Convention Proceedings. 8 items in 2 cloth slipcases.
CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS FOR B’NAI B’RITH
1868-1910
[Judaica]. B’nai B’rith. Report of the Executive Committee of the Constitution Grand Lodge I.O.B.B. August 1868-January 1870. New York: [Privately Printed], 1870.
Slim 8vo.; printed wrappers, sewn, lightly worn and soiled.
Together with:
Proceedings of District Grand Lodge No. 1, I.O.B.B. for the year 1876, and of the 5th Annual Convention. Held at the City of Boston, Mass., January 28th, 29th & 30th, 1877. New York: M. Thalmessinger, Stationer & Printer, 1877.
Slim 8vo.; printed wrappers, sewn; 1.5 inch wide strip torn from top of cover and title page; lightly worn and soiled.
Together with:
Proceedings of District Grand Lodge No. 1, I.O.B.B., for the year 1877and of the 26th Annual Convention. Held at the City of New York, January 27th, 28th & 29th, 1878. New York: M. Thalmessinger, Stationer & Printer, 1878.
Slim 8vo.; printed wrappers, sewn; edgeworn with a few minor chips; some general wear; bottom edge dampstained.
Together with:
Proceedings of the General Convention of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith. Held in the City of New York, March 1-6, 1885. New York: L. P. Mendham, Stationer and Printer, 1885.
8vo.; printed wrappers, sewn; some dampstaining to bottom and fore-edge; light chips to top edge and about one third of the spine missing.
Together with:
Proceedings of the General Convention of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith. Held in the City of New York, March 1-6, 1885. New York: L. P. Mendham, Stationer and Printer, 1885.
8vo.; printed wrappers, sewn; front panel heavily rubbed, soiled; most of spine and all of rear panel and title page missing; dampstaining to bottom and a small portion of the fore-edge; a variant of the preceding Proceedings, without an ornamental border to the cover.
Together with:
Report of the Executive Committee of the Constitution Grand Lodge Independent Order of B’nai B’rith 1902-1903. [New York, Privately Printed]: (1903).
8vo.; hinges cracked; preliminaries foxed; green cloth stamped in gilt; spine bumped and frayed; Wendell A. Phillips’s copy, with his bookplate to the front pastedown.
Together with:
Historical Sketch of Ramah Lodge NO. 33, I.O.B.B. Chicago: Issued by the Committee on Golden Jubilee, May 25, 26 and 27, 1907.
Slim 8vo.; yellow illustrated wrappers, string-tied; lightly edgeworn and soiled.
Together with:
General Convention of The Constitution Grand Lodge Independent Order of B’nai B’rith. Illustrated Historical Resumé. Souvenir Token to Delegates. Washington, D.C.: Press of W.F. Roberts Company, 1910.
Slim 8vo.; thin leather-covered flexible boards, pictorially stamped in gilt; light wear to extremities; Wendell A. Phillips’s copy, with his bookplate to the front pastedown.
Eight important records of the roiling development of the order of B’nai B’rith, from just after the radical revision of their Constitution in 1868 through 1910. Julius Bien, the first President of B’nai B’rith whose leadership endured until 1900, opens the first of these pamphlets with an explanation of the reasons behind its belated publication, laying blame at tardy contributions from District Grand Lodges, “at a time when the revision and reprinting of the Ritual had become of paramount importance.” The Brotherhood had undertaken to revise the Ritual within a three month period, but did not accomplish the task until two years later. In fact, among the letters from District leaders, written in response to Bien’s request for relevant news, both the Louisville, Kentucky and San Francisco contingencies expressed frustration over this lapse in leadership and direction. (The other districts, however, seem to have made the best of a bad situation.) Bien writes:
Compelled by the constantly increasing necessities, and in order to carry out the resolutions of the General Convention, I undertook the revision of the Ritual in conformity with the laws passed on the subject, and have to acknowledge gratefully the valuable aid I received from Bro. Dr. Louis Elsberg…
The dissenting views of some of my respected brethren and colleagues, submitted herewith, can be easily reconciled to the general results under the new order of things, when we consider that the changed position and relation of Districts, from a subordinate to an independent and co-ordinate one, would naturally cease at first, with those who were wont to rely on and to be guided by a superior authority, a degree of temerity and uncertainty in the proper definition and application of rights and prerogatives, apt to create distrust and apprehension. The anticipation of evil effects, however, will prove and has proven groundless. A little more time and experience will bring about, throughout the Order, that free and independent yet harmonious action, which is the noble expression of true manhood, and will mark the first great progressive era in the history of our revered Order.
A glance at the facts revealed by the statistical tables will be the best refutation of erroneous statements and conclusions. (5-6)
The report which follows is comprised of Bien’s discursive history of the new and improved Ritual, expounding on the aims and goals of the Brotherhood, the ways in which they have been attempted in the past and how they will be achieved in the future through the reorganization of the Order. As his essay nears its conclusion he writes:
The greatest and noblest of men have lived and died in the sacred labor of improving the condition of the human family, of removing the barriers that divide the children of God, of promoting intelligence, knowledge and virtue—to bring form the divine in man.
Our Order has no other object. (19)
The report concludes with general financial and membership statistics, as well as several Appeals from district divisions, with subsequent opinions by members of the Executive Committee and a final Decision. The Appeals for the most part concern points of order—changing from weekly to bi-weekly meetings, challenging the open-door meeting policy, dues and membership requirements. One Lodge proposed that “no candidate shall be admitted to the Lodge who is married to a non-Jewess” and that “any brother who marries a non-Jewess or who does not circumcise his children according to Jewish Ritual, shall be expelled from the Lodge.” This proposal was soundly dismissed through an examination of what defines an Israelite—anyone born of an Israelite mother or a convert to Judaism—and by the belief that marriage to a gentile does not remove that distinction.
After that ground-breaking 1870 publication, the volumes begin to take on more formality and heft, as the I.O.B.B. grew in size and scope. The presence of two issues of the Proceedings for 1885, with variant covers, is telling. By 1902-03, the Report had become a cloth-bound book comprised of two parts: the standard report for the year requiring 109 pages, divided into 18 sections, with an index and 10 appendices. The second part, the Kischineff Petition, is printed as an Addendum, and is noted as a “memorial volume filed with department of State.” Preceded by a brief history of the petition which was filed in reaction to a recent anti-Semitic riot in Russia, the petition appears here with over 175 pages listing its signatories.
The remaining two volumes in the group are of a more specific nature. The Historical Sketch is just that—a souvenir edition printed on a heavier stock than the general Reports and Proceedings, which are highly acidic and given to wear; it seems to have been carefully tied into illustrated wrappers by hand and was probably issued in a limited number. The 1910 souvenir piece was done up in the same spirit, though it was more formally bound and likely prepared for a greater number of recipients.
Print Inquire
