In the Beginning

This sermon was delivered on April 5, 2024 at Rockdale Temple as part of their Bicentennial Celebration.

When I decided to research the In the Beginning cookbook, I was met with skepticism. It was just a cookbook. Would there even be enough material available to ground a solid research paper? Yes, as it turns out, because the In the Beginning cookbook was a BIG DEAL. In fact, it would be difficult to overstate the impact it has had on Rockdale Temple’s physical space and community.

When speaking of the cookbook, I suppose I must start in the beginning (laugh line very much intended) with some background. The National Association of Temple Sisterhoods was established in 1913, and the first Sisterhood cookbook was published just one year later, in 1914 by the B’nai Zion Temple Guild in Shreveport, Louisiana. The 1914 Cookbook (as it was creatively titled) can tell us a lot about the women who created it and their values right alongside its recipes, and it’s seasoned with humor. A small taste: the cookbook’s introductory recipe was about how women could properly select, prepare, and “cook a husband” to their tastes.

More than sixty years later, in the fall of 1975, the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood published a cookbook of their own: In the Beginning – A Collection of Hors d’oeuvres. This cookbook is not just an incredible success story about what smart, determined women can do when they work together toward a common goal. The story of In the Beginning is also a story about the changing roles of women in Jewish communal life.

In the 1970s, Jews were becoming more accepted in the broader culture as the explicit barriers keeping us apart were dismantled. At the same time, more women were working outside the home and they were finding or creating spaces for themselves in Jewish tradition, ritual, practice, and thought. Sally Priesand is an excellent example here – she became the first woman ordained by HUC here in Cincinnati in 1973.

A few years earlier, in 1969, construction finished on the congregation’s new home in Amberley Village. “When we started the book the temple was a brand-new building, and the Sisterhood wanted to do something to contribute,” said Barbara Rosenberg in a 1981 interview with Betsa Marsh published in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Barbara, a home economist and cooking teacher, had provided classes to the members of the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood about creating hors d’oeuvres that had proven popular and she had the idea of creating a cookbook for the same. She spearheaded the In the Beginning cookbook project and served as its editor and bookkeeper. Jean Chimsky, Bercie Frohman, Joan Goldsmith (then the Sisterhood president), and Mildred (Millie) Tieger joined her to form the core of the cookbook committee.

The women solicited recipes from the 450 women of the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood. You heard me right. 450. The team tested and edited the recipes. They self-published the layout, cutting and pasting strips from the printer. Millie Tieger, who worked for a local TV station at the time, wrote witty comments that added flavor to the recipes. Jean Chimsky, an English professor at the University of Cincinnati, came up with the book’s title and its double entendre.

In all, more than 30 women from the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood help to craft every aspect of the original In the Beginning cookbook – writing, testing, editing, designing, publishing, and promoting it. The first edition had 199 pages filled with more than 350 recipes for hosting and entertaining. Per its name, its focus was on appetizers, and it was heavy on the charm. Chapter titles included: “Take a Refreshing Dip,” “Easy When You Have the Dough,” “Meaty Subjects,” and “Fishing for Compliments.” Many of the recipes were followed with helpful or flavorful notes like the one for the Emergency canapé, which calls for placing a small square of cheese over a dot of catsup or chili sauce on a Ritz cracker, and then broiling until the cheese melts- it’s “Great for unexpected guests.”

Early advertisements for the cookbook were aimed at members of the Rockdale community. One advertisement read, “A book of party-perfect recipes whisked from the kitchens of Rockdale Sisterhood members... Because we think a busy hostess like yourself will want to own this elegant new hors d'oeuvre cookbook and give it out as gifts... (It's not too early to think about--remember, Chanukah is November 29th this year!).”

Clearly at the time of publication traditional gender roles were still deeply entrenched despite the advances of feminism, the ordination of the first woman Rabbi, and the simple fact that most of the women involved in the cookbook’s core committee were working outside the home. Indeed, in the earliest printings of cookbook, as well as in contemporaneous Rockdale Temple programs, minutes of the Sisterhood, and in Temple correspondence women were referred to by their husband’s names!

