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INTRODUCTION

Starting in the Spring of 2008 there was an open discussion - we call it here a debate, for two opposing views soon emerged - about where "Federation" (its name then was the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland) should be located. Should it stay in downtown Cleveland, where it had been since its founding in 1903, or should it move east to Beachwood, near the center of Greater Cleveland's Jewish population?

These pages were published in July 2008 to bring some historical perspective to that discussion. Them in September 2010 a page was added with a chronology of the events leading to the move from downtown to Beachwood.
 

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland (which in 2010 changed its name from "the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland") was founded in 1903 as the Federation of Jewish Charities.

Today "Federation" is one of our nation's oldest and strongest organizations of its type.

  

  Top of 1965 Federation building

For its history, with a timeline, see a pdf document on  their website published during its centenary in 2003.

For a page showing how the names and "logos" evolved over the years, see this Federation web page.

Federation is (we quote from their Who We Are page):

... a nonprofit organization that supports and builds the Cleveland Jewish and general communities. It plays a central role in developing and maintaining a sense of unity among Cleveland's Jewish community. Our work is based on the Jewish values of tzedakah - justice, tikkun olam - making the world a better place, and chesed - kindness. ...

Since Federation was founded in 1903, our community leaders have made ten decisions about its location.
 


Federation's Service Area
From the Federation-commissioned population study Jewish Cleveland 2004
by Mark S. Rosentraub, Ph.D. and Kathryn W. Hexter
 

For the full population study, click here.  [pdf  700 Kb]
 

Next: The First Eight Decisions