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RUMANIAN FOUN DER OF THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED

SCOTTISH RITE SUPREME COUNCIL OF ISRAEL

 

Leon Zeldis

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          Only with the arrival in 1950 of Ill. Bro. Isaac Grassiani, were conditions ripe for the creation of a Supreme Council in Israel that received the blessings of the international Masonic community.

Since the creation of our Supreme Council is bound with the personality of Ill. Isaac Grassiani, let me provide some background information on this extraordinary Mason.

          Grassiani was born on March 7, 1886, in Silistra, Bulgaria. His early years were spent wandering through Eastern Europe with his family, as his father went in search of a livelihood. They traveled from Bulgaria to Rumania, then Bavaria and Austria. His studies, by force sporadic, constrained him to acquire several languages. [i]

          In 1904 he finished a 3-year course at the High School of Commerce in Vienna, and from there he returned to Bulgaria to work as Sales Manager of a company dealing in grain. At that time he began his activities in the Zionist Youth Organization and as Secretary of that body he met Dr. Theodor Herzl when he visited Bulgaria, and he was one of those who accompanied the Zionist leader in his journey to Sofia.

          In 1918 Grassiani married and moved to Bucharest, Rumania, where he opened a travel bureau and acted as the agent of the "Nord Deutscher Lloyd" for Eastern Europe. He became a Rumanian citizen.

          Isaac Grassiani saw Masonic light on 22 March 1922 in the Star of Danube Lodge, Bucharest. Within two years he was elected Master of the lodge and from 1924 to 1925 he served as Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Rumania.

          In those years, Freemasonry flourished in Rumania and its influence extended to the Royal Family. In 1925 the Freemasons consecrated a chamber in the Royal Palace as a Masonic Lodge, and King Carol II was initiated by seven Grand Lodge officers, one of whom was Grassiani. King Carol became an active Mason who participated in lodge meetings and attended Masonic functions. This fact helped the Masons to spread their influence in the highest circles of Rumanian society. Several members of the Royal Family, as well as many government officials, joined Freemasonry.

In 1938 Isaac Grassiani joined the Scottish Rite and quickly advanced through the degrees. In 1946 he was coronated in the 33rd Degree and immediately became an Active Member of the Supreme Council for Rumania.

          During the Nazi occupation of Rumania (1940-44), Freemasonry was outlawed. Nevertheless, Grassiani and his brethren continued initiating new members, at great personal risk. Several of those initiated later went to Israel and became members of the Rumanian-speaking Hashahar Lodge.

In 1944, when a communist-led government took power in Rumania, Freemasonry again became legal. Ana Pauker, Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, felt great sympathy for the Freemasons, who had suffered so greatly at the hands of the Nazis. She assisted them in reorganizing and the Craft again enjoyed a period of growth.

          However, this honeymoon with the government was short lived. In 1948, Grassiani was called urgently to see Pauker, who disclosed to him that the Government, under the pressure of the Communists, had resolved to liquidate Freemasonry. On receipt of this timely warning, the Freemasons quickly removed all their important documents out of the country and were able to disperse.

          In the year 1950, Grassiani and his wife came to settle in Israel, where immigration was again possible after the end of the British Mandate and the country’s independence in 1948.

Grassiani arrived in Tel Aviv with only one suitcase of personal effects as his entire fortune.

In Israel, banking on his knowledge of tourism, he joined the Eastern Carmel Travel Office, in which he was active until his last day.

          When Grassiani arrived in Israel, in 1950, only a handful of the local brothers knew of his past Masonic activities. He was also handicapped by his ignorance of the Hebrew language.

Within a year, however, he moved to Tel Aviv and gathered round him a number of Rumanian brethren with a view to setting up a lodge working in their mother language. Thus Hashahar Lodge was established in 1951, with Grassiani as the first Worshipful Master. When the lodge joined the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel (1953) it received number 32. Grassiani was later elected Grand Chaplain in Grand Lodge, and when he reached his 80th birthday in 1966, as a mark of appreciation, Grand Lodge conferred on him Honorary Membership and appointed him Grand Chaplain ad-Vitam.

