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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8. Carnes, , Secret Ritual and Manhood, 14.Google Scholar See also Carnes, “Middle Class Men and the Solace of Fraternal Ritual.” 9. See Carnes, , Secret Ritual and Manhood, 6–11 Google Scholar; Stevens, Albert, Cyclopedia of Fraternities, 2d ed. (1907; repr., Detroit: Gale Research, 1966), 72–75, 235-37, 266, 290-320, 365-69, 378-99, 402-9, 416-19Google Scholar; Ferguson, , Fifty Million Brothers, 58–61, 175, 184-96, 320-21Google Scholar; Muraskin, William, Middle Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Masonry in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Williams, Loretta, Black Freemasonry and Middle Class Realities (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Kuyk, Betty M., “The African Derivation of Black Fraternal Orders in the United States,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 25, no. 4 (1983): 559-92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fahey, David M., The Black Lodge in White America: ‘True Reformer’ Browne and His Economic Strategy (Dayton, Ohio: Wright State University Press, 1994)Google Scholar; Annan, David, “The Ku Klux Klan,” in Secret Societies, ed. MacKenzie, Norman (New York: Collier Books, 1971), 222-37Google Scholar; Gist, “Secret Societies,” 35-39; Weir, Robert E., Beyond Labor's Veil: The Culture of the Knights of Labor (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 19–66 Google Scholar; and Browne, Henry Joseph, The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1949).Google Scholar

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11. See Knobel, “To Be American.”

12. Luing, Sean O., The Catalpa Rescue (Freemantle Mission) (Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland: Anvil Books, 1965), 46–47.Google Scholar

13. Kauffman, , Faith and Fraternalism, 139.Google Scholar

14. Jewish fraternal Orders, with their founding dates, included: B'nai B'rith (1843), Independent Order of True Sisters (1846, a kind of auxiliary to B'nai B'rith), Independent Order Free Sons of Israel (1849), Order Brith Abraham (1859), Ancient Jewish Order Kesher Shel Barzel (1860), Improved Order Free Sons of Israel (founding date unknown), Independent Order Sons of Benjamin (1877), American Star Order (1884), Improved Order B'nai B'rith (1887), Independent Order Brith Abraham (1887), Order Ahavas Israel (1890), Independent Order Free Sons of Judah (1890), Independent Order Sons of Abraham (1892), Independent Order of American Israelites (1894), Independent Western Star Order (1894), Knights of Zion (1898), Knights of Joseph (founding date unknown), Workmen's Circle (1900), Independent Order Brith Sholom (1905), Order Sons of Zion (1907), Jewish National Workers' Alliance (1911), and Order of United Hebrew Brothers (1915). There may have been others, since fraternal Orders came into existence and expired with regularity. Some of the above Orders collapsed during the period under discussion. On Jewish fraternal Orders, see Stevens, Cyclopedia, 206-10; The Jewish Communal Register of New York City, 1917-1918 (New York: Kehillah [Jewish Community] of New York, 1918), 865-983; Ivensky, M., “Hamisdarim hayehudiim be-Amerika,” in The American Hebrew Year Book, ed. Ribalow, Menachem (New York: Histadruth Ivrith of America, 1939)Google Scholar; “Groyse idishe organizatsionen,” Amerikaner, November 24, 1905, 22; Grusd, Edward, B'nai B'rith: The Story of a Covenant (New York: Appleton-Century, 1966)Google Scholar; Moore, Deborah Dash, B'nai B'rith and the Challenge of Ethnic Leadership (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981)Google Scholar; and Shelvin, B., History of Independent Order Brith Abraham (New York: Independent Order Brith Abraham, 1937).Google Scholar On mutual-aid societies, especially hometown associations, see Rontch, ed., Idishe landsmanshaften; Soyer, Daniel, Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997)Google Scholar; Kliger, Hannah, ed., Jewish Hometown Associations and Family Circles in New York: The WPA Yiddish Writers' Group Study (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Weisser, Michael, A Brotherhood of Memory: Jewish Landsmanshaftn in the New World (New York: Basic Books, 1985)Google Scholar; American Jewish History 76 (September 1986), Special issue devoted to landsmanshaftn; and Jewish Communal Register, 732-864.

15. Wolfson, Leo, “Jewish Fraternal Organizations,” Jewish Communal Register, 866 Google Scholar; Abraham, Order Brith, Brief History (Message from Samuel Dorf, Grand Master) (New York, 1907), 3 Google Scholar; Independent Order Brith Abraham, Report of the Grand Master Max Stern to the XXI Annual Convention… (New York, 1908), 39-40; Y. Tsioni, “Di konvenshon fun ind. order bris Avrom,” Amerikaner, May 20, 1910, 4.

