Daughters Of Israel Hall
Orthodox Congregation Brith Sholom, originally Berith Shalome, founded circa 1854, grew along with Charleston’s Jewish population during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 1874 synagogue building (68 St. Philip Street) could not accommodate the classrooms, meeting rooms, and reception areas required for its auxiliary associations and school. Ellen de Castro Williams had organized a Sabbath school in 1902, and a few years later, women of the congregation, led by Lena Pearlstine Berkman (whose father, Thomas “Tanchum” Pearlstine, was a founding member of Brith Sholom) and her daughter Agnes Berkman Volaski, began fundraising for construction of a new Sunday school building next door to the synagogue. The scope of the proposed structure was expanded in 1910, when the benevolent organization Daughters of Israel was chartered. The Daughters of Israel paid $2,000 for a narrow lot south of the synagogue property. Just over two years later, the combined Hebrew Sabbath school and Daughters of Israel Hall was complete.
At the dedication of the new building on December 8, 1912, a crowd estimated at 600 people enjoyed a “splendid program, with traditional hymns played on violin and piano, after which Rabbi [Jacob] Simonhoff led the choir in a ceremonial hymn.” The Sabbath school was successful, and the next year its programs expanded to include a tuition-free afternoon Hebrew school to educate children in Hebrew language and literature. A decade later, all three of Charleston’s synagogues cooperated in the establishment of a new Hebrew school at 54 George Street. The College of Charleston’s Simons Center for the Arts and The Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts now occupy the St. Philip Street site of Daughters of Israel Hall. See Discovering Our Past for more information on 40–70 St. Philip Street.
Ellen de Castro Williams (1867–1935), ca. 1906
Organized Brith Sholom Sunday school in 1902.
Lena Pearlstine Berkman (1849–1939)
With her daughter, Agnes Berkman Volaski (1869–1969), led the fundraising effort to build a Sunday school for Brith Sholom’s children.
Agnes Berkman Volaski (1869–1969)
With her mother, Lena Pearlstine Berkman (1849–1939), led the effort to build a Sunday school for Brith Sholom's children. Courtesy of Valerie L. Volaski.
Daughters of Israel Hall, 1944
The hall was dedicated in December 1912.
Brith Sholom men and boys’ choir
Led by Reverend Jacob J. Simonhoff (1862–1950), the choir sang at the dedication of the Daughters of Israel Hall in 1912. In this photo, Rabbi Simonhoff (center, second row) is seen with the choir, ca. 1916. His son, Harry, is standing to his left, and his son, Sam, is the young man in the front row wearing glasses. Isadore Givner, whose daughters donated the photograph, is seated to the far right.