But I digress. You may have noticed that the early advertisement I mentioned was directed to an explicitly Jewish audience. This changed dramatically when, after local success, Barbara Rosenberg and Roselyn (Roz) Dave decided to go beyond local and approach the food editors for papers in Chicago and San Francisco.

In a 1976 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, Barbara said, “We tried to include recipes that would be of interest to everyone who entertains in the hope of interesting Cincinnati residents outside of the sisterhood as well as our own small group.” This was not quite accurate. The women originally voted for the recipes included to be compliant with kashrut, Jewish dietary laws, even though many of them didn’t keep kosher. Rabbi Harold Hahn urged them dream bigger and go for broader appeal.

Foregoing kashrut paid off. James Beard, yes, that James Beard, creator of the first televised cooking show, longtime food writer for the San Francisco Examiner, and prolific cookbook author, wrote about the cookbook in his April 28, 1976 column:

Jim Beard [yes, he is writing in the third person] has said that he finds treasures in the cookbooks put out by women's organizations, including those that are church or temple oriented. One such, "In the Beginning, A Collection of Hors d'Oeuvre [sic]," was put together by members of the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood of Cincinnati.

Its success has amazed the hard-working sisterhood members. The book is in its second printing and 4,000 have been sold thus far. There are quick appetizers, some a little more elaborate, soups, specialty breads and a couple of sandwich loaves.

Ann Valentine of the Houston Post, though less famous, was more demonstrative, saying: “In the Beginning is a giant tour de force of the culinary kingdom of hors d'oeuvre... This party giver's manual was put together by the women of the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood in Cincinnati.”

Although both Beard and Valentine make it clear that the cookbook is the product of a Jewish Sisterhood, the recipes included in each of these newspapers show that while the cookbook may be of Jewish origin, it wasn’t that Jewish. Beard’s article included a recipe for thistle dip, smoked oysters en croute, and miniature stuffed cabbage. Valentine’s article was accompanied by the recipes for Pickled Shrimp Jamaica, Deviled Ham Puffs, Beer Biscuits, and Spinach Dip.

The cookbook was designed with broad appeal and elegant events in mind. As later promotion and advertisements in magazines like The Wooden Spoon: Specialty Cookware by Mail and Gourmet Today show, the cookbook team was successful in creating and marketing their product toward the upper-middle class consumer. Given its provenance and the recipes listed in the “Jewish” section of the index (it was a subcategory of “Ethnic”), they also succeeded in bringing Jewish food out of the shtetl and into the mainstream.

It wasn’t luck or magic, by the way, that brought the cookbook to the attention of food writers and magazines around the country. No, it was Millie Tieger and her promotions team who indefatigably spread the word through advertisements, soliciting book reviews, and radio spots. Through their work, the cookbook was also featured in House Beautiful’s “Top 29 Cookbooks of 1976,” Ladies Home Journal, and Redbook.

By 1978, the cookbook was already in its seventh printing and had sold more than 52,000 copies, and it had even been punched in Braille. But that large scale success came with a price. The first edition of In the Beginning contained the names of all the contributors. By the third printing in August 1976 – only nine months after the original release, those names had been removed. By the seventh printing in 1978, all mention of the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood had vanished from the cookbooks, as had the original forward written by Joan Goldsmith, the 1974-1975 Sisterhood president, and at least one of the recipe notes had been modified to remove a Jewish reference. Instead a new forward was published from the Rockdale Ridge Press, a publishing company set up by Barbara Rosenberg, its office at Rockdale Temple exclusively for the publication of the In the Beginning Cookbook and its successors. The cost of mass appeal was aspects of In the Beginning’s particular identity.

In the Beginning went into its 17th printing, and was followed by Beginning Againin 1981 and Beginning Light in 1990, all of which can still be purchased in the Rockdale Temple Gift Shop, although probably not for the original price of $5.95.

Although the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood has never disclosed precisely how much the cookbook earned, we can safely estimate that it raised over $1,000,000.

Naturally, there was some discussion between the Sisterhood and the Board over who would have control of that money and how it would be spent. Ultimately, in a June 1977 meeting of the Board, Mrs. Arthur M. Richard Jr – whom you all may remember better as Sue Richard – shared a resolution that had been passed by the Sisterhood, which stated that proceeds from the cookbook would be used to provide in the name of the Sisterhood a “tangible gift to the Temple of a “permanent and enduring nature” that would be determined by a standing committee to be appointed by the current Sisterhood president and that would include the Trustees of the Sisterhood.

