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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…[1][2][3]. homeland, Women’s Auxiliary, sponsored tradition[4]. The American Srbobran is the official organ.[5].
The early core consisted of immigrants homelands. Like most newcomers, they did not realize area, then part of Austria-Hungary and from the Kingdom of Montenegro, and few from the 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,[6]
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.
writes about Serbs who came to America from the Krajina region in Austro-Hungary, naming Nikola Vujnović of Gomirje in 1886, Milenko Maravić Stipanović, Primišlje, arrived in 1892 at sixteen[7]. Among the first Serbian pioneers were Đorđe Šagić who arrived in 1814 in Philadelphia and Herzegovinian Michael Draskovich[8] who arrived a decade later in Louisiana and established himself well enough to generously contribute towards the construction of “Orthodox Church of Holy Trinity” [9] in New Orleans in 1866[10]. Also, there were churchmen, American-born Sevastijan Dabović, Mardarije Uskoković, Nikolaj Velimirović, and Firmilijan Dražić churches, congregations, organizations, and societies that laid the foundations of Serbian institutions in the Western Hemisphere.[11]
The industrialization of the New World brought “suffering and caused bitterness for early Serbian immigrants who arrived and remained on this continent. Francisco an old, Herzegovinian American miner, 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” [7].
economic, 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 immigrants. organizations freedom, a democratic tradition” from time immemorial [12]
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 immigrants In 1901, Sava Hajdin[13] scientist society. SOFS, the inscription on the entrance of the organization’s headquarters was in Serbian Cyrillic. Canada”[7]
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. the tradition of Saint Sava in America[7]
It was Hajdin’s friend, inventor and professor Mihajlo I. Pupin, author of the popular, classic reprint From Immigrant to Inventor[14], who united[15] into a single organization on 21 September 1929[16][17]
contributions Serbian Orthodox Federation Srbobran, to their homeland to fight against the forces of the Kaiser from Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Vojvodina had never been in that region of Ottoman Serbia, namely Macedonia and Old Serbia (Kosovo). However, the connection with their Serbian kin and sense of belonging was unbreakable.
Before the U.S. entered the fray, many patriotic members of volunteered overseas as early as late 1914 and early 1915. Of Lodge 82 “Banović Strahinja,”. The eldest brother, Risto Vajagić, received the coveted Serbian decoration, the royal Karadjordje’s volunteered to defend their ancestral 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 World War I. 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 the 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.[18]
“American-Serbian.”[19]
In 1944, the Serb National Federation officially distanced itself completely from the American Slav Congress for reasons of political and moral incompatibility.[20][18]. Once the hostilities ended, a Cold War emerged and the Second Red Scare occupied the minds of many innocent Serbian Americans, including Milo Radulovich[21] and his father who were wrongly branded by a powerful rogue U.S. senator.
Headquarters is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The organization is structured by lodges throughout. 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.
organization and twenty years.[17]
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. members. million. members.
Benefits and Activities
[edit]
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.[22]
American Srbobran newspaper
[edit]
After the founding of realized newspaper continuously published newspaper. Cyrillic. newspaper, next generation of Serbian-Americans whose native language is English.[23]
contributed Dučić, Proka Jovkić, Miloš Crnjanski, St. Nikolai Velimirović, Ratko Stanišić, Božidar Purić, Dragoslav Dragutinović, Matejić, Dragan Rajković, William Jovanovich, Vasa Mihailovich, Dr. Aleksandar Petrov, Gojko Djogo, Drenka Willen among others.
Awards and recognition
[edit]
Fraternal Congress.
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. basketball (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.
opportunity organized declared[22]
In 2020, on his American-summer tennis tournament every year (except 2022).
The SNF sponsors a Serbian Movie other towns in the United States of America. Mirković American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences located in Beverly Hills, Oxford, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Pennsylvania University, Duquesne University, Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and others.
