A Glimpse at the Club
First Club Founded in Lebanon Senior Club of District 2452
With a very simple beginning, the great adventure began, initiated by friends from the Rotary Club of Cairo. The idea took shape, and the first preparatory meetings were held in 1931.
Indeed, on January 27, 1931, the director of the Shell Company in Beirut, Axel Fauvelle, sent his messenger to deliver an invitation to ten prominent Beirut personalities, reminding them that they were to dine together the next day at the Royal Hotel. Thus was born the Rotary Club of Beirut. Its members came together “without protocol,” gathering around a table to follow up on initiatives started a few months earlier by friends from Cairo, members of the first Rotary club founded in the Middle East.
The Beirut members soon adopted the regular meeting habits customary in Rotary. Around dinner, they laid the groundwork for the club in accordance with the spirit of Rotary International, founded 26 years earlier by Paul Harris.
On April 22, 1931, the grand official inauguration evening of the RCB took place, while the club was still forming, attended by Rotarians from Cairo and Jerusalem who had traveled specifically to Beirut to be with their new colleagues in Lebanon. The club’s official registration date with Rotary International was July 16, 1931.
Appreciating the progress made by its “protégé,” the Rotary Club of Cairo presented the RCB with a bronze bell topped with a Rotary wheel for Christmas 1931, as a token of its esteem. Since then, a tradition has been established of engraving each year on this bell the names of the members elected to lead the Club’s activities for that year. Always placed at the center of the official table, it serves as a keeper of the RCB’s collective memory.
The Presentation of the Rotary International Charter
Rotarians’ Excursion to the Ruins of Baalbek on the Occasion of the Charter Presentation to the Beirut Club
The Saint-Georges Hotel was chosen as the venue for the statutory meetings, which it hosted for more than forty years.
In 1934–1935, RCB meetings were held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 7:00 PM at the Saint-Georges Hotel. From 1935 onward, co-opted members came from all over Lebanon.
In January 1951, the RCB complied with instructions from Chicago, which required all clubs to hold weekly meetings from that point forward.
Club Activities
– In the 1940s and 1950s, the Rotary Club of Beirut assisted the families and children of some Rotarians who were refugees from Palestine and participated in distributing hot meals, clothing, and toys to children in certain schools and a sanatorium.
– In 1947, it formed a special committee to assist the Lebanese government in preparing for the 3rd General Assembly of UNESCO, held in Beirut.
It should also be noted that the Club contributed financially in 1955 to the establishment of the National Institute for the Blind, providing the building plans and a Braille printing press. For this effort, the Club was awarded the National Medal of Merit by the hands of President Camille Chamoun.
During these first 25 years,
– The RCB provided Rotary International with 2 members of the Central Council: Francis KETTANEH, Augustin CATONI.
– 6 District Governors: Francis KETTANEH, Joseph SALEM, Augustin CATONI, Fouad SAADE, Edmond RABBATH, Anis CHEBAT.
– The RCB also founded the clubs of Damascus (1937), Tripoli (1949), and Saïda (1954).
During the following twenty years, the RCB founded the Club of Kesrouan in 1975 and provided a District Governor, PP Joseph NAJJAR.
The Rotary Club of Beirut During the Civil War
In September 1975, the Club’s meetings were suspended due to the fighting. The Saint-Georges Hotel, which housed the Club’s permanent secretariat, was completely destroyed by fire. Of the Club’s archives and all the memorabilia accumulated over the years, only the bronze bell was recovered from the ashes. This precious relic now serves, at each of our meetings, as a symbol of the continuity of the Rotary Club of Beirut.
Also lost in the fire at the Saint-Georges were the Lebanese Medal of Merit awarded to the Club by the Head of State in 1955, “in appreciation of services rendered since its founding,” and the Golden Book, which preserved the memory of the Club’s most solemn events.
However, after a few months of interruption, the Beirut Club resumed its meetings in February 1976 at the Carlton Hotel. It is important to highlight the calm perseverance of the successive Presidents, who endured 16 years of nightmare, passing the torch while maintaining a minimum of activities in service to the community.
During the difficult years of the civil war, the Club managed to take the lead in Lebanon on two international initiatives:
Life Goes On…
Since the return of calm, numerous public-interest projects have been carried out.
– From 1993 to 2001, the Club organized a three-day annual exhibition showcasing work created by people with disabilities and the visually impaired.
– The RCB designed, printed, and distributed over 100,000 Tourism and Hospitality Education guides to all schools in Lebanon at the Brevet level, aiming to promote vocational education among youth.
– It organized the disinfection of books at the National Library.
– As part of joint actions with other clubs, a notable initiative was carried out with the clubs of Saïda, Chouf, and Flint (Michigan) in support of St. Jude Hospital in Beirut.
– An initiative with the Los Angeles Cedars Club in support of the Ain Ebel dispensary (2009).
– Another initiative with the Le Havre Club in support of the Al Jarrah Scouts Association.
– An initiative with the Paris Club (2007) through the international association “Water Without Borders” to provide drinking water to around twenty villages in Cameroon.
– With the aim of spreading the message of “Service” ever further, the R.C. of Beirut sponsored the creation of two new clubs in 1995: Beirut Cosmopolitan RC and RC du Chouf.
– At the same time, the efforts of several presidents led to the twinning of the Beirut Club in April 2001 with the premier club in France, the Rotary Club of Paris.
Rotarian Fellowship
Within the Club, there is a spirit of camaraderie and social life. Outings are regularly organized across Lebanon and France to strengthen these friendships and foster a sense of fellowship that continues to grow within the Club.
This brief overview of the Rotary Club of Beirut is limited and cannot claim to cover the full history of the Club.
However, the Club continues in its mission to initiate or lead projects at the national level and, at times, internationally beyond the country. (See recent Club initiatives)
Whatever the field, Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” remains the driving force behind all its activities.
