Abstract
The Park East Synagogue is located in Pepper Pike on Shaker Boulevard on land originally purchased for the congregation's school. With a growing population, the facility was built to accommodate the congregation moving southeastward from its Park Main site in Cleveland Heights. Both facilities remain in use today. Park East is home for worship, a thriving summer camp program, a religious school with 32 classrooms, meeting facilities and administrative offices for the congregation. The site also is a wetlands restoration effort as part of an agreement to build at the location. This is consistent with the Jewish theme of "repair the world."
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Interviewee
Petler, Ellen (interviewee)
Interviewer
Valore, Kenneth (interviewer); Lanese, James (interviewer)
Project
Sacred Landmarks
Date
7-26-2011
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
44 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Ellen Petler Interview, 2011" (2011). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 127008.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/370
Transcript
Ellen Petler [00:00:00] When you’re ready for me.
Ken Valore [00:00:01] Okay. 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 East. The interview is being held at the synagogue located in Pippa Pike. And could you state your name and affiliation with the congregation, Ellen?
Ellen Petler [00:00:26] I’m Ellen Petler. [00:00:28] I’m the membership and program director at Park Synagogue, and I’d like to welcome you to Park Synagogue East. This wonderful building was opened and dedicated in August of 2005 and has quickly become a comfortable place of worship, education and gathering for our congregation. Park Synagogue was founded in 1869 and is one of the largest Conservative Jewish congregations in Cleveland with a membership of 1,700 families. Our main campus is referred to as Park Synagogue Main, and I know many of you have seen that building. But we’re going to concentrate today on Park Synagogue east, which is our branch building. In the mid-1980s, as the Jewish population in Cleveland continued to move eastward, the congregation made a decision to acquire a branch building in Pepper Pike to house. Our religious school and preschool. We purchased an existing building on the northwest corner of Shaker Boulevard and Brainard Circle, which became known as Park Synagogue East. Several years ago, as our membership of young families had substantially grown, we found that the size of that building was inadequate for our religious school and other purposes. We were bursting at the seams every Sunday morning. After a lot of study and discussion, the leaders of Park Synagogue decided it was time to build a new modern building that fit the needs of our congregation. And here we are. The former Park Synagogue East was sold to Ratner School, which has retrofitted the building for its needs and is directly across the street from us. Let me tell you about our beautiful building. This building was designed by Centerbrook Architects of Essex, Connecticut, with Mark Simon being the principal designer. He is the son of Sidney Simon, who co founded the famous Skowhagen School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1946. Many local people also were involved in. The construction process, including Maurice Brothers Construction, who was the general contractor. The cost of the building was $17 million. The building is 62,000 square feet, which provides room for our many activities and programs, as well as a wonderful sanctuary for worship, 32 classrooms for our religious school and preschool, a full service library, our administrative offices, social hall, day camp facilities and recreation areas, area, and many other rooms. The building was built on 28 acres of wetlands donated to Park Synagogue in the 1960s by owners of the land. All members of the congregation. In order to fill in the wetlands, we were required through mitigation to purchase wetlands elsewhere and agree to preserve it as wetlands. We also agreed to work with the Cuyahoga County Metroparks to restore 1.65 acres of wetlands. Environmental management included compacting soil, raising the soil as much as 8 feet in parts to provide a foundation, putting in a drainage system that sends rainwater through swales, constructing wetlands to filter the rainwater before allowing it to run into the storm sewers, and redirecting a creek under Brainard Road. Because of all this very costly environmental work, the creek now feeds clean water into the Chagrin River. In this way, the building will help heal its environment, a physical manifestation of the Jewish mission of Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world so it’s a better place for all people. As one approaches the building, you will notice the two large cantilevered copper notched or mitten shaped canopies over the front entrances reaching up and out to welcome visitors like the hands of a rabbi raised in benediction. This same hand theme is very much part of the symbolism in the main sanctuary of Park Synagogue Main. The building- The outside of the building is covered with copper sheeting in some areas set in panels which Mark Simon refers to as Fabonacci patterns. I didn’t say that right? Stop for a second.
James Lanese [00:05:46] I’ll start now.
