The Sisterhood Tablecloth

At the time the synagogue’s papers were donated to the Rauh Jewish Archives, a few objects were donated to the Heinz History Center’s physical collections as well.  One in particular stood out to me — a tablecloth?!  The record described it as a, “Large, rectangular white cloth composed of 48 napkins stitched together. Most napkins have embroidered names of family members of the Rodef Shalom Homestead Sisterhood–which is stitched in gold thread around a star of David in center of cloth. Lightly starched. Sewn by the Sisterhood of Rodef Shalom Congregation in Homestead.”  Well, that sure sounded intriguing!

And indeed, waiting for me in the museum’s collections room at the time of my appointment was… a giant tablecloth!

The center section of the Sisterhood Tablecloth. The lighting is a bit off -- it is only slightly off-white.

The center section of the Sisterhood Tablecloth.  (White-on-white is difficult to photograph.  You can click on all the images in the post to view them full-sized, where their readability is somewhat improved.)

Though spread across a couple tables, it was still folded upon itself, because at 16′ x 5.5′, three times as many tables were required.  The collections assistant carefully unfolded one section at a time so I could see all the names that had been embroidered:

In Honor
of
Coltin
Louis and Bessie


Weiss
Rabbi and Mrs Joshua


Zukerman
Samuel and Ida

Stein
Ruth Bunne
Daniel Abram
Hedy Lynn
Craig Ackerman
Rodef Shalom Lena and Samuel Gordon
Grandchildren
Bruce David and
Paul Howard Friedman
Stuart Barry
Wendy Rae Weiner
In Memory
of
Cohen
Jacob and Mary


Perlman
George, Esther and son, Harry


Mervis
Morris

In Memory
of
E.A. Keizler
The Nathan Rosenthals
The Simon Rosenthals
Grinberg
Rhoda and Ralph
Sidney and Edwin


Cohen
Mildred and Harry


Sanford Simon

Frank
Bernadine
and
Shelda Miriam
Sisterhood Homestead Jacob and Minnie Burechson
Grandchildren
Elaine Beryl
and
Paul Laurence Green
Ellen Marcia
and
Sheila Karen Burechson
Keith Alan Burechson
Judith Sara Burechson
Weinberger
Benjamin, Norman
and Eleanor
Gross
Miriam Gay
Benjamin and Ellen Joy
In Memory
of
Flesch
Sarah and Joseph


Anna Lazar

In Memory
of
Sylvia Freed
In Memory
of
Daniel and Ida
Saron
In Memory
of
Joseph Weinberger
In Memory
of
Morris Keizler
In Memory
of
Bertha Hepps
In Memory
of
Bernhard Hepps
In Memory
of
Lt. Daniel I. Coltin
In Memory
of
Henry Stein
In Memory
of
Herman S. and Rose
Schwartz
In Memory
of
Louis Hilk
In Memory
of
Anne M. Moss
In Memory
of
Martin J. Moss

(The squares with a border have a scroll embroidered around the text.)

A banquet at Kitanning's synagogue.  Note the tablecloth on the table at the back -- its perimeter is clearly embroidered!  (Click to enlarge.)

A banquet at Kitanning’s synagogue. Note the tablecloth on the table at the back — its perimeter is clearly embroidered! (Click to enlarge.)

It’s a bizarre object, if you think about it — assembling napkins into a tablecloth?!  So people could dine on a sort of cloth yahrzeit tablet? All quite unusual, if you ask me.  Unfortunately, it’s unclear where the idea came from.  (Update 7/3/2016:  So far from Western PA alone we’ve found six seven eight of these, this picture of a ninth, a similar quilt!  See pictures of all of them here.)  The Sisterhood minutes only survive for 1945-1955, and from the very first page the women recorded that they were “badly in need of [table] linens.”  They were expensive then — should they buy paper instead?  Or rent them?  Several purchases were recorded over the years, but they seemed never to have enough.  The first actual mention of this tablecloth, which appears in the minutes in January 1953, does not record the gestation of this fascinating idea.  Perhaps it arose between the general meeting in at the start of the month, when the women resolved to use the money from their annual President’s Day party to purchase yet more linens, and the board-only meeting later in the month, during which, “The board [recommended] that the tablecloth money be kept separate from the proceeds of the supper. Also that the table cloth committee have the right to do anything they see fit for the making of this cloth.” At the next general meeting in early February,

Mrs Harry Weinberger gave her tablecloth report and had the napkins to show and when it is finished it will be something beautiful + something that will be cherished by our women….A motion made by Mrs Harry Weinberger + seconded by Mrs E.A. Keizler that we pay $56.56 for the napkins to be used in the tablecloth making.

