Records of the Source of Life Benevolent Society 1911, 1945-2011.

This collection mainly consists of information about burial and monument benefits offered to members. There are also documents relating to the dissolution of the Society in 2003-2005. Materials include correspondence, deeds of grave ownership, gravestone drawings, death certificates, bank statements and financial records, a dues register, a membership list, cemetery maps and grave plot charts, ballots, legal documents, minutes, and tax records.The American Sephardi Federation holds the Records of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America (AR-11), Records of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America (AR-33) and the Records of the Central Sephardic Jewish Community of America (AR-1), all of which include information about the activities of benevolent societies and charitable institutions.The Source of Life Benevolent Society was a fraternal organization incorporated in New York on September 21, 1911. According to the state of New York incorporation records (Box 2, folder 12), the Society was founded “for the advancement of social, intellectual and moral and charitable purposes…to foster the bonds of brotherhood…to voluntarily afford relief and assistance to distressed and needy members and furnish ministration for the sick; to bury our dead and offer prayers for the repose of their souls according to the rites of the Hebrew faith, and to render voluntarily aid necessary in the proper preparation of the dead for burial.” A Florida branch was incorporated in Miami on May 15, 1972 and registered as a charitable organization in 1984, at which point there was mention of a scholarship fund (box 1, folder 1). The Miami office became the main headquarters in 1985 while the New York office became the subsidiary branch. The Society’s directors decided to dissolve the Society at a February 28, 2003 meeting and the membership voted to uphold this decision at a special meeting on February 28, 2004. The dissolution was finally completed in 2005