Hebrew letters on badge
 

Hi there. Looking to find out if this is indeed a fraternity or sorority badge/ pin. It was made in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by Letzeiser & Co which was in business in the 1920’s & 30’s. Just realized I don’t know how to add a photo !

Can you describe the badge?

The badge ( pin) is gold Hebrew letters on back enamel. It is square shaped with the ring to use to attach it to a necklace or charm bracelet on point, essentially making it a square ON POINT when looking at it. On all four sides there are seed pearls with 3 on each edge for a total of twelve. The letters are, in order, left to right possibly; resh hey. There is also what appears to be the Roman numeral XII above this. The back of badge is stamped LETZEISER which was a jewelry company in Oklahoma City that was in business in the 1920's & 30's.

I have moved the thread to the Greek Life forum so more people will see your post.

Thanks FSUZeta.

Valoliver, when you post a reply, look at all the symbols above the white area where you are typing. There is a yellow postcard-looking icon with mountains on it. I think you click on that to insert an image.

Looking for way to attach a personal photo. Checked FAQ's , but didn't see info.

Well, you are talking to Miss Technologically Challenged 2019, so that's all the help I can offer. HAHAHA!!! My son said if you need a URL to insert the image, you would have to upload your photo to a photo-hosting site like Photobucket. Maybe that will work.

http://http://tinypic.com/r/m82xj6/9

Hope this works.

Voila!
http://i64.tinypic.com/xfxp1k.jpg

He and Dalet?

Thanks for the correction.
http://tinypic.com/r/v61ylu/9

This is an ad from Letzeiser in the 1930"s

http://oi63.tinypic.com/v61ylu.jpg

Immediately, the organization name which stood out to me in that photo was "Pe-Et" as it looked to be a Hebrew name. I don't read or speak Hebrew, but there is a letter Pe and a word Et.

After some picking around, I located the Pe-Et Honor Society out of Oklahoma University. Apparently, "Pe-Et" means "Ten Best". You're welcome. ;)



See here: http://www.ou.edu/web/news_events/ar...ethonorsociety




http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarkin...7a112f3545.JPG

Thanks Navane. Looked at the links you sent and din't find any correlation to the pin. Have been going through list on the Letzeiser ad & when I googled checkmate & Battle Axe a reference to a book came up where the author refers to these organizations. The book is entitled " The University of Oklahoma, Vol II by David W. Levy. I'm still looking through the book online. I'd imagine most of the non frat / sorority groups listed were in or close to Oklahoma as that is where Letzeiser did business. There is a U of O magazine called SOONER which is where the ad I posted is from. It's available online digitized and I am also searching there for info. Thanks for your input.

That 1930 ad intrigues me. Balfour became Pi Beta Phi's official jeweler prior to 1920. Unless Letzeiser was an authorized Balfour agent, I don't know why they would advertise as an official jeweler.

Wish I could offer some help on the badge.

I'm Jewish.

The letters are Resh-He (Resh is the one on the right hand side the He is the one on the left"), Hebrew is read from right to left.

Definitely *not* Pe-et.

That's a VII, not an XII above it.

No worries. It was my best guess and I sometimes guess incorrectly! :)



Ok, good to know. From what I was reading, the letter Resh is traditionally associated with the word or concept of "head", "first", or "top". The letter He appears to have been traditionally used as the word "the" or even "behold!" to emphasize the associated object. So, I would put those together to mean "the top". That would make sense for Pe-Et (whatever that stands for) since the members were supposedly at "the top" of their class. At least, that's where I was kinda going with it....

Any idea which organization it is from then?


Reference resh: https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/alpha...ters_resh.html

Reference he: https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/alpha...tters_hey.html

The problem is that the Resh is first... I've seen Hebrew on pins before, but most that I've seen have had at least some Jewish connection, and I'd expect that to be more likely from the Northeast.