The first recorded Masonic ceremony in the Holy Land took place in Jerusalem. The event was organized by an American Mason, Robert Morris, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, who had come to the Holy Land looking for Masonic antiquities to prove the ancient origins of our Craft. Morris did not find any such proof, but he did meet a few Masons then living in Jaffa and Jerusalem, and these, joined by some Masons among visiting British naval officers, were assembled by Morris and constituted into the group which on Wednesday, May 13, 1868, conducted a Masonic ceremony in King Solomon's Quarries, a deep cavern stretching under the old city of Jerusalem. Morris grandly called the meeting "Reclamation Lodge of Jerusalem".  

            The list of those taking part in the ceremony included the Turkish Governor of Jaffa, Nureddin Effendi; Sir Charles Warren, who was later to become the first Worshipful Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge N° 2076 of London; Henry Petermann, Consul of Prussia in Jerusalem,  and several American Masons belonging to the small American Colony in Jaffa. Already then, at this symbolic birth of speculative Freemasonry in the Holy Land, we find Christians of various denominations and a Moslem, joining hands in fraternity.

            The meeting organized by Morris was not a lodge, of course. In fact, it was a ceremony belonging to a separate Masonic order which had been devised by Morris:  the Order of the Secret Monitor.

           The first real lodge to be established in the Holy Land was also the result of Rob Morris’s efforts. After failing to get a charter from one of the Grand Lodges of the USA, his personal friend William Mercer, who had been elected as the first Grand Master of the newly-constituted Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, granted him a charter for a lodge to work "in Jerusalem and surroundings": The Royal Solomon Mother Lodge N° 293 was formally consecrated on May 7, 1873.

           It is not clear whether the words Mother Lodge pointed to the intention of making this lodge the source of many other lodges in the same area, or perhaps it was a subtle reminder of the fact that Jerusalem is the legendary origin of Masonry.

            The signatories of the petition for this lodge were Robert Morris, John Sheville, Rolla Floyd, Richard Beardsley, Charles Netter, Peter Bergheim, and 14 other Masons who did not live in the Holy Land but were included by Morris in order to fill out the roster. Morris, Sheville, Floyd, Beardsley and Bergheim were Christians, while Netter was a Jew.

            Charles Netter (1826-1882) had been one of the founders in 1860 of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, the French society formed to defend the rights of Jews in the Near East and to promote Jewish education. Netter founded in 1870 the first agricultural school in Palestine, Mikve Israel, which formed the basis for the development of agriculture in the Holy Land.

            A Christian Arab of Lebanese origin, Alexander Howard, was another early member of the lodge. Howard, whose real name was Iskander Awad, was a colorful figure who worked as the local agent for the Thomas Cook Travel Agency (which started at that time its organized tours of the Middle East). His work gave him status – and income that enabled him to become an influential businessman in Ottoman Palestine. In addition to his work organizing the tours, he owned hotels in Jaffa and Jerusalem.

            Howard was also the first to build houses beyond the walls of the old city of Jaffa. In fact, a whole street block was named after him, and his own home also served as a Masonic Temple. The building stands to this day, and the marble frieze over the entrance, displays the motto "Peace to Israel" in Hebrew. Around 1890 his home became the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion), a pioneer Zionist movement of Russian Jews that promoted settlement in Palestine. This makes clear that Jewish immigration to the Holy Land was not only accepted, but encouraged by local entrepreneurs.

            Royal Solomon lodge had a troubled existence and lasted only two decades. The small number of brothers, internal quarrels, and a serious lack of Masonic knowledge led to make serious violations of protocol. Eventually, the Grand Lodge of Canada requested the return of the charter, .a demand which was ignored. The lodge, however, vanished within a few years.

The next lodge in the Holy Land was established in Jaffa, the port closest to Jerusalem. Lodge Le Port du Temple de Salomon was founded around 1880 with a charter from the Misraim Oriental Order in Egypt, which was active at the time in the land of the Nile. This lodge, working in French, could not survive very long, notwithstanding a brief period of expansion when some French engineers who had come to build the Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad joined the lodge. By the end of the 19th century it had disappeared. 

            Looking for a solution, the local brethren then applied to the Grand Orient of France and founded on March 13, 1906, the lodge L’Aurore (The Dawn) 3077, which survived and is the oldest lodge under the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel, with the Hebrew translation of its name: Barkai and number 17. 

