Taylor Road Synagogue was evicted from its longtime home in Cleveland Heights on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, and now the congregation is suing the Cuyahoga Land Bank, claiming the agency broke a decade-old promise to sell the building back to them for a single dollar. The eviction, which took place on September 11, closed the doors on a structure the congregation had worshipped in for nearly 80 years.
According to Cleveland 19 News, the congregation's lawsuit alleges the Cuyahoga Land Bank breached both a purchase agreement and a lease when it handed title to the property at 1970 South Taylor Road directly to Kimolos Acquisitions, LLC. The station reports that Taylor Road Synagogue and the land bank entered into an agreement in 2014 requiring the land bank to transfer the building back to the congregation for one dollar if it ever acquired title through tax proceedings. The synagogue says it never got that chance — the land bank recorded the deed on June 11, 2025, and transferred the property straight to Kimolos Acquisitions the same day, per the same account.
A Deep Rooted Congregation Loses Its Home
The synagogue building has stood near Cain Park on Taylor Road since 1946, built by Jewish people who fled the Holocaust as a haven after World War II, the station notes. The congregation had deeded the property to Raintree Academy in 2003, a transaction that would eventually set off years of legal wrangling over who actually controlled the site. Vladimir Victor, president of the congregation, told the outlet the eviction was a loss for the congregation.
Rabbi Daniel, a spokesperson for the congregation, said the eviction occurred despite what he described as a valid lease, according to the station's report. Members of the congregation want to return to their synagogue, and they are also hoping to retrieve Jewish artifacts still inside the building, the article states. In the meantime, Taylor Road Synagogue is seeking a temporary place to gather and worship while the lawsuit proceeds.
The $6 Million Tax Debt Behind the Fight
The property's path to eviction runs through nearly two decades of unpaid taxes. Property transfer records show Raintree Academy sold the synagogue building in 2006 for $4 million to 1970 Taylor Road LLC, whose nonpayment of property taxes starting in 2007 triggered what became a decade-long foreclosure crisis, according to Cleveland Jewish News. By the time the dust settled, unpaid real estate taxes, interest, water, sewer, and municipal assessments on the parcel had climbed to between $6.4 million and $7.2 million — making it, according to the Cuyahoga Land Bank, the single most tax-delinquent property in Cuyahoga County.
The State of Ohio formally presented an order of forfeiture seizing control of the property on December 5, 2023, after a Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department auction failed to resolve the debt left by the former owner, Cleveland Jewish News reported at the time. The land bank then acquired the property through tax foreclosure to serve as a pass-through entity, clearing the accumulated liens to make way for a larger municipal redevelopment plan, the agency's own account explains.
Court Sided With the Developer on Possession
That redevelopment plan is Cleveland Heights' Cain Park Village master plan with developer WXZ Development, which calls for turning the synagogue parcel into an 11,914-square-foot performing arts center and event space alongside 20 residential apartments and 7 new townhomes, according to planning documents for the project. Kimolos Acquisitions now holds the deed to the property and, according to the lawsuit, carried out the eviction of Taylor Road Synagogue.
On July 2, the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals upheld a municipal court ruling granting Kimolos Acquisitions summary judgment for immediate possession of the building, finding that Taylor Road Synagogue had no valid title or active lease entitling it to remain. That ruling followed an earlier lawsuit the congregation filed in July 2025 in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, in which it argued it retained a valid lease to occupy the historic building. Even with the appellate court's decision on possession settled, the congregation's broader breach-of-contract claims against the land bank over the alleged 2014 buyback promise remain unresolved.
What the Building Meant to the Community
The synagogue was dedicated in 1955 after the congregation Oheb Zedek merged with five other historic Cleveland Orthodox congregations — Agudath Achim, Agudath B'nai Israel Anshe Sfard, Chibas Jerusalem, Knesseth Israel, and Shaaray Torah — according to the Case Western Reserve University Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. During the 1950s and 1960s, South Taylor Road served as the central corridor of Cleveland's Orthodox Jewish community, home to institutions including the Hebrew Academy, the Jewish Education Center, and the Jewish Community Center, per Cleveland Historical.
The eviction's fallout reached beyond the congregation itself. Community programs housed inside the building, including a frum girls gymnastics and parkour academy offering kosher-compliant youth instruction, were forced to shut down operations immediately once the building closed.
Land Bank Says It Cannot Discuss the Case
Becky Voldrich, a representative of the Cuyahoga Land Bank, said the agency cannot comment on pending litigation but is committed to transparency as proceedings move forward, according to Cleveland 19 News. That leaves the central legal question — whether the land bank's pass-through transfer to Kimolos Acquisitions violated its 2014 commitment to the congregation — to be argued out in court, alongside the unresolved matters of where the displaced congregation will worship in the meantime and what becomes of the religious artifacts still inside the building.
