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   The Jewish Community of Cleveland by Rabbi Moses Gries

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This history of the Jewish community of Cleveland was written in 1910 by Rabbi Moses Gries of The Temple - Tifereth Israel. It was found online in the digital archives of Case Western Reserve University. The document is a large (8 Mb) and not easily read pdf file, created by scanning the a copy of this nearly 100 year old torn and repaired publication.

To create a smaller and yet more easily read document we have converted each page to an image and display all pages below. For the larger CWRU pdf document, which is suitable for text searching, click here.


Moses J Gries

Gries was The Temple's first American-born and Hebrew Union College trained rabbi. He came to the congregation in 1892 when he was only 24 years old and served 25 years, until 1917, when he was succeeded by Abba Hillel Silver. For more, see the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.

The document is of special interest in its details of the early years and the complex relationship with the Anshe Chesed congregation. Rabbi Gries took Tifereth Israel to a very "advanced" position in the Reform movement and his history proudly describes it as the first "open" congregation; one that no  longer read from the Torah scrolls and whose Sunday services were attended by nonJews.
 

 

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