In 1888, Moses E. Miller began offering interest-free loans to Cincinnati’s Jewish community, a Torah-inspired act of kindness. Five years later, with four friends, he incorporated the Gemilos Chesed Society as a non-profit organization “to afford temporary monetary assistance to deserving people without interest or other reward or recompense.”

On his yahrzeit in 1949, Miller’s children honored his memory with a monetary gift to perpetuate the Gemilos Chesed Society he founded, and in 1962, his family honored him again by renaming it the Moses E. Miller Hebrew Free Loan Society.

Through the generations, Miller’s family continued the mission. His son-in-law, Dr. Joseph Katz, ran the organization for years, followed by his children, Drs. Aaron and Elmer Katz.

When Elmer died in 2005, the program ceased operation. In 2019, a group of Moses Miller’s great-grandchildren decided it was time for this generation to renew the proud tradition Moses Miller started.

Today the Moses E. Miller Hebrew Free Loan Society is one of the few family-run Hebrew free loan organizations in the US.