B'nai B'rith ( Hebrew בני ברית, German "sons of the covenant" ), also known as Bnai Brith or in German-speaking countries until the time of National Socialism Independent Order Bne Briss (UOBB) or Bnei Briß, is a Jewish organization. It was founded in New York in 1843 as a secret lodge of twelve Jewish immigrants from Germany and is dedicated to self-promotion of tolerance, humanity and welfare. Another goal of B'nai B'rith is the education of Judaism and education within Judaism. There are currently around 500,000 organized members in about 60 states. This makes B'nai B'rith one of the largest Jewish international associations. The publishing organ is the B'nai B'rith International Jewish Monthly .With grand lodges, main boxes and districts , B'nai B'rith is similar to Freemasonry, but does not see itself as associated with this movement. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the organization runs a museum on Jewish history (the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum).
n 1897, the organization also opened for women. Thus at that time also in the German Reich the B'nai B'rith sisters associations developed, which demarcated themselves to the relatively more liberal Jewish woman federation. Since 1990, B'nai B'rith International has welcomed women as full members. The self-organized women's organization affiliated with B'nai B'rith calls itself B'nai B'rith Women and continues to maintain its independent status.The first offshoot in Germany was founded in 1882 in Berlin. The club seat was located at Kleiststraße 10 in Berlin-Schöneberg. In 1924, Rabbi Leo Baeck was elected Grand President of the German district, which at the time comprised more than a hundred individual lodges. His presidency lasted from 1925 to 1937. On April 19, 1937 all lodges had to be dissolved. As owner of the building Kleiststraße 10 acted from 1937, the Gestapo. In Cologne, the seat of the Rhineland Lodge was abused in the Cäcilienstraße after its destruction as a ghetto house. After the Second World War, the Order was re-established in the Federal Republic. Offshoots of B'nai B'rith are u. a. the Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, and the student-centered organization Hillel .Since March 1965, a memorial plaque has been erected in the Jewish community center on Fasanenstraße in Berlin. In Passauer Straße 4 resides with the Janusz Korczak Lodge a B'nai B'rith Lodge. Sigmund Freud was a member of the Viennese Lodge of B'nai B'rith, founded in 1895, whose president was for years the philosopher Wilhelm Jerusalem. In February 2004, the Paris Lodge was named after him in France. [Sources: Wikipedia, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia]
