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Other early Jewish organizations included the Council of Jewish Women, organized on April 15, 1901, by Miss Jeanette Goldberg of Jefferson, Texas, vice-president of the Texas Division. Its first officers included Mrs. L. R. Levy, president; Mrs. Leo Mothner, vice-president; Mrs. Wolf Hecht, treasurer; Mrs. E. Deutser, recording secretary; and Miss Beatrice Cohn, corresponding secretary. The committee chairwomen included Mrs. M. Loeb, Mrs. H. Burkenroad, Sarah Levy, Mrs. R. M. Mothner, Mrs. J. J. Nathan, Mrs. B. N. Brown, Ida Hirschfeld, Mrs. Aaron Levy, Mrs. H. Hirsch, Mrs. M. Hecht, and Mrs. L. Goldstein, the latter’s husband being Beaumont’s first Jewish physician. Among the organization’s activities was the founding in 1903 of a circulating library, funded by an annual fee of $1.50. ⁴³

Also in 1901, the Chamber of Commerce released a list of Beaumont’s most beautiful young women, who were selected by voting. Among them were several Jewish young ladies, as follows: Mrs. B. N. Brown, the Misses Celia and Rebecca Hirsch, Mrs. Henry Roos, and Miss Dora Hecht. ⁴⁴

Although not limited to Jewish members, the charter meeting of the Order of the Sons of Herman indicated that the lodge was dominated by Jews at its beginning, perhaps because many were of Germanic origin. The first officers in April, 1897, were as follows: H. Hirsch, president; L. R. Levy, vice-president; C. A. Steinweg, secretary; M. Hecht, treasurer; Oswald Levy, conductor; M. Czarsinski, guard; and Gus Weil and S. Sternberg, directors.⁴⁵

In February, 1898, Jubilee Lodge of B’nai B’rith, a Jewish men’s frater­nal order, was organized in Beaumont, its goal to sponsor social and benevolent causes. The charter members were: R. M. Mothner, president; 3. J. Solinsky, vice-president; J. J. Nathan, treasurer; M. Hecht, secretary; L. R. Levy, warden; J. Feinberg, guardian; and L. Solinsky, S. Feinberg, and L. R. Levy, trustees. In effect, it is possible to estimate approximately the date of some Jews’ arrival in Beaumont by the time their names appear in news items.⁴⁶

⁴³Blum et al., “Founders and Builders,” p. 7; “History of the Council of Jewish Women,” B. C. C., Art Souvenir-Beaumont, Texas, 1901, p. 36; “History of the Council of Jewish Women,” Oil Exchange, Advantages and Conditions of Beaumont and Fort Arthur Today, 1901, p. 56.

⁴⁴B. C. C., Art Souvenir-Beaumont, Texas, 1901, p. 38.

⁴⁵Galveston Daily News, April 14, 1897.

⁴⁶Ibid, Feb. 16, 1898.