YOUNG ISRAEL OF GREATER CLEVELAND is an Orthodox synagogue affiliated with The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), a synagogue-based Orthodox Judaism organization in the United States with a network of affiliated "Young Israel" synagogues. Today, Young Israel continues to promote Orthodox involvement of modern American Jews, while also advocating for the issues most relevant to its members, including support for Israel and Religious Zionism.
Shmuel Levine founded the Young Israel Organization of Cleveland in 1915. The organization’s first teacher was Rabbi Isaac Yehuda Lefkowitz, who provided Talmud classes until his death in 1928. According to an April 25, 1930, article in The Jewish Independent, “The Young Israel Organization was founded … for the purpose of creating a center for Orthodox Jewish young men of Cleveland and their activities and to propagate Orthodox Judaism in the Jewish youth of the city.” From its establishment, the organization maintained well attended Talmud classes, Bible classes, services conducted solely by young men, and a series of lectures. The group incorporated in 1924 as Seirai Adats B’nai Israel Congregation [Young Israel]. In 1930, the organization officially changed its name to the English Young Israel Organization of Cleveland. In addition to cultural classes held in the Young Israel Club rooms on Parkwood Drive at Bryant Avenue, the group held Shabbat services.
The National Council of Young Israel formally awarded a charter to Young Israel of Cleveland in January 1930. The Young Israel Organization was an organization of Jewish young men who held strict observance of the Sabbath. During the 1930s, the organization developed junior and intermediate branches for younger men under eighteen. Young Israel held classes and programs in Carmel Hall at Chibath Jerusalem on Parkwood and at other Orthodox synagogues. A library holding periodicals of Jewish interest and Hebrew-language and Jewish books was maintained. The clubrooms were open practically every evening for social activities. A branch for girls aged twelve to seventeen, the first of its kind in Ohio, opened in May 1931.
The Young Israel Organization continued to offer varied cultural, religious and social activities throughout the 1930s and 1940s. These included charitable and social events under the auspices of a Sisterhood, later called a Women’s League. By 1932, the officers included a woman in the position of secretary. In 1947, a Heights Branch of Young Israel was established in the then new Hebrew Academy on South Taylor Road in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS. The organization sponsored youth groups both at its Lakeview building and in the Heights. The organization referred to both its Lakeview building and Heights Branch as synagogues in its bulletins.
In 1949, its president, Israel Comet, was convinced the Young Israel required a full-time rabbi and director. Rabbi Mordechai Gifter served for a short time as a part-time spiritual leader. In September 1950 Rabbi Shubert Spero was appointed Rabbi and Director of Activities of the Young Israel Organization of Cleveland. Spero, the organization’s first full-time rabbi, served in that role until 1983, when he emigrated to Israel to assume the IRVING I. STONE Chair of Jewish Thought at Bar Ilan University. Young Israel grew from 80 to over 370 families during Rabbi Spero’s tenure. Rabbi Yaakov Feitman then served from 1983 to 1990, when he became rabbi of the Young Israel of BEACHWOOD.
The organization purchased its first building in Cleveland, at 880 Lakeview Road, in 1937. A Young Israel Minyan formed in the HEBREW ACADEMY Building on South Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights in the mid-1940s, as the city’s Jewish population moved to the suburbs. The group’s office rented space at the Academy in 1950. In 1955, Young Israel purchased cemetery grounds in Zion Memorial Park for 600 graves.
In 1953, with the majority of its membership in the Heights area, the organization purchased lots on Cedar Road for a Young Israel Youth Center, while a building at Blanche and Taylor was purchased for office and youth facilities. The Lakeview building was sold in 1954. It took until 1956 to receive a building permit from the City of SOUTH EUCLID, when the Ohio Court of Appeals ruled in Young Israel’s favor. In 1958, the Youth Center was dedicated at 14141 Cedar Road in South Euclid.
Young Israel purchased Camp Deer Run in Sugar Grove, PA, in 1969 and named it Camp Stone in recognition of Irving Stone’s participation in obtaining the campsite. The camp for Orthodox children, still operated by Young Israel, became part of the B’nei Akiva Youth movement in 1972.
In 1973, Shomre Hadath Congregation merged with Young Israel Organization of Cleveland.
Young Israel of Beachwood was initially a separate congregation. In 1989, a Young Israel Metropolitan Cleveland Council formed as an umbrella organization for the three branches. The Council dissolved in 2000 when Young Israel of Cleveland and Young Israel of Beachwood merged into one organization with the name Young Israel of Greater Cleveland.
The effort to build a synagogue on Green Road became part of a fight about the growing Orthodox presence in Beachwood. Ivan Soclof purchased lots on Green Road for building in Beachwood in 1986 and in 1989. Young Israel of Beachwood met in the residences that were on the property. From 1995 to 1997, Young Israel, Chabad, and the HEBREW ACADEMY Yavne High School proposed building a joint campus for the three institutions. After contentious hearings at the Beachwood Zoning Commission and its City Council, a referendum on the project was defeated in November 1997. Subsequently, Young Israel and the other institutions were issued separate building permits; these were challenged in law suits at the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas that ruled against granting approval. Young Israel’s appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court overturned the ruling in 2000.
The current building in Beachwood opened in 2002. In 2024, Young Israel of Greater Cleveland had two branches: its main building, the Stone Synagogue, located at 2463 South Green Road in Beachwood and a location at Hebrew Academy in Cleveland Heights.
Rabbi Naphtali Burnstein originally was appointed rabbi of Young Israel of Cleveland in 1993. He became rabbi of the merged congregations in 2000 and continued to serve in that role as of 2025. Rabbi Aharon Dovid Lebovics serves as Associate Rabbi at the Hebrew Academy Branch.
Sylvia Abrams, December 2025