Temple Sinai and the History of Sefer Torahs

Temple Sinai is commissioning a new Torah scroll from Linda Coppleson . It will be the first Sefer Torah in Western Pennsylvania written by a Soferet — or female scribe— and one of only a few such Torahs in the world. The project inspired the Rauh Jewish Archives to look into the history of Sefer Torah dedications throughout Western Pennsylvania. There have been more than 100 Torah scrolls commissioned by Jewish organizations in this region going back to 1860. These projects reveal hidden patterns of Jewish migration, communal involvement, and spiritual practice throughout the community. For those who missed this presentation at the recent Tikkun Leil Online event, Temple Sinai is hosting an online encore on Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. It will place the Temple Sinai project in the context of regional Jewish history.

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[IMAGE: As Congregation Tree of Life in Ellwood City, Pa., prepared to close, its members donated a Torah scroll to Riverview Towers (1998.0084).]

Featured Cookbook: Incredible Edibles

Our featured recipe is the Webster Hall Coffee Cake. Make that the legendary Webster Hall Coffee Cake. Before it was an apartment building, Webster Hall on Fifth Avenue in Oakland was a semi-upscale hotel. It had a pool, a ballroom, a drugstore, and an all-night coffee shop. Oaklanders swooned over that coffee shop. "It is sacred to the memory of so many friends now gone that I almost feel like placing a wreath in it," James D. Van Trump once wrote. The specialty was a fruity, nutty coffee cake, often served toasted. Every 10 years or so, someone will write to one of the local newspapers in a fit of nostalgic rapture , requesting the recipe. The version in "Incredible Edibles" is a copy of the definitive version from "Margaret Mitchell's Mealtime Magic Cookbook."

Temple Sinai published "Incredible Edibles" in 1991, in part to publicize recipes from its Jewish Food Festival. The cookbook includes a lovely introduction that describes the importance of home cooking throughout the history of the congregation. There were homemade Friday night onegs in the early years, and later there were packed Passover seders, and of course "freezer pleasures" from the Temple kitchen. This copy was donated by Hilary Spatz, a good friend and volunteer.

The Rauh Jewish Archives is placing a special focus on Jewish cookbooks throughout 2020. If you have an extra copy of a cookbook published by a Jewish individual or a Jewish group in Western Pennsylvania, please contact Eric Lidji at 412-454-6406 or  eslidji@heinzhistorycenter.org .

The Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives was founded in 1988 to collect, preserve, and make accessible the documentary history of Jews and Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania. You can help the RJHPA continue its work by making a donation that will directly support the work being done in Western Pa.

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We can do it, Pittsburgh The Heinz History Center, Fort Pitt Museum, Meadowcroft, and the Detre Library & Archives will reopen to the public on  Wednesday, July 1 .   A proud affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the  Senator John Heinz History Center  is the largest history museum in Pennsylvania and presents American history with a Western Pennsylvania connection.