Daughter of Abraham and Sarah Moïse, Penina Moïse was one of the first female poets published in America. Her poetry appeared in newspapers and journals in Charleston, Boston, and New Orleans. She dedicated her 1833 collection, Fancy’s Sketch Book, to her friends and patrons, “The Misses Pinckney”—Maria Henrietta and Harriott, daughters of Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Sometime after the fire of 1838 destroyed Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim and much of downtown Charleston, Penina’s nephew Theodore Sidney Moïse painted her portrait. The blaze in the background is said to represent the conflagration that consumed her beloved synagogue.

Moïse wrote many of the lyrics collected in Beth Elohim’s 1842 hymnal, the first volume of its kind published by a Jewish congregation in America. The Sabbath School Companion, was a short-lived periodical published “in the interest of the Sabbath School and Bible Class of K.K. Beth Elohim.” The issue shown here featured an essay by Penina’s nephew, E. W. Moïse, entitled, “What Our Girls Can Do.” His advice: Stop wearing jewelry, refrain from loud talking, moderate your demeanor, and tone down your taste in dress.