Ellen Petler [00:05:49] Do you want to-
Ken Valore [00:05:52] Here we go.
Ellen Petler [00:05:53] Okay. [00:05:55] The outside of the building is covered with copper sheeting in some areas set in panels which Mark Simon refers to as Fibonacci patterns. Named after a mathematician of the Middle Ages. The copper has and will continue to age and darken. The copper wall panels complement the barrel vaulted roof of the sanctuary, sliced open at the upper edges with dramatic clerestory windows, which recalls the large dome of Park Synagogue main without imitating it directly. Other areas of the outside and many walls inside are covered with stone from Israel. It was imported from the Jerusalem area, famous for its quarries. For those of you who have never visited Israel, many of the structures in Jerusalem are made out of this tawny gold limestone, a material instantly recognizable as the same stone used on the western wall of the ancient Second Temple in Jerusalem. The texture of the limestone varies throughout the building. The but all the stone was delivered in 2,000-plus individual pieces and assembled on site. Mark Simon used the copper and Jerusalem stone throughout the building as materials with a strong connection to the ancient past and potential to age well in the future. He described the notches in the canopies and openings sliced for the clerestory windows as ways to remind congregants of the torn fabric of the world which we Jews are encouraged to repair and make whole. As you enter this fully accessible building, you will notice the beautiful natural maple wall panels accentuated with aluminum in the gaps or reveals between the panels that catch unexpected gleams of light. The limestone floor in the lobby area and natural hardwood flooring in other areas reinforces the desire of the architect to use as much natural materials in this building as possible. The whole building is intended to be modern with a sense of history and a sense of endurance and durability. Mark Simon stated, the use of materials from ancient times, copper, stone and wood carry a sense of history, while the use of aluminum and incorporating simple geometric shapes also make it modern. Now let me concentrate on the 200-seat sanctuary. The sanctuary is the building’s focal point. Like many of the other areas of the building, the ceiling is suspended latticed wood slabs that suggest the transitory nature of mortal life. The Aron Kodesh, or sacred ark which houses the Torah scrolls, rests on the bimah or dais and is concealed by glass paneled silver doors that were hand hammered by Yaakov Boaz and Margi Yamini, silversmiths from Jerusalem. The ark doors have images of Hebrew words that convey the Bible’s commands of how the sacred texts of the Torah should be treated. The words are the prayer called the Ahava Rabbah which refers to passing on the Jewish tradition. We learn it, apply it, obey it, but all is done with love or ahava. In Hebrew the word ahava is wrapped around each of the other parts because they are all done with love in Hebrew. We call the synagogue the Beit Hakanesset, a place of gathering which emphasizes not the nature of its use but the community that uses it. The Yaminis also carved and hand peened thin silver representations of Israel’s seven native species, dates, figs, olives, pomegranates, grapes, barley and wheat. The silver was hand peened and nailed into the wood. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 8 describes the land of Israel as the land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olives for oil and date honey. The motif of the seven species signifies the bounty Israel is blessed with and represents many functional and spiritual aspects of our heritage and of Israel. On the front of the Rabbi’s lectern you will notice another beautiful silver work of art by the Uminis, the dove of peace or shalom, symbolizing our hope that the Sanctuary and building will always be very peaceful and a wonderful place to pray. Mark Simon always wanted this sanctuary to be one of shelter and spirituality. Above the Ark and bimah, Simon created a 28-foot wooden canopy made of narrow wooden beams in the shape of a hand, very similar in shape to the copper canopies above the front doors. Another interpretation of this canopy is that it represents a tent in the wilderness, the first sanctuary of the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert. This reference is very interesting since the backdrop of the bimah at Park Synagogue Main is also symbolic of a tent in the wilderness. A third interpretation of this wooden canopy is that it resembles a protective cloak similar to the ones that were worn by the Israelites thousands of years ago in the desert. Of the protective wooden canopy, Simon stated, it creates a sense of shelter from the outside world. “It is meant to stimulate the worshipper’s feelings and imagination.” Also important to the sense of spirituality in the sanctuary is the light that comes down from the staggered ceiling lamps and from the wall-length window on the western side of the room the Ner Tamid, or eternal light that represents God’s ever presence, beautifully hangs above the bimah. If you look at it closely, you will find that this light is secured on both ends by seals in the shape of the Star of David as are the washers for the screws holding the wooden beams in place for the Ark’s frame. The Ner Tamid is in the shape also of the Star of David or Magan David. This is just one of the examples of all the detail work that was put into this building. The sanctuary seats 200 people. As was previously mentioned, the positioning of the seats in a semicircle around the bimah was done to create a more intimate setting for small groups of worshippers. The room has some flexibility to it with the walls on both sides of the room being able to be raised and chair seating added in the rooms that adjoin the sanctuary. There’s also a small garden and patio off the sanctuary for meditation or thoughtful reflection. The remainder of the building is meeting rooms, classrooms as was stated before, library and our administrative offices. Also on the outside on the east side of the building there is a playground for our preschool and down a slope there is a pool house and an in-ground pool and play field and other recreation areas for our eight-week day camp that we hold every summer. We hope that you will come back and visit Park Synagogue many times and find it a wonderful place to be. Thank you for visiting us.