            One of the petitioners was Alexander Fiani, a Christian merchant born in Beirut, who was proposed as the first Master of the lodge. The other petitioners were Jewish. The first Mason to become affiliated to the lodge, however, was a Christian, César Araktingi, an exporter of the famous Jaffa oranges, and Vice-Consul of Great Britain, initiated on October 18, 1891. Another member of Barkai was David Yudelovich, a journalist writing for Ben Yehuda's paper Ha'tsvi. Ben-Yehuda, was the leading force in the revival and renewal of the Hebrew language for daily use.

            Araktingi soon replaced Fiani as Master of the Lodge, and continued to hold this position until 1929, that is to say, an amazing 23 years.

            During the pre-war period, until 1914, the lodge initiated over a hundred new members. An analysis of their religious affiliation is uncertain, because we can rely only on their names, and sometimes their occupation. Then, as now in Israel, the religion of candidates is never asked or recorded.

            The membership of the lodge included many important personalities:  the mayors of Gaza and of Nablus, bank managers, the chief of police of Jaffa, advocates, judges, farmers, merchants, doctors, pharmacists and engineers. In all of these areas one can find Arabs, Turks, Jews and Armenians. 

            It is interesting to note the presence of Persian Consuls in the lodge. Iran was home to flourishing Freemasonry until the fall of the Shah in 1979, when the Order was banned and disbanded. A Grand Lodge of Iran in Exile still exists, based in California.

            Returning to Jerusalem, the next lodges founded in the Holy City were chartered by the Grand Lodge of Egypt. Both lodge Suleiman (Solomon) and lodge Star were founded in 1895. A third lodge, Nur el Hachmat (Light of Wisdom), working in Arabic, was founded in 1908.

            The happy situation of peaceful coexistence between the various communities of Palestine was disrupted by the Great War of 1914-1919. The dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire resulted in the creation a various nations in the Middle East, with a division of "areas of influence" between England and France. England took control of Palestine, which at the time included the territories on both sides of the Jordan River, having received a Mandate from the League of Nations to administer this area until a final disposition was made.   

            In 1932, following a bitter struggle, Egyptian Freemasonry split into two competing Grand Lodges. The lodges in the Holy Land under Egyptian jurisdiction decided that they did not wish to become involved in the internal conflicts of Egyptian Masonry, and took steps to become independent, forming the National Grand Lodge of Palestine. The majority of the brethren at that time were Jewish. However, the non-sectarian character of the lodges is confirmed by the fact that the founding ceremony of the new Grand Lodge was presided by M.W. Bro. Fuad Bey Hussein, Grand Master of one of the Grand Lodges of Egypt. Bro. Shuqri Houri, also an Arab, had been elected to sit in King Solomon's throne; unfortunately, he died unexpectedly before he could be installed in office, but he is still registered in Grand Lodge records as its first Grand Master.

            Despite the troubled relations between the Arab and Jewish communities, Grand Lodge made constant efforts to attract candidates from all the non-Jewish communities: Christian and Moslem Arabs, Armenians, Druse and Bahai.

            After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the National Grand Lodge of Palestine became the Grand Lodge of Israel. However, it still ruled only over the lodges which had belonged to the Egyptian Grand Lodge. Other lodges in the country operated under various jurisdictions: the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland, the Grand Orient of France, and the German-speaking lodges worked as the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany in Exile.

           Unity was finally achieved with the foundation of the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel in 1953, in a ceremony conducted by a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in the YMCA Building in Jerusalem. The Israeli Grand Lodge incorporated under its roof all 30 lodges then operating in the country, speaking Hebrew, Arabic, English, French and German. 

            In addition to King Solomon’s Quarries, a.k.a. Hezkiahu’s Cave, Jerusalem offers a fascinating display of the craftsmanship of our ancient brother Masons from the time of King Herod. The Western Wall, as is well known, is the retaining wall of the platform prepared as a foundation for the Jerusalem Temple. After centuries of repeated destruction and rebuilding, the present street level adjoining the wall is several maters above the level in King Herod’s time. Archeologists, such as Charles Warren, excavated the ground close to the wall, revealing the wall’s original courses of ashlars. A tunnel running along almost the entire wall is open to visitors, and it is highly recommended for Masons who will appreciate the enormity of the work involved, and the fine details of the stone dressing done two millennia ago. A room adjoining the tunnel was first believed by Warren to be a Masonic lodge, although later archeologists have dismissed his assumption. The room held two white marble columns which did not reach the ceiling, that is, they filled no structural purpose. One of the columns remains in place to this day and can be admired by visiting tourists. 

