Following a pattern typical of many immigrant groups, Jews hailing from a particular town, province or region in the Old World commonly banded together to establish a landsmanshaft, or a hometown association. Members of landsmanshaftn supported each other during the process of Americanization while at the same time supplying a venue for a nostalgic connection with the Old World. In 1894, at the urging of Simon Wilk, expatriates from Bransk, Poland, living in New York founded the Brainsker Brothers Aid Association.

In addition to providing a social outlet, this landsmanshaft offered members interest-free loans, health benefits, an “old age fund” and funerary services. The latter benefit was often considered the most important one by landsmanshaft members and article thirteen of the Brainsker Association’s constitution required all members to attend the funeral of a brother or his wife. Violators were fined two dollars, a high sum in those days. Though shrewd management helped increase the Association’s net worth from just $1.75 at its founding to more than $36,000 by its forty-fifth anniversary, an officer lamented on that occasion that “second generation American born members . . . are not an active part of the membership.” 

Place: New York

Printer: Success Press