16. See Diner, Hasia, “From Covenant to Constitution: The Americanization of Judaism,” in Transforming Faith: The Sacred and Secular in Modern American History, ed. Bradbury, M. L. and Gilbert, James B. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989), 12 Google Scholar; Auerbach, Jerold S., Rabbis and Lawyers: The Journey from Torah to Constitution (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Fuchs, Lawrence, The American Kaleidoscope: Race, Ethnicity, and the Civic Culture (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1990), esp. 1-75Google Scholar; and Cohen, Naomi, Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).Google Scholar

17. Liebman, Charles S., “Ritual, Ceremony, and the Reconstruction of Judaism in the United States,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 6 (1990): 272-83.Google Scholar For another call to examine ritual as a central expression of modern Jewish identities, see Eisen, Arnold M., “Rethinking Jewish Modernity,” Jewish Social Studies 1, n.s. (Fall 1994): 17.Google Scholar

18. See Katz, Jacob, Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723-1939 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970)Google Scholar; Fels, Tony, “Religious Assimilation in Fraternal Organizations: Jews and Freemasonry in Gilded Age San Francisco,” American Jewish History 74 (June 1985): 369–403 Google Scholar; Rosenzweig, “Boston's Masons,” 120, 122; Dumenil, , Freemasonry, 11 Google Scholar; Diner, Hasia, A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820-1880 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 160-63.Google Scholar A very small number of elite Eastern European intellectuals did join the proto-Zionist secret order Bnai Moshe, which included some Masonic-type practices. The organization was short lived, however, and few future immigrants would have come in contact with it, especially with its secret ritual aspects. See Goldstein, Yosef, “‘Benei-Moshe’: sipuro shel misdar hashai,” Zion 57, no. 2 (1992): 175–205 Google Scholar; and Zipperstein, Steven, Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha'am and the Origins of Zionism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 38–40, 42-46.Google Scholar

19. Moore, , B'nai B'rith, 14 Google Scholar; I.O.B.B. [Ritual book] (New York, 1890), 43-44.

20. Grusd, , B'nai B'rith, 45–46, 64.Google Scholar

21. Moore, , B'nai B'rith, 48–49.Google Scholar

22. I.O.B.B., quotes on 11,16-17,19-22.

23. See Grinstein, Hyman, The Rise of the Jewish Community in New York, 1654-1860 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1947), 112 Google Scholar; and Stevens, , Cydopedia, 206-10.Google Scholar

24. Letter, A. Blackman to Ab. Watters, October 29, 1879, Abraham Watters Collection (accession number 69/14), Western Jewish History Center of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California.

25. Rosenberg, Abraham, Di kloukmakher un zeyere yunyons: erinerungen (New York: Cloak Operators Union, Local 1, 1920), 10–11.Google Scholar

26. Hermalin, D. M., Hayehudim vehabonim hahofshim (New York: A. L. Germanski, 5659 [1898-1899]).Google Scholar See also Shneurzohn, , “Fun vanen shtamen di fri-meysons (fray-moyerer),” Amerikaner, May 17, 1907, 8 Google Scholar; and Alexander Harkavy, “Khevres un fareynen mit komishe nemen,” Minikes yom-tov bieten shvues (June 1902).

27. Hyman, Paula E., “Gender and the Immigrant Jewish Experience in the United States,” in Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, ed. Baskin, Judith (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991), 222-42.Google Scholar

28. Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein, “Woman's Contribution in the Independent Order Brith Abraham,” in Shelvin, History of Independent Order Brüh Abraham, 94. Brith Abraham explicitly excluded women from the lodge room as late as 1898, but this ban was lifted by 1900. See Constitution der Vereinigten Staaten Gross-Loge des Independent Order Brith Abraham (New York, 1898), 46; and Revised Constitution of the U.S. Grand Lodge ofthe Independent Order Brith Abraham (New York, 1900).

29. Lane, Richard H., “East Side Beneficiary Societies,” in Yearbook of the University Settlement Society of New York (1899), 27.Google Scholar For membership policies of some Jewish Orders, see Stevens, , Cydopedia, 206-10.Google Scholar

30. Ancient Jewish Order Kesher Shel Barzel, Ritual der A.J.O.K.S.B. (San Francisco, 1864), 11-24, quote on 22.

31. Ibid., 25-38.

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).

