Finding aid for the Beth Israel - The West Temple Records

History of Beth Israel - The West Temple

Beth Israel - The West Temple was organized by twenty-five families in April 1954 to provide a religious center for reform Jews living on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio. The congregation's first service, Rosh Hashanah, was held September 27, 1954, at the First Universalist Church in North Olmstead. For the next four years religious services were held at either the Universalist Church or the North Olmstead Community Club House. In October 1957, Beth Israel effected a merger with the West Side Jewish Center, formerly B'nai Israel, a conservative congregation, and at that time the only other congregation serving west side Jews. The West Side Jewish Center had initiated a building fund drive in the early 1950s and construction of a synagogue began in 1953. The $150,000 building at 14308 Triskett Road was completed following the merger with Beth Israel and was dedicated in May 1958. The congregation continues to occupy that site.

During its first seven years, Beth Israel was served by a succession of six student rabbis from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. One of them, Daniel Litt, became the congregation's first full-time permanent rabbi in 1961 and remained on the pulpit for four years. The first student rabbi at Beth Israel, David Rose, returned to the congregation as rabbi in 1977 and served in that capacity through the early 1980s. In March 1961, a Social Action Committee was formed at Beth Israel. Its objectives, formally established in July 1962, were to promote interfaith understanding, unify the Jewish community around issues of Jewish interest, fight sectarianism in the public schools, and study anti-Semitism in foreign countries. As an outgrowth of the latter objective, several members of the congregation founded the Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism (CCSAS). Lou Rosenblum and Abe Silverstein, members of the congregation and of the CCSAS, became leaders in the national movement to assist Soviet Jewry. Beth Israel provided office space for the CCSAS in March 1967 and it has been based there since then. Beth Israel experienced an expansion of its facilities in 1965 with the construction of a new eight-room, two-story school wing. Also in 1965, the Cleveland Foundation awarded the congregation library a $5,000 grant for book purchases to be expended over a five-year period. By the end of the grant period, the library contained over 3,000 titles and provided service for the congregation, high schools, and colleges on the west side. The West Side Jewish Center, the first congregation on the west side, was organized as B'nai Israel by ten families in 1910. The small orthodox congregation met in a rented hall at Lorain Avenue and Fulton Avenues until 1916 when it purchased a church at 45th Street and Bridge Avenue. In 1925, a synagogue was erected at 57th Street and Franklin Avenue, however, it was lost to foreclosure in 1932. In 1935 the 40-50 members purchased a house on John Avenue for $2,900 and held services there until 1953 when the congregation moved to temporary quarters at West 118th Street while a new synagogue was under construction. The new building was completed in 1958 after the merger with Beth Israel. In 1940, B'nai Israel formally incorporated as the West Side Jewish Center. For most of its existence religious services were conducted by lay leaders of the congregation. In 1953, the congregation applied to and was accepted by the United Synagogue of America, the national umbrella organization for Conservative Judaism. The merger with Beth Israel in 1957 took the one-time orthodox congregation into the reform movement. Beth Israel draws its members from Cleveland's west side and the western suburbs. Many of its early members were faculty from Baldwin-Wallace College and Cuyahoga Community College and employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Among the graduates of Beth Israel's religious school is Rabbi Sally Priesand, the first woman ordained to the rabbinate in the United States.

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Beth Israel - The West Temple

Scope and Content

The Beth Israel - The West Temple Records, 1923-1981 and undated, consist of correspondence, minutes, constitutions, by-laws, articles of incorporation, the agreement for consolidation, financial records, membership lists, bulletins, directories, legal documents, brochures, programs, newspaper clippings, building records, cemetery records and miscellany relating to Beth Israel - The West Temple and to the West Side Jewish Center.

This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of the Jewish community of Cleveland, Ohio, in the twentieth century, particularly the community residing on the west side of Cleveland and its western suburbs. The administrative, financial, and building records offer insight into the day-to-day operations of two synagogues, and the activity and publicity records document the projects and activities undertaken by the congregation members. Genealogists will find the membership and cemetery records particularly useful.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 4904 Beth Israel - The West Temple Records, Series II; MS 4011 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism Records; MS 5110 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism Records, Series II; PG 287 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism Photographs; and PG 577 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism Photographs, Series II.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3926 Beth Israel - The West Temple Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of Beth Israel - The West Temple in 1981.

Processing Information

Processed by Scott Cline in 1982.

Detailed Description of The Collection