WIDOW BOUND TO MARRY.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 287, 9 May 1929, Page 3

WIDOW BOUND TO MARRY.

The Jewish rite of Halisah, under wrich a widow is bound to marry the brother of her late husband unless he releases her from the obligation, was referred to at Shoreditch County Court, last month.

According to a report published in the London Daily Mail, Mrs Annie Goldman, of Manor Road, Stoke Newington, sued Monas Kiniehe, her bro-ther-in-law, and his wife to recover £6B in respect of loans. The defence was that before Mrs Goldman married her second husband she agreed, in connection with the rite of Halisah, to pay Mr and Mrs Kiniehe £3OO less a deduction in respect of loans, and to pay £350 to her eldest brother in Chicago.

Judge Cluer: The brother is, cf course, obliged to marry her unless they loose his shoe or spit at h m. Monas Kimche said he was to receive £3OO for arranging the Halisah. Rabbi Sukmanski: The Jewish law is a very fine, delicate thing. If the widow has no money, the brother helps her and pays the expenses of Halisah. If she has money the pocrer brother may then expect that she should give him something. Judge C’uer: The law of Moses says the widow must marry her deceased husband’s brother, nad not a stranger. It is a modern interpretation of Deuteronomy that the or flow shall not marry unless she receives permission. Rabbi Svkmanshki added that the woman unfortunately married withc(ut obtaining Halisah. He had receded a letter from a rabbi in Paris stating that Mr Goldman now wanted to obtain a divorce. Mrs Goldman said she left her sec-

ond husband a fortnight after they were married. The rabbi told her that if she was marr ed without obtaining Halisah the dead relatives of her late husband would come at night and tear p-'eees off her. She married at a register office. Judge Cluer, in giving judgment for Mrs Go'dmr.n, said: “Everybody respects people who respect the customs of their forefathers, but a marriage at a reg'ster office is quite as valid in this world as any other.