33. Schoenfeld, Samuel, Zikhroynes fun a shriftzetser (New York: Yiddish Scientific Institute-Yivo, 1946), 50.Google Scholar

34. In addition to the Kesher Shel Barzel ritual cited above, see Independent Order Free Sons of Israel, Standard Ritual of the I.O.F.S. of I. for Subordinate Lodges (New York, 1871).

35. See Shelvin, History of the Independent Order Brith Abraham, 2427, 34; and Jewish Communal Register, 888-934.

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.

40. On the binding of Isaac in Jewish lore, see Spiegel, Shalom, The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice: The Akedah (Woodstock, Vt: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1993)Google Scholar; G. Vermes, “Redemption and Genesis XXII,” and Noy, Dov, “Ha-akedah k'avtipus shel kidush hashem,” both in The Sacrifice of Isaac: Studies in the Development of a Literary Tradition, ed. Yassif, Eli (English and Hebrew, Jerusalem: Makor Publishing, 1977).Google Scholar To be sure, the dramatic structure of the fraternal initiation rites necessitated such an inversion of the story, and the Odd Fellows' Version, therefore, also gave Isaac an active role. One might think that the candidate's knowledge that Isaac was ultimately spared would have diminished his sense of danger and, hence, the drama of the ceremony As the sources cited above make clear, however, there was also a subcurrent in Jewish lore that held that Abraham did in fact go through with the act and that Isaac was indeed wounded or killed (later to be resurrected by God). The visceral fear aroused by the Akedah story is illustrated by a recollection by the Yiddish poet H. Leivick, who remembered bursting into tears upon learning the Akedah story as a child. When the teacher asked him why he was crying, seeing as how Isaac had been spared, he replied, “ ‘But what would have happened had the angel come one moment too late?’ The teacher tried to console me by saying that an angel cannot be late.” If Leivick could worry about an angel's sense of timing, how much more must a fraternal initiate have wondered about that of a lodge president pretending to be an angel. Leivick's story is quoted in Howe, Irving, World of Our Fathers (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), 435.Google Scholar

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

44. Sachs, , Geshikhte fun arbayter ring, 76–78.Google Scholar By the time the Workmen's Circle reconstituted itself as a multi-branch order in 1900, however, these elements had been eliminated.

45. Konstitutsion di ershte radimnoer khevre bney Mordkhe Menakhem (New York, 1910), 5-10; Verschleiser, E., “Di konstitutsies fun di landsmanshaften,” in Rontch, , Idishe landsmanshaften, 44.Google Scholar

46. Ritual of the Independent Order Sons of Benjamin (New York, 1899).

47. See, for example, minutes, October 11, 1903, March 15, 1908, July 18, 1909, February 5, 1911, Records of Satanover Benevolent Society (record group 818); minutes, March 9, 1910, June 1, 1912, Records of First Mikulinzer Lodge 556, Independent Order Brith Abraham (record group 828), both at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, New York.

48. See Bakst, “Ikh bin an oshmener,” 168-69; Jacob Pfeffer, “Meshoynediger idish in di fereynen un lodzhen,” Amerikaner, November 22, 1907, 18; Jacob Massel, “Di id. ord. in Amerika—di frage fun ‘idish’ bay do konvenshons,” Amerikaner, March 5, 1909. This Germanic Yiddish came to be known as “Daytshmerish.” See Kobrin, Leon, Fun daytshermerish tsu yidish in Amerike (New York: YCUF, 1944)Google Scholar; Hutten, Christopher, “Normativism and the Notion of Authenticity in Yiddish Linguistics,” in The Field of Yiddish: Studies in Language, Folklore, and Literature, ed. Goldberg, David (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1993), 14–28 Google Scholar; and Harshav, Benjamin, The Meaning of Yiddish (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 61–73.Google Scholar

49. Berger, M., “History of the Society,” in First Yezierzaner Sick Benevolent Association, Fortieth Anniversary Banquet (New York, 1938), n.p.Google Scholar

50. Carnes, , Secret Ritual and Manhood, 151-59.Google Scholar See also Dumenil, , Freemasonry and American Culture, 115-217Google Scholar; and Putney, Clifford, “Service over Secrecy: How Lodge-Style Fraternalism Yielded Popularity to Men's Service Clubs,” Journal of Popular Culture 27, no. 1 (Summer 1993): 179-90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar