GREEN ROAD SYNAGOGUE, one of Cleveland's largest Orthodox Jewish congregations, traces its origins to a few immigrants from Marmaresh Sziget, Hungary, who established the Marmaresh B'nai Jacob Society in the Woodland neighborhood in 1910. That year, members of this self-help society held religious services in a rented room at E. 26th St. and Woodland Ave. In 1911 they purchased a building at E. 25th St. near Woodland. The congregation moved to a rented building at E. 30th St. and Scovill in 1920. In May 1922 the small congregation incorporated as the First Marmaresher B'nai Jacob Congregation. That year it also purchased a brick building in GLENVILLE from the Cleveland Jewish Center to serve those members who had moved from the neighborhood. The following year, the congregation hired its first rabbi, Meyer Leifer of Hungary.
The Woodland branch of the congregation moved to E. 61st St. and Woodland Ave. in 1922 and remained there until 1932, when it sold the property and joined the Glenville branch. The congregation changed its name to Anshe Marmaresher Congregation in 1937 but was popularly known as the Marmaresher Jewish Center. Following the move of Jews to the SUBURBS after World War II, Anshe Marmaresher relocated to Lancashire Rd. in CLEVELAND HTS. As the Orthodox community settled between Taylor and Green roads in the 1960s, another move became imminent. With a loan from the HEIGHTS JEWISH CENTER, Anshe Marmaresher purchased property at 2437 Green Rd. and in 1972 dedicated a new synagogue, soon known as the Green Rd. Synagogue.
Rabbi Emeritus Melvin Granatstein ministered to the Green Road Synagogue from 1974. In 2023 he was living in Israel. In 2011 Rabbi Benyamin Blau joined Green Road as Rabbi in addition to serving as Fuchs Mizrachi’s Rosh Yeshiva. He is the current President of the Rabbinical Council of America. The rabbinical staff also includes Youth Rabbi Rick Schindelheim, appointed in 2016, Assistant Rabbi Gabe Falk, appointed in 2022, and Adina Blaustein, Yoetzet Halacha (Woman Consultant in Jewish Law), appointed in 2020.
In 2021, the congregation erected a new building on the Green Road site to accommodate its membership growth, which had doubled to 350 membership units since 2013, many with children. In designing the new building, the congregation kept elements of the original design and artifacts from the 1973 edifice, the congregation’s most recent building.
Updated by Sylvia Abrams 2 December 2025
Green Rd. Synagogue Records, WRHS.
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