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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 June 2018
One evening in 1893, a young Jewish immigrant named William Bakst joined the New York mutual-aid association made up of his compatriots from the Lithuanian town of Oshmene. The strange ceremony that marked his induction made a deep impression on him. He found especially striking the regalia that seemed utterly to transform the presiding officer, whom Bakst knew by his familiar old-country nickname. “When the inside-guard led me to the president,” Bakst later recalled,
so that I could give the oath that I would never, God forbid, reveal the secrets of the society and that I would be true to its goals, when I set eyes on Gershke Yankls with a red sash across his chest, Standing there giving three strong raps of the gavel, and all those present responding by standing, I became so scared that I didn't even know what they were telling me to repeat. The “regalia” that the president wore frightened me most of all. For me, a greenhorn just out of the yeshiva who had never in his life attended a meeting, the red sash gave the impression of a high government official.
I would like to thank the following people who read and commented on various versions of this paper: Michael Berkowitz, Barbara Bianco, Mark Carnes, Hasia Diner, Peter Eisenstadt, Jenna Weissman Joselit, Virginia Sanchez Korrol, and Susan Tananbaum. Thanks also to the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies for their generous support.
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32. Ibid., 39-56, quotes on 43, 44. A somewhat simplified ritual adopted in 1879 covered similar themes but drew its lessons from the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See Ritual of the Order Kesher Shel Barzel (n.p., 1879). The Yiddish ritual of the Order Knights of Joseph concentrates on the life of Joseph but includes some elements that are nearly identical to the Kesher Shel Barzel rites. See Ritual fun orden nayts ofdzosef (Cleveland, 1899).
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36. The following description is based on the Yiddish Version of the ritual, Ritual fun dem independent orden bris Avrom (New York: n.d.), which would have been used by many of the Eastern European branches. Quotations are taken from the English edition, Ritual of the Independent Order Brith Abraham (New York, 1940), unless it differs from the Yiddish version, in which case the Yiddish version is followed. In general, the two versions are similar, though there are some differences that cannot be attributed to translation. The English booklet includes an entire alternate initiation ritual that is lacking in the Yiddish, which, though undated, appears to have been published earlier. In addition to the long initiation ceremony discussed here, both versions include a short initiation ceremony, a ritual for installation of officers, and funeral and memorial Services.
37. See Daily Prayer Book (Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem), trans. and annotated by Philip Birnbaum (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1977), 19-24; and Cohen, Jeffrey M., Understanding the High Holiday Services: A Popular Commentary to the Machzor (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983), 21, 39, 82, 85, 86-87, 167, 171-73.Google Scholar Other Jewish Orders that used the Bible and the stories of the patriarchs as themes, although their rituals are not extant, included the Improved Order B'nai B'rith, the Independent Order of American Israelites, and Order Brith Abraham (the Akedah). Stevens, , Cyclopedia, 206-10.Google Scholar
38. Blanchard, J., ed., Revised Oddfellowship Illustrated (Chicago: Ezra A. Cook, 1881), 177.Google Scholar See also Carnes, , Secret Ritual and Manhood, 121-23.Google Scholar
39. Several of the rituals described the candidate from the start as a “son of Israel” or a “direct descendant of the Patriarch Israel.” See Independent Order Free Sons of Israel, Standard Ritual; Ancient Jewish Order Kesher Shel Barzel, Ritual; B'nai B'rith, I.O.B.B. (1890), 14.
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41. Moore and Myerhoff, “Introduction,” 8.
42. “Kristlekhe tfiles un tseremonies fir a idishen orden,” Tageblat, June 4, 1912. The ritual described in the editorial seems similar in most respects to the version presented here, though there are a few elements that seem to have been deleted from the above editions.
43. Quotes from Weinstein, Bernard, Fertsig yohr in der idisher arbayter bavegung (bletlekh erinerungen) (New York: Farlag Veker, 1924), 214-15.Google Scholar See also Sachs, A. S., Geshikhte fun arbayter ring, 1892-1925 (New York: National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle, 1925), 77.Google Scholar
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