Hebrew!

So Hebrew isn't a country, but it's a culture represented in the cultural gardens as well as very heavily in my neighborhood. According to Wikipedia, as of 2023, there are about 100,000 Jewish Clevelanders who mostly live in the eastern suburbs of Beachwood, Solon, Moreland Hills, Pepper Pike, South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, University Heights and Orange. Beachwood in particular is regarded by locals as being the center of Jewish life in Cleveland, given that the city has over a dozen Jewish institutions including several synagogues of all denominations, the Mandel Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, the Cleveland Jewish News headquarters, Menorah Park, The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, as well as dozens of Jewish owned businesses and organizations. The city of Beachwood is known as being “one of the most Jewish neighborhoods outside of Israel”, with a per capita Jewish population being one of the highest in the United States.

Finding food to represent the Hebrew culture wasn't going to be difficult. I could easily think of five places I could walk to from my house, so I chose the one I hadn't been to before - Arova. Arova is a kosher schwarma and falafel restaurant In the Cedar Center North shopping plaza that offers a full shabbat menu as well as daily selections of soup, sandwiches, and all sorts of good stuff -- including Keno! 

I placed my order online for pickup and was pleased to find several things I hadn't tried before even though shawarma and falafel places are my faves. 

I chose the sabich, a pita sandwich stuffed with fried eggplant, hard-boiled egg, hummus, amba (a pickled mango sauce), tahini sauce, potatoes (in the form of french fries!), Israeli salad and pickles. It is an Iraqi Jewish dish that has become a staple of Israeli cuisine. From Wikipedia: on mornings when there was little time for a cooked breakfast, Iraqi Jews ate a cold meal of pre-cooked fried eggplant and hard-boiled eggs, either stuffed into a pita bread or with boiled potatoes. The eggplants would be cooked the night before.

In Israel, these ingredients eventually became popular as fast food. The dish is said to have been first sold in Israel in 1961 at a small stall on Uziel Street in Ramat Gan. 

This was a mess of a sandwich, sauces dripping out with every bite, but I loved it. The flavor and texture combination was totally unique - crispy fries, creamy hummus, velvety eggplant, tangy amba, crunchy cucumber... Just make sure you have lots and lots of napkins ready!

I was excited to see Yemenite Soup on the menu because I love Yemeni food. I knew nothing about it, but added it to my order anyway knowing that it would be good. It was GREAT. It was well spiced, rich, and delicious. The Arova version had barley in it which I can't find listed in any of the recipes I've found online, but it was a welcome addition nonetheless. This website offers up some great history on the Yemenite Jews, most of which I had no idea about (thanks US educational system!). 

I also ordered an olive bourekas, a popular baked pastry in Sephardic Jewish cuisine and Israeli cuisine. It's a close cousin to the burek which I just enjoyed at the Albanian coffee shop and typically made with puff pastry or filo dough. This one was the perfect crispy yet fluffy bite and stuffed with whole green olives. They also offer a potato version if you want carbs stuffed with carbs. 

This was an excellent meal! I'm excited to have the leftover soup for lunch today and for my next visit where I'll definitely try the shawarma and falafel. 

From the Cultural Gardens website: The Hebrew Cultural Garden was the first to be built and dedicated after the Shakespeare Garden (and after the city determined that it would have a Cleveland Cultural Gardens). In effect, it signaled the more formal beginnings of the Gardens.

It was originally conceived as a monument to the Zionist movement and the vision of Leo Weidenthal (founder of the Shakespeare Garden and publisher of the Jewish News at the time).

The pink Georgia Eweh marble fountain is the centerpiece of the Hebrew Cultural Garden. The bowl sits on seven pillars referred to in the Hebrew holy texts. The text is a quote from Proverbs: “Wisdom hath built herself a house; she hath hewn her out of seven pillars”.

A popular explanation or commentary on the text suggests that the first sentence refers to God’s creating the world, with the second sentence referring to the seven days of creation.

Directly south of the fountain is the Musicians’ Garden, which is in the shape of a lyre or small harp, framed by a sidewalk. A Sept. 10, 1937 article, Wisdom’s House Dwells in Hebrew Cultural Garden, states that “the triangular pillar at the south end bore a plaque on its north face honoring Jacques Halevy, author of the opera ‘The Jewess’, Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer of the opera ‘L’Africana’, and Karl Goldmark, author of ‘Queen of Sheba’.”

The central architectural feature of the Garden is a hexagonal Star of David, which gives shape to the landscape. At four of the six points are memorials to the Hebrew philosophers Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, and Archad Ha’am.

A round bronze plaque is attached to an elevated boulder in the northern section of the garden. The plaque bears Emma Lazarus’ poem for the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” Underwritten by the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations and dedicated on June 14, 1949, the plaque is located adjacent to a boulder with Lazarus’ likeness on it.

The first Jews to make their home in Cleveland were from Unsleben, Bavaria. In 1840 there were 20 families alongside 20 single males living in the city.

Jews settled in Cleveland during two “eras”: The German Era (1837-1900) and The East European Era (1870-1942).

By 1880 there were 3,500 Jews living in Cleveland. This number increased dramatically over the next generation. By 1925, about 85,000 Jews lived in the city.

Initially, Jewish settlements were established near the Central Market east of the Cuyahoga River. As the community grew, they moved farther and farther east, first to Glenville and the Mt. Pleasant/Kinsman districts.

Following World War II the Jewish community moved into Cleveland Heights and other eastern suburbs. At the turn of the 20th century, only a small number of Jews remained on the west side. In 1910 they formed a congregation which later became known as the West Side Jewish Center.

On the east side, the area between Coventry and South Green Roads in Cleveland Heights became the heart of the Jewish community. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the focal point was Taylor Rd., which witnessed the greatest concentration of Jewish institutions in Cleveland’s history. Later decades have seen many Jews moving even further east, most recently to Beachwood and Pepper Pike.

Arova

13911 Cedar Road

South Euclid, Ohio 44118

216-465-1009

Website

Operating Hours:

MON - THURS | 11:30am - 11pm

FRI - SAT | closed

SUN | 12pm - 11pm