Benjamin F. Peixotto
Benjamin Franklin Peixotto (November 13, 1834 – September 18, 1890) was a Jewish-American lawyer and diplomat. Life Peixotto was born on November 13, 1834, in New York City, New York, the son of Dutch immigrant and physician Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto and Rachel M. Sexias. His siblings included teacher Judith Salzedo Peixotto and merchant Raphael Peixotto. Peixotto moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was two after his father accepted a position at Willoughby Medical College. He left with his family in 1841, but he returned to Cleveland when he was thirteen. He entered the retail business with George A. Davis in the 1850s, and in 1855 the two founded the Hebrew Benevolent Society (which Peixotto was secretary of). He became an editorial writer for The Plain Dealer in 1856, although he left the paper in 1862 due to its Copperhead sympathies. In 1860, he founded the Young Men's Hebrew Literary Society, which he convinced to affiliate with B'nai B'rith as the Montefiore Lodge in 1864. In 1863, he helped found the first B'nai B'rith lodge in Cincinnati. When he was twenty-nine, he was elected Grand Saar of the national B'nai B'rith, a position he held for four years. He helped