Cleveland Kesher, Winter 2026 by Cleveland Jewish Publication Company

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Community News

Taylor Road Synagogue evicted before start of Rosh Hashanah Cleveland Kesher

aylor Road Synagogue was evicted from its building at 1970 S. Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights right before the start of Rosh Hashanah a little over two months after an appeals court ruled that its evictor had the legal right to do so. Cleveland Kesher learned that the synagogue was evicted Victor on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, which began at sunset on Sept. 11. In a statement sent to Cleveland Kesher, synagogue president Vladimir B. Victor said he believes the congregation was evicted illegally and that the congregation has a valid 100-year-lease that is being violated, mainly on antisemitic grounds. “The fact that they denied us the right to pray in our own building, especially on the eve of the High Holidays, is a grave injustice,” he said. “Our congregation has been in that building since we built it in 1946. It was built by Holocaust survivors fleeing from the atrocities of the German government, only to now be forced onto the streets by the local government.” Victor said the synagogue doesn’t believe this is the end of the matter and it is seeking the support of the community for help. “We have received approbation from the community rabbis, and they support this fight to save our building,” he said. “We are actively pursuing all available legal options. We have filed a lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas to address the validity of the lease and are also planning to litigate as to whether the eviction was valid in the first place.” Victor said the eviction isn’t just a loss to the congregation, but to the Cleveland Heights

4 | Cleveland Kesher

Jewish community as a whole. “We have hosted countless events and programs, many of which are irreplaceable and could only have been held at the Taylor Road Synagogue building,” he said. “We have served faithfully in a role that has been a benefit to the entire community for the past 80 years, and this injustice cannot be allowed to stand.” The state seized control of the property housing Taylor Road Synagogue – founded in 1904 and once the largest Orthodox synagogue between New York City and Chicago – on Dec. 5, 2023, after its owner, 1970 Taylor Road LLC, failed to pay more than $6.4 million in taxes, penalties and interest. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department placed the building up for auction in September 2023, the process for a property in Ohio after it goes through a tax foreclosure and forfeiture, but didn’t sell. Under state law, the property can go to a county land bank that will put it back into utilization. Kimolos Acquisitions LLC, a limited liability company that is listed at the same address as WXZ Development, 22720 Fairview Center Drive No. 150, which is developing the Taylor Tudors rehabilitation and a larger Cain Park village area business district revitalization project, acquired the property from the land bank, Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, an Ohio nonprofit community improvement corporation, in May 2025, according to court records. On July 10, 2025, Kimolos filed a forcibleentry-and-detainer complaint, an action a property owner or a landlord can take when an existing occupant refuses to leave after being given appropriate notice in Cleveland Heights Municipal Court. Kimolos argued in the filing that it had served Taylor Road Synagogue with a three-day notice to vacate the premises on EVICTED | 6

Community News

Taylor Road Synagogue’s congregation was evicted from its building at 1970 S. Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights right before the High Holy Days this year. The synagogue, which was completed in 1952, lost an appeal regarding the action by Kimolos Acquisitions LLC. The synagogue told Cleveland Kesher in a written statement they are exploring all legal options.| Photo / Cleveland Kesher

EVICTED | 4 June 30, 2025, and the congregation had been “unlawfully and forcibly detaining Kimolos’ possession of the premises.” On Aug. 14, 2025, Taylor Road Synagogue filed a pair of motions: one to dismiss the complaint and another to stay the action, allowing them to keep using the building for services. Six days later, the trial court denied the motion to dismiss the complaint, affirming that Kimolos had jurisdiction over the claim in the matter for the right to possess the property. On Nov. 3, 2025, the trial court ruled in Kimolos’ favor, determining that there are “no facts before this Court that (the synagogue) is occupying the premises under color of a title. Taylor Road Synagogue filed an appeal in the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals, saying the “trial court did not acquire personal jurisdiction over the synagogue because 6 | Cleveland Kesher

service was never perfected,” arguing it wasn’t properly served with the eviction lawsuit; that it “has a right to present possession of the premises arising from a valid and recorded lease that preexisted Kimolos’ ownership of the premises”; and “the trial court erred when it denied its mission to dismiss since its motion for declaratory judgment concerning the premises had been filed in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas before Kimolos’s forcible-entry-and-detainer action in the municipal court, thereby divesting the municipal court of jurisdiction over this matter.” Taylor Road Synagogue filed a civil lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on July 17, according to court records, arguing the historic congregation in Cleveland Heights has a valid lease and is still able to occupy its EVICTED | 8

