1949 25 YEARS of AZA Kansas City, Mo., Lincoln, Nebr., Des Moines, Ia., Grand Rapids, Mich., Coun- cil Bluffs, Ia., Minneapolis, Minn., and Gary, Ind. Thirteen chapters were in existence when the Supreme Lodge of B'nai B'rith Youth Movement Has Aided 100,000 B'nai B'rith held its convention in 1925. Jewish Youngsters During That Time After hearing a report by Henry Mon- sky, who was even then a power in B'nai B'rith, and Sidney G. Kusworm, now the Treasurer of the Supreme By Dr. Max F. Baer Lodge, the delegates, as their last act before adjournment, adopted the AZA as the official junior order of B'nai This is the first of two articles on B'rith. the 25th anniversary of AZA by the Philip M. Klutznick was chosen as the Acting National Director of BBYO, who is also National Director of the first executive for national AZA head- B.B. Vocational Service Bureau. The quarters. By selecting this gifted young second article will appear next month. man, who is now a member of the Execu- Dr. Baer was Assistant National Di- tive Committee of the Supreme Lodge, rector of AZA for several years dur- ing the 1930s, and has written an the Supreme Advisory Council assured authoritative history of the organiza- the infant organization of a solid growth. tion, of which these two articles are a In 1933 Klutznick was succeeded by condensation.-Editor. Julius Bisno, who guided the organiza- tion during its period of greatest growth -for 12 years. The success of the AZA led B'nai B'rith in 1944 to organize the THERE would be a B'nai B'rith youth B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, includ- movement today even if Sam Beber ing also the B'nai B'rith Girls, B'nai had never existed. For it is almost as B'rith Young Men, and B'nai B'rith natural for a service organization of Young Women. Dr. Abram L. Sachar, adults to have a junior order as it is for National Director of the B'nai B'rith parents to have children. Indeed, junior Sam Beber, of Omaha, who founded AZA B'nai B'rith auxiliaries were functioning Hillel Foundations and now President twenty-five years ago, and has seen it grow in one form or another some seventy into the basis for B'nai B'rith's present far- of Brandeis University, became over-all years ago. District Grand Lodge No. 4 flung Youth Organization, which has 1,000 National Director. He was succeeded in was the first to renew the idea in modern chapters throughout the world for Jewish 1947 by Rabbi Amram Prero. Towards times, when it organized the Covenant- boys and girls. the close of 1948 eers as its junior order in 1921. District position of Acting National Director of Grand Lodge No. 2 took the same step the BBYO, under the chairmanship of in 1922. know how to express them in a Jewish Jacob J. Lieberman of Los Angeles. However, Sam Beber's dynamic way." leadership brought the idea of a perma- Omaha, Nebraska, Beber's home town, nent national B'nai B'rith youth move- was the cradle of the movement. Early in Serves In War And Peace ment to fruition much earlier than would 1923 a group of 15 boys around the age A detailed history of the AZA will have been the case in the ordinary course of 16 organized themselves into a group of events. Without him it might have which they decided to call "Aleph Zadik appear in the December, 1949 issue of The Shofar, official organ of the BBYO, developed less rapidly and along less con- Aleph." There was no particular signifi- structive lines. As the founder of AZA cance to the name at that time, except which was first published in 1925. This and president of its Supreme Advisory that the boys felt that since they were a brief article can only make passing men- Council for 17 years, he guided the or- Jewish fraternity they should adopt He- tion of the great spirit of fraternity and brew letters instead of borrowing from of service to others that has always char- ganization with a clear head, a warm Jewish heart, and a firm hand. the alphabet of the Greeks. A few years acterized the AZA. Particularly out- That was the jazz age of America. A later, when Aleph Zadik Aleph became standing was the AZA record of service moral retrogression, growing out of the junior order of B'nai B'rith, the during World War II. More than 10,000 World War I, characterized American name was interpreted to represent the AZA members and alumni served in the life. In this setting, Jewish youth de- motto of the sponsoring organization. Thus the first Aleph came to stand for armed forces of the U.S. and Canada. veloped few attachments to Jewish tradi- tions and values. The adoption of a new Ahovah, brotherly love; the Zadik, Some 250 were reported as having made immigration law in 1924 meant that Tzadokoh, benevolence; and the second the supreme sacrifice; a greater number American Jewish life would no longer Aleph, Achdus, harmony. were decorated for bravery. AZA chap- be receiving spiritual transfusions from When Nathan Mnookin, the first advis- ters sold almost 20 million dollars' worth the Jewish communities of eastern Eu- or to this group, moved to Kansas City, of War Bonds, and made many other rope. The time was ripe for the organiza- Sam Beber was chosen as advisor, and significant contributions toward victory tion of a Jewish youth movement in he made the group the nucleus for a na- on the home front. tional movement. Beber called an organ- America. izational meeting for May 3, 1924. Also In peace, as in war, more than 550 Jewish Motivation Needed present at this historic gathering were AZA chapters have effectively carried Sam Beber, then 22, serious-minded, Dr. Sol B. Arenson, Professor Nathan out their "five-fold and full" program intellectually keen, idealistic and practi- Bernstein, Harry H. Lapidus, and of educational, religious, community cal at the same time, was a logical Goodman. The group organized a Su- service, athletic, and social activities. person to establish such a movement. preme Advisory Council, granted a char- The B'nai B'rith youth movement as a "We boys felt that while there were clubs ter to the Omaha fraternity, and de- whole has, over the last quarter century, enough and fraternities enough in this termined that several additional chapters helped almost 100,000 young Jewish peo- country, they were not Jewish enough," be organized at once. young Beber explained. "Here we were The idea of a youth organization with ple realize personal satisfactions and de- growing up, receiving a fairly good gen- a distinctive Jewish purpose, but also velop into upright and useful members eral education, but a very scanty Jewish some of the outer trappings and trim- of the Jewish community and of the training. Our instincts were Jewish, but mings of a fraternity, spread rapidly. larger community of which they have we had no outlet for them and did not New chapters were quickly formed in been part. 80 THE NATIONAL JEWISH MONTHLY