Grassiani, who had invested much work in the Supreme Council of Rumania, felt the need to establish a similar body in Israel. He believed that Israel, being the legendary source of Freemasonry, must have a body such as the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree. He started canvassing brethren who had received Scottish Rite degrees abroad, inviting them to join his project. At first, he met with opposition from Grand Lodge officers, who were afraid that a Supreme Council would erode their status.

          Also, we must remember the fact that the Scottish Rite in the British Isles – where it is known as the Ancient and Accepted Rite - is restricted to Christians only. The local brethren, raised within the world view of English and Scottish Freemasonry, and ignorant for the most part of the true nature of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, were naturally reluctant to approve the establishment of such a body in the Jewish State.

          The small number of Masons in the country, and the scarcity of funds to maintain the Scottish Rite bodies also weighed against his project; Grassiani, however, was not one to be deterred and with the help of other brethren who had received the 33rd Degree in Europe, he succeeded in founding in Israel the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in 1966.

The first step he took was an application submitted to the Conference of European Sovereign Commanders held in The Hague in 1963. This is an assembly that meets every year in a different country, and congregates all recognized Supreme Councils of Europe, to discuss matters of common interest, among them, of course, the issue of creating and/or recognizing new Supreme Councils.

The delegates assembled in The Hague decided that the first step towards the creation of a Supreme Council in Israel should be the foundation of a Lodge of Perfection operating under the auspices of one of the European Supreme Councils. Turkey, because of its proximity, was chosen for this task. However, after a while it became apparent that the Turkish brethren were unable to fulfill their mission because of local political problems. Consequently, the following year, when meeting in Brussels, the Conference, taking into account the fact that several Illustrious brethren living in Israel had received their 33rd Degree in Germany, appointed the Supreme Council of that country to handle the matter.

          As soon as Grassiani learned of that decision, he sent an invitation to the Sovereign Grand Commander of Germany, Ill. Dr. Erich Schalscha, to come to Israel. The invitation was accepted at once, and Dr. Schalscha arrived on December 23 of 1964. Our Ill. Brother Roger Nicolet worked at that time in El-Al, attending the needs of VIP clients. This enabled him to give the visiting Masonic dignitary the royal treatment.

          After several meetings with Grassiani and other local Scottish Rite masons, Schalscha was entertained at a luncheon by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel, Dr. Joseph Michael Lamm. Following which Schalscha, assisted by Grassiani and Dr. Jona Ron – another Illustrious brother of German origin – conferred the 32nd Degree on the Grand Master and on the Senior Warden, Abraham Fellman.

          On January 3, 1965, Dr. Schalscha consecrated the first two Scottish Rite bodies in Israel: the Lodges of Perfection Dan and Tel-Aviv, both in Tel Aviv, the first working in Hebrew and the second, in German. He then conferred the 4th Degree on 55 candidates. On that same afternoon he affiliated and obligated 18 brothers from other jurisdictions and conferred on them the 18th Degree, Knight Rose-Croix, and finally, he appointed Ill. Bro. Isaac Grassiani as Grand Inspector General for Israel, and Dr. Jona Ron to serve as Secretary General for the Scottish Rite in Israel.

          Dr. Schalscha left Israel on January 6, and then on May he informed the 20th Conference of European Supreme Councils, assembled in Lausanne, of all the steps he had taken.

          In August of that year, three new Lodges of Perfection were established: Hebrew-speaking "Galil" and German-speaking "Haifa", in the city of that name, and French-speaking "Veritas" in Tel Aviv. 22 candidates received the 4th Degree.

          A sixth Lodge of Perfection was created in December, this time in Jerusalem, with the Holy City's name. Ten candidates were raised to the 4th Degree. By the end of the month, the Supreme Council for Germany decided the accelerate matters. It designated the Lieutenant Grand Commander, Ill. Bro. Dr. Emil Selter, to proceed to Israel and constitute a Council of Kadosh, 30th Degree.