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Community News EVICTED | 6 building. The Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals found all three arguments did not apply to the case, the mail it had sent setting the trial court hearing was not returned, which by law means service is deemed complete, that the synagogue “failed to adequately demonstrate a genuine issue of material fact to support its claim that it was occupying the premises pursuant to a valid lease” and that the two cases between the two courts “do not present the same cause of action.” Kimolos could not be reached for comment. The case in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas is still ongoing with the next pretrial set for March 30, 2027, and a trial date set for April 26, 2027. Taylor Road Synagogue filed a new lawsuit in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 11 against the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, arguing Taylor Road Synagogue and the land bank entered into a “Pass Trough Sale-Purchase Agreement” in August 2014 that if it acquired the property, it would transfer it to the congregation. “Defendant Land Bank acquired the Property, it would hold title during the defined holding period without permitting a lien or encumbrance and transfer the Property to Plaintiff free and clear of liens and encumbrances,” the lawsuit said. Taylor Road Synagogue said in the lawsuit it is still “ready, willing and able to pay the agreed purchase price and properly chargeable costs and to perform its remaining obligations.” The debt was accrued when Taylor Road Synagogue sold the building in 2003 for $1.5 million to Raintree Academy, a private school that disbanded that same year and had been a tenant of the building since 1999. The Orthodox congregation continued to hold worship services at the facility and a lease between the two was recorded with the Cuyahoga County Recorder’s Office on Oct. 21, 2003, according to court documents. Raintree Academy leased the building to Greater Heights Academy, a charter school, and cordoned off sections the shul used for 8 | Cleveland Kesher

services and other functions. The academy closed after Cuyahoga County ruled it did not conform to a not-for-profit status. According to court documents, the premises were the subject of a lawsuit in 2009 and, on Nov. 25 of that year, a “magistrate judge issued a decision that, among other things, the premises be sold subject to the leasehold rights of Taylor Road Synagogue under the lease.” On Aug. 14, 2014, Taylor Road Synagogue purchased the premises through a passthrough sale purchase agreement, according to documents. The property went into tax foreclosure around 2016 with the court docket filing date listed on Dec. 6, 2016. The documents continue to say that in 2016, Taylor Road Synagogue filed a lawsuit related to the premises, including the property taxes owed, in the Cuyahoga Court of Common Pleas arguing the decisions of the court in the Dec. 6, 2016, case. It is noted in the documents of the current civil case in Cuyahoga County that “the 2016 lawsuit is still pending and may affect the validity of the defendant’s purchase.” Taxes on the documentation provided through Cuyahoga County dates back to taxes being unpaid since 2007. The taxes start at $108,693.96 for prior tax year 2007 and continue until 2022, with interest accruing. Other delinquent balances include assessments for sewer, streets lights, water and trees, along with interest, the Cleveland Jewish News previously reported. The historic synagogue building with colorful stained glass windows facing South Taylor Road was the most recent home for Oheb ZedekTaylor Road Synagogue, which was founded in 1904. In 2012, a consolidation agreement was completed with Taylor Road Synagogue, resulting in the new Oheb Zedek Cedar Sinai Synagogue in Lyndhurst. Following an agreement, Taylor Road Synagogue kept its identity. During the process, the synagogue had continued to hold services and maintain operations. Victor told the CJN in September 2024 that since the lease was still in force, the state should have been paying for utilities and maintenance, but was instead being paid by the synagogue.

Community News

Beachwood council OKs Bais Avrohom rezoning Cleveland Kesher

he Beachwood City Council unanimously approved Bais Avrohom congregation’s proposal to rezone two Edgewood Road homes and a vacant lot into a synagogue with a parking lot during a meeting on Sept. 8. The vote passed 6-0 with council members Jillian DeLong, Alec Isaacson, Alexandra Jacobs, Pete Smith, Ali Stern and Danielle Shoykhet voting yes. Councilwoman June Taylor was not present. Three lots of property on Edgewood Road, 2547, 2555 and 2561, are rezoned from a U-1 single-family residential district to a U-5 public and institutional district, which permits places of worship. The properties at 2555 and 2561 Edgewood Road contain residential homes, while 2547 is an empty lot. “Bais Avrohom appreciates all the efforts the city made to find a solution to enable the rezoning and continued operation of Bais Avrohom on Edgewood Road,” Aaron Evenchik, an attorney with Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP in Cleveland who represents some of the city’s home synagogues and has been assisting Bais Avrohom through the process, told Cleveland Kesher. “It was a collaborative effort. We had three different site plans we put in front of the city, and the city worked with us to find one that worked and included enough parking, which addressed the major concern of the neighbors.” The rezoning clears the way for Bais Avrohom, which has operated its shul out of 2555 Edgewood Road for over six years, to expand the house at 2561 Edgewood Road into a 2,250-square-foot synagogue and demolish 2555 Edgewood Road and use that along with the property at 2547 Edgewood Road for parking spaces. The passage ends a two-year process by Bais Avrohom, which first proposed the rezoning in 2024. Council had twice previously voted down attempts by the shul to turn the lots into a synagogue due to variances that went against the city’s zoning code. The shul purchased the vacant lot at 2547

