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Congregation Ohev Tzedek was commonly referred to as the Taylor Road Synagogue.

Photo Caption: Rav Avroham Betzalel Epstein, Credit: Ryan Shell

Credit: Institute For Judaic Culture and History (IFJCAH)

Photo Caption: The Rav’s brther-in-law, Rev Avroham Chaim Goodman d. 1931. He was married to the Rav’s sister Chaya Mushe and served as a shochet in Butler, PA. Credit: Ryan Shell

Bio Information:
Once in Cincinnati (1929), Rav Epstein  served at Congregation Bnai Yaakov which then merged with Agudas Israel (Golf Manor) in 1933. The Rav ran a Kashrus agencies which operated independently from Rav Eliezer Silver’s Va’ad Hoier.

Credit: N/N

Prior to Cincinnati, Rabbi Lesser rabbinated in Chicago. He was elected founding president of the Agudath HaRabanim (The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada) at its commencement in1902.

Photo Caption: Rabbi Binyamin Gittelsohn, Source: J.D. Eisenstein

Credit: Institute For Judaic Culture and History IFJCAH

Bio Information:
Rav Gittelsohn was born in Lithuania (1851-1853), son of Rav Yehuda Leib a descendant of Rav Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz, Shelah Hakadosh. The Rav’s father passed away when he was eight. Impoverished, he wandered from town to town for charitable donations enabling him to receive a traditional yeshiva education. Rav Gittelsohn attended the yeshiva of Slabodka and thereafter Slonim where he was ordained. The Rav’s first rabbinical post was in Alanta and soon after, Troskunai, a small Lithuanian town. He remained very poor, because the Jewish community was unable to pay an adequate salary. In 1890, the Rav was asked to settle in Cleveland by the growing community of Lithuanian Jews in the city. After serving various congregations throughout the city he was appointed as the Moreh Dasrah of Oer Chodosh Anshe Sfard where he remained until his passing. As Cleveland’s first rabbinic scholar he was led to become the spiritual authority for many of the surrounding congregations.
Rav Gittelsohn published two seforim (books) Ha-Poteah ve-ha-Hotem (New York, 1898) and Seder Haggada shel Pesah ‘im Be’ur Nagid ve-Nafik (Jerusalem, 1904). Additionally, he wrote a commentary on Tefilah (prayer) that was never published. The Rav married Celia “Sippa” Alenik while still in Lithuania, they had 12 children.
(Based on information obtained from The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History)

Originated from Kovlo, Russia, Rav Raphaelson immigrated to the United State in 1890 and served in the following cities… Memphis, Tennessee – 1893, Toledo, Ohio – 1896-1900, Cincinnati, Ohio – 1902-1903, Denver, Colorado – 1905, Columbus, Ohio – 1908-1910, Detroit, Michigan 1915, and Newport, Kentucky 1920.

Rav Dovid Barkin was a son-in-law of Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch

Photo Caption: Rav Eliezer Silver and Kopyczyncer Rebbe in conversation in Upstate New York, Photo Credit: Yitz Twersky, Kew Garden Hills, NY

Photo Caption: Rav Eliezer Silver, Credit: Needed

Photo Caption: (L to R) Rav Eliezer Silver, Unknown, Rebbe Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, Boyaner Rebbe d. 1971, Credit: Needed

Photo Caption: Rav Eliezer Silver, Credit: Needed

Photo Caption: Rav Eliezer Silver, Credit: IFJCAH

Photo Caption: Rav Silver with the  Lubavitcher Rebbe, Credit: From the Collection of Moshe Gumbo

Credit: Kneseth Israel Congregation Collection

Hamodia Magazine (2012) article:
Rav Eliezer Silver Hamodia

Photo Caption: Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch, Credit: Needed

Photo Caption: Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch’s father, Rav Yosef Leib d. 1930, Credit: Needed

Photo Caption: Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch’s grandfather, Rav Eliezer Gordon, Telzer Rav, d. 1910

Credit: Moreshes Chachmei America

Photo Caption: Kever of Rav Lazer Gordon, Edmonton Federation of Synagogues Cemetery, London, England, Credit: Shloime Marilus, United Kingdom.
Rav Gordon passed away in England on a fundraising trip. See attached document:
Rav Eliezer Gordon London


Photo Caption: On January 1, 1963, a fire broke out in one of the three dormitories at the yeshiva killing two students.  The Rosh Yeshiva at the time was Rav  Chaim Mordechai Katz (d. 1964), a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah

Bio Information:
The Rav, a respected authority on shechita (ritual slaughter) also wrote Minchas Sofer a collection of homiletics on the weekly Parsha. Prior to his position in Cleveland, he rabbinated in Scranton, PA and Bridgeport, CT respectively.

