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Jews and Judaism in Cleveland is the Jewish community in the Ohio Metro Area, Greater Cleveland. In 2012, the Jewish Population in Greater Cleveland was approximately 80,800. In July 1839, the first Jewish immigrant came to Cleveland from Europe. In the 21st Century, Ohio had a population of nearly 150,000 Jews and Greater Cleveland has over 50% of that.
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History
In 1839, the first Jewish immigrants came to Cleveland from Bavaria. The first Jewish Immigrant was a man named Simson Thorman. Within 25 years, the population of Jews grew to 1,200.
From the late 1800's and well into the 1950's, the vast majority of Jews lived in the inner city neighborhoods of Hough and Glenville. In 1920, the Jewish population grew up to 90,000.
By the 1940's, many Jews lived in Glenville, Hough, and the newly built Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights neighborhoods, often referred to as simply "Heights" by the Cleveland Jewish Community. There were dozens of synagogues spread throughout these neighborhoods, which were diverse in terms of wealth based class of Cleveland Jews. Glenville and Hough were older neighborhoods in the inner city with densely built tenement houses, while the Heights was considered a nicer place to live. E.105th Street in Cleveland was often referred to as "Yiddishe Downtown", or "Jewish Downtown". This is because the street corner was filled with high rise buildings, and hundreds of Jewish owned businesses.
By the 1950's and 1960's, the Jewish Community rapidly started to move to the newly developed suburbs of Cleveland Heights, University Heights, Shaker Heights, South Euclid, and Beachwood. This left the once historically Jewish Glenville neighborhood into a majorly African American neighborhood.
As of 2016, there are about 80,800 people, who mostly live in the eastern suburbs of Solon, Beachwood, Moreland Hills, Pepper Pike, Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, and Orange.
Community
In the Cleveland Jewish Community, there are 5 Jewish day schools, Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School, Gross Schecter Day School, Fuchs Mizrachi School, Mosdos Ohr Hatorah (recently renamed Yeshiva Derech HaTorah), and Hebrew Academy of Cleveland. There are 50 synagogues.
There is a chapter of The Jewish Learning Institute and Chabad.
There is one main Jewish newspaper, the Cleveland Jewish News. The population of the Cleveland Jewish Community is over 80,000. There is an overnight Jewish Summer Camp, Camp Wise, a camp of the Mandel JCC of Cleveland. There are over 1,000 Holocaust Survivors in Greater Cleveland. Most live in Beachwood, Cleveland Heights, Orange, Pepper Pike, Shaker Heights, Solon, South Euclid, and University Heights.
Cleveland is home to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, a museum dedicated to the teaching of Jewish heritage in Cleveland and throughout the world.
Soviet-Jewish Community
Cleveland is home to one of the largest Soviet-Jewish populations in the U.S, after New York City. Though the exact number of Soviet-Jews living in Cleveland is hard to find, it is estimated that 10,000-30,000 Soviet Jews reside in Greater Cleveland, most of whom live in Mayfield Heights, Solon, Beachwood, and Orange. Almost all Soviet immigrants to the U.S are Jewish, as only Jews were allowed to come to the U.S as refugees. Cleveland is also home to several Jewish owned Russian grocery stores, the largest being Yeleseyevsky Deli, as well as hundreds of Soviet-Jewish owned and Russian speaking businesses such as restaurants, retail stores, jewelers, pharmacies, and private warehouses.
In 1963, The Cleveland Council on Soviet Antisemitism was one of the first councils in the U.S that brought the attention of the lives of Jews living in the former Soviet Union, a time in which pogroms were common, Jews were discriminatorily marked as Jews on their documentation, and Jewish citizens of the USSR were commonly arrested for false or over-exaggerated crimes. (See Soviet Jewry Movement). The council's biggest attempt was not only to inform about antisemitism, but to bring in as many Jewish refugees from the former USSR as possible. Throughout the 1960's through the 1980's immigration was slow. But, with Mikhail Gorbachev's allowance of Jewish emigration in 1989, The Cleveland Jewish Community immediately resettled hundreds of Soviet-Jews in the Cleveland area, most of whom moved into apartments in Mayfield Heights, East Cleveland, and Cleveland Heights. Within a few years, the number of Soviet-Jewish refugees in Cleveland had risen to a few thousand, and by the late 1990's had reached about its current number of about 30,000.
Though Soviet-Jews started off poor in the U.S, many rapidly grew into the upper middle class. This particularly unusual case of immigrants becoming so rapidly successful is contributed to a mix of progressive Soviet education and employment in the sciences, engineering, doctoring, and literature, as well as with the help of the Cleveland Jewish Community with things such as childcare, employment finding, English classes at Cuyahoga Community College, and help with rent and housing.
Because a majority of Soviet-Jewish immigrants in the 1980's-1990's were of young couples, thousands of new families were started in the U.S, and bilingual English and Russian speaking kids are currently raised in Cleveland.
Furthermore, the bringing of Soviet-Jewish immigrants also brought a new wave of Yiddish speakers to Cleveland, an almost reverse effect than that of the Jewish community in the rest of the U.S. Yiddish is the second dominant language of Soviet Jews after Russian, especially for Jews coming from shtetls and cities with large historic Jewish populations in Ukraine and Belarus such as Odessa, Minsk, and Slavuta. Most Soviet Jews born before 1960 have some to full skills in speaking Yiddish.
Cleveland is also home to 2 predominantly Jewish Russian Newspapers, Russian Magazine and Prospect. The newspapers serve most Russians and Russian-Jews in Cleveland. Also, because of the extensive advertising for local Russian businesses, both newspapers are free and are issued to whoever orders a subscription. Russian Magazine celebrated its very successful 20th year of production in 2013. Both newspapers include sections of political news of the U.S, Russia, and other world news, anecdotes, and extensive advertisements for Russian speaking job openings, private practice Russian dentists and doctors, and Russian speaking restaurants and stores in the Cleveland area.
Jewish Teens In Cleveland
There are several Jewish youth group chapters in Greater Cleveland, including BBYO, USY, and NFTY.
Cleveland has one of the largest BBYO Regions in the world, the Ohio Northern Region #23. ONR BBYO has been a staple of Jewish teens in Cleveland since the 1950s, and has grown to the proud size it is today. With the average school year, ONR has approximately 500 members, with which they hold several annual conventions with the entire region. The Ohio Northern Region, based in Cleveland, has 17 different AZA and BBG Chapters.
Many synagogues in Cleveland offer many different programs for Jewish teens. Akiva Cleveland is a school in Beachwood that teaches Jewish teens with Hebrew lessons, learning about Israel, and other Judaics.
Orthodox Community
Cleveland is also home to a very large historic Orthodox Jewish community, centering in Cleveland Heights, South Euclid, and Beachwood. There are 15 Orthodox synagogues in Cleveland, several Orthodox Jewish schools, as well as the only Telshe Yeshiva in the world, one of the most important rabbinical colleges in the world. Cleveland is also home to dozens of kosher restaurants, delicatessens, caterers, as well as Orthodox owned clothing stores, jewelers, and several religious book stores. Some distinct areas with significant Orthodox Jewish populations are S. Taylor Road, and Cedar Road.
Notable people
The following list includes notable people from, who live, or who have lived in Greater Cleveland and are Jewish. This list also includes people who are not from Greater Cleveland but have lived or live in Greater Cleveland.