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CHAPTER TWO: The Order at Home and Abroad
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CHAPTER TWO The Order at Home and Abroad THE UNITED STATES celebrated its Centennial in 1876 amid general exultation and praise for the spirit of progress infusing the country. The widespread optimism voiced at numerous events throughout the nation, but particularly at the special Philadelphia Exposition, glossed over the difficult struggles of the past decade. Indeed, the American experiment in liberty and democracy still served as a beacon for a troubled world. In recognition of the Centennial, for example, France commissioned a gigantic sculpture designed by Frederic Bartholdi of "Liberty Enlightening the World." B'nai B'rith, too, chose to celebrate the American spirit with a sculpture of its own. The Order commissioned Moses Ezekiel to create a statue in honor of "Religious Liberty," symbol of America's gift to them that they most valued. But, like New Yorker's efforts to purchase a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, B'nai B'rith's fund-raising to support Ezekiel's creation lagged. The Order failed to have its statue of a massive woman ready for the Philadelphia Exposition, unveiling it several months later on Thanksgiving Day. Efforts to pay for the sculpture continued for another four years. The statue's subject disguised the fact that B'nai B'rith could not yet take for granted the precious asset of religious liberty. During the 1870's a pattern of social exclusion took the place of the criticism of Jewish loyalty expressed during the Civil War. This exclusivity contrasted with the easy acceptance of wealthy Jews during early decades of the nineteenth century. The refusal to admit the banker, Joseph Seligman, to the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga in 1877 > Home | TOC | Index The Statue of Religious Liberty, sculpted by Moses Ezekial, was given by B'nai B'rith to the United States in 1876 in honor of its centennial. Located in Philadelphia ~s Fairmount Park, the sculpture was rededicated 100 years later at the bicentennial. > Home | TOC | Index [44.199.212.254] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:47 GMT) The Order at Home and Abroad I 37 symbolized the new trend and sparked an outburst of indignation in which many newspapers published editorials attacking the hotel. But by the 1880's Richard Gottheil recalled in his biography of his father, Gustav Gottheil, rabbi of New York's Temple Emanu-El, that "private schools began to be closed to Jewish children. . . . Advertisements of summer hotels, refusing admittance to Jewish guests, commenced to appear in the newspapers."l Later, in 1893, even the Union League Club of New York, which had had Jews among its founding members, refused to admit their sons. These social trends complemented a decline in contacts between established Jews and German immigrants. Occupational differences separated the two. The latter tended to be farmers and artisans while the former were merchants and storekeepers. Additionally, the revival of anti-Semitism in Germany affected the more recent German immigrants to the United States. Ironically, even the Jews' groWing affluence did not secure their ·acceptance in American society. "Alone among European immigrant groups," asserts the historian John Higham, the Jews "lost in reputation as they gained in social and economic status.... The Jews during this period met a distrust that spread along with their increasing assimilation."2 Both the spiraling prosperity of German Jews and their increasing sense of exclusion strongly influenced B'nai B'rith's development in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Affluence erased many of the sharp distinctions among competitive German-Jewish immigrants and an increasing homogeneity characterized American Jews, making it easier to overcome the personal antagonisms, sectional rivalries, and lingering doctrinal differences. Since Jews in all sections of the country experienced upward mobility, even social distinctions between East and West disappeared. Simultaneously Jews faced new problems growing out of the eagerness of gentiles to secure a place in American society by excluding Jews. Moreover, the spread of anti-Semitism throughout the world during the 1870's and 1880's affected the nature of B'nai B'rith's fraternity. From an organization designed to succor and sustain immigrants battered by a strange world, B'nai B'rith developed into a social shelter for acculturated Jews baffled by their exclusion from gentile society. In its new role B'nai B'rith would attract the attention of European Jews, as the evolving character of the Order led to the establishment of its first districts abroad. At the same time B'nai > Home | TOC | Index B'nai...