B’nai B’rith

The Independent Order of B’nai B’rith organization began during the fall of 1843 in New York City. A group of twelve German-speaking Jews, led by scholarly mechanic Henry Jones, decided to create a society that would unite Jews across ritual, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. B’nai B’rith (literally, “Sons of the Covenant”) was born with the motto, “Benevolence, Brotherly Love, and Harmony.”

The local lodge of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith is the second oldest Jewish organization in the city of Youngstown. The Herman Rice Lodge #505 was the first B’nai B’rith lodge, organized around 1870. The Youngstown Lodge #339 organized in 1883. Until the start of the twentieth century, the two appear to have functioned as separate organizations. In 1902, they merged forming the Mahoning Lodge #339. Early on, a portion of the members’ dues went to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Cleveland and to the National Home for Consumptives in Denver. The organization also put out a publication entitled Menorah. It provided, among other things, a directory of lodges. Local presidents of the I.O.B.B. from its inception to the turn of the twentieth century included, L.L. Rice, E. Mittler, F. Ritter, Emanuel Hartzell, Bernard Hirshberg, Isaac Strouss, and Leo Guthman.

Irving Ozer noted about the organization that:

In addition to its traditional responsibilities during the first few decades of the century, such as anti-defamation, Americanization, membership, recruitment, and retention, interfaith brotherhood, sick visitation, charity and public service, the local B’nai B’rith was involved in athletics, entertainment, and theatre.

An illustration of Ozer’s assessment can be found during the 1920s, when Lodge #339 presented several dramatic theater productions under the name “the B’nai B’rith Players”.[1]

[insert B’Nai B’rith membership transcription here]

[1] Irving E. Ozer, et al., These Are the Names: The History of the Jews of Greater Youngstown, Ohio 1865-1990 (Youngstown, OH: 1994), 50, 115. Materials in the Jewish Archives include dues books and hand written records of regular committee meeting minutes, lodge expenses, and paid dues from approximately 1918 -1922 in a large Dark Brown Binder located in B’nai B’rith Temporary Box # 30 “to be processed box.”

Sunday Morning B’nai B’rith Bowling League Acc. No. JA88-438, MVHS Collection

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society educates and promotes an interest in the history of the Mahoning Valley by collecting, preserving, and developing material representative of the people who have inhabited the region.

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