Serb National Federation

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The Serb National Federation (also known by the acronym SNF; Serbian: Српски народни савез) is a non-profit organization established to help Serbian immigrants financially and build their spiritual home in the United States of America as well as Canada. Founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 15 June 1901, the Serb National Federation is the oldest and largest Serbian-American Fraternal organization in North America..

Throughout its long history, the Serb National Federation has economically and financially helped its members, the homeland, students in high schools and universities, Serbian Orthodox Churches, children’s church camps, Serbian Women's Auxiliary, Serbian charities and charitable causes, and sponsored athletic, cultural, and social events to preserve and perpetuate the Serbian tradition and heritage on the North American continent.

History

Early History

The early core of the Serb National Federation consisted of immigrants engaged in agriculture, livestock, and fishing in their homelands. Like most newcomers, they did not realize they would work in the mines and steel mills on the new continent. Most of the Serbian immigrants who arrived in Pittsburgh area came from the Krajina region (Lika, Kordun, and Banija), then part of Austria-Hungary and from the Kingdom of Montenegro, not necessarily from the Kingdom of Serbia, at the end of the nineteenth century. There were also those who arrived much earlier from Austrian Empire and the eastern Adriatic coastline of Dalmatia and Montenegro, then part of Napoleonic France, settled first in New Orleans, Biloxi, Vermilion, Virginia City, Tombstone, Bisbee, New Mexico, throughout California, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alaska. The East Coast of America and Dominion of Canada were settled similarly, before the turn of the 20th century.

In his memoirs, SNF Founder Sava Hajdin writes about Serbs who came to America from the Krajina region in Austro-Hungary, naming Nikola Vujnović of Gomirje in 1886, Milenko Maravić in 1887, and Petar Vignjević in 1888. After them, others came: Nikola Maravić, Stevo Trbović, Adam Maravić, Mićo Stipanović, Rade Mamula, and Lazo Mrvoš. They came from Dubrava, Plaški, Primišlje, Vojnić and other places. Hajdin arrived in 1892 at sixteen. Among the first Serbian pioneers were Đorđe Šagić who arrived in 1814 in Philadelphia and Herzegovinian Michael Draskovich who arrived a decade later in Louisiana and established himself well enough to generously contribute towards the construction of "Orthodox Church of Holy Trinity" in New Orleans in 1866. Also, there were churchmen, American-born Sevastijan Dabović, Mardarije Uskoković, Nikolaj Velimirović, and Firmilijan Dražić who founded and built Serbian-American churches, congregations, organizations, and societies that laid the foundations of Serbian institutions in the Western Hemisphere.

The industrialization of the New World brought "suffering and caused bitterness for early Serbian immigrants who arrived and remained for the rest of their lives on this continent. Dr. Božidar Purić, the Consul of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in San Francisco and Chicago, in a conversation with an old, Herzegovinian American miner, found out how immigrants felt about the Old West: I have never seen anyone in this country feed a hungry person or a thirsty one. If you don’t have money, you will die like a dog on the street" .

As the number of Serbian immigrants grew, so did their awareness of establishing their societies for national, economic, and social reasons. Although most of the immigrants were deemed semi-illiterate by custom authorities, yet they spoke, read, and wrote in their own native language, and a significant number spoke a second or a third language from neighbouring Habsburg provinces (such as Italian, German, Hungarian, Russian, and Romanian, however learning English, a spoken language that they never heard before in their lands that, for many became unimaginable to learn proficiently. Therefore, they began to organize societies. "Serbian-American clubs, organizations, and other societies were the main gathering places for immigrants. These organizations became their spiritual home. The success of these organizations is based on the Serbian ideal of freedom, creativity, and working spirit woven into the Serbian ethnic being and supported by a democratic tradition" from time immemorial .

At that time, there was no organized union, nor was there health insurance for the working man. Mines were not regulated, and mining accidents were commonplace, like elsewhere in factories, lumber camps, railroads, machine and sweatshops. Such difficult working conditions throughout the United States of America prevailed during the Gilded Age of the oil and rail barons and magnates between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive era. Primarily, workers and their families needed protection and financial security. Fraternal societies offered financial security and stability for immigrants and their families. In 1901, Sava Hajdin traveled from Pittsburgh to New York to get support from Nikola Tesla, a recognized Serbian-American scientist and inventor, for founding such a society. With Tesla’s support, Hajdin founded the Serbian Orthodox Federation Srbobran (SOFS) and became its first president. When they founded SOFS, the inscription on the entrance of the organization's headquarters was in Serbian Cyrillic. The society soon developed into “a strong tree that spreads its branches wherever there are Serbs in America and Canada".

