“Indifference and delinquency” on the part of rabbis and civil authorities performing marriage ceremonies were blamed for breakdown in Jewish family life by Rabbi Sidney E. Goldstein, associate rabbi of the Free Synagogue, speaking over station WNEW yesterday afternoon. Dr. Goldstein spoke on a program sponsored by the School of the Jewish Woman.
“These men forget that the marriage license is no more than an authorization on the part of the state to perform the service,” Rabbi Goldstein declared, “and that upon the rabbi even more than on the civil service there rests an ethical obligation. It is his duty to determine before performing a marriage service whether conditions are present which will make marriage and family life impossible and lead to dissension and eventually to divorce.”
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.
