The Independent Orders of B'nai B'rith and True Sisters

Wilhelm (history and Jewish studies, Emory U.) explores the origin and early development of a secular organization of Jewish Americans founded in New York City. B'nai B'rith, Hebrew for Sons of the Covenant, signaled the integration of American Judaism into both the public sphere and the civil self-image of the US, she says, and emphasized civil virtues such as reason, education, character, morality, and humanity as elements of a modern Jewish identity. The Independent Order of True Sisters was formed three years later, and she traces the history of each separately. The original Deutshe Juden in Amerika was published by Steiner Verlag in 2007 and has been translated by Alan Nothnagle and Sarah Wobick. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Cornelia Wilhelm is currently DAAD Professor at the Departments of History and Jewish Studies at Emory University. She also teaches as Professor in the Department of History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. She is author of Movement or Association? Nazi Volkstumspolitik among German Americans 1933–1945, German Jews in the United States: A Guide to Archival Collections, and German Jews in America: Bourgeois Civil Self-Awareness and Jewish Identity in the Orders B’nai B’rith and True Sisters.