Abstract
The Park Main Synagogue by architect Eric Mendolson was the congregations first move from its origins in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood. Park School facility and land was purchased in the 1940's and the temple and school and meeting facilities were built on the grounds in Cleveland Heights between Mayfield Road and Euclid Heights Boulevard in a wooded setting. Additional facilities ware added in the 1960's making it one of the largest complexes in the area. Continued growth and movement of the congregation fostered additional building in Pepper Pike (Park East Synagogue). At present, both facilities are in use for worship services, event rentals, and community needs. Space at Park Main is also utilized for other (non-Jewish) religious services on a weekly basis.
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Interviewee
Petler, Ellen (interviewee)
Interviewer
Lanese, James (interviewer); Valore, Kenneth (interviewer)
Project
Sacred Landmarks
Date
7-21-2011
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
41 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Ellen Petler Interview, 2011" (2011). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 127007.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/369
Transcript
Ken Valore [00:00:01] My name is Ken Valore. I’m joined by Ellen Petler to conduct an interview for the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities to document the history of Park Synagogue. The interview is being held at Park Synagogue, located at 3300 Mayfield Road. Okay, Ellen.
Ellen Petler [00:00:31] Hi. Welcome to Park Synagogue. I’m Ellen Petler, the membership and program director I’m going to tell you about this wonderful building that was designed by the architect Eric Mendelsohn in the late ’40s and dedicated in 1950. First, let me tell you a little bit about the congregation of Park Synagogue. It is one of the largest Conservative congregations in the country and the largest in Cleveland with 1700 families who are members. It had its beginnings in 1869 when a small group of Polish families joined together to form a congregation called Anshe Emeth. Over the years, the congregation joined with another group whose name was Beth Tefilo, the house of worship, and hence our Hebrew name is Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo. The congregation has had several different buildings as its home, the previous one being the Cleveland Jewish center on East 105th street in the Glenville area, which is now home to the Cory United Methodist Church. Park Synagogue is a very active congregation. We have many groups and programs and opportunities for our members to get involved. We are led by two rabbis, Rabbi Joshua Scoff, who is the senior rabbi, and Rabbi Sharon Marcus, our associate rabbi. We have two buildings, the Park Synagogue, Main in Cleveland Heights, and Park Synagogue east in Pepper pike, which houses our school, both preschool and religious school, our administrative offices, and many of our programs. Our main service on Saturday morning is still held at Park Synagogue, Main as well as our high holiday services. So now let me tell you about this wonderful building and give you a virtual tour of it. In 1942, the Cleveland Jewish population began to move eastward, and the Cleveland Jewish Center Congregation, as this congregation was called at that point, decided to follow suit and acquired 33 acres of property from the Park School, which was a private school that had closed its doors during the during World War II. It’s a beautiful wooded property that fronts on Mayfield Road between Lee and Taylor. It wasn’t until 1947, though, that the congregation completely moved from its 105th street location, and its name was officially changed to the Park Synagogue. The building was put up in the late 40s and dedicated in 1950, and during the interim years, the congregation met in the Park School buildings that were on the property and in other community sites. Eric Mendelsohn was chosen to be the architect of the New Park Synagogue Building. When Rabbi Armand Cohn, the senior rabbi at the time, went to see a retrospective exhibit that Mendelssohn had going on in New York City. Rabbi Cohn had a vision of a very special synagogue building on this property among the trees. While wonderful plans were submitted by local architects, Rabbi Cohn wasn’t really happy with any of them so he asked the building committee if he could invite Eric Mendelssohn, who was a modernist, to come to Cleveland to submit a plan for the building. Mendelssohn had fled Nazi Germany in 1933, and taking, as he said, only his head and a pencil, he eventually settled in the United States. He was not well known to the General public until 1941, when the museum of Modern Art in New York City opened this retrospective exhibit of his work as I said, Rabbi Cohen happened upon it and was really struck by it. Mendelssohn was known for his Einstein Tower in Potsdam, Germany, built in 1920–21. He used very straightforward, simple architectural forms and a lot of reinforced concrete and a lot of hammered aluminum and very simple designs. Oneness was the key to his thinking and creating. Oneness between the physical nature of the building and man, rather than man imposing himself upon his environment, oneness between form and function. So he was interested in everything in a building down to the doorknobs. He once told Rabbi Cohn, as “I understand the biblical story of creation, there was nothing before the great Creator set to work. There was chaos to me, chaos is the unrelatedness of matter. There was sea and land, sky and depths. There were all the elements present in a horrible, unrelated chaos. The