Constitution of the Independent Order B'nai B'rith…
[Judaica]. B’nai B’rith Organization. Constitution of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith, Adapted in the General Convention of the Order, Held in the City of New York, July 19-27, 1868 (5628). [New York]: New York Lithographing, Engraving & Printing Company, 1868.
12mo.; lacking plain outer wrappers; interior pages sewn tightly together; small discrete repair to bottom edge of vol. 1; 10 page addendum (“Rules of Order”) carefully affixed to first blank; pages fresh, bright; a handsome copy of a fragile pamphlet. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
First edition of an extremely significant printing of the B’nai B’rith Constitution. According to UJE, “At the important New York convention of 1868, basic changes were again made in the structure of the organization, and a constitution adopted which has served ever since” (vol. 2).
B’nai B’rith, the oldest and largest Jewish service and fraternal organization in the world, was founded on October 13, 1843 by twelve German Jews of New York City. By 1855 there were 20 B’nai B’rith lodges with a total of 2,218 members. In its early days the B’nai B’rith Constitution went through several incarnations: one shift involved the translation of the laws and rituals into English from German in 1850. Eighteen years later, participants in the historic 1868 B’nai B’rith convention in New York voted in crucial changes to the organization’s constitution, its regulations, and its by-laws. The Hebrew titles of officers were abandoned in favor of English terms; a representative executive committee and a court of appeals were set up; provisions were made for regular conventions of the supreme lodge; and the organization’s highest official–previously known as the Grand Saar–was heretofore known as President. Conventioneers elected Julius Bien the first President of B’nai B’rith, a post he held till 1900.
As a result of the convention of 1868, B’nai B’rith adapted a structure and a Constitution that remains essentially unchanged to this day.
Copies of this landmark B’nai B’rith Constitution are extremely uncommon.
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