The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-15
THE JEWISH HEVRA.
Fraternities That Flourish in the
London East End GhettOs.

]
ISOLATION, is an institution peculiar to
the ghetto and the lower class of
! Ghetto residents. 1t exists wherever
| the alien Jewish colonists are found in
| this country. Nc matter whence they
may come, no matter where they may
settle, the Hevra is always the outward
and obvious sign of their presence. The
first thing, in fact, these immigrants do,
when they locate themselves anywhere
/ in sufficient numbers. is to form such
an organiza ton or confraternity of
their own. The term "Hevra" is deriv-
/ ed from the Hebrew, and pronounced
with a strongly cultural initial conso-
nant. and is used to denote both the
! brotherhood and the place where the
] members meet Primarily established
for the purposes of prayer and the
study of the rabbinical books, the Hev-
ra is a good deal more to the foreign
conner than a mere place of worship.
1t is at once his club and his house
.of-ca1l, his news room and afternoon
lounge, his library and evening resort,
| and, not infrequently, his day refuge,
| night shelter. and soup kitchen com
| bined. Here he can meet his compa-
| triots, and exchange gossip and conf
dences with them. hear a passage of
the Mishnah eXpounded, or discuss the
| latest items in the Yiddish papers. He
can repeat the "Kaddish" for the dead,
| which helps them out of purgatory, or
deride some rival Hevra whose rabbi
has longer earcurls, a bigger beard, and
| consequently, a more orthodox reputa-
| ton than his own.
Naturally enough, these Ghetto fra
ternities abound and flourish amid the
congenial alien surroundings of Jew
| ish East London. There are few
streets in the foreign quarter there
where the familiar board over door
| way, passage, or entry may not be
seen marking the meeting place of
| some one or other of these HeVraS.
| Practically nearly every immigrant
Jew in the East End belongs to an
| organization of this sort-every mar
red Jew, l should say, for the I'M
| married man, contem ptuouSly referred
to as a 'bokher," has no status in
| JeWry, and is accounted as something
ranges from thirty to forty to over a
| hundred in some cases, and the locale
| of the Hevra may be anything from
| a dirty loft over a stable or a back
| parlor looking upon a dust bin, to a
| fair-sized hall and assembly room.
| Clannishness is strong among the alien
settlers, and, as a rule, each Hevra
same town or locality in Eastern Eu-
| rope. Each. moreover, has its own
rebbe, as the East Ender designates
a rabbi, who is always imported from
abroad for the alien Jew has no faith
| in the orthodoxy of the English-speak-
ing Hebrew.
There is also a "shammas" acting as
beadle, doorkeeper, collector, cook, and
| utility man in emergencies; and a
gable" sort of manager and treas
urer, who is the lay overseer. The
shammas is always some poor foreign
1 er past work, or incapable of doing
anything for his living, who is glad
to undertake the duties in return for
| shelter and an occasional sixpence.
| There is the liveliest rivalry between
these Hevras. especially when the
members chance to come from neigh
boring towns or localities in their ma
tive land, and the respective rebbes
feel bound in such cases to vindicate
their orthodoxy and show their learn
| ing by course of polemicS with their
adversaries. The hotter the contro-
versy and the stronger the personali-
TEEN in which thS fabbis are are held. and
the greater the delight Of their sew
eral adherents. Il recollect a dispute
| of the kind between the competing
rebbes of two fraternities in Back
church Lane, which terminated in one
calling the otherAin a printed leafet
distributed-a "Shabsel Tzvinick.'
This means a follower of Sabbathal
Tzevi, the impostor Messiah of Salon
ika! 1t is about the grossest insult
one Jew can offer another, and it was
| considered such an exquisite hit that
1t led to a free fight between the mem
bers of the two Hevras in the open
street, and subsequent increase in
their membership by nearly so per
cent The personal polemic between
the principals of the Hevras is always
as lively as the rivalry between their
! respective followers. And as each, as
rule, knows his opponents antece-
| dents before coming to this country,
| the personalities are generally ex-
tremely effective and telling. If there
be-to use a locution of Jewry-a fer
deganov," signifying ''horse thief, "
in the family of one of the two rebbes,
| the other is certain to learn and make
| good use of the fact
The internal economy. if 1 may so
| term it, of the East End Hevre throws
u good deal of light upon the character
| of the aliens settled here. The rebbe
and shammas, too, are both of them
personages worthy of a closer acQuaint-
| ance. Here, in one of the narrow side
streets within a stones throw of the
thoroughfare known as Brick Lane, is
typical fraternity of the kind 1 oc-
casionaly visit. The entry is up a
dirty Handicapped passage, adjoining
a shop devoted apparently to the sale
of Yiddish publications. l say appar-
emily, because the flyblown productions
are stuck in the window as for sale
though l have never seen a customer
enter. and the door is always locked
Over the front entry is a board, as
usual in such cases. setting forth in
Yiddish that this is the 'Khevrah Benz
Shass"-that is, The Brotherhood OF
the Sons of .Shass - 1t adds. "Do da-
:. vent me Shakharis und Maarev" Gin
ing and evening'). couple of mid
unkempt, out at elbows and down al
heel, are lolling against the entry-way
staring at vacancy and seemingly
thinking of nothing, while a frowsy-
headed young foreign Jewess is sitting
upon the stone step in front, nursing
a sickly looking child.
From the passage comes a stencil
compounded of the odoFs of dried fish
picked behring's, frying liver stale
meat. staler vegetables, and decom-
posing cabbage water. A little way VI
the entry is a door on the right which
and habitation of the Hevra. The
wooden stairs have evidently not beer
scrubbed within the memory of the old.
est resident. The mud of months is
half an inch thick in the tread, and
has hardened and caked until it might
defy a cold chisel to remove 1t. The
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