B'nai B'rith's Early History - B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community

B’nai B’rith’s Early History
Cornelia Wilhelm on Her Definitive Book
By Janet Lubman Rathner

It was founded in New York City on Oct. 13, 1843, as a service organization with a mission “to provide service to [Jews] and to humanity at large.” Today, 165 years later, B’nai B’rith International (BBI) continues to defend human rights, provide global humanitarian relief, help seniors in search of affordable housing, and serves as an advocate for tolerance and diversity.

These worthy endeavors led Cornelia Wilhelm, 43, a history professor and Judaic scholar at the University of Munich, and currently Visiting Professor at the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University, to write a definitive history of B’nai B’rith’s early years.

“Deutsche Juden in Amerika: Bürgerliches Selbstbewusstsein und Judische Identitat in den Orden B’nai B’rith und Treue Schwestern, 1843-1914” was originally published in Wilhelm’s native Germany. The BBI-funded English translation, “German Jews in America: Civil Self-Awareness and Jewish Identity in the Fraternal Orders B’nai B’rith and True Sisters, 1843-1914,” will be published in late 2009 or early 2010.

“It tells in detail another part of our story,” says Daniel S. Mariaschin, BBI executive vice president, in explaining why the organization got involved and why Wilhelm is scheduled to speak at B’nai B’rith’s policy conference in New York City on Dec. 7. “The fact that B’nai B’rith played such a critical role in civil society is extremely important for journalists, diplomats, anyone doing research; and it is important to have this information readily available.”

Wilhelm, in addition to being German, is not Jewish, and developed her interest in B’nai B’rith’s history in a roundabout manner. She recently shared how she came to be an authority on the early days of the “Global Voice of the Jewish People” with Senior Editor Janet Lubman Rathner.

Janet Rathner -- What is it about B’nai B’rith that is so important that you would write an entire book about its history?

Cornelia Wilhelm -- Well, B’nai B’rith [was] really the first secular Jewish organization, an organization that [was] not tied to a Jewish community—you know, the old European-style kehilla [insular Jewish organization] type. And it’s the first time that there was something not connected to the synagogue…pioneering Jewish identity in public life. Nothing like this ever existed before. It’s something that was really brought about through “modernity”—or let’s call it an “enlightenment”—that changed the whole experience of Jews and the possibilities for Jews. Jews wanted to be emancipated, they wanted to be part of a public life, and the process was very difficult—especially difficult in Germany. Jewish life had been limited to activity within the old kehilla-style communities. The fact that Jews took on jobs outside such a community was new in the 18th and early 19th century. They were looking for a platform where they could also be Jews, or continue to be Jews, and live and experience Jewish identity. B’nai B’rith was the only model that could provide such a platform.

Q -- Why are you so interested in Judaism?

A -- First of all, I would say I’m interested in Jewish history more than Judaism. I had an interest in the Holocaust that was basically triggered with, or by, an interest in German contemporary history. And I think it’s very typical for a whole generation of Germans—it has to do with their own definition of national identity; they have to figure out what they can think about their nation’s past.

I then decided to study history at the University of Munich and, within the course of my studies, I had an internship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988. At the time, the museum wasn’t even a museum yet. It was an office building. It was very interesting for me because I was studying a topic that I was well-familiar with as a student of German history, in an entirely different environment. And it was a great experience—also a great experience in terms of America. It was the first time I came to America, and it really influenced me on a totally different level. It really was my point of departure for an interest in American history.

And what happened was I came back with a topic for a doctorate that was kind of a connection [between] German contemporary history and American history. It was about Nazi propaganda among German Americans in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. And there was really no literature; nothing about it.

And I was particularly interested in B’nai B’rith because B’nai B’rith was very different. It was an old organization dating back much further than the American Jewish Committee or [anything] else, and it had a different background as a fraternal order. It almost seemed to be [like] an 18th-century organization and, at the same time, it is well-known (to) people who are working in contemporary history—in 20th-century history—as an organization that pops up as a target of anti-Semitic propaganda, in the early 20th century in particular, based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

And I stumbled into Jewish history with…B’nai B’rith, and it was a major journey. The whole discussion of the topic really took me right into the formative period of American-Jewish history.

Q -- You grew up in a Germany that is generations removed from the Holocaust. How does the country educate today’s children about that period?

A -- German education is organized by the individual states, and every state has its different nuances, but I think one can say that, in general, [German schools] are very openly dealing with the Holocaust, and [their] own history and failure, so this is a core element of the curriculum. And I think actually that German students are really encouraged to a large degree to be critical about what is presented to them as facts, as a result of the whole Nazi history. They question things. Students here [in the United States] are not as critical about texts, and sometimes they would rather have a simple solution. But I think Germans have noticed that facts are very negotiable. What is told to them as fact is something that is not necessarily the truth.

