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B'nai B'rith

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B'nai B'rith International (English: /bəˌneɪ ˈbrɪθ/; Hebrew: בני ברית, "Sons of the Covenant"),[1] the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish people and the State of Israel and combating antisemitism and bigotry. Its mission is to unite persons of the Jewish faith and to enhance Jewish identity through strengthening Jewish family life; broad-based services for the benefit of senior citizens; and advocacy and action on behalf of Jews throughout the world.

Although the organization's historic roots stem from a system of masonic fraternal lodges[2] and units in the late 20th century,[3] as fraternal organizations declined throughout the United States, the organization evolved into a dual system of both lodges and units. The membership pattern became more common to other contemporary organizations of members affiliated by contribution in addition to formal dues paying members. In recent years, the organization reported more than 200,000 members and supporters in more than 50 countries and a budget of $14,000,000. Nearly 95% of the membership is in the United States.

B'nai B'rith International is affiliated with the World Jewish Congress.

Origins

B'nai B'rith was founded in Aaron Sinsheimer's café[3] on New York City's Lower East Side on October 13, 1843, by 12 recent German Jewish immigrants led by Henry Jones. The new organization represented an attempt to organize Jews on the basis of their ethnicity, not their religion, and to confront what Isaac Rosenbourg, one of the founders, called "the deplorable condition of Jews in this, our newly adopted country".[4]

True to their German heritage, the founders originally named the organization Bundes Bruder (Sons of the Covenant)[5] to reflect their goal of a fraternal order[6] that could provide comfort to the entire spectrum of Jewish Americans. Although early meetings were conducted in German, after a short time English emerged as the language of choice and the name was changed to B'nai B'rith. In the late 20th century, the translation was changed to the more contemporary and inclusive Children of the Covenant.

From 1843 until the early 1900s

The organization's activities during the 19th and 20th centuries were dominated by mutual aid, social service and philanthropy. In keeping with their concerns for protecting their families, the organization's first concrete action was the establishment of an insurance policy awarding widows of deceased members $30 toward funeral expenses and a stipend of $1 a week for the rest of their life. To aid their children, each child would also receive a stipend and, for male children, the assurance he would be taught a trade.[7]

In 1851, Covenant Hall was erected in New York City as the first Jewish community center in the United States, and also what is widely considered to be the first Jewish public library in the United States.[3] One year later, B'nai B'rith established the Maimonides Library[8] Immediately following the Civil War—when Jews on both sides of the battle were left homeless—B'nai B'rith founded the 200-bed Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home. Over the next several years, the organization would establish numerous hospitals, orphanages and homes for the aged.[9]

In 1868, when a devastating flood crippled Baltimore, B'nai B'rith responded with a disaster relief campaign. This act preceded the founding of the American Red Cross by 13 years and was to be the first of many domestic relief programs. That same year, B'nai B'rith sponsored its first overseas philanthropic project raising $4,522 to aid the victims of a cholera epidemic in what was then Palestine.

In 1875, a lodge was established in Toronto, followed soon after by another in Montreal and in 1882 by a lodge in Berlin. Membership outside of the United States grew rapidly. Soon, lodges were formed in Cairo (1887) and in Jerusalem (1888—nine years before Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland).[10] The Jerusalem lodge became the first public organization to hold all of its meetings in Hebrew.[11][12]

After 1881, with the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews to the United States,[13] B'nai B'rith sponsored Americanization classes, trade schools and relief programs. This began a period of rapid membership growth, a change in the system of representation and questioning of the secret rituals common to fraternal organizations. In 1897, when the organization's U.S. membership numbered slightly more than 18,000, B'nai B'rith formed a ladies' auxiliary chapter in San Francisco. This was to become B'nai B'rith Women, which in 1988 broke away as an independent organization, Jewish Women International.[14]

The beginning of the 20th century

In the first two decades of the 20th century B'nai B'rith launched three of today's major Jewish organizations: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hillel and BBYO (originally B'nai B'rith Youth Organization). Later they would take on a life of their own with varying degrees of autonomy.

