The professional world. (Columbia, Mo.) 1901-192?, 1903-12-04
YIDDISH DIVORCES.
They Are Boldly Advertised For In
the East End Of London.

the East hnd OF LONDON
Matrimonial advertisements, says
the London Standard, are nothing
new either in this country or abroad.
But there will probably be something
novel to most people in the idea of
married folk advertising for a divorce
in the same public and businesslike
fashion. Rather an uncommon pro-
ceeding anywhere, many readers will,
| imagine, be inclined to remark. Far
from it, though! 1t is quite an or
binary thing among the mixed and
motley foreign multitude quartered
in the ghettos of east London. Here,
in the first ola batch of Yiddish jour
mails on which / CHANGED to lay hands
in the East end, | came across n of
these singular avertisements. 1t is
typical of its kind, and is inserted by
a woman residing in the Aldgate dis
trict, who requests her absent hus-
band to oblige and send her divorce,
much in the same way as a dealer
would ask a customer to favor him
with a remittance in the ordinary
course of trade. The notice is head
ed, in Yiddish, of course "Ikh zikh
min manu." that is: 81 an looking
for my husband" 1t sets forth that
the said mann has left his wife and
children for some time. The wife has,
however, managed to build up ACUTE
biznes," whic his too much for her to
carry on alone, s. he may return and
help. If not, the advertisement
concludes, "will he at once send hera
divorce, and she will go back der
heinz to Russia to her parents"
There is, ] may add, nothing anony-
nous about the notice, no suppress
sion, no attempt to conceal the ideD-
tity of the parties concerned. The
names are given in full, as well as the
address to which the desired docu-
ment is to be transmitted. All, in
fact, is plain, direct and straightfor-
ward, suggesting at once thatth CIV
ing of such divorces must be quite an
ordinary proceeding among the for
eign Jews over here. And so, indeed,
it is. 1t is really reduced to bust
ness, a business which, in its detail
and circumstances, throws an instruc-
tive light on some of the singular &C.
Qualities of Yiddish life in east Lon
don.
The divorce here referred to, and
customary among the Jewish East
enders, is not, of course, a divorce ac-
cording to the law of the land. 1t is
the s~o-styled rabbinical "ghet," the
modern equivalent of the Biblical
'bill of enforcement" which a hus.
band under the Mosaic dispensation
could hand to his wife, and so get rid
of her. But, to all practical purposes,
so far as the Yiddish residents here
are concerned, this "ghet" is as eff
fective as though it were granted by
the highest tribunal of the empire. If,
as in the case of the advertisements
above quoted, the woman chooses to
return to Russia, the divorce is valid
according to Muscovite law. The
Jews throughout the cars domin-
ions have the privilege of their own
marriage code, and a divorce under a
rabbinical prescription is a divorce a
la Russo. The woman can marry
again there and return here, when he1
second union, being valid in Russia,
will be deemed valid here. And if
the woman should elect to remain in
this country there are scores of East
end rabbis who, for a consideration,
will undertake to remarry either Of
the sundered parties according to the
Yi0dish custom.