Ken Valore [00:15:16] How many children are in Sunday school?
Ellen Petler [00:15:25] We have 600 students in our religious school between the ages of Pre kindergarten and 12th grade. Some are here on Sunday mornings. The pre-kindergarten through 6th graders are here on Sunday mornings. And the upper School, the 7th through 12th graders, come on Monday nights. Our third through sixth graders also attend Hebrew school after school. Hebrew instruction on Mondays and Thursday afternoons after school.
Ken Valore [00:16:02] Is that primarily for the bar mitzvah?
Ellen Petler [00:16:07] It leads them up to their bar, bat mitzvah, which takes place normally in seventh grade or early eighth grade. So yes, but it isn’t only Hebrew instruction on the weekdays. They do have other kinds of learning opportunities in the day camp.
Ken Valore [00:16:34] Is that kind of a tradition, having that summer day camp?
Ellen Petler [00:16:39] Well, it’s a Park Synagogue tradition and I wish I knew how many years it’s been, but it’s been, I’m going to venture a guess, at least 60 years. When Rabbi Cohen began, I believe he and his wife started day camp at the Cleveland Jewish Center in the Glenville neighborhood. It then moved to Park Synagogue Main and we had day camp facilities there. And about five years ago the camp moved to this building when it opened.
Ken Valore [00:17:14] Did they always have a pool?
Ellen Petler [00:17:16] Yes, the Cleveland Jewish center had an indoor pool. It had a recreation area and a pool inside the building. One part was the synagogue area and one part was recreation area. And it was fondly referred to as the shul with a pool. Shul is a Yiddish word for school or synagogue. Actually Park Synagogue Main had two in-ground pools and a recreation building and other day camp building. The pools have been filled in with soil since we weren’t using them anymore. And our Park Synagogue east has a wonderful, fully handicap-accessible pool on the eastern side of our property, as well as there’s a bathhouse, restroom facilities, changing facilities and so forth.
Ken Valore [00:18:30] Is that normal or is that kind of unique to Park?
Ellen Petler [00:18:33] It’s very unique. It really is. I am not aware of too many congregations that have a day camp and a swimming pool. It’s very unique, but it’s wonderful. And we have several hundred children in the day camp program. It runs from anywhere from four to six to eight weeks in length. And they get a full camp experience with athletics and arts and crafts and nature and music and Judaics and Shabbat lunch and hot lunch every day. But they have a special Shabbat lunch on Fridays and they put on a family service once during the summer. And very, very well-run camp and kids have a good time.
Ken Valore [00:19:29] I’m getting its a good way to attract young families.
Ellen Petler [00:19:33] It’s a great way to attract young families. And on the flip side, our teenagers often work in the camp as well as in our religious school. And it’s a wonderful way for them to stay connected and to earn a little money over the summer too and to, you know, have some, a good enriching summer experience for themselves too. And our religious school uses the 11th and 12th grade students after confirmation. Our confirmation is in 10th grade, so 11th and 12th graders can be teachers’ aides and they help on Sunday mornings in the classrooms. And it’s a, it’s an excellent experience for them.