Creator fashioned a world of them by making them into one. There is only one newness to my work that consists of bringing many elements together, steel, concrete, glass, wood, the metals, and relating them all to the landscape into a function. Imperfect as my work is, I try to imitate God.” When Rabbi Cohen got the go ahead to bring Mendelssohn to Cleveland, he flew here in the mid ’40s, and that is significant. No one got on an airplane then to fly somewhere. They took the train. But Mendelssohn was a starving architect, and he got somehow got the fare for an airplane ticket and came to Cleveland in the middle of the winter to meet with Rabbi Cohn and the building committee. They walked around the 33-acre site and then met with the building committee. That evening, Mendelssohn saw the heavy wooded land and the ravine that traverses the property, and he asked for one thing. When he met with the building Committee that was a blackboard and a piece of chalk. Standing before the blackboard, he began. “I have spent the afternoon familiarizing myself with the proposed functions of this building, and I’m acquainted with the site. I have no design to offer you, but I shall attempt on this blackboard to sketch the relationships among the various parts of your program and the functions of this proposed building. Please do not mind if the lines are not for. I have one glass eye and cannot draw a straight line, but my draftsman will be accurate.” End quote. The building committee, made up of influential men in the community, many of whom were builders, had done their homework. They had done some research on who this Eric Mendelsohn was that Rabbi Cohn was so intrigued with. He proceeded to draw the outline of what is now the Park Synagogue building on this blackboard they were enthralled with. Mendelssohn realized they had a genius in front of them and gave him the contract even before he presented them with any preliminary studies or drawings. Highly unusual. They really took a chance and made the right decision in choosing Mendelssohn to be the architect of this distinctive building. The work began on the construction after the building ban of World War II was lifted in 1947, and as I said, it took two years to complete and was dedicated in 1950. There were some changes to the. Excuse me, from the original design because of economic and financial constraints, as it always happens when you’re building a building. But basically it was the way that Mendelssohn had designed it from the beginning. The building designed on three different levels for three different purposes. The sanctuary, or the Beth Tefilo, or the House of Worship, dominates the design. It connects the Beit Midrash, or the House of Study, which is the classroom wing, on one side, and the Beit ha Knesset, or the House of Assembly, on the other. It was designed in stages, and actually the school wing was the last to be finished in 1953. The sanctuary is what I want to concentrate on and give you some idea of what it looks like and the symbols in it. It seats close to 1,000 people. It’s a circular room with the bema or the pulpit at the north side of the room. The back wall of the. Of the sanctuary opens. The walls go into pockets in the wall, and you can then expand the room into the social hall, which is behind the sanctuary. The sanctuary is dominated by a dome which is 100ft in diameter and 65ft high at the center. Mendelssohn designed the dome to appear to be reaching to the earth symbolizing the nearness of heavens to earth and God’s closeness to man. There are no walls that appear to be supporting the dome or dividing the heavens from the earth. The dome rests upon six pillars enclosed by a solid band of clear glass this clear glass caused a lot of argument between Mendelssohn and the building committee. Mendelssohn insisted on having clear glass in the sanctuary, even though everyone on the building committee wanted traditional stained glass windows. Mendelssohn argued that everyone in the sanctuary should be able to see outside, to see the changing seasons and nature around the building, and to feel the presence of God in that nature. Mendelssohn argued that when you show me stained glass that has upon it a design as beautiful as God’s design of the surrounding trees, the flowing river, and the sky above, then I’ll give you stained glass. But don’t waste your time, gentlemen. You won’t find it. Besides, didn’t the Lord say, let there be light? Why do you want to shut it out? The argument didn’t end there, and Mendelssohn threatened to withdraw from the job if the committee decided to have stained glass installed. Mendelssohn won and we have clear glass in the sanctuary. It’s a very wonderful view when you’re praying in the sanctuary. Very peaceful, very lush around the sanctuary. The church trees. You see the changing seasons. You don’t see any cars, you don’t see any people. All you see are the trees, the sky what better place to feel God and to be praying than in the sanctuary? The backdrop of the sanctuary is the bema, or the pulpit area. It’s raised. It’s on three levels itself. The lowest level is where the rabbi’s lectern is. Rabbi in Hebrew means teacher the rabbi, he or she is then close to the people that he or she is speaking to. The second level is where the Torah scrolls or the scrolls containing the five books of Moses is read. The highest level is the Erin Kodesh, or the holy ark that holds the sacred Torah scrolls. The back of the bimah has three main symbols that Mendelssohn included. He chose these three after doing research. Mendelssohn was Jewish, but not a real observant Jew. He did a lot of homework himself. He chose one of the symbols to be the hands called the sign