A New Covenant of Brotherhood: B’nai B’rith Founded in New York, Its Tidings Reaching the Old World

From our overseas correspondent in New York, dated the 13th of October, 1841, we receive intelligence of a most remarkable association lately established in that city. On the eighth day of this month, a company of twelve German-speaking Hebrews, men of trade and letters, convened at Sinsheimer’s Hall on Essex Street to institute a brotherhood they name B’nai B’rith—Sons of the Covenant. Their aim, as set forth in their founding constitution, is to unite the scattered children of Israel in works of benevolence, to succour the widow and orphan, to visit the sick, and to promote education among the poor of their race. This is no mere local club; it is a seed sown in the New World that may yet yield shade in the Old.

Observers in our own mountains, where Jewish pedlars and innkeepers ply their trades along the Borgo and Tihuța passes, will note with interest that the society’s first lodge, named Covenant Hall, has already enrolled near eighty members. Dues are fixed at three dollars per annum, a sum not inconsiderable, yet freely pledged. The founders speak of correspondence with likeminded brethren in Hamburg, Vienna, and even Constantinople, hinting that the order may soon extend its branches across the sea. In an age when the roads are thick with bandits and the winter snows bury all charity beneath their drifts, such a network of mutual aid is a lantern in the dark.

Yet I must temper my report with a caution born of experience. The wolves that stalk these Carpathian passes are not all of the four-legged kind. A brotherhood that crosses borders and creeds may draw the jealous eye of those who profit from division—whether petty princelings or the brigands who prey on isolated coaches. Still, the B’nai B’rith’s pledge to bury the dead, comfort the mourner, and aid the stranger is a noble answer to the savagery I have myself witnessed. Let us hope its light reaches even our remote Scarlet Pass, where the mail coach rattles through the dark and the howl of the wind too often sounds like a hunting pack.

We shall continue to monitor the society’s growth as tidings reach our desk. For now, let the record show that in the year 1841, in a city of immigrants, a covenant was struck that may yet bind the wounds of many a weary traveller.