Ken Valore [00:20:27] Are the other teachers paid or are they volunteers?
Ellen Petler [00:20:30] Yes, they’re all paid.
Ken Valore [00:20:37] What we call CCD, whatever it’s called today. People that teachers are volunteer adults or teenagers.
Ellen Petler [00:20:47] Most of them are. Teachers are trained in education with some exceptions, but they are paid.
James Lanese [00:20:58] Are the camp and or the school program open to just congregation members or non-members too? Non members.
Ellen Petler [00:21:09] Our school is open only to members. Our religious school, our preschool and our day camp are open to non members. They do pay more than a member would pay. So we give our members a benefit of membership. And our preschool, I didn’t really speak about it too much, is a full-service preschool Monday through Friday, from tiny ones who come with their moms or mom and me kinds of programs up to pre-kindergarten classes, children who are ready for 5 year olds, 4 and 5 year olds who are waiting to go to kindergarten.
Ken Valore [00:22:11] Just over the years, what changes have you seen in the church, the congregation? You’ve been here for 23 years.
Ellen Petler [00:22:33] What changes? Well, I think number one, we have seen the Jewish population move even further east and southeast away from what was the central core, suburban areas. We still have a strong east side Jewish presence, but we have seen people move much further away and not have that neighborhood and community feeling that once was very much a part of the congregation, especially when it was, of course in the Glenville area, but even also in the Cleveland Heights area. So we have to work even harder, I would say, in the congregation to encourage people to come, even though it may be a distance from their home, to be a part of the community. And to enter congregational life as often as they can. So we’re pretty successful with that. And of course we’ve seen changes in synagogue leadership and the clergy. Rabbi Cohen, who was a very big presence in the congregation, died four years ago. And we were very fortunate in securing Rabbi Joshua Scoff as our senior rabbi. And Rabbi Sharon Marcus is our associate rabbi. Rabbi Scoff is a very strong, has a very strong presence here at the Synagogue as well as Rabbi Marcus. And people are very anxious to come and to hear both of them and to be a part of the congregation because they’re here. So Rabbi Cohn’s legacy has, while he’s no longer here, that same kind of strong presence. We are fortunate to have in two other clergy members.
Ken Valore [00:24:59] Are there other programs for adults that the congregation has to keep them involved?
Ellen Petler [00:25:08] We have a lot, a myriad of activities. That’s part of my responsibility, not the whole thing. But we have very active groups here, Men’s Club and Sisterhood, which take care of themselves. I’m not involved in their activities, but we have groups for young families, baby boomers, senior adults. We do a lot of volunteer projects, both on a one-time and an ongoing basis. We have a large mitzvah day or day of community service once a year with over 30 projects throughout the community. We’re involved right now in a new interfaith community organizing initiative called the Greater Cleveland Congregations, or GCC. Fairmount Temple is involved, and the Temple, and many churches there, 50 different congregations involved in this initiative, which is hoping to make some major positive changes in the Cleveland area. We have adult education and social events. Just a wide range of ways for people to be involved and as I said, feel a part of the community. I was hired 23 years ago for that purpose. Being a large congregation, people can feel lost if they don’t enter into some group possibly or come regularly. So the senior rabbi at that point decided that a program director was an important staff person and hired me, very part-time at that point. And it’s become a full-time position for the last many, many years. And he was right on target and knew that being the size that we are and were, that you need, you need some kind of vehicle to pull people together. And we have lots of ways to do that.
Ken Valore [00:27:34] You mentioned one of the rabbis is a woman. When did that come about?
Ellen Petler [00:27:45] I don’t know the exact date that the first rabbi, female rabbi, was ordained. It was in the Reform movement, though. Her name was Sally Presand. It’s been probably 30 years, I would think. Rabbi Sharon Marcus, our associate rabbi, actually heard Rabbi Priessen when she was a young. She was in school in Philadelphia and decided that she wanted to be a rabbi. So Rabbi Priessen was her role model. And the Conservative movement, which Park Synagogue is part of, began ordaining women approximately 10 to 15 years ago, I would think.