of the priestly blessing. In biblical days, rabbis were called priests they blessed the congregation by holding their hands, their arms and hands above their head with their hands together in kind of a triangular form. The other position that often was used was the hands in that same position, but with the fingers separated so that the thumbs were together and the first two fingers were together, and the fourth and fifth fingers together with an opening between. If any of you ever watched Star Trek, Mr. Spock used that same symbol on the show Leonard Nimoy, who was Jewish, was asked to come up with a symbol of power that he felt would be appropriate for the show he thought back to his rabbi and how the rabbi blessed the congregation. That’s where the symbol on Star Trek came from. It’s called the sign of the priestly blessing. So that is one of the symbols on the back of the bema. The second symbol are the tablets these symbols are repeated several times. They’re painted on the back of the bema in gold leaf. The tablets of law, or the Ten Commandments, are very commonly found in a sanctuary, a Jewish house of worship. Usually, though, the commandments are written out in Hebrew or numbered in Hebrew. But Mendelssohn chose something different. He chose a stylized version of the Hebrew letter shin, which has the sh sound and almost looks like a W. He chose that letter because it was the beginning letter of three Hebrew words that he felt were significant. One of those words is shalom, which many of you know to mean peace he wanted this sanctuary to be a peaceful place to pray. The second word is shema, which is the first word in the most significant prayer to Judaism that affirms that all Jews believe in one God. The third word is the word shaddai, which is an ancient form for the word God. The letter shin is also on the base of candelabra that are in the sanctuary and also on grill work in other parts of the building. If you look at the front door of the building with the steps that lead up to where the sanctuary is, there is grill work around the front doors and two very large shin. There also.
Ken Valore [00:17:21] Is that the shin in those doors.
Ellen Petler [00:17:26] The third symbol that Mendelssohn used on the bimah are crowns. He chose the crown because of a quote in the Talmud that he found significant to Judaism this is the quote. “Rabbi Simeon said there are three crowns that a person can strive to the crown of learning, the crown of the priesthood, and the crown of royalty. But the crown of a good name exceeds them all.” End quote. This point is important to understand. Judaism stresses the deeds one does to better this world forever. Everyone being a just, righteous and charitable person is most important the name that you make for yourself or your reputation is what is most important for people to strive for. That is what the crown symbolizes Park Synagogue has adopted the crown as its logo. On the bimah also you will find the Ner Tamid, the everlasting light or eternal light that represents the continuous presence of God. Mendelssohn designed this beautiful NER Tamid. Some people have said it looks like a flying saucer. It is a large round light made of hammered aluminum, brass and copper with light shining down that hangs from a very long pole that is attached to the front of the bema. The Aron Kodesh, or Ark of the Covenant, holds our six Torah scrolls. We have others in other parts of the building. We have six in this ark. They’re inside the ark covered with beautiful adornment that Mendelssohn also designed. The breastplates on the Torah scrolls are made of hammered aluminum, copper and brass also and decorated with semi precious stones. Stones. They have three main designs. We have two of each of these. One has pomegranates, one has wheat and one has grapes. Those are three of the seven native species of Israel and that’s why Mendelssohn chose those. The other four native species are olives, barley, dates and figs. The curtain that is inside the ark that covers the Torah scrolls also was woven, hand woven and has the letter shin woven into it. I mentioned before the candelabra, seven stems representing seven days of the week or seven days of creation. The shin forms the base of those stems. You also see names on the wall walls, especially on the stairway leading up to the bema these are names of loved ones who are deceased they are to memorialize them so that we remember them. There are also chairs up on the bema for people participating in the service. What don’t you see in the sanctuary? You don’t see any human form other than the hands that I mentioned. You don’t see photographs, drawings, portraits, statues, anything that has a human form. It’s traditional in Judaism not to have any representation of human form in an area where one is worshipping so that congregants don’t think they’re praying to another human being. We believe God has no human form and Jews only pray or bow down to God, no person. This stems from the fact that we were once slaves in Egypt and had to bow down to Pharaoh and taskmasters. Jews do not kneel when praying for the same reason. We bow our heads, we bend our knees during certain parts of the service. We stand during certain sections of the service to show respect for the Torah and to indicate the significance of the prayers being said. Okay. As you exit the sanctuary, you find yourself in a foyer that leads into a large ballroom called Rosenthal Ballroom directly behind the sanctuary. This is where we have smaller dinners, our kiddush or reception after our Saturday morning services and so forth. The most interesting thing about this room is the glass wall that on the far side of this room