B'NAI B'RITH

the world's oldest and largest international jewish service organization.

B'nai B'rith (Hebrew, "sons of the covenant") was founded by twelve Jewish immigrants of German descent in New York on 13 October 1843 to respond to the needs of Jewish communities worldwide. The organization has since created three major institutions that have played a key role in contemporary Jewish life worldwide: the Anti-Defamation League (1913); Hillel (1923), the largest Jewish campus organization worldwide; and the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (1924), concerned with the problems posed by the assimilation of Jewish youth in the diaspora and still operating an extensive network of summer camps.

B'nai B'rith lodges were established in the Middle East, starting with the Maimonides Lodge in Cairo (1887) and the Eliahu Hanabi Lodge in Alexandria (1891), followed by lodges in Istanbul, Edirne, and Beirut (1911). The organization's central concern was and is the promotion and implementation of programs that allow for the appreciation and maintenance of "Jewish unity, Jewish security, and Jewish continuity" worldwide.

The organization has five centers that develop and implement its programs: the Center for Community Action; the Center for Jewish Identity, devoted to "the transmission of Jewish values, ethics, and knowledge"; the Center for Human Rights and Public Policy (CHRPP), serving as the organization's research and advocacy arm; the Center for Senior Services, making B'nai B'rith the world's largest operator of affordable housing for seniors; and the World Center, established in 1980 to serve as the organization's official center in Jerusalem.

Within the United States, the organization acts as a powerful lobbying group, seeking the continuation of support for Israel. B'nai B'rith's CHRPP lists among its concerns "the security and welfare of Israel, rising Islamic militancy, resurgent antisemitism, Jewish renewal in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, [and] the security and welfare of Jewish communities worldwide." The organization has criticized human rights organizations that oppose the policies of the state of Israel, condemned the position of the European Union toward Israel, and consistently denounced what the organization calls "prejudiced reporting" about Israel by the foreign media.

B'nai B'rith is the only Jewish nongovernmental organization to be accepted as part of the Organization of American States, and it maintains a visible presence in South American countries. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, it supported the attempts on the part of the United States to establish stronger ties with the republics of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbeki-stan.

Bibliography

B'nai Brith International. Available from <http://www.bnaibrith.org/>.

Ivers, Gregg. To Build a Wall: American Jews and the Separation of Church and State. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995.

Vanesa Casanova-Fernandez

B'nai B'rith [Heb.,= Sons of the Covenant], oldest and largest Jewish service organization in the world, founded (1843) in New York by American Jews "to provide service to their own people and to humanity at large." The organization has branches throughout the world. Its divisions include the Hillel Foundation (for Jewish college students), the Anti-Defamation League (a civil-rights organization), and B'nai B'rith Women. B'nai B'rith has about 500,000 members in 58 countries. The national office, located in Washington, D.C., publishes the International Jewish Monthly and other periodicals.

B'nai B'rith (Heb., ‘Sons of the Covenant’). Oldest and largest Jewish charitable organization. It was founded in 1843 in New York, and has a total membership of approximately half a million people throughout the world.