Congregation Oer Chodosh Anshe Sfard (f. 1884) was an Orthodox Jewish synagogue founded by a group of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. The congregation met in the Woodland Avenue area of Cleveland, Ohio, in rented quarters successively at 29 Cherry Street, 373 Perry Street, and 211 Orange Avenue until 1907, when it built a synagogue at 2650 East 25th Street. From 1912 through 1922, the congregation met in a brick constructed synagogue at 2564 East 38th Street. Its founding rabbi was Benjamin Gittelsohn who served, with the exception of a few years, until his death in 1932.
In 1919 the congregation split into three congregations. Oer Chodosh Anshe Sfard relocated to 10522 Amor Avenue in 1923. Ahavath Zion worshiped from the early 1920s through 1957 at 997 Lakeview Avenue, and Ohel Jacob Anshe Sfard worshipped from 1927 until 1961 at 3471 East 140th Street.
Following the Jewish population residential shift to the eastern suburbs, especially after World War II, Oer Chodosh Anshe Sfard built a synagogue in 1952 in University Heights, Ohio, at 3466 Washington Boulevard. With subsequent population shifts farther east and a diminishing membership, the congregation dissolved in the late 1990s, and the building was demolished in 1999.
The Congregation Oer Chodosh Anshe Sfard Records, 1910-1994 (1950s-1960s) consist primarily of cemetery records, financial ledgers and statements, membership listings, and some administrative and program files. Some of the financial ledgers are in Yiddish.
The collection is of value to researchers studying religious institutions in the United States and Orthodox Judaism in particular. Of interest are the relocations of the synagogues as a reflection of the housing patterns of the Orthodox and general Jewish populations in the Cleveland metropolitan area in the twentieth century. The cemetery records will be of interest to genealogists, particularly the information from Lansing Avenue and Warrensville cemeteries. Warrensville was also known as Park Synagogue Cemetery, and in 1999 its name was changed to Bet Olam.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.
Photographs have been removed to The Photograph and Print Collection. Audio tapes have been removed to the Audio-Visual Collection.
Processed by Stanley Lasky in 2000
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4820 Congregation Oer Chodosh Anshe Sfard Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Beryl Rothschild, 1999
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.