10 | Cleveland Kesher

Edgewood in the spring and because of the additional land, Bais Avrohom was able to increase the number of parking spaces on the property from 10 to 24, which meets the 14-spot minimum that a U-5 requires in Beachwood, and will increase the size of the lot from 13,200 square feet to 20,400 square feet, exceeding the 18,000-square-foot requirement. “We were able to cooperatively work with the owner of that (vacant) lot to get it and create a site plan that worked well for the synagogue, the city and the neighbors,” Evenchik told Cleveland Kesher. “There were lots of meetings, lots of conversations, and we’re very appreciative, especially, of the feedback we got from George Smerigan, the city’s planning director. He really helped give us guidance on what we needed to help get it across the finish line.” Across the rezoning proposal process, several residents who live on Edgewood Road voiced concerns about the parking situation surrounding the shul, saying during public comment sessions that members park illegally and cause traffic disruptions. Others said they didn’t like the idea of a synagogue in a residential neighborhood because it wouldn’t match the look of the area. During the Sept. 8 meeting, Evenchik, Rabbi Nissim Abrin, spiritual leader of the shul, five congregants of Bais Avrohom and seven community members, a majority of them Jewish, spoke in support of the rezoning. A resident of Edgewood Road said he supports the shul, but made the suggestion of having the entrance and exit of the synagogue at Fairmount Boulevard instead of in the neighborhood, with a different resident voicing support for that idea. No residents took to the stand on Sept. 8 to voice opposition to the rezoning. Bais Avrohom responded to residents’ concerns during meetings, saying that the exterior design will have residential character and that the parking spaces will alleviate REZONING | 12

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Community News REZONING | 10

“We were able to cooperatively work with the owner of that (vacant) lot to get it and create a site plan that worked well for the synagogue, the city and the neighbors."

the amount of cars parking on the road as congregants can now park in the lot. After the passage, Isaacson addressed the room and said he “agonized” over the decision, and that he had received hundreds of emails, numerous telephone calls and been stopped in the street to discuss this rezoning issue. Isaacson said he ultimately chose to pass the rezoning because of his oath to follow the country, state and city’s constitution, charter and laws, and his expectation that the shul will continue to follow that during the process. but said that rezoning does not give any applicant the “freedom to be a bad neighbor.” “Edgewood is a very diverse street full of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, but people who stand together behind the shared Beachwood values of respect and support for their neighbors and neighborhood,” he said. “Time and again, the residents of Edgewood have made their

Aaron Evenchik Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP expectations clear, and I expect the shul, as their newest neighbor, to share those values and to earn the neighborhood’s trust and respect.” Stern said at the meeting that as the construction process begins on the shul, the neighbors need to hold one another accountable.

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Community News

‘The Challah Mom’ shakes and bakes at JFX Cleveland Kesher

lthough known on social media as “The Challah Mom,” Anat Ishai could have been mistaken for “The Dancing Queen” on Aug 31 at Jewish Family Experience in University Heights. Traveling from her home in Israel for a pre-Rosh Hashanah “Rise, Bake and Shine” multigenerational gathering of 150 women, Ishai entered the social hall with great fanfare, not only dancing down the aisles to the beat of heavy music courtesy of DJ Zuz, but pulling women from their seats to create a dance party that grew to include movements underneath an Israeli flag. Wearing a bright gold “mitpachat,” or headdress, and flouncing maroon dress, Ishai held sway, mingling her life story, family history and prayers while the women, using her CHALLAH | 16

Anat Ishai addresses the 150 women at “Rise, Bake and Shine” on Aug. 31 at Jewish Family Experience in University Heights. | Photos / Cleveland Kesher

Julie Diamond of Beachwood enjoys a laugh with Ruchi Koval as Ruchi prepares challah. 14 | Cleveland Kesher

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Community News

Anat Ishai instructs the art of braiding challah dough to Molly Glickman, Shira Glickman and Orli Schwartz, all of Beachwood.

