Caramel Layer Pie and A Jewish Cookbook in Every Home

By Katharine Allen 

The Ladies’ Aid Society, founded in 1905 shortly after the completion of the original Tree of Life Congregation building on Lady Street, initially organized to conduct a Sunday School and raise funds for the good of the congregation. Ten years after its founding, the society voted to join the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, and thereafter became known as the Tree of Life Sisterhood.

Tree of Life Congregation, 1920. Image courtesy Russell Maxey Photograph Collection, Richland Library

Throughout its existence, the sisterhood devised an astonishing array of money-making events, from turkey raffles, Monte Carlo and Bingo parties, and booths at the State Fairground, to a “Fish Pond” event in 1906 and a very profitable “June Bazaar” at Ben David’s Parlor Restaurant in 1910, which raised $512. According to Tree of Life historian Helen Kohn Hennig, funds raised by the group eventually paid for about a quarter of the building’s mortgage and also the purchase of pews, curtains and carpet, an organ, additional religious services and gifts, and the furnishing of the schoolroom.

The Great Depression curtailed some of this activity, but the needs of the Religious School remained, as did the Sisterhood’s commitment to help numerous outside causes, including sponsoring Jewish orphans and refugees. In 1932, the congregation used funds left in trust by merchant Henry Steele (the congregation’s first president) to build a new community center with eight classrooms and a kitchen to the rear of the synagogue. The building, designed by architects Lafaye & Lafaye, opened the following year. By then, the school owned more than 2,000 books, but the Sisterhood contributed further, purchasing furniture and supplies and paying teachers in subsequent years.

Jewish Twentieth Century Cook Book. Image courtesy Tree of Life Congregation

Among the big fundraisers that supported the outfitting of the new community center and school was a set of “Favorite Recipes” compiled by the Sisterhood and published under the name Jewish Twentieth Century Cook Book in 1935. The recipes include southern staples as well as Passover dishes. Among the contributors were Helen Kohn Hennig (lebkuchen), Augusta Bruggeman Strasburger (aspic salad), Tillie Berman Fleischman (caramel layer pie), Bessie Stahl Kohn (Frigidaire lemon pie), and Jennie Calvert (Parker House rolls with potato), who served as the recipe coordinator. Sales of the book made $227.50 that year, or a little more than two-thirds of the money needed to fund the religious school, which had more than 80 students.

Tillie Fleischman contributed several dessert recipes, including this one. Image courtesy Tree of Life Congregation

We’ll be featuring these women and their recipes in the coming weeks, so if you or a family member have photographs or stories to share, please get in touch.