Source: Yehudis Schonbrun


Credit: IFJCAH

Photo Caption: Rabbi Mordechai Tzvi Schwartz, Credit: Larry Schwartz, Skokie, IL

Rav, Cleveland, Ohio d. 12 Iyar, 1945 (5705) Anyone with information is asked to please send it in. See CONTACT page for details. Directions to kever: Mount Olive Cemetery 27855 Aurora Road Solon, OH 44139 (440) 248-5100 Location: Needed Photo Credit: “Reb Elya”

Credit: Moreshes Chachmie America

c. 1913, Credit: Moreshes Chachmie America

Photo Caption:Rabbi Schachne Isaacs Credit: Moreshes Chachmei America’s Archives

Photo Caption: Rabbi Schachne Isaacs, Credit: Moreshes Chachmei America’s Archives
Bio Information: 
Rav Isaacs founded Congregation Bet Tefillah in 1866, a synagogue which was commonly known as Reb Shachne’s Shul.

Source: Listed atop each post

Source: Freedberg

Bio Information:
Rabbi Sender Lifshitz was a founding member of the Agudath Harabonim.

Rav, Cleveland, Ohio d. 2 Teves, 1951 (5712) Anyone with information is asked to please send it in. See CONTACT page for details. Directions to kever: Mount Olive Cemetery 27855 Aurora Road Solon, OH 44139 (440) 248-5100 Location: Needed Photo Credit: “Reb Elya”

Bio Information:
After arriving on these shores in 1887 from Russia, Rav Levinson served as the founding rabbi of  both at United Hebrew Congregation in Newport and later in Temple Israel in Covington, Kentucky. Both had relatively small Jewish communities.

Photo Caption: United Hebrew Congregation, Newport, Kentucky  c. 1905, Credit: American Jewish Archives

Photo Caption: Temple Israel’s first building (Covington, Kentucky), Credit: American Jewish Archives 

Photo Caption: Rav Shraga Rosenberg father, Rav Shlomo (black beard) as a representative of the Vaad Htzolah at a DP Camp in Germany. Credit: Needed

Photo Caption: Rabbi Sigmund Drechsler, Credit: Bnai Jeshurun


Source: History Of The Jews Of Cleveland, Gartner

Bio Information: 
The Rav who was the first and only Orthodox rabbi at Bnai Jeshurun in Cleveland was a native of Hungary. He was educated in the yeshivos of Hungary and at the Orthodox (“Hildesheimer”) rabbinical seminary in Berlin.

Photo Caption: The family of Rav Yechiel including his son Shneur Zalman, a Chazan (cantor) who served in Montreal, Canada as well as Los Angeles, California where he is buried (see below), Credit:  Moreshes Chachmei America.

Photo Caption: Rav Yechiel’s connection to the Ba’al HaTanya (Alter Rebbe)

Photo Caption: Rav Chaim Tzvi Schneerson (d. 1881), the Rav’s grandfather, Credit: N/N

Photo Caption: Scetch of Rav Chaim Tzvi Schneerson upon his arrival to the United States, Credit: IFJCAH

Photo Caption: Letter from Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe which mentions Rav Yechiel and his son Shneur Zalman.

Photo Caption: Safer (book) compiled by Rav Yechiel, Credit: Library of Agudas Chassidei Chabad

Photo Caption: Marker of Shneur Zalman Schneersohn at the Mount Zion Cemetery, Los Angeles, California, Credit: Larry Luna

Photo Caption: Marker of Yisroel Dov Schneersohn at the Cholon Cemetery, Holon, Israel

Photo Caption: Marker of Chana Toba Feingold (married to Rabbi Avroham Fishel, Rav, New Orleans is a Louisiana), Old Tiberias Cemetery, Israel, Credit: Billion Graves 

Rav Illowi was ordained by Rav Moshe Schreiber, the Chasam Sofer and was among the first Rabbanim to serve in the United States. From the time of his arrival on these shores in 1853 until his passing, the Rav spent his time fighting to influence and uphold true Torah values in North America. The Rav is famous for his halachic ruling on the kashrus of Muscovy duck.

Chief Rabbi, Toledo, Ohio d. 11 Iyar, 1934 (5694) Anyone with information is asked to please send it in. See CONTACT page for details. Directions to kever: Beth Shalom Cemetery 434 Otter Creek Rd Oregon (Toledo), OH 43616-1203 (Ohel – Mausoleum) Photo Credit: Jack Mueller, Lakewood, NJ

Chief Rabbi, Toledo, Ohio d. 28 Kislev, 1901 (5662) Chanukah Anyone with information is asked to please send it in. See CONTACT page for details. Directions to kever: Beth Shalom Cemetery 434 Otter Creek Rd Oregon (Toledo), OH 43616-1203 (Ohel – Mosoleum) Photo Credit: Jack Mueller, Lakewood, NJ

Photo Caption: Title page Leket Yosef, authored by Rav Levin, Credit: Institute For Judaic Culture and History (IFJCAH)

Photo Caption: Rav Levin, Credit: Institute For Judaic Culture and History (IFJCAH)

Bio Information:
Rav Levin was a founding member of the  Agudath Harabonim and rabbinated at some point in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania as well as Jersey City, New Jersey.

Photo Caption: Rabbi Yosef Zelig Zeligs, Credit: Joe Zeligs
Note: The original family name was Shostokovsky.