CHALLAH | 14 recipe, made challah dough to be taken home and baked for the holiday. “I can’t believe I’m finally here,” Ishai exclaimed as the dancing died down in a hall buzzing with energy. “It’s been years in the making.” Born in Israel, a daughter of Russian immigrants, Ishai moved with her family to Toronto in the late 1980s, but said her life changed with a scholarship to Israel at age 14.

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She not only met the boy who is now her husband of 21 years and father of her four children, but learned Jewish history for the first time. Ten years ago, on a return trip to Israel, she met Ruchi Koval, who with her husband, Rabbi Sruly Koval, founded Jewish Family Experience. Ruchi Koval became Ishai’s mentor. “Everything she said made sense,” Ishai said. “It was what my soul was thinking, but didn’t CHALLAH | 18

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Community News CHALLAH | 16 have words to articulate – who I’m meant to be in this world.” But COVID 19’s social isolation stopped her in her tracks, making her feel squeezed at home, she said. While many women turned to making sourdough, Ishai said she tried and failed. Instead, she turned to challah – and dancing. “I can’t fit in with what everyone else was doing,” she said. “But I was connecting to what Jewish women have done forever – making challah. I saw joy in my food when I turned on the music and danced.” Muting the music for the first time that evening, Ishai then spoke of the power of prayer. She called Elul – the sixth month in the Jewish calendar, a time of prayer and introspection and the prelude to the High Holy Days – a “magic time,” when the only thing anyone needs to be doing is examining everything in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgement, the advocating of the soul for another year. “How can God bless you that year if you don’t know what you want?” she said. Before making challah, Ishai said that one must ask two questions: whom am I baking for and am I grateful in the moment? “If not, go to the bakery and buy challah,” she said. “If you made it, it would not turn out great.” “Challah,” she said, is the separation of the dough. “Everything in the world that is mine is to be

Leah Polk of Mayfield Heights is ready for the program, with mixing bowl, water, flour, yeast and other ingredients provided for participants. | Photos / Cleveland Kesher used to give up myself,” she said. “That’s what challah represents.” She invited the women forward to place their hands on a mound of challah dough and pray silently for themselves and one another – “150 prayers,” Ishai said. Koval told Cleveland Kesher after the event that watching her mentee, now digital content creator and blogger, was deeply meaningful. “Watching Anat grow as an influencer and teacher – it’s extremely gratifying and magical to see her,” she said.

Daniella Babayev and her mother, Miriam Babayev of Shaker Heights with Faina Malahimov and her daughter, Ronit Malahimov of Beachwood. 18 | Cleveland Kesher

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Community News

Yeshiva Derech Hatorah seeks conditional use for former Regina High School in South Euclid Cleveland Kesher

raffic and potential enrollment concerns were raised at the South Euclid planning commission’s public hearing on Sept. 24 to consider a conditionaluse application from New Jersey developer Promont to convert the former Regina High School at 1857 Lawnway Road to a pre-K to grade eight boys school Stoll operated by Yeshiva Derech Hatorah. The Cleveland Heights-based school purchased the building on a land lease from Akron Children’s for $2.2 million in late July. It plans to relocate there its boys school from

Warrensville Center Road in Cleveland Heights. Although the Regina building was used as a school throughout its 57-year history until closing in 2010, South Euclid planning and development director Michael Love told Cleveland Kesher that once any building in the city ceases operations for more than six months, its conditional use ends. “There was a conditional use in place (with Regina) because the land was zoned as a singlefamily residential district,” he said. “So, if a facility with conditional use ceases, and they want to resume it, they have to start over and obtain a new conditional use permit.” YDT plans to modernize and change the layout of the 125,000 square-foot building to accommodate up to 750 students – double its current enrollment – and 100 staff, YDT Executive Director Rabbi Sender Stoll told the YESHIVA | 22

