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United States President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, one of the most iconic speeches in American history, on the afternoon of Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on the battlegrounds in Gettysburg, Penn.

On the 151st anniversary of the oration, B’nai B’rith International remembers the enduring legacy of the Gettysburg Address. Gettysburg was considered a turning point for the Union in the American Civil War and a reaffirmation of the principles upon which the nation was founded 87 years before. 

At the time, B’nai B’rith, founded in 1843 in New York City, was just 20 years old. Nearly 86 years later, B’nai B’rith would celebrate its 107th birthday with a sermon by Rabbi Herman M. Cohen in St. Paul, Minn., who adapted the language of the Gettysburg Address to celebrate B’nai B’rith.

That speech was included in the April 1951 edition of B’nai B’rith’s National Jewish Monthly magazine.

The text from both addresses can be read in their entirety, below:


Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 

“We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. 

“It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Cohen’s B’nai B’rith Address:

“Five score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new organization conceived in unity, and dedicated to the proposition of benevolence, brotherly love and harmony.

“We are met to rededicate ourselves to the lofty ideals of developing and stimulating the culture and moral character of the people of our faith. 

“It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“It is for us, as Jews and as American citizens, to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that we here highly resolve that this organization of B’nai B’rith shall, under God, have a new birth of devotion, and that the faith and traditions of the Jewish people, by the Jewish people and for the Jewish people shall not perish from the earth.”