Q -- They’re skeptical.

A -- Yes, they’re more skeptical. I have a feeling that it comes from their background and culture. It’s very much enforced in the educational system, and I think it’s a result of that. For example, I learned about the Holocaust at the age of five or six in my religious education class and it was very confusing for a child that age. It was a shock in a way, because that is not a topic in a family setting, necessarily.

Q -- Getting to your book; you say that the founders of B’nai B’rith wanted to create an organization for Jews that was not affiliated with the synagogues. What was the reason for that? Why did it need to be separate?

A -- Well, neither the American synagogue nor the European-type synagogue [community], the kehilla model, really served the needs of modern, mobile Jews anymore. You have to remember that, by the beginning of the 19th century, the world of Jews was dramatically changing. The radius of the activity and engagement in society was totally expanding, and there was also no authority to give them…clear assistance or any help with how to behave in that civil society. There wasn’t always a synagogue, especially in America, and Jews wanted to engage in society. They were told that this was their mission as Jews.

There was also a change in the religious interpretation of Judaism through the Reform Movement, or the emerging Reform Movement, that said, “Yes, we are a chosen people, but we are also an integral part of the human family and, for that reason, we have to engage in society. We cannot be separate from it. The problem is really that we have to maintain the Jewishness, but it has to be a Jewishness that kind of matches the modern world.”

And B’nai Brith was to provide a role model for that behavior, and could also reach out beyond traditional forms of organization. It could reach out to Jews who could not belong to a community, or to a synagogue; who were extremely mobile. B’nai B’rith provided, in a way, Jewish identity and privacy, as well as directions (for) how to live a civil Judaism in society.

Q -- You say that the fact that B’nai B’rith was modeled on ideals of Reform Judaism in 19th-century Germany assisted its members in becoming fully integrated into American life. Can you explain how this worked?

A -- The key element for this was the lodge as an organizational unit, and lodge life with its ritual, and the commandments the applicant [accepted] upon entry into the order. And the ritual was usually tied to specific ethical behavior. It was key to the process of character formation. [The premise is] that all men are brothers, the sons of one God, and [B’nai B’rith] stressed the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of men, which is also the motto of the Reform Movement.

[There was also] a commitment to benevolence, and here it’s important to understand that this is a commitment to active service on your neighbor’s behalf. It’s really brotherly love, an activity that takes your whole personal involvement; it takes a special engagement with the universe, a holistic touch, and it’s…a vehicle to engage in society.

Q -- Why was it necessary to have an organization like B’nai B’rith? A number of its early members, including the founder, were members of the Odd Fellows, which B’nai B’rith is patterned after. If they were not being excluded, why was there a need to create something only for Jews?

A -- Well, unlike other ethnic groups, Jews in particular saw America as a unique chance to build a completely new identity, and realize the ideals that they had already in mind and developed in Europe, and I refer particularly to the ideals of becoming good citizens, and integrating in civil society. America [had] religious freedom, [but] in 1830, there was hardly an organized Jewish community. So they [B’nai B’rith’s founders] noticed that something very special was possible in America compared to the Old World, or elsewhere.

And they wanted to do it right, and this was a real challenge for many of the poor and very inexperienced immigrants. Many came from Bavaria, from the countryside, and they were struggling with bourgeois respectability, and with all the requirements that civil society imposed [on] them, and they found that such an organization could help them reach their ideals.

In the beginning, they thought Odd Fellowship would provide such a platform, and they tried to establish an Odd Fellow lodge that was Jewish. That didn’t work out because Odd Fellows, although they allowed ethnic lodges, such as German lodges or French lodges, would not allow a religious group to form a separate lodge. That was against their ideal of tolerance. But Jews wanted to be among each other, maybe for reasons of privacy, and, as a group, to develop something that would best match the needs of that particular group that would perhaps be uninteresting for somebody else. So this is how B’nai B’rith was founded.

Q -- Can you discuss some of B’nai B’rith’s early projects?

A -- Well, it [started] the first Jewish libraries in this country. And it provided intellectual training, [and] training on how to speak publicly. The first library was founded in 1851, and, after that, the B’nai B’rith becomes a key platform for social activity in America’s communities, hospitals, and orphanages. And, in addition, you have to understand that, between 1850 and 1875, there was diversity among Jewish congregations. There were Polish, German, Bavarian, English, Portuguese [congregations]. They fought a lot with each other. It was very difficult to bring about consensus to move on with a major project where everybody could benefit. And it was really B’nai B’rith as an organization that locked out religious conflict.