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Cleveland Kesher | 21

Community News YESHIVA | 20 planning commission. The school will operate six days a week – four full days and half-days on Friday and Sunday. South Euclid Police Chief Joe Mays and Mayor Georgine Welo shared written concerns regarding school bus and car-pool traffic because the school fronts on South Green Road. Planning commission chair Ashley King presented to Stoll and Promont founder and CEO Marty Waisbrod two scenarios drawn up by the police chief that direct traffic turning from South Green either into the school’s circular front drive or onto Golfway Road for entrance and exit. Neither, they responded, would restrict building use “as intended.” But lifelong South Euclid resident Paul McGuigan of Oakmount Road spoke of the difficulty of turning from Golfway onto South Green since the traffic light at that intersection was relocated. “I can only imagine the traffic backed up on Golfway,” he said. At the height of Regina’s top enrollment of 350, he said, traffic entered from the back. He said Green Road traffic is already congested during drop-off and pick-up times at a nearby day care center. “We should be taken into consideration before this is rubber-stamped,” he said. Ellen Cherry, a 38-year resident of Lawnway Road, said she loves the idea of another school. “But 750 students is a lot for that property,” she said. Stoll agreed with King’s proposal to stagger school bus drop-off and pick-up times as long as it was by the neighborhood, adding that 90% of students are bused.

Cleveland Kesher is now available online and on Facebook. Scan the QR codes to see more. 22 | Cleveland Kesher

Yeshiva Derech Hatorah in Cleveland Heights is seeking a conditional use application to relocate its boys school to the former Regina High School building in South Euclid. The building at 1857 S. Green Road is on an 8-acre parcel of the 50-acre former Notre Dame College campus purchased by Akron Children’s for $8 million in late June, and purchased by the school on July 31. | Photo / Cleveland Kesher “There aren’t going to be hundreds of cars every day between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. for drop off,” he said. Stoll and Waisbrod said YTD is hiring a civil engineer to study the site. “It’s a little early in the process to have it buttoned up,” Stoll later told Cleveland Kesher. The planning commission tabled YDT’s conditional use request until it hears Akron Children’s request to rezone from singlefamily residential to mixed-use transit oriented development its 48 acres at 4545 College Road, the former Notre Dame College campus that includes the 8-acre Regina High School parcel. “The MU-TOD designation would ensure the property can be an asset to the community,” Love said in a letter of support to the planning commission.

Cleveland Kesher | 23

Community News Heights Jewish Center Synagogue celebrates Succos in new sukkah

eights Jewish Center Synagogue in University Heights ushered in a new era with its new sukkah during its Simchas Beit Hashoeva on Sept. 29. The evening was marked by davening, divrei Torah, food from Chicken Maven served in the sukkah, music by Yosef Greenberg of Shir Chodosh and dancing inside the shul.

Heights Jewish Center Synagogue president Rabbi Baruch Reichman welcomes congregants to the shul’s new sukkah on Sept. 29 during its Simchas Beit Hashoeva. | Photos / Cleveland Kesher

Heights Jewish Center Synagogue president Rabbi Baruch Reichman and Rabbi Raphael Davidovich are among those dancing throughout the night.

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School SPOTLIGHTS CHAVIVA HIGH SCHOOL

Chaviva High School’s student body on the first day back for the 2026-27 school year.

Some of Chaviva High Shool’s incoming ninth graders on the first day of school.

During the second week of school, ninth and 10th graders conduct a temperature experiment in Gary Shyken’s STEM class.

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To see more photos, visit cjn.org/kesher and facebook.com/ClevelandKesher 26 | Cleveland Kesher

Cleveland Kesher | 27

School SPOTLIGHTS FUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOL

Fuchs Mizrachi School started the new school year with over 630 students and the opening of new learning spaces from its campus expansion project.

Junior Noa Ruskin, senior Avigayil Ashwal, junior Miriam Shapiro and junior Daniella Stark are all smiles at GoApe adventure park.

Nursery students show off their handmade lulav and etrogim in preparation for sukkot. | Submitted photos

Seniors Noah Mayerfeld and Moshe Jacobs “went wild” at GoApe adventure park in Strongsvile as part of the high school first week of school bonding.

Fifth graders Zach Dubin and Ezra Mazer bring Rosh Hashanah cheer to residents of King David Center for Senior Living as part of their Chessed Club.

Content provided by Fuchs Mizrachi School

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Cleveland Kesher | 29

School SPOTLIGHTS HEBREW ACADEMY OF CLEVELAND

Beis Chinuch Horav Dessler/Hebrew Academy of Cleveland fifth grade celebrates Haschalas Gemara with parents and grandparents.

Beis Chinuch Horav Dessler/Hebrew Academy of Cleveland holds a Back To School Bash, welcoming over 40 new families and marking another year of significant growth to the school, led by Rabbi Simcha Dessler, Menahel/ Educational Director, in suit jacket and tie.

Content provided by Hebrew Academy of Cleveland

To see more photos, visit cjn.org/kesher and facebook.com/ClevelandKesher 30 | Cleveland Kesher

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