The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-22
HEBREW MARRIAGE BROKERS.
Professional Match-Making-A Jewish Gus
tom Brought from Abroad.

tom Brought from Abroad.
New York Mail and Express.
The making of matrimonial matches has long
been quite a business among. Jews of a certain
class in this city. There are among them a large
number who live comfortably off the proceeds of
their labor as match-makers, and there are others
who only occasionally act as mediators in such
transactlonS-for profit, of course. One of the
latter class had a lawyer arraigned last week for
falllng to recover a fee, as per agreement. With
a view of ascertaining the extent of the practice
OF matchmaking among the Jews by paid inter
mediators, a reporter visited the Jewish section
OF the city of which the corner of Ludlow and
Grand streets is the center. In his ramblings he
CHANGED to meet a cultured Russian jew, who has
travelled considerably, and is, by virtue of this
and his superior talents, looked up to
TERED to: yet he is by no
means an orthodox jew. ''Oh, yes" he said in
answer to the reporters inquiry, that business
is pretty extensively carried on il this city, and,
in fact, all over the world, among Polish and
Russian Jews; and the German jews are also
prone to it, 1t is an Oriental practice and
ffourlshes best III Russia, Roumania and other
places that do not enjoy the benefits of civilized
NE In the ORIENT young people do not enjoy
the free intercourse that they have in this
country. There few marriages are contracted
among Jews without the instrumentality of the
shodchen, as the intermediator is called in the
Hebrew vernacular, and there are many who
thrive at the profession and travel from one
country to another in the pursuit of their call
ing, much as commercial drummers do. Their
-recompense depends generally upon the liberality
OF the contracting parties, but quite frequently
they bargain for and receive from the groom a
percentage of the brides dowry. Sometimes the
commission is over 10 per cent.
There are "A number of schodchen in this
city, especially in this locality. Every young
jew who starts in business or appears capable of
supporting a wife is looked upon by the interme-
dlators as legitimate prey, and no matter how
determined he may at first appear to remain a
bachelor, their Establishments and arguments
soon convert him to their views. They are a
cunning set, and number among them women as
we'll as men. By clever diplomacy they often
succeed in getting their man to promise them
81 600 for a desirable wife, and leave the MERGE
nary groom to discover after marriage that his
wife has cost him more than her dowry amounts
to by hundreds of dollars .
DO rabbis ever act as go-betweens in matri-
monial mattersl"
Very frequently: yet not so often as is gen
orally supposed III France, however, matri-
monial affairs are nearly always arranged
through rabbis. know of instances where one
OF them has received twenty-five or fifty thou
sand francs as a fee. / recall one case in partic-
ular, II rabbi found an acceptable husband
Tor a daughter of a Russian general in the per
son of a German Hebrew baron. The brides
dowry was about 90, 600, 600 francs. The gen
eral is worth something like 200. 600, 900 francs,
and at one time donated one million roubles to
the Russian schools. The baron is regarded
among the Jews of Europe as fully as benevo-
lent as the Rothschilds. His most noteworthy
act OF charity was the presentation of a million
francs to the Alliance Israelite.
II myself was engaged through q shodchen
to the daughter of a wealthy Russian at the age
of seventeen. | was then studying the Talmud
at Seth Hamedrish. For eighteen months | was
engaged without having seen my prospective
wife. She was to bring a dow1y of 5000 roubles,
which was balanced on my ut by my family
connections, as | am the descendant of a noble
family of Munich. Philosophical studies were
something | delighted in, and that broke off the
match, as it was too evident that I was drifting
away from ancient orthodoxy. Did I have no
voice in the selection of the woman? 1t would
have been considered glaring audacity for me to
have made any objection or given u~tterance to
my impressions of the lady, no matter how
homely or disagreeable she might have proven.
1t is considered a grave transgression among
Polish and Russian Jews to break off an engage
ment. They are more willing to overlook sepa-
ration after marriage"
Are there no love matches!a
VERY few. The Oriental Jews are too prac-
teal to give way to sentiment. and regard love
as a purely poetical feeling, a passion that only
grand minds are susceptible of. Very frequent
ly the contracting parties never see one another
until their wedding day"
Il should not think that such a custom could
be successfully transplanted in this country"
1T will flourish here Just as long as the Polish
and Russian Jews cluster in colonies, as thew do
in this part of the city. 1t would be necessary
w ShC4iA w IN OLlO " tCttl bl6Ll
to drop this and other old country practices.
Only by dispensing them can the poorer class of
Jews ever be thoroughly Americanized. In the
higher circles of Jewish society here the shod-
chen are not extensively patronized."
"How did the custom originated"
Its history is very ancient, and thrived best
in Russia under the reign of Nicholas, when
early marriages were necessary as a protection
for the youth of the country, who, if unmarried.
were liable to be carried off to Siberia for mill
tary training. To save their sons during that
reign of terror parents had them married at ten
der ages. Those were terrible times. l can dis
tinctly remember hearing the shrieks of anguish
of mothers whose young children were torn
from them in the dead of night by the soldiers.
These mothers in droves would endeavor to fol
low their offspring, only to die of hunger and
fatigue at the roadsides. My own mother saved
me from being carried off by Disgusting me as a
girl uutil | became seven or eight years of age. :"