opens. Mendelssohn designed this so that people had access, direct access to the patio behind Rosenthal Ballroom. It can be opened, not that we do it too much anymore, but it could be opened in the past so that people on the patio actually had a straight sight line up to the bema. The ballroom is used for our high holiday services. We have chair seating in this area behind the sanctuary’s permanent seats. The wall that’s on the back of the sanctuary opens up, the wall in the front of the ballroom opens up, and we form one large room that way on the main level. Also our former administrative offices and library and our former school wing. We do have different programs here at various times, but during the week, parts of the building are rented to other community groups that use the building. There is a lower level to the main building that Mendelsohn designed. Two stairways take you downstairs, as well as an elevator that was added about 10 years ago, I would say, to make it as handicap accessible as possible. On the lower level are large restrooms, a large coat room, two rooms called the parlors, one called the Men’s Club Parlor, the other the Sisterhood parlor, where these groups used to meet there is a beautiful chapel called Miller Chapel. Miller Chapel is decorated in dark blues and beautiful wood tones and has many of the symbols that Mendelssohn used. In the main sanctuary, it has the letter shin on the Ark, again, the letter, the Hebrew letter that Mendelssohn used in the sanctuary to signify Shalom, Shema and Shaddai. There are two candelabra in the chapel, also in the shape of the letter shin. There is a beautiful Ner Tamid, or everlasting light, made out of hammered aluminum. there is an ark holding two Torah scrolls. Adonoi echad, the Lord is one, which is part of the Shema prayer, signifying the all Jews belief in one God. Instead of the three symbols that Mendelssohn used in the sanctuary, in the chapel he used two grapes and wheat, also painted in gold leaf, two of the native species of Israel. Mendelssohn chose them because he imagined young couples coming to the chapel to be married and to him, the grapes and wheat signified being fruitful and multiplying. There are very interesting lighting. There’s very interesting lighting in the chapel that Mendelssohn designed. Beautiful hammered aluminum lights that shine upward there are a lot of windows in this room also. It’s a very, very nice place to pray. Also a lot of nature around that room. In the early ’60s, the congregation had already outgrown the original building that Mendelsohn designed. This was the height of the baby boomers birth time. In the 60s there were many, many students in our schools and many, many families. Many more than we have now. Over 2,000 families were members of Park Synagogue. The congregation found that it needed to rent some space for high holiday services in other places around the community so they decided to add on to the main building. Where to add? There was a ravine running right alongside the main building. So the only place to add a significant addition was on the other side of the ravine, the north side of the ravine. There had to be some way to get from one side of the ravine to the other. They put a beautiful room called the Bridge, which is actually a bridge The water that flows through the ravine runs right under the building, right under the bridge. This room, the Bridge originally was an art gallery. It is now used for various synagogue functions. But it still has wonderful artwork in it, including an art installation by the living Israeli artist Yaakov Agam. It runs along the whole eastern side of the of the bridge. It’s made of sliding plexiglass panels that anyone looking at can move on tracks to form a variety of colors. Jacob Agam’s philosophy is that the viewer of his art be a co artist. He does a lot of moving installations in Israel. He has fountains that revolve and the colors move. He has artwork that when you look at it, the colors appear to be moving. This piece that was commissioned by one of our members is really the ultimate in moving colors. So you can take the red panel and the blue panel and put them over each other and form purple and so forth. It’s a wonderful, wonderful piece of art and we feel very, very proud to have it here at Park Synagogue. On the other side, the far side of the bridge, as you walk through it, is a large area called Kangesser Hall. This is the main addition that was put on in the 60s. It is made up of two large areas. One is called Stein Auditorium, which has a stage and 600 theater style seats and a movable wall at the back of that. On the other Side of that movable wall is a huge social hall called Goldberg assembly hall that is used for very large community functions, synagogue functions, private functions, and so forth. This part of the building is used for one of our high holiday services with the wall opened up between the two rooms. It can accommodate, with chair seating in the ballroom, close to 2,000 people. With seating in the sanctuary on the upper level and the ballroom behind it at about 15 or 1600 and 2,000 on the lower level. We can accommodate all of Park Synagogue at one time in two separate services for our high holiday services. Parking is what the issue is. That’s another story. The Kangesser Hall has a separate entrance. This is on the lower level of the building closer to Mayfield Road. It also has a separate parking lot that runs along Mayfield Road and is really has made Park Synagogue Main into a wonderful building that can be used by both our community and our congregation. Mendelssohn’s building has really stood the test of time, and we are happy to share it with everyone today.
