Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim was the cradle of two of the earliest Jewish charitable institutions in America. The Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded in Charleston in 1784 to minister to the sick and bury the dead. The Hebrew Orphan Society dates to 1801, when 23 Jewish men petitioned the state for a charter. Its mission was to educate, clothe, and support orphans and poor children. While its full name—Abi Yetomin Ubnei Ebyonium, in Hebrew—was “Society for the Relief of Orphans and Children of Indigent Parents,” its objectives soon included the relief of widows. More than two hundred years after its founding, the Hebrew Orphan Society still functions as a philanthropic organization in the city of Charleston.