MACCABEES, THE

a secret benefit and fraternal organization formed by the merging of Knights of the Maccabees of the World and Knights of the Modern Maccabees. The former organization was founded in the city of London, Canada, in 1878 and rapidly established local lodges or ‘tents’ in many parts of Canada and the United States. The merger with the Knights of the Modern Maccabees took place in 1914. The name of the a ociation is derived from the Maccabees described in the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament and has special reference to the law laid down by Judas Maccabeus that part of the spoils of victory should be devoted to the widows and orphans of those who had fallen in battle. This was analogous to the work of the modern Maccabees organization, which aims to unite in a fraternal benefit a ociation white male persons of sound health and good moral standing between the ages of 18 and 70, to provide for them sick and disability benefits and also to furnish funds for their families in case of death, Apart from these material benefits, the organization provides social and fraternal intercourse for its members. It has a representative form of government and a ritualistic ceremony. General meetings of the governing body (the Supreme Tent) are held once in three years, at which delegates from various tents are present, In the interval between meetings a board of seven -trustees administers the affairs of the organization. The a ets of the a ociation, which are more than $20,000,000, are conservatively invested, money being placed in nothing else than Government, State and municipal bonds. The membership of the order in 1923 was 275,000. There is a woman’s auxiliary of the organization, officered and managed solely by women, that in the main has similar aims and methods of administration to those of the main order. It has 3,000 local bodies with over 200,000 members.