From the beginning, Jewish immigrants were active in Chicago politics, with the first Jewish Alderman elected in 1856. Democrat William Loeffler who ran for City Clerk in 1899, was born in Bohemia in 1857. Moses Ernst Greenebaum helped run the Greenebaum Banking House that was established by his father, Elias Greenebaum, in 1877. Moses Ernst also served as president of Chicago Sinai Congregation from 1906 to 1932.