Up until the 1950s, many American synagogues had their constitutions printed, mainly in Yiddish. The small (4” x 5 ¼”) Constitution of the Chevra Anshei Lubawitz Nusach HoAri of Borough Park consists of 21 articles (sections) with 155 bylaws. Some of the articles included are as follows: The Rights of Members, Sick Benefits, The President’s Duties, The Finance Secretary’s Duties, and Fines for Members. Article 19, entitled “Synagogue Ordinances” includes a surprising bylaw (#128): “No member should remove his tallis before the concluding prayer Aleinu, lest he be fined 50¢.”

Though from the cover it appears to have been printed in 1914, that was simply the year that the synagogue was founded. It was actually printed in the 1920s by the Mendel Beilis Press. Beilis was a Russian Jew accused of ritual murder in Kiev in a notorious 1913 trial known as the Beilis Affair which shook up the Jewish world. After Beilis was acquitted, he immigrated to America in 1921 where he ran his own press. By 1930, he had become a life-insurance agent. This is the only recorded item known to have been printed in the Mendel Beilis Press.

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