|
Anshe
Chesed Fairmount Temple - 1841 (good and well illustrated) |
| Beachwood
Kehilla - 1987 (words only, but the warmest, most
welcoming words I've found) |
|
Beth
Israel - The West Temple
- 1954
(text only, good, history ends in early 1990s) |
|
B'nai
Jeshurun - 1866 (old style with tiny images, still the best of the "shul" history pages) |
|
Cedar
Road Synagogue - Kehillat Yaakov -
1899 (well
written, text only, stops ca. 1990) |
| Green
Road Synagogue - 1910 (mentions only one rabbi
and no events after 1972) |
|
Heights
Jewish Center - 1860 ? (text only, good History should
start in 1860, not 1922) |
|
Kol
HaLev - 1993 (good, up-to-date but text only) |
|
Oheb Zedek - Taylor Road Synagogue -
1904 (good, short, well illustrated page) |
|
Park Synagogue -
1857
(good but ends in 1992) |
|
Shaarey Tikvah
- 1940 (short, with only two images) |
|
Suburban
Temple - Kol Ami - 1948 (all text,
up-to-date.) |
|
The
Temple-Tifereth Israel - 1850 (regressing - once had images and is
now text only) |
| |
Notes:
|
(1) The Jewish Family Services Association, founded as the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society,
has been changing to meet community needs since 1875. Its
History page, once blank, now offers a video: Faces Not Forgotten - A JFSA Retrospective. But for those
whose internet setup doesn't support video or who aren't willing to devote 12 minutes to watching
the video, there is no other history - no text, no images - about the Jewish
organization with perhaps the richest history of all.
|
|
Technical problem:
The video about JFSA's history must
be viewed with Apple's QuickTime® software. As shown on the screen image to the right,
using the latest free
version of QuickTime on a PC or a Mac shows the video (dark rectangle in center) in a
small window
that viewers can't make larger. That's too small to enjoy the
video. There are free video players (Windows Media Player ® and RealPlayer ®)
that allow full-screen viewing. JFSA - please change your History page so we can use them. |
 |
Update: early in 2011 the page changed: eight lines of
text, which read like a mission statement, not a history, were added.
The video, instead of being viewable full-screen, was
deleted.
(2) Montefiore's
128 years and
counting is a long, well-illustrated chronology since 1882.
This page is well crafted and easy to read. It is a model
for other organizations to follow - not just in the way it presents history, giving credit to many
who helped shape it, but also in its balance between images and text and
because it is being kept
up to date.
(3) Federation's
History page,
probably written by the late Judah Rubenstein (1921-2003),
is an excellent narration of the history of our community. (Because it is so
rich in "learn more" links, we prefer the
JEWS
& JUDAISM page on the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.) But only a few lines are about Federation's own
history - the more than a century of growth and change that have made it one
of our nation's leading Federations. Not mentioned are the 2010 change in
name and move to Beachwood. (A linked page of logos over the years does show the
new name.) This History page, which could have linked to more
than 20 websites, links to only one. (Might it be the "shul" of the web programmer?)
Those who want to learn more about the story of Federation
are fortunate that in 2003, as part of its 100th anniversary
celebration, Federation staff created a 32-page document on its history and
published it on its website. Pages
4-11 are the most detailed history available on the web. A bonus: the
history of 17 major agencies are on pages 12 - 22. This document is
hard to find. We suggest:
A link from their History page
would make it easy to find this very useful document.
Webkeeper's
note:
This page was created January 2007 and last
completely reviewed in August 2010.
The opinions expressed are based on my experience creating
synagogue and other Jewish websites since 1998. Corrections
and comments are
welcome.
Arnold Berger Email arnie AT clevelandjewishhistory
DOT net
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