With the belief that the match-making business needed only a few “modern fixtures” to be reinstated to its former status as one of the most honorable of Jewish professions, the “schadchonim” or Jewish matchmakers of Poland have organized a union and begun to publish a “trade journal,” it was learned here today. “The Wedding Journal” is the name of the Jewish Match-Makers Union’s organ.
The journal is printed in both Yiddish and Polish. It has embarked on an extensive “educational campaign” in an effort to convince the so-called “assimilated” Jews, the modern clever and sophisticated younger generation, that they cannot get along without the good old schadchen. A great deal of the modern-break down in the marriage relationship here is laid to the fact that matchmakers are not employed as extensively as heretofore.
It is also pointed out that with the return of the matchmaking profession to its former high level of consideration among the professions, a new, or rather old, field of activity will be opened up to a great many Jews who cannot find anything with which to occupy themselves. Conditions in Poland are not attractive for the Jews as there are many restrictions on Jewish employment.
The business of the schadchen had always been to act as the official intermediary between the “contracting parties.” It was the schadchen who knew of available brides and grooms, the probable extent of each girl’s dowry and the other preliminary details to a match. But the modern schadchen intends to socialize his work to a further degree, including romance and love as factors in the business, according to the program outlined in “The Wedding Journal.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