A growing concern in the 1920s was the preservation of Jewish values as immigration slowed and a native Jewish population of Eastern European ancestry came to maturity.[15] In 1923, Rabbi Benjamin Frankel of Illinois established an organization on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide both Reform and Orthodox Sabbath services, classes in Judaism and social events for Jewish college students. Two years later, he approached B'nai B'rith about adopting this new campus organization. B'nai B'rith sponsorship of the Hillel Foundations enabled it to extend throughout the United States, eventually become international and to grow into a network of more than 500 campus student organizations.[16][17][18]

At virtually the same time as Hillel was being established, Sam Beber of Omaha, Neb., presented a plan in 1924 to B'nai B'rith for a fraternity for Jewish men in high school. The new organization was called Aleph Zadik Aleph in imitation of the Greek-letter fraternities from which Jewish youth were excluded. In 1925, AZA became the junior auxiliary of B'nai B'rith.

In 1940, B'nai B'rith Women adopted its own junior auxiliary for young women, B'nai B'rith Girls (BBG, then a loose-knit group of organizations) and, in 1944, the two organizations became the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO).

B'nai B'rith has also been involved in Jewish camping for more than a half century. In 1953, B'nai B'rith acquired a 300-acre camp in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Originally named Camp B'nai B'rith, the facility would later be named B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp in honor of the early BBYO leader Anita Perlman and her husband, Louis. In 1976, a second camp was added near Madison, Wis. Named after the founder of AZA, the camp became known as B'nai B'rith Beber Camp. In 2010, Beber Camp became independent of B'nai B'rith. Perlman Camp functions as both a Jewish children's camp and as a leadership training facility.[19]

In 1938, in response to rampant employment discrimination against Jews, B'nai B'rith established the Vocational Service Bureau to guide young people into careers. This evolved into the B'nai B'rith Career and Counseling Service, an agency that provided vocational testing and counseling, and published career guides. In the mid-1980s, the program was dissolved or merged into other community agencies.[20]

Education and publications

Since 1886, B'nai B'rith has published B'nai B'rith Magazine, the oldest continually published Jewish periodical in the United States.[21][22]

B'nai B'rith also publishes program guides for local Jewish education programs and each year sponsors "Unto Every Person There is a Name". This program includes community recitations of the names of Holocaust victims, usually on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.[23]

In 1973, the organization turned what had formerly been an exhibit hall at its Washington, D.C. headquarters into the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. The museum featured an extensive collection of Jewish ceremonial objects and art and, for decades featured the 1790 correspondence between President George Washington and Moses Seixas, sexton of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.[24] Although the organization's move from its own building to rented offices necessitated closing of the museum to public view, select pieces of the collection are still on display at B'nai B'rith's current headquarters and are available for viewing by appointment.[25]

Serving the community

From its earliest days, a hallmark of the organization's local efforts was service to the communities in which members reside. In 1852, that meant raising money for the first Jewish hospital in Philadelphia.[26] In the 21st century, these community service efforts range from delivering Jewish holiday packages of meals and clothing to the elderly and infirm, and distributing food and medicine to the Jewish community of Cuba.

With the graying of the American Jewish population, service to seniors became a major focus with the first of what was to become a network of 36 senior residence buildings in more than 27 communities across the United States and more internationally—making B'nai B'rith the largest national Jewish sponsor of housing for seniors. The U.S. facilities—built in partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—provide quality housing to more than 6,000 men and women of limited income, age 62 and over, of all races and religions. Residents pay a federally mandated rent based upon income.[27]

The beginning of the 21st century also saw the senior service program expand and become the Center for Senior Services,[28] providing advocacy, publications and other services to address financial, legal, health, religious, social and family concerns for those over 50.

In recent years, B'nai B'rith has advocated for health care reform, Social Security and Medicare protection.

