The Hebrew Order of David: from Whitechapel to Hendon via South Africa

In 1896 the Hebrew Order of Druids was registered as a friendly society at 21 Leman Street, Whitechapel, in the East End of London.1 A century later, in 1995, Lodge London No. 1, the first British lodge of the Hebrew Order of David, a South African Jewish fraternal society, was inaugurated in the Community Centre of Hendon United Synagogue in northwest London. This paper will examine the link between the two organizations.

Friendly societies generally and Jewish ones in particular have been rela? tively neglected in social history studies in this country.2 As the work of these self-help organizations spans some three centuries, and they at various times had more members than the trades unions and possessed total funds equalling or exceeding those of some early banks, the neglect is difficult to justify. Their records are important sources of social and economic information con? cerning their members, while the community’s

Written by

Raymond Kalman

Published in

Volume 37

2001

Other articles within the volume

• Confounding the enemy: Jewish RAF Special Operators in radio counter measures with 101 Squadron, September 1943—May 1945
• Asher Asher: Victorian physician, medical reformer and communal servant
• The Hebrew Order of David: from Whitechapel to Hendon via South Africa
• Bevis Marks synagogue and the City churches
• Antonio Rodrigues Robles, c. 1620-1688
• Testimony from the margin: the Gloucester Jewry and its neighbours, c. 1159-1290
• The discovery of two medieval mikva’ot in London and a reinterpretation of the Bristol ‘mikveh’
• The end of Jewish history?
• Preface