The Temple-Tifereth Israel is the second oldest Jewish congregation in Cleveland, Ohio. The congregation was founded in 1850 after several members of Anshe Chesed, Cleveland's first congregation, left that congregation as the result of a dispute over religious ritual. After implementing religious reforms in the service and hiring a dedicated rabbi for the congregation, Tifereth Israel eventually built the first synagogue for the congregation in 1855 at Huron and Miami Streets. In 1894 the congregation moved to Willson Avenue in the Woodland neighborhood and then to Wade Park on East 105th Street in 1924. The congregation dedicated The Temple Branch in Beachwood in 1969. In 2010 it was announced that the East 105th Street building would be renovated by Case Western Reserve University for use as a performing arts center. The congregation currently makes its home in Beachwood.
The Temple Tifereth-Israel Photographs, 1870-2008 and undated, consist of 96 oversize confirmation photographs. Each individual photograph, except the ones before 1909, depicts individual portraits of each member of the class for the given year. The photographs prior to 1909 are group portraits. Each portrait includes photographs of the rabbis of the congregation at the time, including Moses Gries, Abba Hillel Silver, and Daniel Silver. There are no photographs for 1871-1897, 1952, 1954, 1987 and 1988.
The collection will be valuable to researchers interested in the history of Cleveland's Jewish community and in its religious life. With the exception of some of the earliest photographs, each photograph is fully identified, giving each of the faces a name, making the pictures a valuable resource for genealogy researchers. The collection also reveals changes in dress and style over the course of 96 years.
The collection is arranged chronologically.
Processed by Sebastian Wuepper in 2013.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] PG 589 Temple-Tifereth Israel Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of The Temple-Tifereth Israel in 2012.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.