B'nai B'rith also includes, on its domestic agenda, tolerance issues such as advocating for hate crimes legislation as well as sponsoring a youth writing challenge, Diverse Minds. This annual writing contest asks high school students to create a children's book dedicated to the message of ending intolerance and bigotry. Winners earn college scholarships and the publication and distribution of their books to schools and libraries in their communities.[29]

B'nai B'rith also sponsors the Enlighten America program, the centerpiece of which is a pledge that individuals can take to refrain from using slang expressions or telling jokes based on race, sexual orientation, gender, nationality or physical or mental challenges that would serve to demean another.[30]

B'nai B'rith also produces and distributes "Smarter Kids - Safer Kids", a booklet in both English and Spanish meant to guide parents through discussions with their children about potential dangers.[31]

International affairs

By the 1920s, B'nai B'rith membership in Europe had grown to 17,500—nearly half of the U.S. membership—and by the next decade, the formation of a lodge in Shanghai represented the organization's entry into the Far East.[32] This international expansion was to come to a close with the rise of Nazism. At the beginning of the Nazi era, there were six B'nai B'rith districts in Europe. Eventually, the Nazis seized nearly all B'nai B'rith property in Europe.

B'nai B'rith Europe was re-founded in 1948. Members of the Basel and Zurich lodges and representatives from lodges in France and Holland who had survived the Holocaust attended the inaugural meeting. In 2000, the new European B'nai B'rith district merged with the United Kingdom district to become a consolidated B'nai B'rith Europe with active involvement in all institutions of the European Union. By 2005 B'nai B'rith Europe comprised lodges in more than 20 countries including the former Communist Eastern Europe.[33][34]

In response to what later become known as the Holocaust, in 1943 B'nai B'rith President Henry Monsky convened a conference in Pittsburgh of all major Jewish organizations to "find a common platform for the presentation of our case before the civilized nations of the world".[35] During the next four years, the conference established the machinery that saved untold numbers of lives, assisted in the post-war reconstruction of European Jewish life and helped spur public opinion to support the 1947 partition decision granting Jews a share of what was then Palestine.

Just prior to the creation of the State of Israel, President Harry S. Truman, resisting pressure by various organizations, declined meetings with Jewish leaders. B'nai B'rith President Frank Goldman convinced fellow B'nai B'rith member Eddie Jacobson, long-time friend and business partner of the president, to appeal to Truman for a favor.[36] Jacobson convinced Truman to meet secretly with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann in a meeting said to have resulted in turning White House support back in favor of partition, and ultimately to de facto recognition of Israeli statehood.[37]

B'nai B'rith was present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco and has taken an active role in the world body ever since.[7] In 1947, the organization was granted non-governmental organizational (NGO) status and, for many years, was the only Jewish organization with full-time representation at the United Nations. It is credited with a leading role in the U.N. reversal of its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism.[38]

B'nai B'rith's NGO role is not limited to the United Nations and its agencies. B'nai B'rith also has worked extensively with officials in the State Department, in Congress, and in foreign governments to support the efforts of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to combat anti-Semitism. With members in more than 20 Latin American countries, the organization was the first Jewish group to be accorded civil society status at the Organization of American States (OAS), where it has advocated for democracy and human rights throughout the region.[39][40] B'nai B'rith's role in Latin America dates to the turn of the 20th century and grew considerably with the influx of Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe.

In addition to its advocacy efforts, B'nai B'rith maintains an extensive program of community service throughout Latin America. In 2002, in cooperation with the Brother's Brother Foundation, B'nai B'rith distributed more than $31 million worth of critically needed medicine, books and supplies to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela following the economic disaster that struck much of Latin America. Through 2011 the program had distributed more than $100 million in medicine and supplies.[41][42][43][44]

In addition to founding the Jerusalem Lodge in 1888, life in Israel has been a prime focus for the organization.[45] Among the Jerusalem lodge's most noted contributions was the city's first free public library, Midrash Abarbanel,[46] which became the nucleus of the National and University Library; the first Hebrew kindergarten in Jerusalem; and the purchase of land for a home for new immigrants, the village Motza near Jerusalem. In 1936 B'nai B'rith donated $100,000 to the Jewish National Fund to buy 1,000 acres in what was then Palestine, followed by an additional $100,000 in 1939. Following Israel's declaration of independence, B'nai B'rith members in the Unites States sent several ships loaded with $4 million worth of food, clothing, medical supplies, trucks and jeeps to the port of Haifa.