Ken Valore [00:32:31] Their original group was German. Was there no mixing between.
Ellen Petler [00:32:39] You know, I have to tell you, it’s not the same anymore. But in, you know, olden days, the Jewish community had very distinct populations. They came over to the United States at different times. They thought of themselves, you know, as somewhat separate. B’nai Jeshurun is the Hungarian synagogue. That’s where my family was. I didn’t grow up here, but my parents were Clevelanders, and their parents were from Hungary, Austria-Hungary, that was the Hungarian shul. Shul is another name for synagogue. It’s Yiddish. It actually means school, but use it as a place of worship there was this unwritten law that you didn’t marry somebody who wasn’t from your homeland. You know, that kind of thing. I mean, that isn’t the same anymore. But there was really, I guess, a real strong identity in those days from your native land or your ancestors. Native land. Yeah. So that they formed their own congregations.
Ken Valore [00:33:59] Wasn’t there, I mean, you know, like a different tradition in the east versus in Germany? I mean, they’re all Jewish, but it’s kind of like. I don’t. You know, I may be talking out of turn, but I thought from some history I’ve studied, it’s like in Islam, where they have the Shiites and the Sunnis. It’s kind of. There’s just some slight differences.
Ellen Petler [00:34:32] There probably were our services, you know, I mean the one thing I just realized I didn’t mention, which we talked about, was to say that this is a Conservative congregation. I don’t know how important that is. But, you know, I normally do talk about that there are four branches of Judaism today. There are four. There’s one that’s very small that most people don’t know about. But originally there was one Orthodox. It wasn’t called anything. It was just Jewish, because that was it. There was no reason to name it in the 1800s in Germany, reform Judaism was born then when the German Jews were the first to come to the United states in the 1800s, and they brought the Reform Judaism here, and it really flourished. Some of the first Reformed congregations were in Cincinnati, where the Rabbinic Reform Rabbinic school still is, the Hebrew Union College, it’s called. Rabbi Wise was one of the people to start Reform Judaism in the United States. They were like, way on the far side to the point where there’s a story how they had some kind of banquet for the Hebrew Union College and they served pork and all kinds of things that were, like, you know, unheard of. But they were trying to get so far away from the traditional Jews, they went, you know, so far on the other end. Conservative Judaism, which is in the middle, was formed in the ’40s, more maybe the late ’30s, ’40s, and took hold in the middle in the early ’40s and later it was kind of a balance between the two. I was raised Reform in Toledo and am now a Conservative Jew. Does everyone practice the same? No. Do all Christians practice the same? No, this is a kosher facility. Does everyone keep kosher? No. Do many people do? I have no idea what percentage do, but the congregation does. Orthodox follows the letter of the Torah down to minutia. Conservative Jews have taken and modernized itself some, but still keep the tradition the word conservative doesn’t have anything to do with politics. It’s capital C. It means to conserve Judaism Reform is at the far side. The fourth branch is called Reconstructionist, which is relatively new. I think it was started in the- I don’t even know, ’70s, maybe.
Ken Valore [00:38:04] American.
Ellen Petler [00:38:05] Yes, it’s an American phenomenon. Conservative Judaism is also, though you don’t find Conservative Jews anywhere else it’s a small branch. It’s in between Reform and Conservative, basically we do have a Conservative group here in class. Cleveland. It’s a small group. They don’t have their own building. Anything else you want me to talk about, or is that sufficient?
Jim Lanese Along the same track of the various branches, if you will, are there architectural characteristics among the variations with respect to their temples or facilities?
Ellen Petler Well, you’re aware of. I wouldn’t say that. There are one interesting thing. You’re supposed to face east when you pray. East, because Jerusalem is east. You’re supposed to face east. This is not east. That’s east.
Ken Valore [00:39:21] Okay, so that’s north.
