Sara's Kitchen Cookbook

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The updated edition of this cookbook has been made to honour Sara Ciacci z”l, who was the beating heart of Temple Sholom's kitchen. Sara's unwavering commitment to nourishing her congregation and uplifting those in need has left an indelible mark on all of us.

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In Sara's kitchen, we not only learned to knead dough to perfection but also witnessed the power of one woman's dedication to mending the broken places in our world, one meal at a time. From her kiddush lunches to the Sisterhood catering committee, second seders, women's seders, and the annual Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast, Sara was on a lifelong mission to bring comfort and sustenance to her community.

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Sara's culinary expertise knew no bounds. She was renowned as the queen of all hamentashen, blintzes, and latkes, and her challot graced Temple Sholom's High Holiday celebrations for years. Beyond the synagogue, Sara extended her heart and hands to the Vancouver Jewish Food Bank and other charitable organizations. Within the pages of this cookbook are cherished recipes that Sara compiled over her years of selfless service. These recipes are delicious and rich with Sara's experience, wisdom, and unstinting devotion to her community. This second edition of the cookbook also includes several new recipes from current Sisterhood members whose lives were touched by Sara.

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Sara's life journey, from her beginnings in Edmonton to her diverse career, motherhood, and active involvement in our Jewish community, serves as an inspiration to us all. She showed us that regardless of life's challenges, we can make a difference through dedication, compassion, and unwavering commitment to causes we champion.

The funds raised from this cookbook will be dedicated to continuing Sara's legacy of social action, support for the food bank, and chesed. Welcome to Sara’s Kitchen.

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Sara's Biography:

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The eldest of three sisters, Sara was born in Edmonton to a Russian mother and an Irish father. As she told, she was a very bright baby who, at the age of nine months, persuaded her parents to move to Vancouver. Sara matriculated at sixteen, but as the legal employment age was then eighteen, she spent two years taking courses in business management and aircraft engineering. Her most unusual job: climbing inside the wings of amphibious airplanes to install torpedo racks and bomb bays!

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Sara mothered five sons, and was a proud grandmother of Angela, Chrystal and Keshia. Great-granddaughter Sofia also occupied a special place in Sara's heart. Sara's married years were a challenging mix of managing family and career. With young children she worked from home, then took on part-time employment in office management.

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A return to UBC prepared her to become the Credit Manager for Le Roy Jewelers and long-time Administrator of the Personnel Institute of Canada. After a prolonged absence, Sara reconnected with the Jewish community. Encouraged by her son to join a synagogue, she discovered Temple Sholom in the early 1970s, and her world opened up in whole new ways. Within a year Sara had become the Temple's first secretary, a member of the Sisterhood Board and active in Jewish Women International.

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Since that time there was hardly a Jewish organization that did not benefit from her fundraising prowess, time, energy and culinary talents. So invested did she become in the causes she loves that at the age of sixty Sara set her career aside to become a "Professional Volunteer." To Sara this term meant devoting eight to nine hours a day, often seven days a week, to activities that benefit others. It meant her kitchen functioned simultaneously as office, boardroom, "Computer Skills Adventure Park", counselling centre and production headquarters for kugel and komish.

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What drove Sara's passion for helping others? In a word - experience. Sara was no stranger to adversity. A child of the depression, she was grateful for a caring Jewish Community that provided food, clothing and the chance to go to camp. Confronting serious health and social issues made Sara a crusader in the areas of children's emotional health, domestic violence, oppressed Jews, poverty and hunger.

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