Ken Valore [00:28:41] Now, is there a separate seminary for Conservative.
Ellen Petler [00:28:53] The Conservative movement seminary is called the Jewish Theological Seminary. It’s in New York City, the Reform movement’s seminary is basically in Cincinnati. That’s the main part. I believe they have branches in other cities. It’s called Hebrew Union College. And there’s also a school to train cantors from both the movements. And of course the Orthodox movements has several, more than several, has many, many seminaries. There are no women rabbis in the Orthodox movement. Women are forbidden to touch or read the Torah in the Orthodox movement. There is a group in Israel called the Women of the Wall that is working very hard to, to try to change this. Difficult. They’ve met up with a lot of resistance. As a matter of fact, I’m going to Chautauqua tomorrow to hear Anat Hoffman, who was one of the founding members of the Women of the Wall speak. That is why we’re going. She was arrested for carrying the Torah in Israel. So yeah, we, you know, in the United States we had a pre-trip study session about this. You know, we take our religious freedom for granted here in the United States probably too much. And, and our equality as women for granted a lot too religiously and otherwise. And Park Synagogue and most Conservative synagogues, I think all of them in Cleveland anyway in the Reformed congregations are totally equal for men and women as far as religious rituals and rites. But it’s not true of all Conservative synagogues in other cities.
Ken Valore [00:31:36] Okay, so there’s a difference based on where you’re located.
Ellen Petler [00:31:41] There could be some differences, yes.
Ken Valore [00:31:43] So if you moved somewhere else, you-
Ellen Petler [00:31:46] Might find there might be differences. Right. And there are differences among Conservative synagogues here in Cleveland too. Not the egalitarian part, but ritually there are.
James Lanese [00:32:06] On a couple of occasions, both last week and today, you referred to the Cincinnati center. Just regionally speaking. Is the Jewish population in Cincinnati comparable or similar in size to Cleveland?
Ellen Petler [00:32:31] I am not sure. [00:32:33] I don’t know. I would imagine possibly, yes, but I not able to answer that. I really don’t know the population, Jewish population in Cleveland depends how far reaching you go anywhere. Some people say 80,000, some say 60,000. It just depends who you, how far out you go and how you include who identifies as a Jew. And that’s another whole question.
Ken Valore [00:33:13] It could be religious or-
Ellen Petler [00:33:17] Well, that’s true, but I’m talking about the matrilineal, patrilineal, whether you officially converted, whether you didn’t. There’s a real gray line there. Yeah, the Reform movement changed not so long ago to include if your father is Jewish and the mother isn’t, then you are considered Jewish in the Conservative movement and the Orthodox movement it goes by the mother only.
Ken Valore [00:34:06] Well, anything else you’d like to add? What other, you know, are there other services or how is the, you know, how are you integrated into the surrounding community? I don’t know, I’m not quite sure.
Ellen Petler [00:34:33] Well, I mean, as a congregation, we are very active in the Greater Cleveland community. We feel that’s very important. As I had mentioned before, when and talk about both these buildings, the sense of there’s a philosophy in Judaism teaching called tikkun olam, repair of the world. And it’s not just for other Jews that we’re repairing the world, it’s for everybody. So it’s a mandate basically. And so we feel that we should be trying to help people all over the United States, the city, the world, so forth. So we try best we can. Obviously we do more hands on kinds of things here. For instance, we’re involved in summer lunch project for eight weeks in the Cleveland Public Libraries. This is a program run through the Cleveland Jewish Federation. It’s not just Park Synagogue doing this, but other congregations and organizations, both Jewish and non Jewish. As a matter of fact, a group from American Greetings is involved in this volunteer project. And the children who normally get lunches in the Cleveland public schools during the school year in the summer don’t have lunches. And so three years ago, the city of Cleveland, the Cleveland Children’s Hunger Network, and the Jewish Federation came together to work on some solution to this problem. And the result was that box lunches are served in almost all the Cleveland public Libraries to children ages 1 through 18, five days a week for eight weeks during the summer. The federation’s role was to provide volunteers for these meal sites to help not just with the administrative part, but with the interaction and just having activities for the kids and just being on site to make it as good and positive an experience as possible for the children. And I volunteered myself this summer several times. We have adopted for the last three years the Langston Hughes branch of the library, which is in the Glenville area, the former Jewish neighborhood, and it’s on Superior and 105th. And it’s been a very gratifying, satisfying experience. Yesterday I was at the Hough Library and we served 50 lunches in 45 minutes. So there is a big need out there, I’m sure.
