B'nai B'rith

==History==
B'nai B'rith was founded in Aaron Sinsheimer's café in [[New York City]]'s [[Lower East Side]] on October 13, 1843, by 12 recent German Jewish immigrants led by Henry Jones.<ref name="autogenerated252"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bnaibrithinternational.podbean.com/e/ken-ackerman-on-bnai-briths-early-days-in-1840s-new-york-city/ |title=Ken Ackerman on B'nai B'rith's Early Days in 1840s New York City |website=B'nai B'rith International |language=en |access-date=2020-11-23}}</ref> It was organized as a secret [[Masonic lodge|lodge]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://portal.ehri-project.eu/units/us-005578-irn507373-irn611865|title="Daughter" Lodges of the Great Lodge of Germany of the Jewish Order, B'nai B'rith Bnei Brith-Tochterlogen in Deutschland (Fond 1219)|publisher=[[Europea Holocaust Research Infrastrutture]]|language=en|access-date=October 13, 2023|quote=It was founded in New York in 1843 as a secret lodge of twelve Jewish immigrants from Germany and is dedicated to self-promotion of tolerance, humanity and welfare.[...] With grand lodges, main boxes and districts , B'nai B'rith is similar to Freemasonry, but does not see itself as associated with this movement.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013085657/https://portal.ehri-project.eu/units/us-005578-irn507373-irn611865|archive-date=October 13, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> The new organization represented an attempt to organize Jews of the local community to confront what Isaac Rosenbourg, one of the founders, called "the deplorable condition of Jews in this, our newly adopted country".<ref name="bnaibrith1">{{cite web |title=B'nai B'rith International |url=http://bnaibrith.org/about_us/bbi_roots.cfm |url-status=dead |publisher=Bnaibrith.org |access-date=2012-02-03 |archive-date=2011-05-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518044125/http://www.bnaibrith.org/about_us/bbi_roots.cfm }}</ref> The new group's purpose, as described in its constitution, called for the traditional functions performed by Jewish societies in Europe: "Visiting and attending the sick" and "protecting and assisting the widow and the orphan." Its founders had hoped that it soon would encompass all Jews in the United States, but this did not happen, since other Jewish organizations also were forming around the same time.<ref name="LilienChange">[[Alfred Lilienthal|Alfred M. Lilienthal]], ''[http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0693/9306018.htm The Changing Role of B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League]'', [[WRMEA]], June 1993, p.18</ref>

The German-speaking founders originally named the organization Bundes-Brüder (German for "Brothers of the Covenant")<ref name=Shengold>{{cite encyclopedia |title= B'nai B'rith |encyclopedia= The Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia: Digital Edition |date= 2 February 2014 |publisher= Shengold Publishers |url= http://shengold.com/bnai-brith/ |access-date=9 February 2021}}</ref> to reflect their goal of a [[Fraternity|fraternal]] order that could provide comfort to the entire spectrum of Jewish Americans.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Judaism|page=61|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2006|author=Sara E. Karesh and Mitchell M. Hurvitz}}</ref> 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.

Despite its fraternal and local beginnings, B'nai B'rith spoke out for Jewish rights early in its history and used its growing national chain of lodges as a way to exercise political influence on behalf of world Jewry. In 1851, for example, it circulated petitions urging [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Daniel Webster]] to demand the end of [[Disabilities (Jewish)|Jewish disabilities]] in Switzerland, during on-going trade negotiations. Into the 1920s the B'nai B'rith continued in its political work by joining in Jewish delegations and lobbying efforts through which [[American Jews]] sought to influence public policy, both domestic and foreign. B'nai B'rith also played a crucial role in transnational Jewish politics. The later spread of the organization around the world made it a nerve center of intra-Jewish communication and mutual endeavor.<ref>Hasia R. Diner, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JRQGybN2eboC&pg= ''The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000''], p.191</ref>

[[File:Religious Liberty by Jacob Moses Ezekiel.jpg|thumb|''[[Religious Liberty (Ezekiel)|Religious Liberty]]'', a statue commissioned by B'Nai B'rith for the 1876 [[Centennial Exposition]] and dedicated "to the people of the United States". By [[Moses Jacob Ezekiel]], a B'nai B'rith member and the first American Jewish sculptor to gain international prominence.]]

===1843 to 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 [[widow]]s 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.<ref name="bnaibrith1"/>

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.<ref name="autogenerated252"/> One year later, B'nai B'rith established the [[Maimonides]] Library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3437-b-nai-b-rith |title=B'nai B'rith |publisher=[[JewishEncyclopedia.com]] }}</ref> Immediately following the [[American Civil War|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 [[hospital]]s, [[orphanage]]s and homes for the aged.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters: Pioneers of a New Jewish Identity 1843–1914|page=138|publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]]|year=2011|author=[[Cornelia Wilhelm]]}}</ref>

In 1868, when a devastating flood crippled [[Cheswolde, Baltimore|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 Ottoman Palestine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bnaibrith.org/|title=B'nai B'rith International|website=B'nai B'rith International}}</ref>

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]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/First_Cong_&_Basel_Program.html |title=The First Zionist Congress and the Basel Program |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=2022-02-18 |archive-date=2016-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206181644/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/First_Cong_%26_Basel_Program.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Jerusalem lodge became the first public organization to hold all of its meetings in Hebrew.<ref>{{cite book|first=Hasia R.|last=Diner|title=The Jews of the United States: 1654 to 2000|url=https://archive.org/details/jewsofunitedstat00dine|url-access=registration|access-date=10 December 2012|year=2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22773-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/jewsofunitedstat00dine/page/191 191]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters: Pioneers of a New Jewish Identity 1843-1914|page=172|publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=2011|author=Cornelia Wilhelm}}</ref>