Q -- If B’nai B’rith came about as a means of helping integrate European Jews into American life, why was there interest in establishing B’nai B’rith chapters in Europe?

A -- B’nai B’rith was a means to help Jews find a place in modern society [in America and elsewhere]. It was not specifically designed to serve as a tool to reach all these goals in America. It just happened that, in America, all this was possible.

There was not really an existent hierarchy, a religious hierarchy in the Jewish community [in America]. There was hardly a Jewish community. There were religious freedoms, separation of church and state, and it gave immigrants tremendous freedom; in Europe, it was very different. If you look into the first lodge on the continent, which was founded in Germany in 1883, and what needs the B’nai B’rith served in Europe, they were very different needs. There was a polarization between Germans and Jews and great anti-Semitism growing, so B’nai B’rith was successful, but it was not allowed to stretch out into the public political sphere.

It was in America where you could maintain your group identity, and you still can. You can be Jewish; you can be German and American; you can be Spanish and American. It’s the American story that allows you to be one of these groups that are persecuted [elsewhere] and find haven in America. And you don’t have to give that up to become American. It’s completely different in late-19th-century Germany, [which] was totally exclusionary to other groups [that wanted] to become German.

Q -- Your book says interest in B’nai B’rith membership declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which was when many European Jews immigrated to the United States, and that the reason was the perception that B’nai B’rith was a club for the German-Jewish elite. How did B’nai B’rith respond?

A -- That’s a complicated question. Actually, by 1880, B’nai B’rith did represent an elite, and also a unique success story of German Jews, most of whom first came to the United States poor and uneducated. Some of them were [however] intellectuals and became the leadership, but the rank-and-file that arrived in the 1840s and 1850s often came from Orthodox communities in the countryside. German Jews had a unique success story in American history, and B’nai B’rith was instrumental in bringing this about.

But even after B’nai B’rith had become a symbol of this elite membership, it also attracted a large number of people whose main motivation was to belong solely to B’nai B’rith for social stratification or material benefit. It had great programs, [including] insurance programs that were also attractive. And the original commitment of taking care of each other in case of sickness and so on, which was an act of personal solidarity, was changed in 1874 with the introduction of a compulsory insurance system, which brought about an impersonal automatism, which destroyed the sense of brotherhood that was originally installed in the order.

It became a looser organization, and some members refused to accept young, often poor, so-called Russian Jewish immigrants. They wanted to maintain that elite image to the outside.

There was a big scandal actually in Chicago in the 1880s, when a group of young Eastern European immigrants wanted to join the lodge and the Chicago-based district didn’t allow them to join. And, in that situation, the old founders stood up, and the Constitution Grand Lodge [took] jurisdiction over this case. It changed the jurisdiction of the Chicago-district Grand Lodge and stated that it is the purpose of the order to integrate exactly such people, and they stated that they have been poor immigrants originally [themselves], and that this is what the order is supposed to do. But, in general, unfortunately, this happened a lot of times and, for many years, the order failed to integrate [a] younger and also ethically diverse clientele.

The New York District, which was the original home of the order, lost half of its membership by 1900, and it created a huge membership crisis. Around 1900, there was a president named Leo Levi who was very conscious about this; he really cared. Under his leadership, the order made a dramatic move and moved the headquarters of B’nai B’rith from Lexington Avenue into the Lower East Side, to be in touch, particularly with the Romanian immigrants that were present there, and the order was actually very successful with this approach.

It’s a very, very touching story, this discussion about how to reach the Eastern Europeans, and it’s about the survival of an order that is dramatically struck by the membership loss. And it’s also, I think, a story about the presidents; how involved they are personally.

Q -- Who are the “True Sisters” in the title of your book and what is their connection to B’nai B’rith?

A -- [Much like B’nai B’rith] the True Sisters made it clear that it was their goal to pave the way for Jewish women to define a role in the public sphere, outside the synagogue. They organized as an order like B’nai B’rith, which was their role model after they had unsuccessfully tried to join. Basically, they provided the same access to civil society as B’nai B’rith did, but the organization was for women only and this was a conscious decision.

In 1874, the True Sisters were officially pronounced the equivalent of B’nai B’rith for women. This partnership ended in the early 1890s when B’nai B’rith started having its own auxiliaries for women.

Q -- Why do you think B’nai B’rith’s role in the formation of American Jewish identity has been neglected by the history books?

A -- American Jewish history [is] a very small field. It has only developed as a major field since the 1970s, with the whole movement [of] ethnic history in American history. And also, the study of an organization [that] stands for, or stood very long for, an all-male elite is in many ways also not trendy for people. So, maybe one of the reasons was that there are very few people who study American as well as European history at the same time, which I think you need to do to understand the whole concept.