B'nai B'rith International - "The Bialik Lodge" - Large Archive of Paper Items, 1930s and 1940s

B'nai B'rith International - "The Bialik Lodge" - Large Archive of Paper Items, 1930s and 1940s
About 300 letters, protocols and documents of the Bialik Lodge of B'nai B'rith International. Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramat Gan and other places in Palestine, late 1930s to mid-1940s. Hebrew and German. A few items in English.
B'nai B'rith International was founded in New York in 1843 by Jewish engineer Henry Jones and a group of friends. Its members aimed to promote the education, morality and unity of the Jewish people, adopting the working model of the Freemasons and establishing a network of lodges throughout the world.
The present archive contains extensive documentation of the activities of the organization's Tel Aviv lodge, the "Bialik Lodge", throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Among other things, it discusses the need to amend the Zionist enterprise, allocation of funds, admission of new members, a proposal to secede from the central lodge, and other issues.
The archive includes:
• About 200 letters, most of them typewritten, exchanged by members of the organization and the various lodges in the country (including the Sha'ar Tzion lodge, the Ya'akov lodge, HaGalil lodge and others). Most are from 1945 and 1946.
• About 100 documents, mostly typewritten and hand-signed, containing protocols of conventions, reports, member lists and other documents. Most are from the late 1930s.
Total of about 300 items, some of them filed in a folder (old). Handwritten signatures and ink stamps on some. A few items from the mid-1960s. Size and condition vary. Good overall condition. Stains, creases and folding marks. Filing holes and small tears to margins. Folder damaged and torn.