En: The Jewish perspective

The Jewish perspective

A collection of articles from various sources (specified below).

Jews in English Freemasonry

Written by Prof. Aubrey Newman

Source: http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Newman_papers/Jews_in_English_Freemasonry.htm

Quote / excerpt:

The first question that the historian has always to consider is that of evidence; what evidence do we have of Jewish Freemasons? What names are available to us and how? There are broadly speaking three major sources of information.

• During the eighteenth century it was often the custom or even a requirement that individual lodges submitted lists of members to Grand Lodge, and these lists were often included in the Minutes of the Proceedings of Grand Lodge.
• Our second source comes from the records and histories of individual Lodges.
• A third source is the Press, both Masonic and non-Masonic.

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Jews and Freemasons — a not-so-secret brotherhood

Written by Dan Pine

Source: http://www.jweekly.com/2003/09/10/jews-and-freemasons-a-not-so-secret-brotherhood/

Quote / excerpt:

"When I was 23, I met a Jewish man I admired greatly," he recalls. "He was the most generous human being I ever met, but he never identified himself as a Mason. I asked him about the lapel pin he wore, and when he said he was a Freemason, I investigated: I went to the lodge, met the people. I had strived to grow as human being and was so impressed by the Masons, I finally joined."

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Freemasons (according to the Jewish Virtual Library)

Written by Encyclopaedia Hebraica

Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/freemasons

Quote / excerpt:

In Germany objection to Jewish membership persisted, remaining a matter of controversy for generations. Until the 1780s only a few German Jews were admitted to Masonry. About this time Jewish applications for admission to the Masonic lodges became frequent. Though there were some attempts to open the lodges to Jews, no German Freemason of any standing at that time advocated Jewish admittance. Some German Jews became Freemasons when traveling abroad in England, Holland, and, particularly, in post-revolutionary France. In Germany itself French or French-initiated lodges were established during the Napoleonic occupation. A Jewish lodge, L'Aurore Naissante, was founded in Frankfurt, authorized in 1808 by the Grand Orient in Paris. These ventures, however, hardened the resistance of the indigenous lodges in Frankfurt and in other German towns, and some Masonic fraternities introduced amended constitutions specifically excluding Jews.

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Freemasons (according to the Jewish Encyclopdia)

Written by Cyrus Adler, Joseph Jacobs

Source: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6335-freemasonry

Quote / excerpt:

The following list contains the chief technical terms of freemasonry which are connected with Jewish ideas and expressions:

• Abaddon.
• Abda (I Kings iv. 6).
• Abif.
• Adonal (see God, Names of).
• Adin Hiram (see Adoniram).
• Ahiab (I Kings iv. 3).
• "Ahiman Rezon" (title given to the book of constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York, supposed to be Hebrew for "the Law of the Selected Brethren").
• Aholiab.
• Bagulkal (significant word in the higher degrees, supposed to be Hebrew).
• Bel (used erroneously to represent the Tetragramination).
• Bendekar (I Kings iv. 9).
• Bereith.
• Breastplate.
• Cedars of Lebanon.
• Cherublm.
• Chesed.
• Cohen.
• Dedication of the Temple.
• Emeth.
• Enoch.
• Ephod.
• Ephraimites.
• Ezel (I sam. xx. 19).
• Gabaon (see Gibeon and Gibeonites).
• Gedaliah.
• Giblim (I Kings v. 18).
• Haggai.
• High Priest.
• Hiram Abif (architect of Solomon's Temple).
• Hiram, King of Tyre.
• Holy of Holies.
• Horns for the Altar.
• I Am What I Am.
• Immanuel.

• Jachin. • Jacob's Ladder. • Jah. • Jehoshaphat (place where the lodge is built). • Jehovah. • Kabbala. • Kadosh. • Kamea ("amulet"). • Lebanon. • Levites. • Maacha (I Kings ii. 39). • Manna, Pot of. • Melchizedek. • Melech. • Miter. • Mizraim, Rite of. • Naamah. • Peleg (supposed to be the architect of the Tower of Babel; twentleth degree of the Scottish Rite). • Pentalpha (see Solomon's Seal). • Rabbanaim. • Rabboni. • Sabbaoth. • Sanhedrin. • Seal of Solomon. • Sephiroth. • Shaddai. • Shamir. • Shekel. • Shekinah. • Shem Hamphoresch. • Shiboleth. • Shield of David. • Signet of Zerubbabel. • Tabernacle. • Temple. • Tetragrammaton. • Tomb of Adoniram. • Tubal Cain. • Twelve-Lettered Name. • Two-Lettered Name. • Zabud (I Kings iv. 5). • Zadok. • Zedekiah. • Zeredatha. • Zerubbabel. The majority of the above names and terms, derived from Mackey's "Lexicon of Freemasonry," are mostly used in the higher degrees of the Scottish Rite, sometimes erroneously, as can be seen by referring to the separate items in this Encyclopedia.

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