Starting in the Spring of 2008 there was an open discussion - we call it here a debate, for two opposing views soon emerged - about where "Federation" (its name then was the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland) should be located. Should it stay in downtown Cleveland, where it had been since its founding in 1903, or should it move east to Beachwood, near the center of Greater Cleveland's Jewish population?

These pages were published in July 2008 to bring some historical perspective to that discussion. Them in September 2010 a page was added with a chronology of the events leading to the move from downtown to Beachwood.

Since Federation was founded in 1903, our community leaders have made ten decisions about its location.

• The next page describes the first eight homes
  For each location decision we note where the Jewish community and its major institutions were located at the time.

• The ninth location decision, made in 1963
  Their first building of their own, downtown at 1750 Euclid Avenue.

• A chronology of events 2007 - 2010
  Twenty links to learn more about the decision to leave downtown.