Ken Valore [00:37:57] Do you organize the volunteers from here for that?
Ellen Petler [00:38:01] Yes, yeah, I’m in charge of that. People sign up two at a time to go.
James Lanese [00:38:11] Aside from coordinating efforts with the Federation, is there any formal network of interaction with the various congregations in the Cleveland area, or informal, for that matter?
Ellen Petler [00:38:33] Well, there is the Greater Cleveland Rabbis Association, which our Rabbi, Sharon Marcus is president of. So the rabbis do get together on a regular basis. This is Reform and Conservative. The Orthodox rabbis are unfortunately not active in this group, which is really a shame. So there is a lot of interplay between the rabbis as far as that. As far as our congregations go, probably less so. We at Park Synagogue and B’nai Jeshurun, another sizable Conservative congregation, both have senior adult groups, and our senior adult groups do some joint activities a couple times during the year. And we, you know, have strengthened numbers that way and pool our resources and so forth. We’re taking a trip to our annual trip down to the Ohio Light Opera in Worcester in a couple weeks. We do a concert and dinner together, alternating buildings. During the year, too, our young adult groups often do collaborative kinds of programs. So the young singles, 20s and 30s, groups often do things together so that they can meet each other more.
Ken Valore [00:40:14] Are you involved in coordinating?
Ellen Petler [00:40:19] I am not. I don’t staff that group anymore. I did. I did. Somebody younger needs to do it, so just hiring a new person for it. The group’s inactive right now, but we are starting again because it’s an important age group not to ignore. So. Yeah, but the congregations do their own thing, and there are times that we come together as a community. And the Federation does pull us together often. They’re usually the conduit that pulls us together. For instance, we do an annual Israel, the Birthday of Israel, Yom Ha’ Atzmaut, it’s called in Hebrew, which is a mouthful. It’s in April or May, and it’s the anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel. And it’s also one day before it is the commemoration of those who have fallen in Israel, soldiers who have died in Israel during any of the wars. And so this, it’s usually an evening, early evening into the evening event. We hosted it at Park Synagogue Main this past May, and all the congregations take turns hosting it. So it starts with a very solemn ceremony for the fallen and then goes into a very joyous and raucous event. A lot of dancing and music and food and fun. And so the congregations all get together and do that together, which is fun. Yeah. But we have a strong Jewish community here in Cleveland and very strong federation, and we try to cooperate with one another. And there’s federation as a community calendar. We try to put our dates on major dates on the calendar, so we’re not scheduling against each other and so forth. So it does help. It does help. So we’re very fortunate. We have a very strong Jewish newspaper in Cleveland, the Cleveland Jewish News. And I think people read that paper and a lot of people do that. They really get a sense that there is a strong Jewish community in Cleveland and we’re fortunate to have such a community.
Ken Valore [00:43:28] It’s been very strong.
Ellen Petler [00:43:33] And very philanthropic.
Ken Valore [00:43:42] The federation, obviously they have a funding campaign. Is that just toward individuals or is it kind of- Is there a goal for congregations or, you know, like United Way, where they had different companies or-
Ellen Petler [00:44:04] No, it is not structured that way. It’s individuals.
Ken Valore [00:44:10] Which makes sense. Okay. Anything else that you would like to-
Ellen Petler [00:44:19] I don’t think so.
Ken Valore [00:44:23] Well, if not, we appreciate your time again.
Ellen Petler [00:44:29] You’re very welcome.
Ken Valore [00:44:30] This time it will be used.
Ellen Petler [00:44:37] I’m sure. It was my pleasure.
Ken Valore [00:44:42] Thank you very much.
Ellen Petler [00:44:42] You’re welcome.
James Lanese [00:44:43] Thank you, Ellen.
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