‘National Brotherhood Week’

     
I try to remember to commemorate it every year, but sometimes I forget; while it isn’t even observed or remembered any longer—hasn’t been for decades—I still take a moment on The Magpie to bring to your attention National Brotherhood Week.

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Way back in 1927, the National Conference of Christians and Jews formed to offer an antidote to the religious bigotry that existed in mainstream public discourse—language that we in 2014 couldn’t imagine, but that passed for appropriate speech in living memory. Among the fruits of the NCCJ’s labors was the establishment of National Brotherhood week, an annual awareness campaign booked for the third week of February during which people of all backgrounds could celebrate their unity for a week no matter what their respective ethnic, religious, racial, etc. differences happened to be. It endured to maybe—perhaps, at the most—the early 1980s.

Naturally, it was ripe for satire during the decade of Civil Rights oppression, race riots, political assassinations, war, draft resistance, women’s liberation, and the rest of it.

Tom Lehrer, the brilliant mathematics prodigy turned satirical songwriter extraordinaire, was a big part of my growing up. (If you know me, and can’t stand having me around, the credit largely belongs to Lehrer, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Mad and National Lampoon magazines, and Monty Python, all of whom were amply represented in my childhood home.) So without further ado, here is the maestro, from That Was the Week That Was.


     

‘National Brotherhood Week’

     

Yes, Magpie coverage of Masonic Week 2013 is still to come. I haven’t had five minutes to download the photos yet, as renovation of the bathroom at Magpie headquarters continues at a snail’s pace and other obligations nag. But here’s a little something in honor of another February week.

Once upon a time in a more innocent age, when it was only other countries that had communists as their heads of state and people thought it natural to pay their own bills, there was a movement to instill brotherly love and mutual respect among all citizens. This was not by government edict, but by bringing real people together to provide, as President Kennedy put it, “harmonious living among our different religious groups.”

The concept was made manifest – and remember we’re referring to a simple time of political assassinations, race riots, draft resistance, liberations of so-and-so’s, and mass shootings by the government – by an observance called National Brotherhood Week at the third week of February. Human nature is what it is, which is why you may not have heard of it before.

(I am indebted to my parents for having comedy albums in their record collection when I was a kid, allowing me to learn directly from and about Lenny Bruce and Tom Lehrer.)

Take it away Maestro!

    

‘National Brotherhood Week’

There used to be a society named the National Conference for Community and Justice (regional organizations remain today), which managed to advance a cause resulting in the third week of February being designated National Brotherhood Week. In retrospect, with the irony and detachment so affordable in 2010 with our precisely crafted à la carte “holidays” and postage stamps patronizing persons and causes of dubious merits and tribal identities, it’s so innocent. But irony is timeless. More than 40 years ago, the great Tom Lehrer held up this annual celebration to the cold gray light of human nature.

Take it away, Maestro:



Couldn’t let the third week of February come to a close without a salute to the ideals of National Brotherhood Week. Have a great weekend! Magpie coverage of Masonic Week 2010 will resume next week.