Ellen Petler [00:39:24] So a right, it’s north. I would say, and I’m not saying that, you know, that this is necessarily the case, but I would put my money on the fact that an Orthodox congregation’s always going to be facing east as long as they, you know, have that. I know the, you know, all along Taylor wrote the sanctuaries, you can kind of get an idea they’re facing east. That’s more important. Probably Mendelssohn didn’t, you know, they didn’t care as much. Let him put it facing north. So I would say that’s probably the main thing. Every synagogue, no matter what branch it is, it’s going to have some arc to hold one or two torus scrolls. Some kind of light, the near term eater, everlasting light may look very different. Originally they were gas or flame or whatever. So they’re electric. But they could be in any, you know, any shape or form. So those are probably, you know, the two things that you’re going to find in any Jewish house of worship. All the rest is adornment isn’t necessary. Just makes it pretty. That’s it.
Ken Valore [00:40:54] Yeah. What types of changes have you seen in the neighborhood since?
Ellen Petler [00:41:01] A lot. Well, I didn’t grow up here, so I know that. Well, I’d say the biggest change in this neighborhood is certainly integrated now. There is still a large Orthodox population in this neighborhood, especially on the east side of Taylor Road. But still in some. In this neighborhood, we have very few of our members that live near Park Synagogue, Maine. I mean, I can think of a few. I would imagine that when this building was built that a lot more people lived in the. In the neighborhood and on either side of Taylor, and they could walk here. But nobody walks here. Our rabbis do not live in the neighborhood. Rabbi Scoff did until a few years ago. He lived in Forest Hills, on the other side of Mayfield, and walked here for services. They’re on our Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. If you’re very traditional, you don’t drive. You don’t ride in a car or drive, I should say so he and his family would walk here and back and forth. But since we have a building in Pepper pike where we have our Friday night service, Rabbi Scoff always drove there for that service, not for any other purpose. He didn’t stop on the way and shop or do anything else. But the conservative movement allows a rabbi to drive to a service if it’s required. Our ritual director just recently moved from the neighborhood. He was two streets over with his family. Just last week moved to Pepper Pike. They only walked, but he, for school and other reasons, decided they needed to be closer to the other building. Rabbi Scoff and his family moved to Beechwood because they needed a special education program for their daughter that Beechwood offered. Otherwise they’d still be here, I’m sure.
Ken Valore [00:43:57] Do you live in Beechwood?
Ellen Petler [00:43:59] Do I live. I live in Orange. I used to live in Shaker. So I was halfway between our buildings. So in a way, you know, we are moving our offices to our Park Synagogue east building is closer for most of the staff. We did it because of trying to cut down on the cost of running this building and the other one, we still, you know, heat this, of course, but we don’t have as many expenses as we did. I, you know, we have very mixed emotions about doing that it was really hard to move out of here. Yeah, we don’t want it to turn into like the temple where it’s not used. It’s really. Is a special building.
Ken Valore [00:44:52] Yes, it is.
Ellen Petler [00:44:56] I don’t know if you’re want this. This is a beautiful piece that was done for a conference on. I’m trying to remember, I don’t know if it says the name on the back. Who? Let’s see. Yes, it was done for a conference of the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture that met in Cleveland and October of 2003. Robert Gaede, G-A-E-D-E, of Gaede Sarin Architects, did this. Robert Gotti, he’s deceased now, watched this building being built. He was a young architect at the time and he would sit over across they and watch this building being constructed he did sketches of it, which we have, that were in the parlors on the lower level. I never knew who. He only had initials on him. I never knew who did them. He contacted me in 2003. He wanted to bring the conference here for a tour so he and I collaborated when he saw the drawings, he says, oh, mine. Yes then he did this beautiful piece and one of our members had it reproduced. So I have several, you know, quite a few copies. It’s a lovely, lovely, nice piece. This is. I didn’t bring another copy I’m happy to get this to you if you would like. This is a very comprehensive article. That Walter Leedy, the late Walter Leedy did from csu. CSU did this one issue of Gamut Magazine on Cleveland sacred landmarks. Are you familiar with this? But this article is where I took a lot of my information. Besides talking with Rabbi Cohen, who gave me a lot of personal information, I did not include all those crazy stories. I would be here forever. But Rabbi Cohen and Eric Mendelsohn were very close friends and Walter Leedy used to come and talk to Eric Mendelssohn and wrote this article and was in the process of writing a book about Park Synagogue before Leedy died. He died a few years ago. So. Yeah, you should. I mean, this should be. I don’t even have the whole copy, the whole issue. I only have this article. Yeah, I’m sure, but it’s excellent. Are you at all interested in seeing the other parts of the building that I spoke about or your time wise?
Ken Valore [00:48:09] No, you could see them. Yeah.
Ellen Petler [00:48:15] Oh, you were still recording. I didn’t know that. Okay. I didn’t say anything wrong, I know, but.
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