Hajdin, in his memoirs, wrote with pride of those formative years. The SNF was advanced not only by a group of dedicated and motivated individuals but also by good fortune. Hajdin saw the SNF as the center of Serbdom and the tradition of Saint Sava in America

It was Hajdin's friend, inventor and professor Mihajlo I. Pupin, author of the popular, award-winning book From Immigrant to Inventor, who united Sloga, Svesna Srbadija, Sloboda, and the Serbian Orthodox Federation Srbobran into one organization named the Serb National Federation on 21 September 1929 with 19,764 members and a monetary reserve of $780,188.23.

World War I and II

The Serb National Federation made great humanitarian, military, and financial contributions to the homeland in World Wars I and II. Twenty thousand Serbian volunteers organized by Mihajlo I. Pupin, Serbian Orthodox Federation Srbobran, the American-Canadian Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and Serbian National Defense Council of America came to fight for their homeland in World War I. Most of them from Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Old Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Vojvodina had never been in that region of Serbia. However, the connection with their Serbian people and sense of belonging was unbreakable.

Before the U.S. entered the fray, many patriotic members of the Serbian Orthodox Federation Srbobran volunteered overseas as early as late 1914 and early 1915. Of Lodge 82 “Banović Strahinja,” ten Vajagić brothers from Gary voluntarily went to fight for Serbia against Austria-Hungary. The eldest brother was 40, and the youngest was 20. The eldest brother, Risto Vajagić, received the coveted Serbian decoration, the royal Karadjordje’s Golden Star for Courage. According to Dr. Božidar Purić, twenty-five percent of the Serbian-American population volunteered to defend their ancestral homeland: “What other nations have that? Thanks to them, Kosovo’s sowing was reaped in distant America.” At that time, Serbian-Americans were the only free Serbs in the world, and that is why they stood by their people to fight for the liberation of the homeland. More than half of the Serbian-American volunteers did not return to their families, who remained in America. In 1917, when the U.S. entered the conflict, Serbian-American veterans were among the most decorated soldiers, including Jake Allex and James I. Mestrovitch, recipients of America's highest military decoration, for their valiant actions in the [[World War I]|Great War]. The two recipients joined another Serbian American Rade Grbitch who was awarded the coveted medal in 1910 in San Diego after a boiler explosion aboard the USS Bennington (PG-4) in 1905, where 66 sailors perished while the others sustained injuries.

At the beginning of World War II, American president Franklin D. Roosevelt mentioned a few courageous nations who bravely fought against Nazi Germany, and the Serbs were among them. Serbian immigrants bravely participated in the American army against Nazi Germany and proved their loyalty to American democratic tradition and Serbian heritage. A great number of Serbian immigrants never came back from the war. Some of them who returned home were awarded Medals from the American Government. Multiple Serbian Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor: Mitchell Paige, John W. Minick, and George Musulin (in World War II), and posthumously to Lance Sijan (in Vietnam War). The Legion of Merit was awarded by President Harry S. Truman, posthumously to General Dragoljub Mihailovich for saving hundreds of American and other Allied airmen in Operation Halyard.

In 1943, members of the SNF bought a bomber and donated it to the U.S. military to fight the Nazis. The bomber was called “American-Serbian.”

In 1944, the Serb National Federation officially distanced itself completely from the American Slav Congress for reasons of political and moral incompatibility.Once the hostilities ended, a Cold War emerged and the Red Scare (McCarthyism) occupied the minds of many innocent Serbian Americans, including Milo Radulovich and his father who were wrongly branded by a powerful rogue senator.

Organization

Headquarters is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The organization is structured by lodges throughout the United States and Canada. Every lodge has delegates for a Convention every four years. The SNF members discuss matters important for the future of the organization at a Convention.

The SNF has always had a close link to its Lodges throughout its history. These lodges, generally placed within church parishes, provide the SNF with a traditional, fraternal mission to support them. From 2010 - 2018 the SNF has helped these sponsoring lodges/parishes with over $1,140,000 for their benefit.

Membership

The SNF is a non-profit fraternal organization that provides life insurance and annuities following the needs of its members. The long traditions of selling life insurance and annuities, and services have made the SNF a respected fraternal organization in the United States. Unlike commercial insurance companies, the SNF invests its income in preserving Serbian culture and tradition, as it has for more than a hundred and twenty years.

Each of the local lodges is managed and maintained at the local level, with promoting and maintaining membership, providing enrichment activities, events, programs, and outreach. The SNF Home Office oversees the Local Lodges and provides assistance and support. In 1951, the SNF had 183 adult societies and 141 youth circles with 16,213 adult members and 6,484 youth members. The assets amounted to about $4 million. Today, the SNF has about 12,500 members, and the society is worth approximately $50 million.

Benefits and Activities

In 1901, the SNF began its Fraternal mission to help those who wished to assimilate into the American culture while learning it. Like many other fraternal organizations at that time, the SNF was staffed with dedicated, bilingual people that were able to communicate with them and assure them that the SNF purpose was to help them by providing them with traditional life insurance protection and secure financial products with the fixed interest rate annuities. Today, the SNF continues to provide those bi-lingual services to its members. The SNF offers a wide variety of insurance plans and annuities.

