FREEMASONS in the U.S.
Jewish names appear among
the founders of Freemasonry in colonial America, and in fact it is probable that
Jews were the first to introduce the movement into the country. Tradition connects
Mordecai Campanall, of Newport, Rhode Island, with the supposed establishment of
a lodge there in 1658. In Georgia four Jews appear to have been among the founders
of the first lodge, organized in Savannah in 1734. Moses Michael Hays, identified
with the introduction of the Scottish Rite into the United States, was appointed
deputy inspector general of Masonry for North America in about 1768. In 1769 Hays
organized the King David’s Lodge in New York, moving it to Newport in 1780. He was
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts from 1788 to 1792. Moses *Seixas
was prominent among those who established the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, and was
Grand Master from 1802 to 1809. A contemporary of Hays, Solomon *Bush, was deputy
inspector general of Masonry for Pennsylvania, and in 1781 Jews were influential
in the Sublime Lodge of Perfection in Philadelphia which played an important part
in the early history of Freemasonry in America. Other early leaders of the movement
included: Isaac da *Costa (d. 1783), whose name is found among the members of King
Solomon’s Lodge, Charleston, in 1753; Abraham Forst, of Philadelphia, deputy inspector
general for Virginia in 1781; and Joseph Myers, who held the same office, first
for Maryland, and later for South Carolina. In 1793 the cornerstone ceremony for
the new synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina, was conducted according to the
rites of Freemasonry.
The later history of Freemasonry
in the United States shows a number of prominent Jewish names, but nothing corresponding
to their influence in the earlier period. In 1843 the Grand Lodge in New York addressed
a letter to the Mutterloge in Berlin complaining against the refusal of German
lodges to accept registered Masons of the American Lodge because they were Jewish.
Nonsectarianism in matters of religion has always characterized American Freemasonry,
and regulations excluding Jews have not been part of their constitutions, though
whether admissions policies have ever been restrictive would be difficult to establish.
The apparatus of secrecy, ritual, and regalia which was a feature of *B’nai B’rith
in its early years no doubt reflected the influence of Masonic practice as well
as a desire to offer a substitute within the Jewish community.
[Sefton D. Temkin]
Bibliography:
ENCYCLOPAEDIA
JUDAICA, Second Edition 2007, page 229
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