Jews

Neighborhoods They Settled In: Downtown, St. Clair, Glenville, Mount Pleasant.

First Immigrants - Late 1830's

Five neighborhoods of Jews have been formed in Cleveland. Today the Jewish settlements extend in a crescent around Cleveland; appearing in eight eastern suburbs – Cleveland Heights, University Heights, Beachwood, Shaker Heights, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Heights, Pepper Pike and South Euclid. The first group to move to Cleveland were Protestants. Glenville and Mt. Pleasant-Kinsman were the last two predominantly Jewish communities in Cleveland, having replaced the Woodland-East 55^th Street area as the sections of the largest Jewish concentration.

In the 1840’s a small Jewish group founded the first synagogue on Eagle Street. The congregation split in 1850. The parent congregation remained at the Eagle Street location while the second group formed the Tifereth Israel Congregation in January, 1850.

List of churches:

Beth Israel – West Temple 14308 Triskett

B’Nai Israel Congregation – 1732 Lander

Brith Emeth – 27575 Shaker

Community Temple – 3557 Washington

Congregation Zemach Zedek 1922 Lee

Euclid Jewish Center E. 250^th and Lake Shore

Fairmount Temple 23737 Fairmount

Heights Jewish Center 14274 Superior

Marmarosher 2437 Green

Marmarosher 2728 Lancashire

Oer Chodosh Synagogue 3466 Washington

Park Synagogue 3300 Mayfield

Sinai Synagogue 3246 DeSota

Suburban Temple 22401 Chagrin

Taylor Road Synagogue 1970 So. Taylor

Temple Beth-El 15808 Chagrin

Temple Emanu el 2200 South Green

Temple Ner Tamid E. 250^th and Lake Shore

Temple on the Heights 3130 Mayfield

The Temple University Circle and Silver Park

Warrensville Center Synagogue 1508 Warrensville Center

Young Israel of Cleveland 14141 Cedar

1942 Report by the WPA:

The Jews are of all nationalities, but their distinctive religion and their similarity of racial origins establishes them as a group. Downtown office buildings, including the terminal tower now stand on the home sites of the early Jewish settlers. As Cleveland grew the Jews moved slowly eastward. The first Jewish families settled on Merwin Street in the Cuyahoga Valley. Later, many settled on Superior Street Hill, Lakeside Avenue, Ontario Street, and West 3^rd, 6^th, and 9^th Streets. As they moved eastward a large settlement developed along Woodland Avenue in the 1920s. The Woodland Avenue settlers were mostly German. Other German Jews settled on Orange Avenue and Bolivar Road. Bohemian Jews chose the area around E. 40^th Street and Orange Avenue. Hungarian Jews lived along St. Clair and Hamilton Avenues. These settlements all flourished before 1900. The Woodland Avenue settlement is the only one of the early settlements of which any trace remains. Since 1900 a few more settlements have formed. The oldest and largest is between St. Clair and Superior Avenues in the vicinity of E. 105^th. The second largest is in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, between E. 116^th and E. 154^th Street, centering around Kinsman Road. The third settlement is the so-called Superior True District. The neighborhood centers about E. 123^rd north of Superior and those streets that branch off of E. 123^rd Street. The Suburban Jewish neighborhoods are in Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and East Cleveland. There are three types of Jewish synagogues in Cleveland. The Orthodox, the Conservative and the Reformed. The largest is said to be Ohab Zedek at Parkwood Drive and Morrison Avenue. The three conservative congregations are the Jewish Center at 1117 E. 105^th, the Temple on the Heights at 3130 Mayfield Road, and Community Temple at 9801 Euclid Avenue. The two reformed congregations worship at the Temple at Ansel Road and E. 105^th Street and the Euclid Avenue Temple at 8206 Euclid Avenue.