B'nai B'rith was founded in Aaron Sinsheimer's café in New York City's Lower East Side on 13 October 1843, by 12 recent German Jewish immigrants led by Henry Jones.

[9] The new group's purpose, as described in its constitution, called for the traditional functions performed by Jewish societies in Europe: "Visiting and attending the sick" and "protecting and assisting the widow and the orphan."

[10] The German-speaking founders originally named the organization Bundes-Brüder (German for "Brothers of the Covenant")[11] to reflect their goal of a fraternal order that could provide comfort to the entire spectrum of Jewish Americans.

[12] Although early meetings were conducted in German, after a short time English emerged as the language of choice and the name was changed to B'nai B'rith.

Despite its fraternal and local beginnings, B'nai B'rith spoke out for Jewish rights early in its history and used its growing national chain of lodges as a way to exercise political influence on behalf of world Jewry.

In 1851, for example, it circulated petitions urging Secretary of State Daniel Webster to demand the end of Jewish disabilities in Switzerland, during on-going trade negotiations.

Into the 1920s the B'nai B'rith continued in its political work by joining in Jewish delegations and lobbying efforts through which American Jews sought to influence public policy, both domestic and foreign.

In keeping with their concerns for protecting their families, the organization's first concrete action was the establishment of an insurance policy awarding widows of deceased members $30 toward funeral expenses and a stipend of $1 a week for the rest of their life.

That same year, B'nai B'rith sponsored its first overseas philanthropic project raising $4,522 to aid the victims of a cholera epidemic in Ottoman Palestine.

[18][19] After 1881, with the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews to the United States,[20] B'nai B'rith sponsored Americanization classes, trade schools and relief programs.

This began a period of rapid membership growth, a change in the system of representation and questioning of the secret rituals common to fraternal organizations.

B'nai B'rith sponsorship of the Hillel Foundations enabled it to extend throughout the United States, eventually become international and to grow into a network of more than 500 campus student organizations.

[24][25][26] At virtually the same time as Hillel was being established, Sam Beber of Omaha, Nebraska, presented a plan in 1924 to B'nai B'rith for a fraternity for Jewish men in high school.

[28] On 9–11 March 1977, three buildings in Washington, D.C., including the headquarters of B'nai B'rith, were seized by 12 black nationalist Nation of Islam gunmen, led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who took 149 hostages and killed a radio journalist and a police officer.

But most of all, perhaps, it was due to the courageous intervention of three Muslim ambassadors, Egypt's Ashraf Ghorbal, Pakistan's Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan and Iran's Ardeshir Zahedi.

[33] B'nai B'rith also includes, on its domestic agenda, tolerance issues such as advocating for hate crimes legislation as well as sponsoring a youth writing challenge, Diverse Minds.

This annual writing contest asks high school students to create a children's book dedicated to the message of ending intolerance and bigotry.

[34] B'nai B'rith also sponsors the Enlighten America program, the centerpiece of which is a pledge that individuals can take to refrain from using slang expressions or telling jokes based on race, sexual orientation, gender, nationality or physical or mental challenges that would serve to demean another.

[44] Every year, B'nai B'rith awards the Sally R. Schneider scholarship to a Jewish female graduate student who is studying in a field that will benefit humankind.

The scholarship, which is worth $1,000, is named after Sally Schneider, a longtime B'nai B'rith member who was passionate about pro-Israel advocacy and women's education.

[49] In recent years, the B'nai B'rith Disaster Relief Fund responded to the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile,[50][51] the 2011 Japan tsunami[52] and the multiple tornadoes and subsequent flooding that hit six states in the South and Midwest in 2011.

[55] In Haiti, B'nai B'rith raised $250,000 for shoes, medicine, health supplies and other needs immediately following the January 2010 earthquake that struck the island nation.

Wildfires struck communities in Southern California, and B'nai B'rith contributed to the disaster recovery by assisting with the costs of food, utility bills and medical supplies for the Idyllwild HELP Center.

[59] B'nai B'rith also has worked with US officials in the State Department, in Congress, and with other governments to support the efforts of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to combat antisemitism.

[68][69] In 1943, in response to what would later become known as the Holocaust, B'nai B'rith President Henry Monsky convened a conference in Pittsburgh of all major Jewish organizations to "find a common platform for the presentation of our case before the civilized nations of the world".

[70] Just prior to the creation of the State of Israel, President Harry S. Truman, resisting pressure by various organizations, declined meetings with Jewish leaders.

"[76][77] The Presidential Gold Medal is awarded by B'nai B'rith every few years to honor the recipient's commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.