Among the objects left behind, my father kept a small box containing the Freemasons member ring and pin of Chaim(as) Kobrin(as). As he held these delicate items in his hand, we realised that we might have seen this ring in one of the photos. We started flipping again through the photo album and found the photo of Chaim(as) with his violin during a purim party. He had a ring on his finger. As we looked closer with a magnifying glass we could identify that it was the Freemasons member ring we were now holding in our hands.

Chaim(as) Kobrin(as) was a Freemasons member of the Genossar Lodge 9 in Tiberias. Unfortunately there was a big unknown as to his activities there. It was part of the Freemason tradition, to keep everything that took place during their meetings a secret. My father still recalls his father in a suit and tie, going to the Freemason meetings on a regular basis with his close friends who were also members of the Freemasons chapter in Tiberias.

We decided to contact the Freemasons Genossar chapter in Tiberias to find out if they had any information related to Chaim(as) as a Freemason member.

On the 10th of February 2014, we received an email from Daniel Tubias, the secretary of the Gennosar Lodge no. 9, Tveria, Israel:

We have tried to look into your father’s past as a Freemason in our lodge. Unfortunately, the matter is that there is only one member alive today that remembers your father. All records of him were sadly destroyed over 10 years ago when our lodge was burned down due to hatred towards our organisation. What remains of his memory is his name on our wall that was passed to the Eternal East. I will see to it that you will get a photograph of the memorial plack. Our oldest member, the one that remembers your father says that he was a fine man and he filled the post of Senior Warden in our lodge in the 60’s. However, dates are sadly unavailable.
My lodge Master and brothers, as well as myself send you best wishes and hope to have been of some service. I shall send a photo of the memorial plack in the next few days.

The Freemason Plaque bearing the name of Chaim Kobrin at the Genossar Chapter in Tiberias.

There was one event my father recalled related to the Freemason membership of Chaim(as). During the early 70s Chaim(as) travelled to Switzerland with the football team of “Hapoel Tveria” as he was the teams’ sports doctor. It was his first trip abroad since he moved to Tveria in 1947. While visiting Bern, he suffered from a heart attack and was hospitalised in the local University hospital - Inselspital for a few days. When the Freemasons members in Bern found out that one of their “brothers” was in the hospital, they did everything they could to make his stay as comfortable as possible. We have no idea how they found out that one of their “members” was in the hospital, but somehow they heard about it. They came to visit him in the hospital and made sure he was taken care of. It was very touching to hear that complete strangers went out of their way to support one of their Freemason members from Israel. They showed him their commitment and respect as a Freemasons brother.

The search continues…

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