SNF Scholarship Program
[edit]
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.[24]
Honorary Presidents and Members
[edit]
- Nikola Tesla (1935), Serbian-American Scientist and Inventor
- Simo Werlinich (Presidency from 1929-1943, and later became Honorary President)
- ^ cite web | title=Serbian-American Organizations in the USA | SAVA PAC | date=15 August 2022 | url=https://www.sava-pac.org/blog/serbian-american-organizations-in-the-usa/
- ^ cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOvskj0HNt8C&dq=serbian+churches+in+washington+state&pg=PT997 | title=Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration [4 volumes]: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration | isbn=978-1-59884-220-3 | last1=Barkan | first1=Elliott Robert | date=17 January 2013 | publisher=Abc-Clio
- ^ cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=no1E_B0YXLMC&q=%22Serb+National+Federation%22+-wikipedia | title=The American Serb | date=1944pages4&6
- ^ “History of Pittsburgh and Environs”. American Historical Company. 1922.
- ^ “SNF Serbian Events Calendar”.
- ^ cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4230949 | jstor=4230949 | title=The Dalmatian Yugoslavs in Louisiana | last1=Lovrich | first1=Frank M. | journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association | date=1967 | volume=8 | issue=2 | pages=149–164
- ^ a b c d https://philosophymr.com/doc/author/On_Our_120th_Anniversary_Year.pdf
- ^ cite web | title=Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral :: History | url=https://holytrinitycathedral.org/history.html
- ^ “Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral”. holytrinitycathedral.org.
- ^ cite web | title=New Orleans: Home to the US’s First Orthodox Parish | url=https://southernorthodox.org/new-orleans-home-to-the-uss-first-orthodox-parish/
- ^ Cite journal |last=Столић |first=Ана |date=2020-12-30 |title=РАТ И ПИТАЊЕ НАСЛЕЂА СРПСКОГ НАРОДНОГ ЖЕНСКОГ САВЕЗА НА ОСНИВАЧКОМ КОНГРЕСУ НАРОДНОГ ЖЕНСКОГ САВЕЗА СХС 1919. ГОДИНЕ WAR AND THE QUESTION OF HERITAGE OF THE SERBIAN NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNION AT THE FOUNDING CONGRESS OF THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNION OF SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENES IN 1919 |url=https://doi.org/10.34298/ic2069495s |journal=Историјски часопис |issue=69/2020 |pages=495–516 |doi=10.34298/ic2069495s |issn=0350-0802
- ^ https://ucr.irmct.org/LegalRef/CMSDocStore/Public/English/Submission/NotIndexable/IT-03-67/MSC8009R0000493566.pdf
- ^ cite web | title=[:en]Lecture: 200 Years of Serbs in the United States[:SR]Предавање: 200 godina Srba u Americi[:] – Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Sava in New York | url=https://stsavanyc.org/lecture-200-years-of-serbs-in-the-united-states/
- ^ Amazon.ca. ASIN 1330406842.
- ^ cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2uPNEAAAQBAJ&dq=serbian+organizations+in+america&pg=PA600 | title=Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration [4 volumes] | isbn=978-1-59884-220-3 | last1=Barkan | first1=Elliott Robert | date=17 January 2013 | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA
- ^ cite web | title=200 Years of Serbs in America | url=https://www.eserbia.org/culture/jubilees/890-200-years-of-serbs-in-america
- ^ a b “Home”. Serb National Federation.
- ^ a b Van Minnen, Cornelius; Sears, John; Arar, Khalid (2016). Fdr And His Contemporaries: Foreign Perceptions of an American President. Springer. p. 78. ISBN 978-1349219018.
- ^ “American Srbobran – Online Archives”. American Srbobran.
- ^ House, United States Congress. Report. U.S. Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
- ^ “Milo Radulovich, 81, Dies; Symbol of ’50s Red Scare (Published 2007)”. The New York Times. 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
- ^ a b “General 4 — SNF4U”.
- ^ cite web | title=General 4 — SNF4U | url=https://www.snf4u.com/american-srbobran
- ^ “Scholarships”.
]
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.