In 1959, B'nai B'rith became the first major American Jewish organization to hold a convention in Israel.[47]

Only six weeks after the signing of the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, B'nai B'rith was the first Jewish group to visit Egypt at the invitation of President Anwar Sadat.

In 1980, nearly all nations removed their embassies from Jerusalem in response to the passage by the Knesset of the Jerusalem Law extending Israeli sovereignty over the entire city. B'nai B'rith responded with the establishment of the B'nai B'rith World Center in Jerusalem to serve as "the permanent and official presence of B'nai B'rith in Jerusalem".[48][49]

The 1977 Hanafi siege

On March 9, 1977, when, in what was at the time one of the worst terror attacks in America, seven members of the Hanafi Muslim sect took over the B'nai B'rith headquarters, the Islamic Center and Washington, D.C.'s city hall. (B'nai B'rith is one of the few major Jewish organizations headquartered in Washington, D.C, not New York.) For 39 hours, 123 hostages were held on the top floor of the B'nai B'rith building at Rhode Island Avenue. The building was ransacked, its ground floor museum stripped, personnel shot and beaten—some severely, some who never recovered from the psychological shock.

The Hanafi terrorists had targeted the three Washington buildings in revenge for the slaying of their leader's family members by Philadelphia Black Muslims. B'nai B'rith was targeted because the judge in Philadelphia was Jewish. The takeover was ended after the intervention of ambassadors from three Muslim countries—Pakistan, Egypt and Iran, basing their negotiations on the teachings of the Koran—convinced the terrorists to surrender to police.[50]

Disaster Relief

B'nai B'rith has responded to natural and manmade disasters since 1865, when it assisted victims of a cholera epidemic in what was then Palestine.[51] B'nai B'rith later raised funds and distributed them to those affected by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Galveston, Texas, flood of 1900 and the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.

More recently, the B'nai B'rith Disaster Relief Fund has responded to the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the 2011 Japan tsunami and the multiple tornadoes and subsequent flooding that hit six states in the South and Midwest in 2011. B'nai B'rith also opened a disaster relief fund following the fires that raged through Mt. Carmel in northern Israel and has opened a fund to help victims of the worst drought to hit East Africa in more than 50 years.

