The ON LEONG TONG, also known as the Chinese Merchants Assn., has served the local Chinese-American community as a bank, welfare agency, mutual benefit society, cultural preservation group, and trade association. First established in New York in 1904, the Cleveland branch was formed in 1910. By 1916 it established headquarters in the city's Chinatown, moving to a new facility at 2150 Rockwell Ave. in 1930.

ORLANDO BAKING CO., headquartered in Cleveland, is the largest wholesale specialty bakery between New York and Chicago. The company traces its origins to a bakery of the same name which opened in Castel di Sangro, Italy, in 1872.

O’DONNELL, KEVIN (June 9, 1925 - February 29 2012) was president and CEO of SIFCO INDUSTRIES, INC. and served as Director of the Peace Corps of the United States of America.  

PALESTINIANS. See ARAB-AMERICANS.

PERK, RALPH J. (19 Jan. 1914-21 Apr. 1999) a Depression-era ice peddler who organized and headed the American Nationalities Movement rose to the city's highest office with the support of blue collar, ethnic voters. He was born in Cleveland to Mary B. (Smirt) and Joseph C. Perk, a tailor.

PIEN, WEI TIEN (10 July 1926 - 2 April 1999) was a leader in Greater Cleveland's CHINESE-American community (See ) and a physician who ran a family medical practice. He was born in Mukden, Manchuria,, in the northeast corner of China, to Xing-Ling (Shao) and Pei-Bing Pien. After graduating from medical school in Mukden in the late 1940s, Dr.

POLES. Poles formed one of Cleveland's largest nationality groups in the 20th century and had an important influence on the city, particularly during its period of heavy industrial growth.

POLISH DAILY NEWS. See WIADOMOSCI CODZIENNE.

PRIMO VINO, which opened on April 15, 1982, was a restaurant that both epitomized and catalyzed Little Italy’s growth as a major dining and entertainment district in Greater Cleveland during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

The PUERTO RICAN FRIENDLY DAY PARADE OF GREATER CLEVELAND first began in 1969.

PUERTO RICANS. See HISPANIC COMMUNITY.

REILLY, RAYMOND J. (October 22, 1935 - February 20, 2003) was the “guiding force” of Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade for decades. The grandson of Irish immigrants, Raymond Reilly was born in Cleveland to John and Mary (Gibbons) Reilly. He was given the nickname “Rip” by his sister due to his unruly behavior as a child; the name stuck for the rest of his life.

RIDNA SHKOLA (School of Ukrainian Studies) in Cleveland originally was organized by members of the Prosvita and supporters of the Ukrainian youth organization Plast (scouts) in 1950. It opened under the direction of Mrs. Mychajlyna Stavnycha at SS. Peter & Paul Parish on W. 7th St. There were 27 students and a limited curriculum.

ROMANI (or ROMA) are a people with origins in northern India, and later, Europe, historically known for being a nomadic itinerant group.

ROMANIANS. Among the new Southern and East European immigrants coming to Cleveland in the late 1800s were an increasing number of ethnic Romanians, most from the province of Transylvania, at that time part of Austria-Hungary. Other Cleveland Romanians came from the province of Bucovina on the Polish and Russian borders, also part of Austria-Hungary before WORLD WAR I.

RUSSIANS. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian community of Greater Cleveland and Cuyahoga County has grown substantially.