B'nai B'rith is the largest and oldest Jewish fraternal organization. When, in 1885, a sufficient number of lodges had been founded to warrant the establishment of a grand lodge for Germany, Julius Bien visited that country to inaugurate it. Meanwhile the growth of the Order in Rumania and Austria-Hungary had led to the institution of grand lodges with seats at Bucharest and Prague, and to the establishment of many useful benevolent institutions. With the spread of the Order its usefulness as an international medium for the relief of the persecuted in various parts of the world has been established; and the principle of self-help has been inculcated in communities which had always looked to others for protection and aid. Of late the Order has established working relations with the great educational and relief associations of Europe, such as the Alliance Israélite Universelle of Paris, the Jewish Colonization Association of London, and the Israelitische Allianz of Vienna. At the Quinquennial Convention of the Order, held in Chicago (April 29 to May 3, 1900), a commission was appointed to invite the cooperation of all European and American kindred associations in instituting measures for the introduction of industries, agricultural employments, and modern education among the Jews of Galicia. The Order has also been active in finding employment for the Rumanian Jews, who through religious intolerance were compelled to leave their native country. This it does through the district lodges, which organize means whereby many individuals may, from time to time, obtain a livelihood by manual labor. Numbers of Rumanian Jews, on arriving in New York, are distributed among the district lodges.

During its existence the Order has expended millions of dollars in aiding the distressed among its members by means of donations to the sick, by loans, and by endowments to widows and orphans. In 1906 the number of members in Germany was listed at 4,800.