Rabbi Ezekiel Lipschitz, of Kalish, Poland, President of the Union of Rabbis of Poland, an organization including 800 rabbis, arrived here Friday on the Mauretania. The purpose of his visit is to attend and address the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of American and Canada at their convention to be held at Far Rockaway on May 4.
Rabbi Lipschitz is 65 years old. He speaks English and French fluently, and is the author of twelve books. He has brought with him the names of 18,000 Polish Jewish women who are “agunoth,” of women whose husbands had been lost track of during the war.
In many cases the husbands are dead, but in others the husbands have neglected to communicate with their wives.
Swindlers in America have represented themselves as rabbis and have notified some of the wives in Poland that divorces will be arranged on payment of a fee, or that divorces already had been arranged, contingent upon the payment of a nominal sum.
Rabbi Lipschitz said that when he returns after investigations here, he hopes to find relief measures through action of rabbinical authorities to give freedom back to the women whose husbands had disappeared. While in America he will try to locate as many husbands as possible.
At the pier Rabbi Lipschitz was met by one hundred orthodox rabbis of New York City.
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