| Office@GreenRoadSynagogue.org |
About Our Community
Cleveland is a wonderful place to live. We have an excellent selection of Jewish schools from infant care through high school. There are many kosher restaurants and museums. And it is one of the most affordable Jewish communities to live in anywhere in the world.
We are very proud to call ourselves Clevelanders. Cleveland is a warm and open community. There is a large Jewish population, with the majority among Conservative and Reform Jews. But the Orthodox community is not small. We have many choices for Shuls, Schools, and kosher food. We are also very proud to be part of the Greater Cleveland Jewish community as we all get along across the Jewish spectrum with joint events and communal concerns.
Our local Jewish organizations offer any service that you could imagine. From the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, the Jewish Family Services Association (JFSA), to the many other local chapters of national and international organizations, we are well covered. We also offer some of the finest medical care in the world. We not only have the Cleveland Clinic, but we also have its competition down the street at University Hospitals.
The best way to experience our community is to come and visit us for a Shabbat. Please email us at office@GreenRoadSynagogue.org or call us at 216-381-4757 to learn more.
History
Green Road Synagogue, one of Greater Cleveland’s largest Orthodox congregations, traces its origins to a handful of immigrants from Marmaresher Sziger, Hungary, who established the Marmaresher B’nai Jacob Society in the Woodland neighborhood in 1910.
The members of the self-help society rented a room at E. 26th St. and Woodland Ave. in that same year and held religious services. In 1912 they purchased a building at E. 25the St. near Woodland. The congregation moved to a rented building at E. 30th St. and Scovill in 1920. In May 1922, the congregation incorporated as the First Marmaresher B’nai Jacob Congregation.
Although it was not a large congregation, it purchased a brick building in Glenville in 1922 from the Cleveland Jewish Center in order to serve those members who had moved out of the Woodland neighborhood. The following year, the congregation hired its first rabbi, Meyer Leifer, a graduate of the Huszr Seminary in Hungary.
The Woodland branch of the congregation moved to E. 61st St. and Woodland Ave. in 1922 and remained there until 1932, when the property was sold and the membership joined the Glenville branch. Reflecting the broadening of activities sponsored by synagogues during this era, the congregation changed its name to Anshe Marmaresher Congregation in 1937 and was popularly known as the Marmaresher Jewish Center. Following the move of Jews out of Glenville after World War II, Anshe Marmaresher relocated to a building on Lancashire Rd. in the Heights.
As the Orthodox community settled between Taylor Road and Green Road in the 1960s, another move became imminent. With a loan from the Heights Jewish Center, Anshe Marmaresher purchased property on Green Road, and in 1972 dedicated a new synagogue. Recognizing that it was no longer a landsman congregation and following the lead of other congregations that adopted names based on their street location, the congregation became known as the Green Road Synagogue.
From the Cleveland Jewish Archives, Western Reserve Historical Society.