American Srbobran newspaper

After the founding of the Serbian Orthodox Federation Srbobran, its members soon realized that they could not make progress if they did not have a newspaper informing Serbian immigrants about their work, ideas, and calling on them for unity and cooperation. Therefore, to expand its influence in America and Canada, the SOF Srbobran began publishing in 1906 the American Srbobran, the oldest Serbian continuously published newspaper. The American Srbobran was initially published only in Cyrillic. From 1906 to 1916, the American Srbobran was a weekly newspaper; and from 1916, a daily newspaper. In the 1930s, an English section was added to the newspaper for the first generation of immigrants whose native language was English to become more acquainted with the Serbian culture and tradition. Today, the American Srbobran has Serbian and English sections, and is a semi-monthly newspaper.

Many famous Serbian novelists have contributed to the American Srbobran such as Jovan Dučić, Proka Jovkić, Miloš Crnjanski, St. Nikolai Velimirović, Ratko Stanišić, Božidar Purić, Dragoslav Dragutinović, V. Rev. Dr. Stavrofor Mateja Matejić, Dragan Rajković, William Jovanovich, Vasa Mihailovich, Dr. Aleksandar Petrov, Gojko Djogo, Drenka Willen among others. In addition to authors who contributed to the American Srbobran, it has also been granted interviews with famous Serbs such as Mihajlo I. Pupin and Nikola Tesla, and Novak Djoković, among others.

Awards and recognition

In 2001, the American Srbobran was awarded “Best Newspaper” at the Pennsylvania Fraternal Congress.

Athletic Program

The SNF has benefited its membership by sponsoring its annual sporting events. SNF members are able to participate in all sports programs including golf, bowling and basketball tournaments. The SNF offers one of the largest sports programs of any fraternal. In that sense, the SNF sponsors the oldest Serbian basketball tournament in the United States since 1936, two annual golf tournaments (Summer and Mid-Winter), and a bowling tournament. Through this program, over $100,000 has been donated to the SNF Scholarship Fund, and over $1.14 million has been donated to host SNF lodges/parishes/communities. Meeting other members from North America and visiting new places - embracing friendships too.

Cultural Program

The activity of the SNF is based on preserving Serbian culture and tradition by organizing cultural, athletic, and social events where participants have the opportunity to socialize, learn more about their culture, origin, and language. The event SNF 3Day, initiated as Serbian Day by Mihajlo I. Pupin to raise funds for orphans in Serbia during World War I, has traditionally been organized since 1917. In 2016, this event was declared the oldest ethnic event in Kennywood Park by the municipality of Pittsburgh.

In 2020, “Serbian Heritage Night” was held in the basketball arena in Cleveland to support Serbian basketball player Nikola Jokic, who plays for the Denver Nuggets. The SNF also gives support to Novak Djokovic, on his American-summer tennis tournament every year (except 2022). He became an Honorary Member of the SNF in 2015.

The SNF sponsors a Serbian Movie Festival at the University of Pittsburgh, which expanded in other towns in the United States of America. In addition, the SNF supported the promotion of the film “Tesla Nation,” directed by Zeljko Mirković in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. This movie shows what Serbian immigrants have contributed to the United States and the world over 200 years. Thanks to the SNF, this film has been archived in many American and world libraries including the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences located in Beverly Hills, Harvard, Yale, New York, Columbia, Princeton, Oxford, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Pennsylvania University, Duquesne University, Ohio State University and other universities, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and others.

SNF Scholarship Program

The SNF assists younger members with higher education costs through the SNF Scholarship Programs. The SNF currently offer $70,000 in scholarships, which are awarded to our outstanding college-bound and post-high school members.

Honorary Presidents and Members

• Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (1929), Serbian-American Scientist and Inventor

• Nikola Tesla (1935), Serbian-American Scientist and Inventor

• Simo Werlinich (Presidency from 1929-1943, and later became Honorary President)

• Novak Djoković (Honorary Member in 2015), World Tennis Champion

References

• Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-ec/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%BF%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B7

Serb National Federation - First 100 Years, edited by Dr. Krinka V. Petrov, Graphics Management Press, Los Angeles, CA, 2001.

Споменица Српског народног савеза, edited by Nikola J. Vurdelj and Sava N. Vujnović, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1951.

Archive material of the American Srbobran.{{reflist|refs=Serb National Federation - First 100 Years, edited by Dr. Krinka V. Petrov, Graphics Management Press, Los Angeles, CA, 2001.

Споменица Српског народног савеза, edited by Nikola J. Vurdelj and Sava N. Vujnović, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1951.

External Links

• Serb National Federation
• The American Srbobran

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