And yet, by the following month $776.44 (!) had already been raised to fund it (and no, that was not the profit from the party).  Something was going on that the minutes unfortunately do not capture.

The square for my great-grandfather.  His square — and all the square shown above with a border — have a scroll like this one.

Now, if you have an image in your mind of all these ladies sitting around in a sewing circle, gossiping about, say, Mrs. So-and-so’s uppity machatunim or the latest missions of their B-52 bomber, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but it does not seem it happened that way.  Mrs. Michael Stoffa, one of the members, was hired for $50.00 to handle the initial embroidery.  (If it makes you feel better, though, during World War II they had a sewing group and produced 3,808 articles over the course of three and a half years — sweaters, scarves, bags, pajamas, dresses, blouses, baby jackets, army kits, drapes, and more.)

But for some reason, despite the surplus of funds and the engagement of an embroiderer, the actual assembly seems to have taken a couple of years. A year and a half after the first mention, during the August 1954 meeting, “Mrs. Stein was called on for a report on the tablecloth. The napkins haven’t been completed but the problem now arises on the manner in which to put the tablecloth on display so as to have it in order + balanced correctly.”  Ah, the old symmetry problem!  But by the December meeting, “Mrs. Trachtenberg said that the tablecloth was completed enough to use it at the meetings as fund raising. It is $5.00 per name and $50.00 per napkin.”  Although, in April 1955, “Mrs. Harry Weinberger spoke on the tablecloth stating the 17 napkins were completed + when entirely finished will hold 52 napkins.”

The square for E.A. Keizler. Note the different style of the embroidery.

The square for E.A. Keizler. Note the different style of embroidery.  (Much easier to see if you click on the image to view it full-sized.)

The tablecloth I saw has 44 napkins, of which 27 are embroidered.  I have to assume it was not completed all at one time if for no other reason than my great-grandmother, the Bertha Hepps of the “In Memory of Bertha Hepps” square, died in 1957.  And yet, her square is right between her husband’s (d. 1949) and her brother-in-law’s (d. 1948), so they must have reserved her spot.  Other squares were added later, too:  “In Memory of E.A. Keizler” could have been added no earlier than 1960, “In Memory of Sylvia Freed” 1970, the Moss memorial squares 1970 and 1971, and so on.  Presumably five other napkins besides those I can obviously identify were also later additions; if you look closely, there are a few different embroidery styles going on, which fits.  Besides these memorial squares, there are a number of squares noting the contributions of families then active in the shul.  I enjoy seeing the names of some of you who are readers of this site today!

Who dumped food on the Weinberger & Gross families?!

Who dumped food on the Weinberger & Gross families?!

Because the sisterhood minute book ends in early ’56 it’s unclear when the cloth was used, although they mandated that its use be confined to “formal affairs of Sisterhood + Cong held in the Schule.”  I suspect it was first used to cover the speaker table at the banquet commemorating the 50th anniversary of the sisterhood on December 11, 1955.  Judging by the residual food stains, it performed its function well over the years.

At the end of 1955 Mrs. Harry Weinberg reported that the tablecloth cost $149.56.  They collected $983.56 for it, which gave them a $834 profit.  Like most of Sisterhood’s profits over the years, what they didn’t need for their own expenses they donated to the shul for its operating budget.  More than merely honoring the families whose names are embroidered on it, the tablecloth stands as a unique symbol of the women’s tireless work over many decades to support their beloved community.

Do any of you remember seeing this tablecloth used at synagogue functions?  Let me know in the comments below, or drop me a line!  (And if you’d like to see a picture of your family’s square, please let me know — I did take photographs of them all.)

Source: 93.89.1–Tablecloth. Courtesy of the Senator John Heinz History Center.

  3 comments for “The Sisterhood Tablecloth

  1. Eleanor Weinberger Geller
    March 5, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    I remember this project. My mother was Mrs. Harry Weinberger…I remember the the “napkins” and seeing them in a box in our house.

    Ellie Geller

  2. March 5, 2015 at 9:09 pm

    Hazel Weinberger was my grandmother (Harry’s wife) and I just love this story, seeing her name in print, and learning about this wonderful project. I’d love a picture of the Weinberger square (Norman is my Dad). Thanks for sharing and long live the wonderful ladies of Sisterhood who do so much to sew our history together and infuse our synagogues with support and love.

  3. Anna ELfenbaum
    March 6, 2015 at 8:42 am

    I am also a granddaughter of Mrs. Harry Weinberger (Eleanor is my mother). Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of our family’s history and reminding us how important Sisterhood’s are for our communities’ histories. What a special piece of history!

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