          Dr. Selter visited Israel between January 8 and 19 of 1966. On January 10, five local Illustrious Brethren accompanied Dr. Selter and held a ceremony in the Jerusalem Masonic Temple, conferring in ample form the 33rd Degree on four new members: Jospeh Michael Lamm (Immediate Past Grand Master), Abraham Fellman (Grand Senior Warden, Max Silverstone (Past Grand Master) and Ionel Branisteanu.

          The next day Dr. Selter consecrated Rose-Croix Chapter Shalom, appointing Abraham Fellman as first Most Wise Master. And on January 12, Bro. Selter consecrated Areopag Zohar, and the 30th Degree was conferred on 26 Knights Rose-Croix.

          Four moths later, on May 20, Isaac Grassiani became seriously ill. He was taken to Hadassa Hospital in Tel Aviv and his condition deteriorated to the point that the attending physicians feared for his life. Roger Nicolet then sent an urgent message to Dr. Schalscha, begging him to come and visit Grassiani on his deathbed.

          Schalscha held Grassiani in special affection. Once in the course of his travels in Israel, Grassiani stopped the car, and conducted Schalscha to a forest, where he brought him two tree saplings to be planted in the soil of the Holy Land, one in the memory of his late wife, and another for himself. This event strongly impressed the German visitor.

          Despite his many engagements as Sovereign Grand Commander, Schalscha came at once. On June 15 he arrived, and the next morning went to visit Grassiani, who recognized him but was unable to speak. At 11 a.m. that same morning, Dr. Schalscha, standing at the side of Grassiani's bed, solemnly proclaimed him as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the State of Israel.

          We cannot know in what measure this poignant moment contributed to the following developments, but the fact is that Grassiani's condition began to improve and on June 18, shortly before Schalscha's return to Germany, they could manage a conversation.

          On October 12 of that year, by virtue of a Charter issued by the Supreme Council for Germany, the Consistory "Sanhedrin" was consecrated in Tel Aviv, and on November 2, six additional members were coroneted into the 33rd Degree, thus brining the number of Illustrious Brethren in Israel to fifteen.

          That same evening, the 15 Illustrious brethren assembled at Freemasons Hall in Tel Aviv and constituted themselves into the Supreme Council for the State of Israel, and requested the Supreme Council of Germany to consecrate regularly the new body.

          The Ceremony of Consecration and Constitution of the Supreme Council took place on November 17, 1966, in Tel Aviv, in the presence of 23 Illustrious Brethren of the 33rd Degree and over 250 brethren with lower degrees. The ceremony was conducted by Ill. Bro. Erich Schalscha, assisted by Lazzaro Emilio Franco, of the Supreme Council of Turkey, Willem Hofman, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Netherlands, Rudolf Bohlman, Lieutenant Grand Commander of the Supreme Council for Germany, Otto Machman, Active Member of the Supreme Council for Switzerland, Alfred Muss and Adolf Reul, Active Members of the Supreme Council for Germany, Morizio Milgrom from Brasil, and the 15 Active Members from Israel.

          The Charter declaring the Supreme Council for the State of Israel duly constituted and established in accordance with ancient custom and in conformity with the Grand Constitutions of 1786 was now read out. Dr. Schalscha formally invested Isaac Grassiani as the first Sovereign Grand Commander, and Dr. Jona Ron, the Lieutenant Grand Commander, administered the oath to the new Grand Office Bearers.

          Ill. Brother Jacob Segal, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel delivered an allocution, stressing the good relations that had developed between Grand Lodge and Supreme Council, expressing the hope that these fraternal relations would last forever.

          Grassiani held his high office until the end of 1968. At that time, he became ill and on 12 May 1969 he passed away to the Eternal East.

         

 

[i]    The information about Isaac Grassiani is largely based on the obituary written by Dr. Jona Ron and Abraham Fellman, Sovereign Grand Commander and Grand Secretary General, respectively, of the Supreme Council for Israel, The Scottish Rite, April-September 1969.

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[1]    The information about Isaac Grassiani is largely based on the obituary written by Dr. Jona Ron and Abraham Fellman, Sovereign Grand Commander and Grand Secretary General, respectively, of the Supreme Council for Israel, The Scottish Rite, April-September 1969.

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