Awards

B'nai B'rith International bestows various recognitions and awards, including its Presidential Gold Medal awarded every few years to honor the recipient's commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Recipients have included David Ben-Gurion, John F. Kennedy, George H. W. Bush, Stephen Harper and Golda Meir. The Gold Medal has been given to former Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky,[52][53] Australian Prime Minister John Howard,[54][55] and former U.S. presidents Harry S. Truman, Gerald R. Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sara E. Karesh, Mitchell M. Hurvitz (2006). Encyclopedia of Judaism. Infobase Publishing. p. 61.
  2. ^ "List of B'nai B'rith International Presidents". B'nai B'rith International.
  3. ^ a b c Deborah Dash (1981). B'nai B'rith and the Challenge of Ethnic Leadership. by State University of New York Press, Albany. p. 252.
  4. ^ "B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org.
  5. ^ Sara E. Karesh and Mitchell M. Hurvitz (2006). Encyclopedia of Judaism. Infobase Publishing. p. 61.
  6. ^ Fraternal organization
  7. ^ a b "B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org.
  8. ^ "B'Nai B'Rith". JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  9. ^ Cornelia Wilhelm (2011). The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters: Pioneers of a New Jewish Identity 1843-1914. Wayne State University Press. p. 138.
  10. ^ "The First Zionist Congress and the Basel Program". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  11. ^ Hasia R. Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, p. 191
  12. ^ Cornelia Wilhelm (2011). The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters: Pioneers of a New Jewish Identity 1843-1914. Wayne State University Press. p. 172.
  13. ^ "Immigration...Polish/Russian: A People at Risk - For Teachers (Library of Congress)". Loc.gov. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  14. ^ "Our History - Who We Are". JWI. 2012-07-18.
  15. ^ "Civic Report 53 | Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States". Manhattan-institute.org.
  16. ^ "Hillel History" (PDF). www.hillel.org. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  17. ^ "A Brief History". Hillel.org. 2008-09-18.
  18. ^ From the Chancellor's Desk:. "University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign". Illinois.edu.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  19. ^ "About Perlman Camp". Perlmancamp.org.
  20. ^ "The B'nai B'rith Vocational Service Program - BAER - 2012 - Occupations: The Vocational Guidance Journal - Wiley Online Library". Onlinelibrary.wiley.com. 2012-01-03.
  21. ^ "B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org.
  22. ^ "Periodicals". JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  23. ^ "Fragments of Memory. Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2011". Yad Vashem.
  24. ^ "To Bigotry No Sanction (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress". Loc.gov. 2010-07-27. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  25. ^ "B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum and Philip Lax Archive (B'nai B'rith Archives)". Bnaibrith.org.
  26. ^ Cornelia Wilhelm (2011). The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters: Pioneers of a New Jewish Identity 1843-1914. Wayne State University Press. pp. 131–133.
  27. ^ "Senior Housing, B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org.
  28. ^ "Center for Senior Services, B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org.
  29. ^ "Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge, B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  30. ^ "Enlighten America, B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  31. ^ "Smarter Kids - Safer Kids, B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  32. ^ "Full text of "Khaos Odensland Archive DOCS (The Misanthropic Misogynist)"". Archive.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  33. ^ "Welcome to the B'nai B'rith Europe website". Bnaibritheurope.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  34. ^ "Home". Bbuk.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  35. ^ Selwyn Ilan Troen and Benjamin Pinkus (1992). Organizing rescue: national Jewish solidarity in the modern period. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. p. 326.
  36. ^ "A. J. Granoff Papers". Truman Library. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  37. ^ Edward E. Grusd (1966). B'nai B'rith: The Story of a Covenant. Appleton-Century. p. 243.
  38. ^ "World Jewry Mobilizing in Effort to Repeal UN Zionism-racism Resolution". Archive.jta.org. 1985-11-05. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  39. ^ "Organization of American States, B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  40. ^ "Civil Society List, English". Civil-society.oas.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  41. ^ "Medical Shipment to Argentina". Brothersbrother.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  42. ^ "IsraAID". IsraAID. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  43. ^ "Shipments to Kenya, Africa and Paraguay, South America". Brothersbrother.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  44. ^ "B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  45. ^ "BBI Recognizes Israeli Embassy for Public Work, Historical Link - B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  46. ^ Allen Kent and Harold Lancour (1985). Encyclopedia of library and information science, Volume 39. Marcel Dekker Inc. p. 222.
  47. ^ "B'nai Brith Unbroken covenant pages 15 - 22" (PDF). B'nai Brith. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  48. ^ "Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel" (PDF). Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  49. ^ "Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel". Knesset.gov.il. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  50. ^ Vargas, Theresa (March 12, 2007). "Some Things You Never Forget". The Washington Post.
  51. ^ "B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community". Bnaibrith.org. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  52. ^ oe1.ORF.at / News
  53. ^ oe1.ORF.at / Bnai B´rith-Medaille für Altkanzler Vranitzky
  54. ^ B'nai B'rith Australia / NZ
  55. ^ B'nai B'rith Award Ceremony Honors Australian Prime Minister John Howard

External links

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about B'nai B'rith.
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