            Another archeological site of Masonic significance is the vast chamber stretching under the current Al-Aksa Mosque. This chamber, which dates from King Herod’s time, was used by the Templars during the time of the Crusades. The connection of the Order of the Temple with various Masonic ceremonies is well known and there is no need to go into details. The chamber has been recently transformed into a mosque.

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           Present situation of Israeli Freemasonry

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           The Grand Lodge of the State of Israel has some 70 active lodges, with about 1500 members. Israel is a country of immigrants, and this is reflected in the fact that there are lodges working in nine different languages. Apart from Hebrew and Arabic, which are the two official languages of Israel, some lodges are working in English, Spanish, French, German, Rumanian, Turkish and Russian.

Grand Lodge Officers include three Grand Chaplains with the same rank, one Jewish, one Christian and one Moslem. There are also three bearers of the Volume of the Sacred Law: one each for the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible and the Koran. These three volumes are placed on the altar of the Grand Lodge and on those of many individual lodges.

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           The majority of Israeli lodges work in Hebrew, but five lodges work in Arabic, two of them in the holy city of Nazareth, and there are numerous Arab brethren who are members of Hebrew-speaking lodges.

 

           Hebrew and Arabic-speaking lodges work using rituals based on the British model. Some the lodges working in other languages use the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Schroeder Rite or the Nederland Rituals.

            Grand Lodge Officers have always comprised both Arabs and Jews. In fact, an Arab lawyer from Haifa, M. W. Bro. Jamil Shalhoub, was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Israel in 1981, and reelected for a second term in 1982. The Grand Master for 2013-14 was M. W. Bro. Nadim Mansour, who is also an Arab Mason, from a Galilee village, and the current Grand Master (2017-18) is also a member of the Arab Israeli community, M. W. Bro. Suliman Salem.

            Both the Grand Lodge and individual lodges engage in various charitable activities, such as food for the needy, medical instruments for public hospitals, scholarships, assistance to the blind, and others.

            Grand Lodge puts special emphasis on Masonic education, organizing seminars, regular series of lectures held in various cities, to enable all Masons to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the rich history, symbolism and philosophy of Freemasonry. There is also a Lodge of Instruction (Gazit) and a Lodge of Research (Gvill), both operating in Tel Aviv but with members from all parts of the country.

            In addition to the Grand Lodge, Master Masons wishing to further their Masonic experience can join the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which operates Degrees 4 to 33 under its Supreme Council. There are Lodges of Perfection (Degrees 4-14) working in Hebrew, Arabic, English, French and Spanish; Rose-Croix Chapters in Hebrew, English and Spanish. Higher degrees are generally conferred in Hebrew.

            The Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Israel operates Royal Arch Chapters, which work three degrees: Mark Master, Excellent Master and Royal Arch. Beyond these there are bodies working the Cryptic Degrees, Degrees of Captivity and Royal Arch Mariners.

 

Bibliography

 

Bahat, Dan, “Mysteries of the Temple Mount”, Jerusalem Post Magazine, 2 February

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Combes, André, “Le Rite de Memphis au XIXeme Siecle”, Symboles, signes,

languages sacrés pour une sémiologie de la Franc-Maçonnerie, Proceedings of the French-Italian Conference, Pisa, Editions ETC, 1995.

Combes, André, “Le Grand Orient de France en Palestine”, Chroniques d’Histoire

            Maçonnique , N° 52, 2001.

Cook’s Excursionist & Tourist Advertiser, October 21 and November 24, 1873.

Howe, Ellie, “The Collapse of Freemasonry in Nazi Germany – 1933-1935”, Ars

 Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. 97, London, 1984.

Lazar, Zoltan A., “Royal Solomon Mother Lodge N° 293”, The Israeli Freemason,

            Vol. LIX, N° 1, 1994.

Morris, Robert, Freemasonry in the Holy Land, Published by the author, La Grange,

            KY (USA), 1879.

National Grand Lodge of Palestine, Statutes and General Regulations, Jerusalem,

1932.

Smilansky, David, “In Memoriam David Yudelovich”, The Freemason, Tel Aviv,

January 1945.

Warren, Charles, Underground Jerusalem, London, Richard Bentley and Son,

            Publishers, 1876.

Zeldis, Leon, Bnai Or Be’eretz Hakodesh (Sons of Light in the Holy Land, Hebrew

translation by R. W. Bro. Daniel Doron), E. Narkis Books, Herzlia, Israel, 2009.

Zeldis, Leon, Masonic Symbols and Signposts, Anchor Communications