Our History
Founded in 1916 as the Salonician Brotherhood of America, Inc. by immigrant Jews from the city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) in modern day Greece, the Brotherhood has worked to serve the most needy in our communities and create a home for Sephardic Jews from around the world. The organization began as a volunteer mutual aid and burial society, where membership dues were 10 cents per week when laborers earned as little as $5 per week. During the 1920's and into the Great Depression, it created a fund for the neediest community members, established a scholarship program for its members' children, and supported the creation of Sephardic synagogues in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens well into the 1950's and 1960's.
Learn more about the history of the Brotherhood through a Sephardic Digital Museum developed by the Sephardic Studies Program at the University of Washington.