Harvey Kaplan wrote:

<< In Scotland there were friendly societies, which provided a range
of welfare benefits for those paying a regular subscription. At one
time, c1920s, there were about 15 different societies in Glasgow alone.
One of these was the Odessa Lodge. My grandfather, >from Kamenets-Podolsk
in the Ukraine, was a member of this lodge. I reckon that there were no
landsmanshaften as such in Scotland, but that some of the friendly
societies filled the same role.
Harvey Kaplan
Glasgow >>

My memories of Jewish Friendly Societies is limited by my age at the time
(8 to 16) and my memory.

In the 1930's-1940's these societies were the precusours of the British
National health insurance system. I believe they received funding >from
the central government to supplement their symbolic fees and had truly
qualified physicians available (I was too young to understand the
implications but quite possibly they were generous and flexible and had
arrangements to pay any (?) doctor. They provided service (including
home visits) to school-age children, and, I think, certain employees.
My father signed us up with a local Friendly Society (Maccabees, I think)
when he arrived in England >from Germany. Most of the Jews in our area were
Litvaks, so this was not a Landsmanschaft for him. In the absence of a
Jewish society, he would probably have signed up with the Royal Order of
Elks or the Imperial Order of Birdwatchers.

Don't pin your hopes too high, therefore, on finding references to your
ancestors after about 1935 through a Jewish Friendly Society in England

Michael Bernet, New York

WOLFF (Pfungstadt, Frankfurt/M, Koenigsberg, Amsterdam, N.Carolina); BERNET,
BERNERT, JONDORF(Frensdorf, Bamberg, Nurnberg); FEUCHTWANGER
(Schwabach, Hagenbach & Fuerth); KONIGSHOFER (anywhere); BERG, WOLF(F),
(Demmelsdorf & Zeckendorf); Shim`on GUTENSTEIN (Bad Homburg ca 1760);
FRENSDORF/ER (anywhere); MAINZER (Lorsch); anyone in Ermreuth or Floss;
GOLDSCHMIDT (B. Homburg, Hessdorf). ALTMANN (Silesia); TIMMENDORFER

A supplement to Harvey Kaplan's message.
Raymond Kalman has researched Jewish Friendly Societies in
Britain and has published his findings in the Jewish History Review (of
the Jewish Historical Society of England). I regret I do not have the
reference to hand - but I am sure it was published within the last ten
years.

Harold Pollins

<< In Scotland there were friendly societies, which provided a range
of welfare benefits for those paying a regular subscription. At one
time, c1920s, there were about 15 different societies in Glasgow alone.
One of these was the Odessa Lodge. My grandfather, >from Kamenets-Podolsk
in the Ukraine, was a member of this lodge. I reckon that there were no
landsmanshaften as such in Scotland, but that some of the friendly
societies filled the same role.
Harvey Kaplan
Glasgow >>

In article <3A4C43B3.768D@...>,
snillop@... wrote:

A supplement to Harvey Kaplan's message.
Raymond Kalman has researched Jewish Friendly Societies in
Britain and has published his findings in the Jewish History Review (of
the Jewish Historical Society of England). I regret I do not have the
reference to hand - but I am sure it was published within the last ten
years.

The equivalent of landsmanshaften in the UK were Jewish friendly
societies which at one time had thousands of members. The passage of
time, the advent of the National Health Service in 1948 and, in
particular, increasing affluence, sounded their death knell. Raymond
Kalman has done much research on them, but there is also a lot of
information on them in "A History of the Jews in Britain since 1858" by
V.D.Lipman.
Consult also Jewish Year Books of the first fifty years or so of the
last century which list the different movements and their constituent
lodges and personel. One of the movements - the Grand Order of Israel
and Shield of David - still has six lodges currently operating.

Murray Freedman