Many admire how beautiful and conceptually rich The Philalethes has become under the editorship of Shawn Eyer. I am so proud to have an article in the most recent issue. It is beautiful...and the result of serendipity! As I say in the piece, it resulted from a research happenstance, while pursuing another line of inquiry entirely as part of my work as Scholar of the Supreme Council here in DC. It involved finding an article by the Masonic scholar and Rabbi Hersch Geffen. I am so grateful that in our magnificent library we have the complete back issues of the Philalethes. In it I found the article by Geffen that utterly confirmed and even extended a research hunch I had before about Maimonides and Masonry, expressed in my article "The Impetus for the Grand Lodge of 1717" at masonicsourcebook.com. The fascinating details are in the article. The great serendipity is that Shawn Eyer is a collector of materials about Geffen, and was planning a tribute to him, and in fact he told me that he even has materials from Geffen from the 30's and the 40's. So it was perfect timing! If you are interested in the origins of the ideas of Masonry, I highly suggest you get a copy of the beautiful Philalethes. And Bro. Eyer gets the best cover art too!

As a side-bar let me note this. I was also happy in playing a part in highlighting Geffen because it shines an interesting light on Jews in the American South. It seems in popular culture that concept is limited to the movie Driving Miss Daisy. That was a good movie, but we need better than that. And that well-known book about Jews in the Confederacy is, well, of course not unproblematic. Geffen, as rabbi in Savannah is the most cultural interesting character, and it is my hope that Bro. Eyer will write a book or article on him!