Sue Richard, incidentally, went on to become the first woman to lead Rockdale Temple’s Board of Directors. As Board President she wrote a lovely thank you letter to the Sisterhood in 1985, saying, “… we are so appreciative that you so conscientiously have directed where the proceeds could be used most advantageously for the temple.”

The Sisterhood did use the funding from the cookbook “most advantageously” indeed. Their goal of using the proceeds from In the Beginning to create a tangible gift of a permanent and enduring nature came to fruition in the early summer of 1981 when construction finished on a large courtyard sanctuary that transformed the outdoor space of the temple. Despite the construction and changes that have happened since, much of that courtyard remains intact just behind you.

In 1981, the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood also created an endowment fund for the remaining earnings and all future income from the sales of In the Beginning. They wanted the In the Beginning Endowment Fund to serve as a link “between present and future generations” and to encourage innovation and investment in our community’s future.

In the nearly 50 years since the In the Beginning cookbook was published, it has impacted almost every aspect of life at Rockdale Temple and transformed the ways that we come together both in prayer and as a community. The In the Beginning Cookbook Endowment Fund contributed a quarter million dollars toward renovations to this sanctuary back in the early aughts. It also funded the screen on which our liturgy is displayed, prayerbooks, previous iterations of our security and fire alarm systems, accessibility improvements for the chapel and bima, camp scholarships, dinners for new members, enhancements for the Family Retreat, and the launch of shabbatCTY. In recent years, the In the Beginning Endowment Fund covered the costs of the High Holy Day and Shabbat bags that many of us received in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, helping us feel connected to our community even while socially isolated.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The impact of the cookbooks can also be felt in more subtle ways here today. Our congregation has changed considerably in the last fifty years. Among other things, the Women of Rockdale no longer has 450 members to call on in their work. And although Rockdale has only had four women serve as President of the congregation – Sue Richard whom I mentioned earlier, Rachel Schild, Sue Sherman, and Sally Korkin (who served on Millie Tieger’s publicity committee), women currently make up more than 2/3 of the Board, a greater proportion than any other congregation in the community. Nor do I think it was an accident that Rockdale Temple was the first congregation in Cincinnati to hire a woman as our Senior Rabbi when Rabbi Sissy Coran, of blessed memory, joined the community in 2004. Our congregation has a legacy of strong women leaders who have made an incredible impact, a legacy that Rabbis Kahan and Binder, and Sally Korkin carry on.

It's worth taking a step back here as well to put in perspective what Rockdale Temple’s Sisterhood accomplished on a macro level because I don’t want this to get lost. In the early 1970s, the women of the Rockdale Temple Sisterhood wanted to make a lasting impact on their new synagogue, so they set out to make a fundraising cookbook. They leveraged broader social trends, as well as their own skills and ingenuity, and they made a product with mass appeal that represented who they were as Reform Jewish women. They went on to sell over 200,000 copies of In the Beginning. Their work brought Jewish food into the mainstream and elevated it into something a socialite could serve to friends at a cocktail party.

When we finish a book of Torah, it’s tradition to chant “hazak, hazak, v’nithazek” - “be strong, hold fast, and let us be strengthened.” – but Hebrew is a gendered language and those first two words are masculine. As we name and mark this chapter in the lives of the women of our congregation, and our hopes that future generations continue to feel and benefit from the legacy of the In the Beginning cookbook, I think it more appropriate to end with the feminine form of this imperative: “hizki.” Hizki – may we strong by being blessed and elevated by the presence of strong women in our community. Hizki – may we hold fast to the legacy of those determined women who both leaned into and defied stereotypical gender roles and in doing so created a cookbook that has already impacted three generations and will continue to touch many more. V’nithazek – may we remember what is possible when we lift each other up, each of us bringing our individual vision and skills to create together something that surpasses what anyone thought was possible. Please join with me as we say together, in celebration of the accomplishments and enduring legacy of our congregation’s Sisterhood, the Women of Rockdale, “Hizki, hizki, v’nithazek”