Park Synagogue

The Park Synagogue Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo congregation, is a Cleveland area Conservative synagogue with campuses in Cleveland Heights and Pepper Pike. It is one of the oldest Jewish congregations in Ohio. Rabbi Joshua Skoff is in his 27th year as spiritual leader.

The Park Synagogue has its origins in two Orthodox Jewish congregations: Anshe Emet and Beth Tefilo congregations. Anshe Emeth was founded in 1869 by Polish Jews who lived originally in downtown Cleveland. By 1888, disagreements among congregants over the synagogue's direction led some members to leave and form a Reform congregation. In 1903, the remaining members built a new synagogue at Woodland and 55th Street. Yet by 1917, Cleveland's Jews began relocating eastward, which led Anshe Emeth's leadership to merge with Beth Tefilo, and under the leadership of Rabbi Samuel Benjamin the combined congregation bought land at the southeast corner of East 105th Street and Drexel Avenue for the new Cleveland Jewish Center which began construction in 1920, relocating from E 37th St and Woodland Ave. to a newly constructed building. Until its shift in affiliation from Orthodox to Conservative Judaism in the mid 1920s, Anshe Emeth was the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in Cleveland.

Upon completion in 1922, with its extensive facilities, was named the Cleveland Jewish Center and the synagogue quickly became a focal point of Jewish life. In addition to a synagogue, the Center had a ballroom, a recreation center, and an indoor swimming pool. At this time, under the leadership of Rabbi Solomon Goldman, the congregation transitioned from an Orthodox to a Conservative Jewish orientation.

The change of orientation proved highly controversial for many members. Among the changes, women and men were allowed to sit together and the selling of Aliyot was forbidden. Threats were made against the rabbi; legal action was mounted, which was appealed all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, that refused to hear the case. The rabbi who championed the changes, Rabbi Goldman, left the Cleveland Jewish Center in 1929 to assume another pulpit, that of the Anshe Emet Synagogue in Lakeview, Illinois where he established himself as a well-respected leader. To replace Rabbi Goldman the congregation called upon a gentle and scholarly man as their spiritual leader to heal the divisions. Rabbi Harry S Dawidowitz led the Jewish Center for 5 years, until he decided to move his family to Palestine in 1934.

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