Bill Seeking to Amend Maryland Marriage Law Introduced in Legislature

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

A bill now before the Maryland Legislature to amend the marriage laws is viewed with sympathy by Jews here. Passage of the measure, it is pointed out, will make for complete religious freedom.

The bill contains provisions for permitting civil marriages as well as religious ceremonies. The Maryland law, it is said, now provides for marriages by a “minister of the Gospel,” which Jews construe to mean only ministers of the Christian church.

Religious administrators of other faiths, they declare, are precluded from performing a religious ceremony. Rabbis, they point out, perform marriages under the “authority vested in me by the State of Maryland.” As a matter of fact, they assert, the State of Maryland has vested this authority in ministers of the Christian Gospel only.

“I don’t mean to say that all Jewish or other non-Christian marriages performed in Maryland are illegal,” B. H. Hartogensis, Baltimore lawyer who is one of those interested in the amendment, said. “I do not think that any court would so hold. But the fact remains that the question is open, and in justice to the Free State, I think the Legislature should definitely settle the question.”

The amendment would legalize marriage ceremonies by any religious officer, justices of the peace or Mayors of cities. Maryland is said to be the only State in America which limits legalized marriage ceremonies to ministers of the Christian gospel.

BREVITIES

Mayor Walker announced that he will study the evidence taken by the investigating committee of the American Federation of Labor relative to the alleged acceptance of graft by policemen during the recent local strike in the fur industry. William Green, President of the Federation, will submit the stenographic transcript of the evidence to the Mayor next Friday.

If a study of the evidence should warrant such action, Mayor Walker will sit as a committing magistrate and gift the charges.

The Joint Board of Furriers, suspended Thursday by the International Fur Workers’ Union, following charges of communism, announced that it would disregard the suspension, as well as orders that it torn its funds over to the stewardship of the American Federation of Labor.

Announcement also was made that at meetings on Thursday night locals 1, 5, 10, and 15 had voted unanimously to continue allegiance to the Joint Board, and that an assessment of $25 per member had been authorized. The money, it was explained, was to be used to fight the international union.

Nearly the entire estate of Max Stelerman, of Baltimore, Md., said to be valued at $14,000, was given to Jewish charitable organizations by his will probated in the Orphans’ Court. Specific bequests were $500 each to the Hebrew Friendly Inn and Aged Home and the Hebrew Home for Incurables, and $1,000 to the Sinai Hospital, formerly the Hebrew Hospital. The balance of the estate was left to the Associated Jewish Charities. Mr. Stelerman was a widower, and died at the age of 82.

The Associated Jewish Charities, the Jewish Children’s Society, the Hebrew Hospital and ## Association and the Hebrew Benevolent Society were given $100 each by the will of Mrs. Julia Lauchheimer Hable.

JEWISH COMMUNAL ACTIVITIES

The Home of the Daughters of Jacob will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of its founding next Sunday, with a ball at the Hotel Astor.

Mrs. Jacob Meyer, who has been in charge of every anniversary ball of the Home since its inception, is again chairman of the thirtieth annual ball. Associated with her are Mrs. Peter J. Schweitzer, President of the Home.

$525,000 was raised in the Fur Industry for distribution for charitable purposes for 1927, representing an increase of $145,000 over last year’s campaign, from the largest number of subscribers ever secured, declared Michael Hollander on the occasion of a testimonial dinner tendered to him Sunday night by the board of directors of the Charity Chest of the Fur Industry of the City of New York, prior to his departure for Europe.

Alex A. Bernstein, chairman of the Charity Chest Distribution Committee, and David Citro, executive director, addressed the gathering.

BREVITIES

The newly established “Purity Squad” of the Budapest police has banned the Viennese film “The Yellow Mark,” in which one of the chief roles is that of a Jewish physician who discovers a cancer serum. The film was barred on the ground that it exhibits the Jews as bringing salvation to humanity.