After 1881, with the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews to the United States,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/polish5.html |title=Immigration ... Polish/Russian: A People at Risk |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120804022414/http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/polish5.html |archive-date=2012-08-04 |access-date=2020-11-22 |url-status=dead}}</ref> B'nai B'rith sponsored Americanization classes, [[vocational school|trade school]]s 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 [[secret society|fraternal organization]]s. 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=272 |title=Our History – Who We Are |publisher=JWI |date=2012-07-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527065712/http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=272 |archive-date=2011-05-27 }}</ref>

===Early 20th century===
In response to the [[Kishinev pogrom]] in 1903,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yivoinstitute.org/digital_exhibitions/index.php?mcid=69&oid=10 |title=YIVO Institute for Jewish Research {{pipe}} The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903: On the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary |publisher=Yivoinstitute.org |access-date=2012-07-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110220233218/http://www.yivoinstitute.org/digital_exhibitions/index.php?mcid=69&oid=10 |archive-date=2011-02-20 }}</ref> President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and Secretary of State [[John Hay]] met with B'nai B'rith's executive committee in Washington, D.C. B'nai B'rith President [[Simon Wolf]] presented the draft of a petition to be sent to the Russian government protesting the lack of opposition to the massacre. Roosevelt readily agreed to transmit it and B'nai B'rith lodges began gathering signatures around the country.

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: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life|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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vigdor |first1=Jacob |title=Civic Report No. 53: Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States |url=http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_53.htm |website=[[Manhattan Institute for Policy Research]] |access-date=December 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908033733/http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_53.htm |archive-date=2012-09-08 |date=May 2008}}{{cbignore}}<!-- while the original url is live, it does not link directly to the full report; by comparison, the archived url links directly to a web-friendly version of the report, thus use cbignore to prohibit bots from adjusting the url-status --></ref> In 1923, [[Benjamin Frankel (rabbi)|Rabbi Benjamin Frankel]] of Illinois established [[Hillel at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|Hillel]] – 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hillel.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5146418-3638-435A-8BB9-24592F5500F9/0/hillel_history.pdf |title=Hillel History |website=[[Hillel International]] |access-date=2012-08-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212225658/http://www.hillel.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5146418-3638-435A-8BB9-24592F5500F9/0/hillel_history.pdf |archive-date=2012-02-12 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2008/sep/hillel_history_18september2008.htm |title=A Brief History |website=[[Hillel International]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120801085448/http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2008/sep/hillel_history_18september2008.htm |archive-date=2012-08-01 |date=2008-09-18 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Trammell |first1=Anna |title=Hillel: The International Jewish Organization Founded in Champaign |url=https://archives.library.illinois.edu/slc/hillel/ |website=[[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] |access-date=November 23, 2020 |date=February 27, 2015}}</ref>

At virtually the same time as [[Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life|Hillel]] was being established, Sam Beber of Omaha, Nebraska, 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 {{convert|300|acre|adj=on}} 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://perlmancamp.org/all/about.shtml |title=About Perlman Camp |publisher=Perlmancamp.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721104053/http://www.perlmancamp.org/all/about.shtml |archive-date=2011-07-21 }}</ref>

In 1938 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.<ref>{{cite journal|date=2012-01-03 | doi=10.1002/j.2164-5892.1946.tb00742.x |volume=24 | issue=5 |journal=Occupations: The Vocational Guidance Journal |pages=277–280 |title=The B'nai B'rith Vocational Service Program |last1=Baer |first1=Max F.}}</ref>

===1977 Hanafi siege===
{{main|1977 Washington, D.C. attack and hostage taking}}
On March 9–11, 1977, three buildings in Washington, D.C., including the headquarters of B'nai B'rith, were seized by 12 [[Black nationalism|black nationalist]] [[Nation of Islam]] gunmen, led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who took 149 hostages and killed a [[radio journalist]] and a police officer. After a 39-hour standoff, all other hostages were released from the District Building (the city hall; now called the [[John A. Wilson Building]]), B'nai B'rith headquarters, and the [[Islamic Center of Washington]].

The gunmen had several demands. They "wanted the government to hand over a group of men who had been convicted of killing seven relatives – mostly children – of takeover leader Hamaas Khaalis. They also demanded that the movie ''[[The Message (1976 film)|Mohammad, Messenger of God]]'' be destroyed because they considered it sacrilegious."<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101562.html |title= 'Some Things You Never Forget': Thirty years ago, gunmen stormed three D.C. buildings, taking 150 hostages and one life |author= Theresa Vargas |newspaper= Washington Post |date= March 12, 2007 |page= B01 |access-date= March 12, 2007 <!--DASHBot-->}}</ref>

''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine noted: "That the toll was not higher was in part a tribute to the primary tactic U.S. law enforcement officials are now using to thwart terrorists—patience. But most of all, perhaps, it was due to the courageous intervention of three Muslim ambassadors, [[Egypt]]'s Ashraf Ghorbal, [[Pakistan]]'s Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan and [[Iran]]'s [[Ardeshir Zahedi]]."<ref name="time-77">{{cite news |title=The 38 Hours: Trial by Terror |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946751,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415145539/https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946751,00.html |archive-date=2008-04-15 |date=March 21, 1977 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine |url-status=dead |access-date=July 19, 2021 <!--DASHBot-->}}</ref>