A B’nai B’rith Token of Generosity
December 24, 2024
This small metal item in the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library features a menorah with the numbers “1927.” It is an identification tag produced by the International Order of B’nai B’rith, one of the largest Jewish organizations in the world. This tag was a symbol of the owner’s charitable donations through the organization.
B’nai B’rith, which means “Children of the Covenant” in Hebrew, was established in New York, New York, in 1843 by a group of German Jewish immigrants. Some of its goals as a fraternal organization were “alleviating the wants of the poor and needy,” “visiting and attending the sick," and "providing for, protecting, and assisting the widow and the orphan,” as described in its constitution. The group evolved into a general charitable and service organization in the early 1900s. B’nai B’rith is the oldest national Jewish organization in the United States.
Its Wider Scope Program, begun in 1927 as this tag illustrates, helped fund major initiatives in the United States and abroad. Two of these were the now-independent Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International, a program for Jewish university students. Expanding charitable and human rights work internationally continued to be a goal of B’nai B’rith. Earning non-governmental organization (NGO) status in 1947, it was the first Jewish organization to have regular, full representation at the United Nations.
The reverse of this tag identifies the owner as subscriber number 3072 to the Wider Scope program that supported B’nai Brith’s projects. This subscriber was John A. Lynn (1861-1945), from North Jackson, Ohio. Lynn’s granddaughter gave this token, and other items related to Lynn’s involvement in Masonic and fraternal organizations to the museum in 1999.
Lynn had a full life in Ohio—marrying his wife Jessie Patchin in 1896, parenting two children, and working as an insurance agent. In addition to his membership in B’nai B’rith, he was also a Freemason, Shriner, and Knight Templar, as shown in this image, from the same gift to the museum. This small tag is a tangible sign of Lynn’s generosity.
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